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Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm

Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center

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Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center

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The Swannanoa Valley Museum preserves and interprets the social, cultural, and natural history of the Swannanoa Valley, a pathway to Western North Carolina.

11/04/2026

📅 NOVEMBER EVENTS AT THE SWANNANOA VALLEY MUSEUM
Get your tickets now for these great upcoming events, and stay tuned for even more from the Swannanoa Valley Museum! >> swannanoavalleymuseum.org

👻 11/6 | 7pm - Haunted History Walking Tour of Black Mountain - Last chance to join this year's haunted history tour. Get tickets now!

🪖 11/11 | 10am-5pm - Veterans Day Celebration at the Museum - Free admission all day for active military, veterans, and their families. See our exhibition, The Valley at War, and share your rapid oral history for our digital archive (optional).

🛻 11/14 | 9am - Echoes of the Valley: North Fork Driving Tour - Rescheduled from October 10. Join us for this stop-and-go tour of the North Fork area. Attendees will visit several prominent historic sites and enjoy talks from local historians and descendants of North Fork families. 7 spots left!

🚸 11/18 | 6pm - Kiwanis in the Valley (Presentation at Givens Highland Farms) - Learn about the history of Kiwanis International in the Swannanoa Valley with speaker Scott Roy of the Kiwanis Club of Black Mountain.

🌽 11/19 | 5pm - WNC Hands-on History Workshop: Corn Husk Doll Making - Keep tradition alive and learn to make corn husk dolls in this educational craft party at the Swannanoa Valley Museum. This event is intended for crafters of all ages but recommended for kids ages 6+

🥾 11/21 | 8am - Rim Hike #11: Garden of Eden - This rocky mountaintop is located one mile northwest of Lake Eden on the Swannanoa Rim. In the summer months its rocky top was famous for its sunning serpents (rattlesnakes and copperheads) and it why this segment of the rim is hiked in the winter.

Learn more about these, and all of our upcoming events, visit: www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org

11/04/2026

ONE LAST SPOOKY SEASON HURRAH 🎃👻🍂
Haunted History Walking Tour of Black Mountain
Friday, November 6 | 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

$30 General | $25 SVM Member
Learn more, get tickets here:
https://history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/hauntedhistory/

Travel some of Black Mountain’s most storied streets and learn about the humorous, haunting, and harrowing history of the Swannanoa Valley’s most famous spirits. This tour highlights local tragedies and triumphs—and the many ghosts, friendly and frustrated, born from these events. All proceeds support the Swannanoa Valley Museum.

Recommended for ages 13 & up. Tours last approximately 1 hour and include walking on dimly lit sidewalks and side streets.

11/02/2026

Explore everything the Swannanoa Valley Museum has to offer with a museum membership. From engaging lectures and hands-on workshops to special member perks and local partnerships, your support helps preserve and share the history of Swannanoa for generations to come!

Become a Member:
https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/member/

10/31/2026

VALLEY REWIND 🔥🚒👨🏼‍🚒
Did you know that the 1921 brick building that houses the Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center used to be the Black Mountain Fire Department?

The BMFD was an all-volunteer firefighting force from 1920 to 1948. Here we see firefighters posing for a newspaper photographer in front of the station sometime in the 1950s. We don't know the newspaper or the photographer but the photo is attributed to Plateau Studio. You can clearly see the building's iconic front facade in the background.

You can be a part of the long and storied history of this special place by becoming a Swannanoa Valley Museum volunteer. SVM volunteers do so much to keep our history alive from working the front desk as docents to conducting historical research in the Valley. Contact us today to find out how you can become part of the story.

Learn more at: https://history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/

10/28/2026

FAMILY FUN AT THE MUSEUM!! 👹👹👹
Monsters at the Museum: Cryptids of the Blue Ridge
Thursday, October 29 | 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Swannanoa Valley Museum - 223 West State Street, Black Mountain NC

$5 General Admission (suggested donation)
Drop in anytime 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Learn more here:
https://history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/at-the-museum-children-family-events/

Drop in any time 3:00PM - 6:00PM for a Halloween happening that's spooky good fun for kids of all ages! We'll have several stations for cryptid crafts, Halloween history, a scavenger hunt through the museum, and more! Take your photo inside the old Black Mountain jail cell. You may even see a Bigfoot or two...

Be there at 3:00pm to hear our friend from Chimney Rock State Park teach us about the bats of the Appalachians and why they are not that scary after all. 🦇🦇🦇

CRYPTID: a creature whose reported existence is unproved, such as Bigfoot or the Boojum: the subject of cryptozoology.

10/26/2026

🌟 SVM Members Get More! 🌟

Did you know that Swannanoa Valley Museum members receive reciprocal admission to museums across the southeastern United States through the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) network? 🏛️✨

Your membership doesn’t just support local history—it opens doors to explore dozens of other museums throughout the region!

👉Learn more and become a member at https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/member/

10/25/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating 100 Years of Quietude. It was a wonderful afternoon of shraring history with our awesome community.

Photo credit: Cheryl Hyde

10/23/2026

Echoes of the Valley Hike #8: North Fork Driving Tour 🏔🛻
Saturday, November 14 | 9:00 AM–1:00 PM
(Rescheduled from Oct 10)

$40 General | $35 Members
Learn more, sign up here:
https://history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/valley-history-explorer-hiking-series/

This event will be structured as a stop-and-go tour of the North Fork area. Attendees will visit several prominent historic sites and enjoy talks from local historians and descendants of North Fork families. Speakers will explore the development of the North Fork community, homesteads and prominent people, and influential historic institutions including Moore General Hospital, Black Mountain College, and the Asheville Watershed.

10/22/2026

VALLEY REWIND 💃- Hotels were the glittering jewels of Black Mountain's tourist trade. And none glittered brighter than the Gresham Hotel, which once stood proudly on the bluff by the railroad tracks near where Cove Auto Repair is today. It was a place of glamour, of laughter, and of music. And on cool Saturday nights, its ballroom was the place to be.

Imagine the room flooded with the warm, flickering glow of candlelight. A live band plays the dreamy melodies of the day. And gliding among the dancing couples is a woman. A stunningly beautiful young woman, dressed from head to toe in a striking crimson gown: The Lady in Red.

Season after season, she would appear. She never spoke. No one ever knew her name, or saw her arrive or leave. She would simply grace the dance floor for a time, a silent, beautiful enigma. Those who danced near her recalled the faint, sweet scent of roses that seemed to hang in the air around her. Then, as mysteriously as she appeared, she would be gone.

The hotel burned down long ago, and all that's left are memories. But the story of the Lady in Red lives on.

Learn more about this local specter on the Haunted History Tour of Downtown Black Mountain, led by the Swannanoa Valley Museum. Two one-hour tours remain - Friday, October 23 | 7:00pm & Friday, November 6 | 7:00pm. Learn more and get tickets at history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org

Address

223 W State St
Black Mountain, NC
28711

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+18286699566

Website

http://www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/

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