Boone, town, seat of Watauga county, northwestern North Carolina, U.S. It is situated atop the Blue Ridge Mountains at an elevation of 3,266 feet (995 metres) near the Tennessee border. On the Daniel Boone Trail at the fork of the Wilderness Road, the settlement was incorporated in 1871 and named for Boone, the pioneer who, according to tradition, camped there while on a hunting trip.
A noted mountain vacation spot with fishing, hunting, and ski areas, it also has a large burley tobacco market and is a beef and dairy cattle centre. Electrical components, apparel, furniture, and canned foods are produced there. Boone is the seat of Appalachian State University (1899), part of the University of North Carolina system, which possesses a collection of Appalachian artifacts in its Belk Library. The outdoor pioneer drama Horn in the West by Kermit Hunter has been produced each summer since 1952 in the Daniel Boone Theatre; the theatre is adjacent to the Hickory Ridge Homestead, an outdoor history museum. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes just to the south and east of town, and Pisgah National Forest is a short distance to the southwest. Pop. (2000) 13,472; (2010) 17,122.