The adventure of visiting one of the smallest towns in North Carolina starts before you even arrive. That is, if you and your (hopefully trusted) vehicle choose to take on the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap en route to Fontana Dam, a settlement town established in 1942. The winding stretch of road takes you on 318 snake-like curves over eleven miles, with section nicknames like “wheelie hell snow-off hill” and “the hump a.k.a. gravity cavity.” You’d be wise to drive the route during daylight, as there are no overhead streetlights.
But the reward is the charming tiny town of Fontana Dam, where check-in to the main lodging option, the Fontana Village Resort & Marina, takes place at the old-school General Store. The village resort comprises lodge guest rooms and more than one hundred cabins, fourteen of which have been recently renovated and feature all the cozy mountain accessories you’d expect—rustic lodge furniture, wooden decks, and backyards with firepits overlooking a tumbling creek.
Nestled among the trees of the Nantahala National Forest, the resort changed hands in 2023. New managing partners Robin and DeAnn Turner, who have led several major renovation projects throughout the Southeast, have worked to restore, and in many cases modernize, the cabins and common buildings in Phase One of the property-wide, multi-year project.
The team restored the Main Lodge’s lobby to highlight the building’s original architecture through its vaulted ceiling beams, natural stone floors, and stacked stone walls. Upgrades to all forty-two of the guest rooms include materials inspired by the town’s founding and history during the American Industrial Era, with rich, earthy colors reminiscent of the Appalachian terrain. Original photos from the Fontana archive decorate walls throughout the rooms and property.
Phase one also included updates to the restaurants, arcade, and General Store. Hazel’s, an upscale eatery, serves breakfast dishes such as blueberry ricotta pancakes and sweet potato pastrami hash. Dinner offerings include a spare rib appetizer, pan-seared scallops, and grilled pork tenderloin with sweet potato smoked gouda grits. The resort’s other main restaurant, formerly Wildwood Grill, has rebranded to Quill’s Canteen, a fast-casual, counter-service spot with smashburgers and Carolina trout bites.
Summertime draws include the swimming pool with lazy river, a putt-putt course, mountain biking trails, tennis courts, fishing excursions, and, new this year, guided, one-hour horseback rides along the mountain trails. The resort offers easy access to a section of the three-hundred-mile Benton MacKaye Trail, named for the original founder of the Appalachian Trail.
At the Fontana Village Marina, visitors can rent fishing boats, canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, and pontoon boats, including a new fleet of Bentley pontoons. A guided pontoon tour on Miss Hazel will take you around Fontana Lake, including to the side of the tiny town’s larger-than-life dam as your guide shares the rich history of this Western North Carolina region.
Other area attractions include the Nantahala Outdoor Center, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, where trees are over four hundred years old. But visitors to the town of Fontana Dam—whose official population ranges from eleven (as listed in the 2022 census) to forty (according to the town manager)—should certainly plan a visit to the dam itself for a slice of Smoky Mountains history. Constructed by Tennessee Valley Authority workers during World War II, it’s the largest dam east of the Mississippi and the highest (forty-four stories!) in the eastern United States. You can drive, walk, or bike across the dam, marveling at its size—especially when compared to the small scale of this town.
