Banner Elk North Carolina

The first human inhabitants of the Banner Elk area were the Cherokee Indians. The Cherokee used the Elk River Valley as hunting grounds, but evidence of a permanent settlement has never been discovered (Cooper, 1964). The first white settlers of Banner Elk were Delilah Baird and John Holtsclaw, who came to the Big Bottoms of Elk in 1825 and settled on a tract of land containing 480 acres. This land included the Whitehead farm and extended to the present site of Grandfather Home for Children situated near Wildcat Lake. John and Delilah’s first child, Alfred B. Baird, was the first white child born in what is now the Banner Elk Township (Banner Elk Development Plan, 1967). Martin L. Banner established the first permanent settlement in 1848. Although the Banner family originally came from Wales, Martin Banner moved from Forsyth County located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Eventually, the Banner family grew to 55 members, and the area where they lived became known as Banner’s Elk (Heritage, 1976). Other early settlers include the Moody, Dugger, Abrams, Von Canon, Keller, Smith, Lineback, and Foster families. The early settlers of the area were the people of northern European stock from what may be called the yeoman class: English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, and Dutch (Cooper, 1964). 

The community changed its name to Banner Elk when the North Carolina General Assembly incorporated the town in 1911.

Banner Elk is a quaint mountain village between Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain ski areas (our top North Carolina Ski Town). It is home to Lees-McRae College, a beautiful historic campus at the highest elevation of any college east of the Mississippi (3,700 feet). Nearby is Grandfather Mountain and the popular Mile High Swinging Bridge.