About Us:
       Located geographically between Mt. Mitchell and Grandfather Mountain, the two highest mountain peaks east of the Rockies, Spruce Pine lists among its assets the unsurpassed beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Spruce Pine, Mitchell County’s largest city of just over 2,000 people sits poised along the North Toe River.

     Spruce Pine was once referred to as “The Kim Thickets”, after resident and axe handle and shovel maker Kim Mchone. Traveling salesmen would come to Kim Thickets and try to reach the “ol’ spruce pine tree” beside The English Inn before nightfall. Although the name of the town has changed to Spruce Pine, the “ol’ spruce pine tree” is still standing.

    Chartered in 1913, Spruce Pine was built around the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad Depot. When construction began on the railroad shortly after 1900, only one house stood where downtown Spruce Pine is today. The town was literally built between a river and a mountainside. Spruce Pine soon became the commercial center of the Toe River Valley. Between 1918 and 1928 its population quadrupled.