Majestic mountains. Historic waters.

The French Broad is the longest river in Western North Carolina and one of the oldest in the world, and it’s one of the few rivers that has the unique distinction of running north. Its banks were first settled by the Cherokee Indians, who developed a footpath across the mountains through what is now French Broad Crossing.

More than 200 years later – after visits from explorers including Hernando de Soto – the nation’s first government granted the surrounding land to veterans of the Revolutionary War. Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland settled here, and the Cherokees’ path eventually became the famed Buncombe Turnpike, a major west-to-east route for livestock drovers and other traders.

All of these groups cherished this land for its rugged elegance and rich diversity of flora and fauna, features that French Broad Crossing is committed to preserving today and forever.