Mitchell County, North Carolina

Mitchell County is high country in the truest sense. Roan Mountain anchors its northern edge on the Tennessee line, where the Appalachian Trail climbs above 6,000 feet across the longest stretch of grassy bald in the Appalachians. The same mountain holds natural rhododendron gardens that Bakersville, the county seat and gateway to the Roan, celebrates each June at the North Carolina Rhododendron Festival. To the south, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes Little Switzerland, a resort village founded in 1909 that still keeps its own access road onto the Parkway. Between them, Spruce Pine sits in the valley of the North Toe River, its historic downtown shaped by the mica, feldspar and high-purity quartz that earned it the name "The Mineral City."

What makes a Mitchell County property exceptional is rarely square footage. It is a ridgeline homesite looking across the Roan Highlands, a Parkway-side retreat with a protected view, or a studio property near Penland School of Craft, founded in 1929 and one of the oldest craft schools in the country, in a valley where Toe River Arts keeps a Spruce Pine gallery and runs an annual studio tour. Jennifer takes on listings and buyers here by request, for properties that stand on their own.