Lake Lure is a town in Rutherford County, North Carolina, United States. In 2010 the town population was 1,192. Lake Lure was incorporated in 1927, and acquired the lake after which it is named in 1965.

Burke County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 90,912. Its county seat is Morganton.Burke County is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. The first European settlement in the interior of present-day North Carolina (and what would become the United States) was made by the Spanish Juan Pardo expedition in 1567, when they built Fort San Juan at Joara, a large chiefdom of the Mississippian culture. His forces built another five forts to the west along the mountains, in Cherokee and Coosa territory. In 1568 the Native Americans killed all but one of the Spanish soldiers stationed at these six forts and burned the structures down. The Joara site was abandoned and lost for centuries. The other fort sites have not been located. No other Europeans settled here for about 200 years. After excavations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, archeologists in 2013 announced having found remains of Fort San Juan at Joara. The evidence changed the record of European colonization attempts, as the Spanish had a sustained, though brief, settlement in North America 40 years before that of the English at Jamestown, Virginia.

Asheville is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 12th-most populous city. According to 2019 estimates, the city's population was 92,870, up from 83,393 in the 2010 census. It is the principal city in the four-county Asheville metropolitan area, which had a population of 424,858 in 2010, and an estimated population in 2019 of 462,680.

Henderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 106,740. Its county seat is Hendersonville.Henderson County is part of the Asheville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.