I have lived in North Carolina for 35 years now…my entire life. North Carolina is an amazing state of the United States to grow up in and also live in. The cost of living is low, the Southern food and hospitality are next to none, and you have 3 distinct regions (Mountains, Piedmont, Coast) so you can easily get away to a mountain retreat or have a beach vacation within hours.
Spruce Pine, NC (My Hometown)
Growing up I really didn’t appreciate my hometown. It seemed small, very close-minded, and that there was nothing to do. Looking back I know I was wrong and that many people, including tourists, visit my hometown for one reason or another.
Spruce Pine
- Has a population of roughly 2,000 residents
- Spruce Pine, NC is called the Mineral City. The Spruce Pine Mining District is home to one of the richest deposits of gems and minerals in the world. You can mine for mica, kaolin, quartz, and feldspar. Spruce Pine provides over 90% of the raw materials used in plumbing fixtures & our quartz is used in the manufacturing of silicon chips because it is so pure. Chances are, your computer has some Spruce Pine in it now…wherever you are. If you visit, you can stop and gem mine for yourself at the many tourist destinations
- The Blue Ridge Parkway runs through Spruce Pine. The Parkway is America’s longest linear park &runs for 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, linking Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Nearby you can find Linville Falls (one of the many filming locations for Last of the Mohicans), Grandfather Mountain (home of the mile-high swinging bridge and filming location from Forest Gump), and Mt. Mitchell (the highest mountain peak east of the Mississippi)
Asheville, NC
Growing up, if my family wanted to go out to eat, watch a movie at the theater, go shopping, or just get outdoors, we would head to Asheville, NC. Nowadays, Asheville has so much more. Asheville boasts more breweries per capita than any U.S. city meaning roughly 100 local beers can be enjoyed in town at the 26 breweries in town and another 60 nearby. Asheville is also an arts city and has a whole district (River Arts District) with studios classrooms and demos happening all year round. Asheville has America’s largest home (see below), the Blue Ridge Parkway, hundreds of area waterfalls, and the best dining, especially farm-to-table, around.
The Biltmore House
Growing up from elementary school on, we took a field trip to the Biltmore House. We also loved visiting here at Christmas time as they decorate the house throughout with fresh garland, 55 decorated trees, and a 35-foot fraser fir tree cut from near my hometown of Spruce Pine. Biltmore House was constructed between 1889 and 1895. George Vanderbilt’s 250-room, 178,926 square foot French Renaissance chateau also came with a nearby village, dairy farm, post office, church, guest cottages, greenhouse, gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (ya know, the Central Park NYC guy), 125,00 acres, indoor pool, electricity, bowling alley, and more. Today, you can tour the house, dine at the village’s many restaurants and Nationally-awarded winery, or walk/bike the grounds on the many trails and greenways.
The Grove Park Inn & Gingerbread House Competition
The Grove Park Inn is a historic resort hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. It is a AAA Four-Diamond Hotel and has been visited by many Presidents of the United States, celebrities, and notable figures. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features a 40,000-square-foot subterranean spa, which placed number 13 worldwide in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Hotel Spas. Not only this, but my family has been visiting here once a year in the Winter for the National Gingerbread House competition. (I have another article on Connect detailing this) This event is Nationally-recognized and features amateur and professionally-trained pastry chefs competing for acclaim and prize money. The Grove Park also features a Winter brunch which has to be seen to be believed (we are talking an American football field worth of food stations).
Winston-Salem, NC
Shortly before I got married, I moved to my wife’s current city of Winston-Salem. Now it is one of my favorite places in all of the state. It is diverse, an arts community, full of universities and hospitals, it used to be a center of manufacturing and warehouses and now they have upfitted many of those buildings into the new downtown Innovation Quarter. (Read about my meetup there) Winston Salem was founded in 1913 when the two towns of Salem (founded 1766) and Winston (founded 1849) consolidated. The history of our town is unique because it started with early settlers who were part of the Moravian Church (Read about my deep-dive Connect post on Winston’s history here) It was also home to RJ Reynolds and his tobacco company which created Winston, Salem, and Camel cigarettes. Winston is affectionately known as ‘Camel City’. Now Winston is the 5th largest city in North Carolina. It is known more for technology, medical labs, bioengineering, and innovation than textile and tobacco manufacturing. Winston-Salem is often referred to as the “City of the Arts” because it created the first arts council in the United States, founded in 1949, and because it has the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the Winston-Salem Symphony, multiple theaters and operas, and arts-based schools. There are so many cool murals and public art installations in Winston-Salem. (Read about local Triad NC art in this connect post)
Why Winston-Salem, NC Rocks
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Winston-Salem is home to the Art-o-mat (a vending machine with one-of-a-kind art pieces) and houses nine of them throughout the city
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In 1929, the local T.W. Garner Foods introduced Texas Pete hot sauce
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In 1937, Krispy Kreme opened its first doughnut shop on South Main Street Winston-Salem, NC
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Winston-Salem is home to Hanes Mall, the largest shopping mall in North Carolina
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When completed in 1929 the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company Building was the tallest building in the United States south of Baltimore, Maryland. The building is well known for being a design inspiration for the Empire State Building that was built in 1931 in New York City. There is a legend that every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem
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The Safe Bus Company that was founded in Winston-Salem by private bus drivers is considered to be the biggest black-owned transit system across the world until 1972
Lastly some of my favorite North Carolina tidbits:
- The oldest town in North Carolina is Bath and was incorporated in 1705
- On average, North Carolina is hit by a hurricane almost every 4 years
- The Venus Fly Trap is only found in two American states, North Carolina and South Carolina but is native to NC
- Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6.684 feet
- The official drink of the state is milk
- In 1974, the North Carolina Zoo opened in Asheboro and today is known as the world’s largest natural habitat zoo
- The Civil Rights movement kicked off in Greensboro, NC. The “Greensboro Four” led a series of Sit-Ins at a Woolworth’s Lunch Counter and sparked similar protests in cities throughout North Carolina and elsewhere in the South
Happy to be a part of #TeamUSA
This post is part of the #StateChallenge organized by @Kwiksatik and @Denise_Barlock. If you want to find out more, check out the State Challenge index, and you can also find other submissions by searching the #StateChallenge hashtag.
Beautiful pictures and well described places are one of the things that I loved. Also, the activities to do at each place is indeed a plus. 
More power to you. Kudos!!