Sylva

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Sylva Popular culture:
Several movies have been filmed in Sylva including the 1993 blockbuster The Fugitive (at Harris Regional Hospital and along Scotts Creek where it crosses West Main St.) and the 1972 movie Deliverance (along Mill Street). The train wreck scene in The Fugitive was filmed two miles west of Sylva in the town of Dillsboro.

Sylva is an incorporated town located in central Jackson County, in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 2,435. It is the county seat, having taken over from nearby Webster in 1913.

Sylva is named for William D. Sylva, a Danish handyman who spent a month in the home of General E. R. Hampton. When the town applied for a post office, Hampton asked his young daughter Mae what the town's name should be. She liked the handyman so much she said, "Sylva." The town became the county seat in 1913 after the county voted to move from Webster to Sylva. Subsequently, Webster declined because the railroad didn't come to that town and all the business left. The Jackson County Courthouse sits on a hill at the end of Main Street, a dramatic setting for such a wonderful building. It is slated to become part of the new Jackson County Library, which will be housed in a 20,000sq ft addition onto the back of the building. The town has within its limits the main county high school, Smoky Mountain High School, the county Library, county Hospital, Justice Center, and two K-8 Elementary Schools in the vicinity of the town, Scotts Creek east of town, and Fairview located behind the High School. The town was also once the only town in the United States with a waterfall within its incorporated limits, Dills Falls, but the waterfall was destroyed to the dismay of many people to make way for the 4-lane Sylva Bypass US 74/23 in 1973. The town had the first municipally owned swimming pool west of Asheville, built by the WPA of Stone and Concrete in 1938, it was demolished in 1969 to make way for the current pool. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas Edison both travelled through Sylva, Edison in 1911 and FDR in 1936, respectively.
Parks:
The town has four parks, Poteet and Bridge Park, both along Scotts Creek and connected by a bridge over the creek. Mark Watson Park, located in a depression behind the historic courthouse that once was the campus for Sylva High School and Sylva Elementary School and before that, fairgrounds, and Bryson Park on Chipper Curve Road across from the Jackson Paper Recycling Plant. Poteet Park has a large playground, sand volleyball court, basketball court, picnic pavilion, and is located in close proximity to Roscoe Poteet Pool, which serves the community as a community pool and the county swim team as a 6-lane competition pool. The Bridge Park has a small stage pavilion for outdoor concerts, as well as a bridge spanning Scotts Creek and connecting to Poteet Park. Mark Watson Park has a picnic shelter, playground, two baseball fields, two basketball courts, and four tennis courts. Sylva also has two old abandoned buildings, a large stone two story structure built in 1938 as an agricultural/vocational shops building for Sylva High School, and a metal garage building that once housed Jackson County Rescue Squad. Bryson Park has a picnic shelter, basketball court, and a playground.