Blowing Rock, NC Town Overview
Blowing Rock’s growth encompasses 1500 full time residents and approximately 8000 summer residents. The village offers the best of small town living: cool climate, magnificent views, year-round outdoor activities, a safe environment, beautiful churches, an award winning school and the finest accommodations with superb restaurants and shopping. A major preservation effort has been in place for the past decade to protect the proud historic heritage of the village and maintain the community character that so enhances this little town.
History: Before 1752, when Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg visited the Blowing Rock area, the windy cliffs of the area were home to the Cherokee and the Catawba Indian tribes, hostile to each other, and the basis for the story of “The “Blowing Rock”. Two star-crossed lovers, one from each tribe, were walking near The Rock when the reddening sky signaled to the brave that he must return to his tribal duty, and the maiden urged him to stay with her. His desperation in choosing between duty and love caused him to leap from the edge of the gorge toward the rocks below, while the maiden beseeched the Great Spirit to bring him back to her. The famous winds of the John’s River Gorge blew her lover back into her arms, and this legend about The Blowing Rock is still told today. After the mid-eighteenth century, when the Scotch-Irish began to settle close to this area, the passes from southern Virginia into Kentucky attracted many colonists, farmers, hunters, and trappers who continued south to the mountains of North Carolina. The first family to settle in Blowing Rock were the Greenes who were established by the mid-1800’s on a site that would become the Green Park Hotel property. Other early settlers in Blowing Rock included the Hayes, Coffey, Bolick, Estes and Storie families. About this time, summer residents began to come up from Lenoir to enjoy the cool fresh air, magnificent mountain views and the wonders of nature. As word traveled to other parts of the South about the merits of Blowing Rock, more visitors began to arrive. Summer residents began to visit to enjoy the cool fresh air and mountain views, giving way to the town's thriving tourism industry that exists today.
Elevation: 3,579 ft.
Blowing Rock Population: 1,434
Watuga County Population: 42,695
Climate:
Month
Avg. High
Avg. Low
January
45°F
24°F
February
40°F
20°F
March
58°F
32°F
April
59°F
35°F
May
72°F
43°F
June
77°F
52°F
July
76°F
56°F
August
84°F
58°F
September
75°F
50°F
October
66°F
43°F
November
53°F
27°F
December
49°F
29°F
Property Taxes: Millage Rate- .313 per 100
Median Home Price: 271,000
Median Age: 51
Median Income: 54,271
Airport: Beech Mountain Airport
Resourceful Websites:
