Boone is the county seat of Watauga County in far northwestern North Carolina. The county lies along the western border of the state adjacent to Tennessee and is a short drive to Virginia. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of the county was slightly more that 45,000 persons in 2008.

Watauga County is home to a highly educated population. The Census Bureau estimates that in 2000 24.4% of the U.S. population aged 25 or older held college degrees or higher level degrees. In Watauga County, that percentage is significantly larger at 33.2%. Certainly Appalachian State University is a major factor in this statistic. It not only brings in a degreed faculty, administration and staff to the area but also presents degrees to many Watauga County citizens. Finally, the county is home to many ASU graduates who either did not want to leave after graduation or who returned to live in the county years after graduation.

Watauga County is also home to a variety of unique communities from tourist destinations like Blowing Rock to communities in the western part of the county where early white frontiermen and women such as Daniel Boone (for whom the town was named) and many others lived and hunted on their journeys west to "settle" Tennessee, Kentucky and beyond.

Today, these communities share in the prosperity of the area's tourism while trying to maintain their individual histories. Local authors and storytellers are preserving these histories with their books and stories. And the county, the town of Boone and groups in each of these communities work to preserve Watauga County's history.

Sugar Grove/Cove Creek

Sugar Grove is in the western end of Watauga County and adjacent to the Tennessee line. Cove Creek is a community within this area named for a creek which flows through it into the Watauga River.. . .

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