Valle Crucis, North Carolina

Valle Crucis in an unincorporated community located in Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. The name of the town is Latin for "Vale of the Cross," a reference to a valley in the area where three streams converge to form a shape similar to an archbishop's cross. The community is located along NC 194, between the towns of Banner Elk and Boone.HistoryThere was scattered settlement in the region in the 1840s when an Episcopal missionary, Levi Silliman Ives, came to the area. He founded the first Episcopal church in the region, "Easter Chapel", and lived in the area for the remainder of his life. While there, he founded the Valle Crucis Mission School, which has had several purposes throughout its history and currently serves as a conference and retreat center, hosting (among other things) the Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling. Skiles also founded the first Monastic order within the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. Holy Cross Episcopal Church, located in Valle Crucis, is a direct successor to Easter Chapel. The church building, c. 1926, is modeled on a now-defunct medieval monastery in Wales and is noteworthy for its architecture. Regular services are still held at the church. The region was a significant missionary area for the Episcopal Church in the 19th century. This brought some degree of outside influence and progress to an area that was otherwise isolated from the rest of the state and world.