Dillsboro, North Carolina

Dillsboro's Walkability and Vitality Make it Jackson's Top Tourist Attraction

Dillsboro is a walk-about town of shops, working studios, inns and restaurants, and is home to the Great Smoky Mountains Railway excursion train. Dillsboro retains many of its original buildings and much of its flavor, perhaps more so than any town in the county. The popular Jarrett House country inn is a town anchor; it opened in 1884 and has long been broadly popular for its southern style food. Another focal point is the original home of the Dills, which is now home to the thriving Riverwood Shops, a craft cooperative. Dillsboro was founded in 1888 along the railroad, and was a thriving commercial center until three floods just before the turn of the century devastated the town. Most of the businesses then relocated to Sylva. The Great Smoky Mountain Railway, founded in 1989, is the county's single largest tourist attraction. It carried 177,000 passengers from its Dillsboro depot in 1997.