Spruce Pine

History

Spruce Pine was founded in 1907, when the Clinchfield Railroad made its way up the North Toe River from Erwin, Tennessee. The town was originally centered around a tavern operated by Isaac English, which was located on an old roadway that ran from Cranberry down to Marion, North Carolina. The Old English Inn still stands at its original location near the center of town. The railroad, combined with a rapidly expanding mining industry (the town is the namesake of the famous Spruce Pine Mining District), made Spruce Pine the largest town in the Toe River Valley, as it became the hub of commerce and culture for the area. Spruce Pine was the home of The Feldspar Company and Spruce Pine Mica, and other major mining interests had operations in and around the town. The Spruce Pine Mining District has high-purity quartz, a mineral required in a variety of important products, such as semiconductors. Spruce Pine is the exclusive supplier of sand to Augusta National Golf Club. With the decline in use of railroads to ship goods, along with increasing automation in the mining industry, the town recently has seen its fortunes dwindle and has undertaken a major effort to reinvent itself. Tourism has become a major economic force in the region, and the town's proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway, combined with its location near the edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, has helped make Spruce Pine a travel destination for many. The town also boasts the moniker of "The Mineral City". On August 4, 2007, the downtown area of Spruce Pine was threatened when an arsonist set fire to several buildings downtown. The fires, which brought firefighters from four counties around Spruce Pine, severely damaged the building that housed Cheapskates Music on Lower Street and caused some tense moments…

Geography

Spruce Pine is in southern Mitchell County, in the valley of the North Toe River. The town is north of the Blue Ridge Parkway, northeast of Asheville, and southwest of Boone. U.S. Route 19E passes through the southern part of the town, bypassing the downtown area. US 19E leads west to Burnsville and north to Elizabethton, Tennessee. North Carolina Highway 226 joins US 19E passing through Spruce Pine; it leads northwest to Bakersville, the Mitchell county seat, and south over the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Marion. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town of Spruce Pine has a total area of , all of it recorded as land.}}

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Mitchell High
  High · Bakersville · 497 students · 13.8:1 ratio
• Harris Middle
  Middle · Spruce Pine · 236 students · 13.9:1 ratio
• Gouge Elementary
  Elementary · Bakersville · 227 students · 11.9:1 ratio
• Greenlee Primary
  Elementary · Spruce Pine · 222 students · 13.1:1 ratio
• Deyton Elementary
  Elementary · Spruce Pine · 219 students · 14.6:1 ratio
• Bowman Middle
  Middle · Bakersville · 202 students · 14.4:1 ratio