Clay County is a county located in the far western part of U.S. state North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 11,089. The county seat is Hayesville.
History
Early inhabitants The area that became Clay County has long been occupied by indigenous people. An earthwork platform mound was built around 1000 AD in modern-day Hayesville, likely by people of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture as the center of their village. The Cherokee Native Americans later constructed a town known as Quanassee at the site. Quanassee had several hundred residents by 1550. In 1716, South Carolina officials met with Cherokee leaders at Quanassee to gain the Cherokee's alliance in the Yamassee War. The next year South Carolina built a trading site in Quanassee to provide English goods in exchange for Cherokee commodities like deerskins. A Coosa (Creek) war party "cut off" Quanassee in 1725, wrecking the village and enslaving or killing most of its residents. The village was briefly reestablished before the American Revolution; Rutherford expedition forces camped there in 1776.
The Unicoi Turnpike, a 1,000-year-old Native American trading route, ran through the site of Quanassee and modern-day Brasstown. In 1813, the trail was developed into a toll road from Tennessee to Georgia, creating the first highway through the area. Today Brasstown is the oldest continuous settlement in the county, having hosted residents since the establishment of the toll road.
The land which would become Clay County was claimed by Buncombe County in 1791, Haywood County by 1810, and Macon County in 1828. In the 1820s, Baptist missionaries visited Quanassee to preach to families living there. The first white settlers moved into what would become Clay County in the early 1830s. Migrants into the area were primarily of Scots-Irish descent, who had moved into the backcountry of the Appalachians from eastern areas. They moved south from Pennsylvania and Virginia after the American Revolution. Most became yeomen farmers and few owned slaves in the antebellum years. The first school in the area began operation in 1834. It was a tuition-based academy started by Leonard Butterfield on a farm near Hyatt's Creek. From 1836–1838, the state of North Carolina surveyed and subdivided land in the area to be sold. The parcels were put on public sale in Franklin in fall 1838. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
In October 1837, Tennessee militia established Fort Hembree at present-day Hayesville to prepare for deporting the Cherokee people. Approximately 1,000 Cherokee were held prisoner there and removed from the area. The U.S. Military abandoned Fort Hembree in June 1838. In 1839, most of the area became part of Cherokee County, which was formed from western Macon County. Clay County's oldest remaining church, Hayesville Presbyterian Church, was built in 1848. Three Clay County structures from the 1800s (Shooting Creek's John Davis cabin, Warne's Ingram Mule Barn, and Tusquittee's Abner Moore House) are now on display at the Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center in Mountain City, Georgia.
County formation In the fall of 1860, George Hayes, who was running for state representative from Cherokee County, promised his constituents to introduce legislation to organize a new county in the region. That would bring business associated with a new county seat, and make government accessible to more people. In February 1861 the legislation was introduced and passed by the North Carolina General Assembly. Clay County was formed primarily from Cherokee County, however a small area was taken from Macon County; it was named for statesman Henry Clay, former Secretary of State and member of the United States Senate from Kentucky. In honor of Mr. Hayes, the legislature designated the new county seat as Hayesville. The town was incorporated on March 12, 1913.
In 1860 Fort Hembree was reactivated to train soldiers for the Civil War. Early county trials and the first county commissioners’ meetings were held at the fort. It also contained a general store. Given the interruption of the war, Clay County lacked an organized, formal government until 1868. The small town of Hayesville became county seat mainly because whiskey was too easily available at Fort Hembree. Hicksville Academy, which became Hayesville High School (today the county's only public high school), was founded in 1870. In the 1890s it was bought by Duke University and offered college courses.
After the initial wood-frame county courthouse was destroyed by arson in 1870, the brick courthouse was constructed in 1888. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In mid-2007, courthouse operations moved to a new complex built west of the town square.
The first post office to open in what became Clay County began service January 8, 1844, at Fort Hembree. At its peak, Clay County boasted 17 post offices. By 1976 there were only three remaining, in Hayesville, Warne, and Brasstown.
Clay County’s borders have expanded twice since its formation. In 1872, the county annexed Buck Creek and Black Mountain from Macon County. In 1874, the county added a part of the Brasstown Creek area extending to the Georgia state line.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s the Tusquittee Turnpike toll road operated from Clay County to the Nantahala River in Macon County. Tiger’s Store is thought to be the oldest continuously operating business in Clay County. It was established around 1899 in Shooting Creek and moved to Hayesville around 1908. A ruby from Clay County is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
20th century to present Clay County’s two-story brick jail was built in 1912 to replace a log building. In 1972, shop class students from Hayesville High School constructed a replacement prison in downtown Hayesville. That was in use until 2008 when a new $4.3 million detention center opened at the judicial complex site. Today the brick jail is home to the Clay County Historical & Arts Museum.
Clay County's first official bank opened on May 18, 1910. A creamery opened in Brasstown in 1924. Mission Dam was constructed on the western end of the county in 1924. Gold mines operated in Tusquittee, Warne and Brasstown around the 1930s. In the 1940s and 50s, Clay County’s largest employers were band saw lumber mills. One of the county’s only manufacturing companies, Lidseen of North Carolina, Inc., has operated a metal fabrication plant in Warne since 1957. Another manufacturing plant, American Components Incorporated, made a metal film resistor for the Saturn V rocket that carried Neil Armstrong to the moon. Clay County has also manufactured ladies’ dresses, items for combat soldiers, and kitchen and bathroom fixtures.
The county’s first electric power came from a small dam across Shooting Creek near the Elf community in January 1920. The Blue Ridge Electric Association of Young Harris, Georgia, took over providing electricity for all of Clay County in 1939. By 1950, every community in the county had electricity.
The first automobile came to Clay County in 1914. From the early 1900s until the 1930s, every male citizen of Clay County between the ages of 18 and 45 was required to work five days per year without pay to help maintain public roads. Construction on US 64 between Hayesville, Warne, and Brasstown started in 1921. In 1959 a new highway was built from Hayesville through Sweetwater to Peachtree to provide Clay County residents with faster access to Andrews' new District Memorial Hospital. The US 64 moniker moved to this new route and the former route became Old Hwy. 64. US 64 connected Hayesville to Franklin in the early 1930s. NC 69 was built between Hayesville and Georgia in 1922. The entire road had to be relocated when Chatuge Lake was created twenty years later.
In October 1920, Clay County’s first and only railroad line, the Peavine, was completed between Hayesville and Andrews, where it connected with the Southern Railway. Cherokee and Clay counties each contributed $75,000 toward its construction. The Peavine hauled mainly lumber, but also kaolin mined in Clay County. The line was dismantled in 1951.
A silent film theater opened in the county in the 1920s. A movie theater later operated in Hayesville from the 1940s to the 1960s. The county has not had a movie theater since. Clay County's public library was established by the 1930s. It began in a two-story building on Hayesville's town square and at some point moved to a small room in the courthouse. In 1940 it became part of Nantahala Regional Library system. Its first librarian, Ellen Scroggs, was hired in 1943. A new $80,000 library building opened downtown on June 25, 1967. It was named in honor of local-born Dr. Fred A. Moss, who gave $10,000 towards its construction and donated books. Today Moss Memorial Library is the only public library in Clay County. In the 1940s Clay County became a "dry" county. The county banned alcohol sales until August 2009.
Chatuge Dam was constructed near Hayesville in the early 1940s by the Tennessee Valley Authority, creating Chatuge Lake. At the time, Chatuge Dam was the highest earthen dam in the world until the Aswan Dam was constructed in Egypt in 1964. The dam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
In the 1950s, Clay County's official song was written. Willie Forrest Standridge wrote "Clay County Song" to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers. The county's oldest nonprofit, Hinton Rural Life Center, began in 1957. A mission retreat operated by the United Methodist Church, it serves churches across nine southeastern states and is named for benefactor Harold H. Hinton. The Clay County Rescue Squad was organized in 1964. The county's first golf course opened in 1970. The Clay County Historical & Arts Council was founded February 6, 1974. The Peacock Performing Arts Center, the only community theatre in far-west North Carolina, opened in Hayesville in 1986. The Clay County Chamber of Commerce began in 1986. Clay County's building inspections department started in 1987. The famed New Year's Eve "Possum Drop" was held annually in Brasstown between 1990 and 2018. The Clay County Food Pantry was founded in 1992. The Clay County Recreation Center was built in Hayesville in 2007 and expanded in 2013. In 2025, Amazon built a distribution center and warehouse in the county. The biggest known drug bust in Clay County history (involving mainly fentanyl and cocaine) occurred in March 2025.
Since the nineteenth century, Clay County has remained largely agricultural. Given its relative isolation, in the 21st century, residents continue to be overwhelmingly of European-American ancestry.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.63%) is water. It is the third-smallest county in North Carolina by land area and smallest by total area.
Clay County is bordered to the south by the state of Georgia and the Chattahoochee National Forest. The Nantahala River forms part of its northeastern border. The county is drained by the Hiwassee River. In the southern part of Clay County is Chatuge Lake, on the North Carolina–Georgia border. Much of Clay County exists within the Nantahala National Forest. Fires Creek Bear Reserve is north of the township of Tusquittee and offers multiple hiking trails. The Appalachian Trail winds through southeast Clay County. Clay County is home to five publicly-accessible waterfalls, the tallest of which are Clear Creek Falls and Lower Bald Spring Falls – each high. Bald Springs Falls has a total height of spread across multiple ledges.