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1960 Map of Valle Crucis

Name: 1960 Topographic Map of Valle Crucis
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1961
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1961

About this map

The Watauga River meanders through the heart of the North Carolina high country on this 1960 survey, illustrating a landscape defined by deep valleys and high ridgelines at the border of Watauga and Avery Counties. The community of Valle Crucis sits at the confluence of the river and Dutch Creek, home to the historic Holy Cross Ch and the Mast Cem. Further west, the growing town of Banner Elk is anchored by the Grace Hartley Memorial Hospital and surrounded by the peaks of Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain.

Genealogists will find a wealth of family history in the numerous small burial grounds and rural churches scattered along the hollows, including the Baird Cem, Farthing Cem, and Antioch Church. This era reflects the region's mid-century balance of remote agricultural life and early recreational development, with the Blue Ridge Parkway skirting the southern edge through Julian Price Memorial Park and the vast tracts of the Pisgah National Forest preserving the higher elevations.