The largest community in Haywood County is Waynesville, the county seat. Here you will find a pleasant town where you will feel like you have stepped back in time to the 1950's. Downtown you will find brick sidewalks and businesses with shopkeepers who are genuinely glad to see you.

Maggie Valley, named for the first postmaster's daughter, is a strip three miles long and cradled between two of the highest mountains in the county. Maggie Valley is a resort community that caters to visitors. One of my favorite places in Maggie Valley is Ghost Town in the Sky. After riding the incline railway to the top of the mountain, you will find an Old West Town with shows and 30 rides.

Cataloochee - once the largest pioneer settlement in the Smokies, with nearly 200 buildings - is located just north of Maggie Valley within the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. However, the only way into the area is to take NC 276 north from Maggie Valley or NC 276 south from I-40 then turn on to Cove Creek Road and drive west. Today there is only a handful of buildings left in Cataloochee. These buildings are remnants of the settlers that moved when the National Park was formed in the 1930's.

In Canton you will find America's oldest operating paper mill and the Papertown Museum. Canton is known for more than paper products. Here the world's largest blue star sapphires were found, the "Southern Star" (1035 carats) and the "Star of the Carolinas" (1445 carats), with a combined value of more than one million dollars, both were found by a couple of modern day prospectors.

Haywood County is full of places to explore. The fifty miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway located in Haywood County is one of the best ways to begin your journey.

Haywood County Chamber of Commerce, PO Drawer 600 Waynesville, North Carolina 28786 828-456-3021