Lake Junaluska, North Carolina
Lake Junaluska is a census-designated place (CDP) in Haywood County, North Carolina, United States, and a manmade lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lake Junaluska is named after nearby Mount Junaluska (now North Eaglenest Mountain), which was named after Chief Junaluska, a Cherokee leader in the early nineteenth century. As of the 2010 census the population of the community was 2,734.
The 200-acre (81 ha) manmade lake of the same name is surrounded by private residences and the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. The lake is fed primarily from Richland Creek and discharges into the creek, maintaining an approximately constant lake level. Richland Creek is a tributary to the Pigeon River. Recreation on the lake includes canoes, kayaks, fishing and swimming. To maintain a quiet environment, only electric trolling motors are permitted to operate on the lake. There is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) paved walking trail around the lake. The Blue Ridge Parkway is nearby, as is Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Before Indian Removal in 1839, all this area was part of the homelands of the Cherokee people. Today the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is based on Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, the only federally recognized tribe in the state.
European Americans took over most of the former Cherokee territories. On June 25, 1913, the Second General Missionary Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South convened in the new auditorium built here. It was beside a new lake being filled after the damming of Richland Creek. As there were only 13 houses and no hotel until 1914, the 4,000 people had to stay elsewhere.
The Junaluska Inn was built in 1917, but it caught fire and burned down the next year. A new hotel in 1921 was built on the same site, eventually to be named for Bishop Walter Russell Lambuth. Additions were made in 1956 and 1964.
In 1923, a classroom building called Shackford Hall was constructed at the lake’s west end. Both Lambuth Inn and Shackford Hall have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1922, a large, lighted cross was erected at a spot overlooking the lake near Lambuth Inn, the oldest hotel at the lake. In 1994, a new cross was installed. The original, eventually restored, was moved to Mount Shepherd Retreat Center near Asheboro, North Carolina.
The Southeastern Jurisdiction (SEJ) of the United Methodist Church became the owner in 1948. In the 1950s, the World Methodist Council moved its headquarters to Lake Junaluska.
