Haywood County has 13 peaks above 6,000 feet. They are:

•    Haywood County has the highest average elevation of any county in the East.

•    Haywood’s rivers and springs are its own: all water in Haywood County originates here.

•    Pisgah National Forest in Haywood County is part of the National Forest Scenic Byway, a 79-mile loop.

•    Haywood County is a Civil War site: Kirk’s Raid occurred here in 1865.

•    Canton was originally Cherokee Indian Territory. A post office first opened here in 1837 and the community at the time was named Pigeon River.

•    Haywood’s oldest church, now First Baptist Church in Canton, was established in 1801 as Locust Old Fields Church.

•    The railroad came to Canton in 1881 and Waynesville in 1882.

•    Novelist, poet and educator Fred Chappell grew up in Canton and graduated from high school there in 1954.

•    Two of the world’s largest sapphires have been found in Canton’s Old Pressley Sapphire Mine, now open to visitors.

•    Clyde’s 1795 Shook House was home of Bishop Francis Asbury, the first Methodist Bishop consecrated in America.

•    Haywood County has 15 public schools – 9 elementary, schools, 3 middle schools, 2 high schools and 1 alternative high school.

•    In 1891, Haywood County got its first library when a group of Waynesville women started the Waynesville Library. in 1915, the Canton Library formed under the guidance of the Canton Woman's Club.