McDowell County celebrated the opening of its new visitor center in Old Fort on Thursday, more than a year after the building was heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene. The move comes as the county seeks to attract more tourists to the region.
At a ribbon-cutting outside the small storefront in downtown Old Fort, local elected officials, business leaders and community members cheered the new visitor center’s opening.
“When Helene flooded this office, it wasn’t just a building that took on water,” Kimberly Effler, president and CEO of the McDowell County Chamber of Commerce, told the crowd. “It was the heart of our tourism economy, our front door to the world, and a place where countless travelers begin their McDowell story.”
The team behind the visitor center “didn’t fold,” she added; they “rebuilt while rebuilding our community.”
Shannon Odom, executive director for Destination McDowell, said the event marks a milestone for McDowell County post-Helene and an opportunity to redouble the county’s tourism efforts.
“This visitor center was damaged, and we really just took that opportunity to reinvent it while we had everything sort of demolished,” Odom told BPR in an interview. “To see it now come to fruition, to me, has just really made it all worthwhile.”
McDowell County had once been a manufacturing powerhouse. In the wake of the textile industry’s decline, local officials have pushed to transform the county into a destination for hikers, mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts from across the country.
“Really, I think the catalyst was the fact that we were losing people,” Odom said. “We were losing employment, and so we had to have something to replace that. And we think that small business will be the way to replace it and revitalize the town.”
That effort began before Helene, and it’s only intensified after the storm.
The new visitor center on South Catawba Avenue features interactive maps of the region, highlighting destinations such as Linville Falls, Lake James and Little Switzerland.
More details about the county’s outdoor recreation spots can be found on the website DestinationMcDowell.com.
