Bat Cave, North Carolina | |
|---|---|
 A fire engine of the Bat Cave fire department | |
  Bat Cave  Bat Cave | |
| Coordinates: 35°27′05″N 82°17′13″W / 35.45139°N 82.28694°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | North Carolina |
| County | Henderson |
| Named for | A bat cave located on Bluerock Mountain[1] |
| Elevation | 1,480 ft (451 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code | 28710[2] |
| Area code | 828 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1018981[3] |
Bat Cave is an unincorporated community in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States and is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Named after a bat cave located on Bluerock Mountain (also known as Bat Cave Mountain), it is the largest known augen gneiss granite fissure cave in North America and is a protected area, not open to the public.[4] It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names[5][6] and is also a regular victim of street sign theft, especially in the early 1990s during the popularity of the movie Batman Returns.
The community, located along the banks of the Broad River and within the Hickory Nut Gorge, features several shops, inns and a post office. It is also where three highways merge, U.S. Route 64 (US 64) from Hendersonville, U.S. Route 74A (US 74A) from Asheville, and North Carolina Highway 9 (NC 9) from Black Mountain, becoming Lake Lure Highway; which then continues in a southeasterly direction to Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.
- ^ "North Carolina Gazetteer". Retrieved December 26, 2020.
- ^ Zip Code Lookup Archived May 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bat Cave, North Carolina". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
- ^ "The Mystique of North Carolina's Bat Cave". Hendersonville Best. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
- ^ Kramp, Penn (February 22, 1987). "Tuxedo: It's not formal wear". The Times-News. p. 27. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
- ^ Parker, Quentin (2010). Welcome to Horneytown, North Carolina, Population: 15: An insider's guide to 201 of the world's weirdest and wildest places. Adams Media. pp. viii. ISBN 9781440507397.[permanent dead link]