Oconaluftee Baptist Church | |
Location | 6 miles north of Cherokee on U.S. Route 441 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cherokee, North Carolina |
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Coordinates | 35°33′13″N83°18′31″W / 35.55361°N 83.30861°W Coordinates: 35°33′13″N83°18′31″W / 35.55361°N 83.30861°W |
Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
Built | 1912 |
NRHP reference No. | 76000163 [1] |
Added to NRHP | January 1, 1976 |
The Oconaluftee Baptist Church, also known as the Smokemont Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Cherokee, North Carolina. It is located off United States Route 441, overlooking the Smokemont Campground of the park. It is a basically rectangular wood-frame structure, 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 50 feet (15 m) deep. The church's tower projects from the front of this main block, and rises about 10 feet (3.0 m) above the level of the gable roof; it does not have a spire or steeple, and its uppermost section is a louvered belfry. This church building was built in 1912 for a congregation organized in 1836. The congregation's records (which extend only to 1895) form a valuable documentation of local history. The church remained in active use until the area was made part of the national park in 1935, and has seen occasional use since then. [2]
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. [1]
The church was the site of a fatal stabbing on March 29, 2015, which occurred inside the building. [3]
Swain County is a county located on the far western border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,117. Its county seat is Bryson City.
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America, including Clingmans Dome, Mount Guyot, and Mount Le Conte. The border between the two states runs northeast to southwest through the center of the park. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Georgia to Maine. With 14.1 million visitors in 2021, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.
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St. John's Missionary Baptist Church is a historic African-American Baptist church at 1130 Walt Bellamy Drive in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. It was built in 1926, and is a rectangular brick church building on a raised basement in the Classical Revival style. It features a three-stage central entrance tower. It is believed to be the oldest black Baptist congregation in New Bern.
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Ravensford is an unincorporated community in Swain County, Western North Carolina. This is within the traditional homeland of the Cherokee people. In a survey and excavation project in the early 21st century, part of the community was found to have archeological resources that were thousands of years old, in addition to more recent historic materials related to the Cherokee people. In 1938, the US Government and state of North Carolina negotiated with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to gain their agreement to transfer some of their land to enable construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. In return, lands in Ravensford were transferred to their Qualla Boundary property.