About Little Switzerland & Mitchell County
Mitchell County was formed in 1861 from parts of Burke County, Caldwell County, McDowell County, Watauga County and Yancey County. It was named in honor of Elisha Mitchell, professor of mathematics, chemistry, geology and mineralogy at the University of North Carolina from 1818 until his death in 1857.
Discover craft studios and galleries including the renowned Penland School of Crafts, visit the Museum of North Carolina Minerals, and wind your way up the mountain to quaint Little Switzerland, a summer colony high in the Blue Ridge Mountains so named because of its sweeping panoramas of deep valleys and distant ranges resembling those of the foothills of the Swiss Alps.
