Linville: The Mountain Resort That Almost Wasn't
Near Banner Elk, North Carolina
The community was first called Clay when its post office opened in eighteen eighty-three. It takes its current name from William and John Linville, a father and son killed in seventeen sixty-six while hunting near the river that bears their name, in an attack some accounts attribute to Shawnee raiders rather than Cherokee.
In eighteen eighty-five, Samuel Kelsey, who had already founded the resort town of Highlands to the south, approached Wilmington businessman Donald MacRae about developing sixteen thousand acres that included Grandfather Mountain. Hugh MacRae eventually took over the project, built the Yonahlossee Road from Blowing Rock in eighteen ninety-two, and opened North Carolina's first mountain golf resort here. Linville became an Appalachian retreat for wealthy families from the Carolina lowlands and beyond. Today Grandfather Mountain looms over the valley at five thousand nine hundred forty six feet, accessible via a mile-high swinging bridge, and Linville Gorge below is one of the deepest gorges in the eastern United States.
