Highlands, North Carolina

Highlands is an incorporated town located on a plateau in the southern Appalachian mountains in Macon County, North Carolina (a small annexed portion also being in neighboring Jackson County). As of the 2000 census, the town had a year-round population of 909, but the population swells to 10,000-15,000 during the season from spring to fall.

Related Topics:
Incorporated - Town - Plateau - Appalachian - Mountain - Macon County - North Carolina - Annex - Jackson County - 2000 - Census - Population - Season - Spring - Fall

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The town was founded in 1875 by Samuel Truman Kelsey and Clinton Carter Hutchinson who, supposedly, drew lines from Chicago, Illinois to Savannah and from New Orleans to Baltimore. They felt that the intersection of these two lines, would eventually become a great trading center and commercial crossroads.

Related Topics:
1875 - Samuel Truman Kelsey - Clinton Carter Hutchinson - Lines - Chicago, Illinois - Savannah - New Orleans - Baltimore

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In the 1930s the town became a golfing mecca when Bobby Jones of Atlanta and some of his well-heeled golfing buddies founded the Highlands Country Club. Today that club is one of seven successful residential country club communities situated between Highlands and Cashiers, North Carolina. Tourism in Highlands is mostly seasonal (generally March through November), with the community drawing Southerners from the oppressive heat and humidity of their flat-land Florida, Georgia, South Carolina. Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana summers.

Related Topics:
1930s - Bobby Jones - Atlanta - Golf - Highlands Country Club - Country club - Cashiers, North Carolina - March - November - Florida - Georgia - South Carolina - Alabama - Mississippi - Louisiana

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Highlands owes its cooler weather to the fact that it straddles the Eastern Continental Divide, giving it a much higher elevation above mean sea level. It calls itself the highest incorporated town east of the Rocky Mountains. Because of this, it also receives quite a bit of precipitation, mainly as rain but also a few snows scattered throughout the winter. These are mainly in January and February, sometimes in March or December, and only occasionally in April (usually too warm) or November (usually too dry), though a major storm once hit in early May 1994, and rarely light snow has been reported as early as October.

Related Topics:
Eastern Continental Divide - Elevation - Above mean sea level - Rocky Mountains - Precipitation - Rain - Snow - Winter - January - February - March - December - April - November - May - 1994 - October

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The town is quaintly dotted with many antique dealers, a well-known auction house, restaurants, shops, inns, as well as several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Related Topics:
Antique - Dealer - Auction - Restaurant - Shop - Inn - National Register of Historic Places

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