Rutherford County Map

Welcome to Rutherford County

NOTE: The Telephone AREA CODE for Rutherford County is 828
The first 3 digits of the postal 'ZIP code' = 281 - except
Forest City = 280; Lake Lure & Chimney Rock = 287

Rutherford County Map
Rutherford County Directory

Rutherford County Overview

   When I was asked to write the county overviews, I decided to run through them alphabetically. In my research, one of the many things that intrigued me about these North Carolina mountain counties is how they were created. So I included that information: 'this' county was split off of 'that' county and so on. The reaction to this bit of physical genealogy was, "It sounds like the beginning of the New Testament: 'Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob...'." Okay, so I quit.
   But Rutherford is the oldest (still existent) county in these Western North Carolina Mountains — created in 1779. Rutherford spawned Buncombe County. Thirteen years later Buncombe county was split off from Rutherford and the genealogy of the mountain counties was launched.
   Life was anything but easy in the 18th Century. Even after the Revolutionary War was won. Until the mid-19th Century, the First Broad, Second Broad and Green Rivers were the primary means of the transportation of goods and even that was limited to small boats. Finally a road was constructed, then another and wheeled traffic relieved much of the economic pressure on the residents of the area.
   Agriculture was the mainstay of Rutherford County even though gold was successfully mined here. In fact, the only private gold mint in the southeastern U.S. was in Rutherfordton. The gold mining activity brought in more settlers but was not a significant contributor to the economy.
   So what about now? Rutherford County's location, about one hour travel time on excellent highways from each of the principal cities (Asheville, Charlotte, Spartanburg and Greenville) has been a major factor in the elevation of manu-facturing to the top spot in Rutherford County's economy.

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   Health Care comes in as a distant second followed by construction and retail trade. Tourism is indistinguish-able from all the other also-rans. Does this mean that tourists should skip this county? Absolutely not!
   Rutherford County is like two counties: the western, mountain portion, and the eastern, industrialized portion. The western portion has the nationally famous Lake Lure and a lure it is for, each summer, thousands of tourists descend upon the area. There are now several developments around Lake Lure but these are primarily for the affluent. Just north of Lake Lure is Chimney Rock with its Chimney Rock State Park. The Chimney Rock, after which the town and the park were named, is a natural monolith - like a chimney - and a very popular tourist attraction.
   The US-74 freeway, which connects Western North Carolina to Charlotte, traverses the county. It also provides a great gateway for tourists. US-221 provides excellent to the northern mountains and is well used by tourists.
   Rutherfordton, the county seat, has two neighbors: Spindale and Forest City. Spindale is the home of Isothermal Community College which, by the way, is also the cultural center of the eastern part of the county. Forest City, on the opposite side of Spindale from Rutherfordton, is a town on vitamins. They have created a very ambitious renewal plan and are actually doing something about it.
   And for those of you who are looking for a new abode, — real estate here is less costly than many of the other mountain counties. The weather is mild both summer and winter and the entire area is very ecologically clean. So, as they say,

Welcome to Rutherford!

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