Cashiers

Cashiers is a census-designated place and unincorporated village located in southern Jackson County, North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the community had a total population of 157. Cashiers is pronounced locally as if it were spelled "cashers", and is one of several communities in the area popular with tourists and owners of vacation homes. The town is served by U.S. 64 to Highlands (west) and Rosman (east), and N.C. 107 to Sylva (north) and Walhalla (south, via S.C. 107). The village is centered around the crossroads of the two. One of Cashiers' biggest claims to fame is the strange "Shadow of the Bear" phenomenon that occurs on the nearby Whiteside Mountain. Each fall (and early spring), the sun hits the Whiteside Mountain peak and casts the shadow of a bear over the forest. This phenomenon has been occurring for hundreds of years and continues to draw locals and photographers each year. In 2003, the North Carolina General Assembly passed local legislation allowing Cashiers to incorporate as a village, but this was turned down by a vote of 161 to 302 in a local referendum on August 12. In North Carolina, the village status would allow it to have its own government and levy taxes, but not require it to provide any services as cities must, and not allow it any extraterritorial jurisdiction as towns have. It was apparently the issue of potential taxes that caused the referendum to be turned down. Instead, the county created zoning for Cashiers, which does not exist for most of the county, even in other similar places like Dillsboro. The zoning council for Cashiers is run by the county, therefore there are no extra local taxes supporting it. Cashiers has a charter as a town from 1927, but this is now inactive as it has had no actual government for some time, if ever. Since this has never been repealed, it is unclear why it could not be reactivated instead. The new village would have had a council-manager government. Five properties near Cashiers are listed on the National Register of Historic Places—Camp Merrie-Woode, the Church of the Good Shepherd, Fairfield Inn, the High Hampton Inn Historic District, and the Mordecai Zachary House.