This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.

"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.

Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."

--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell

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Place Description
Swann

town in SE Lee County. Inc. 1875 as Swann's Station; charter repealed 1877. Re incorporated as Swann's, 1911, but long inactive in municipal affairs. Named for Frederick Jones Swann, who settled there about 1815. Alt. 278.

Swann Point

See Swan Point.

Swann's

See Swann.

Swann's Station

See Swann.

Swannanoa

community in SE Buncombe County. Named for the river on which it is located. Known first as Cooper for A. D. Cooper, owner of the land on which it developed. Produces textiles and wearing apparel. Warren Wilson College is there. Alt. 2,220.

Swannanoa Creek

rises in W McDowell County and flows E into Mill Creek.

Swannanoa Gap

in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Buncombe-McDowell county line at the W end of Youngs Ridge. Lat. 35°37'20" N., long. 82°16'20" W. One of the two gaps (the other being Hickory Nut Gap) through which early settlers and travelers from the E reached the Asheville plateau. See also Black Mountain Gap.

Swannanoa Mountains

range of mountains in SE Buncombe County S of the community of Swannanoa and parallel to the Swannanoa River.

Swannanoa River

rises near Swannanoa Gap on the Buncombe-McDowell county line and flows W into French Broad River S of Asheville. Name is a corruption of Suwali-Nunna, the Cherokee word for "trail of the Suwali tribe."

Swannanoa Township

E central Buncombe County.