Sylva and Dillsboro

Sylva, at about 2,080 feet, is the Jackson County seat, with 2,578 residents in the 2020 census. The town grew up along the railroad, incorporated in 1889 and took the county seat from Webster in 1913; the courthouse built in 1913-14 stands at the top of 107 steps above Main Street and has housed the county library since 2011. Downtown is on the National Register, with restaurants, breweries and shops along a few blocks and summer concerts at Bridge Park. Western Carolina University is six miles south; Asheville is about 50 miles east on US 23/74.

Dillsboro, just west where Scott Creek meets the Tuckasegee, incorporated the same year and is named for William Allen Dills, who built the Jarrett House hotel around 1884, a National Register listing that reopened in 2026 after renovation. The town of about 200 is a cluster of shops in former homes, and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad's excursion from Bryson City turns around here. Since Duke Energy removed the Dillsboro dam in 2010 the river runs free through town, and Scott Creek through both towns is a Mountain Heritage Trout Water. Housing runs from in-town bungalows to view lots on the ridges.