About Us... Mount Gilead Moving Ahead Our Town 2040 Comprehensive Plan
Nestled on the banks of Lake Tillery and the foot of the Uwharrie Mountains, our beautiful small town offers a wide variety of specialty shops and locally owned businesses for your shopping pleasure. Along Main Street you will find a variety of antiques and treasures at our Antique Mall, homemade soaps made right here in town, unique boutiques with the latest styles, a sewing boutique that offers retail gifts as well as embroidery and screen printing, custom framing and art, an ole timey general store and hardware, a coffee shop, an Interior Design Studio with Wine, Craft beer and home decor, a nutrition store, a large variety store and unique second hand and consignment stores.
The Town hosts several community events throughout the year. In the Spring, you can enjoy the annual May Day parade and celebration held annually on the first Saturday in May. Each Fall, the Town welcomes thousands of visitors from all over the County and state for the annual Fall Festival on Main, which is always the third Saturday in October. The first Saturday in December citizens from all over the county enjoy our annual Christmas parade and Tree lighting festival downtown.
Town of Mt. Gilead NC
The Town of Mt. Gilead began as the Providence settlement. It was named by the leaders of the First Methodist Church. In 1855, the community's name was changed to Mount Gilead. In 1898, the Town was incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly. From its inception through the 1930s, cotton was the biggest cash crop in Mount Gilead. In the 1930s, as cotton farming waned in its importance, the textile industry emerged as the focal point of the local economy. Textiles dominated the local economic picture through the mid 1990s.
Today in the abandoned cotton fields there springs forth another source of wealth for the Town: pine trees. This area has no shortage of timber, and the lumber industry has never been more important to the local economy than it is today.
Town Creek Indian Mound . . .
Located nearby is the Town Creek Indian Mound a North Carolina Historic Site. It provides insight into the lives of the people that first lived in this area hundreds of years ago. For more than one thousand years, Indians lived an agricultural life on the lands that became know as North Carolina. About the year A.D.1200, a new cultural tradition arrived in the Pee Dee River valley. That new culture, called "Pee Dee" by archaeologists, was part of a widespread tradition know as "South Appalachian Mississippian." Throughout Georgia, South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and the southern North Carolina Piedmont, the new culture gave rise to complex societies that built eastern mounds for their spiritual and political leaders, engaged in widespread trade, supported craft specialists, and celebrated a new kind of religion. Learn more here . . .
Parks and Recreation . . .
The Town of Mt. Gilead boasts one of the best parks and recreation programs in Montgomery County. The Town owns and operates Stanback Memorial Park, which includes: two baseball fields, a swimming pool, two pavilions, and assorted playground equipment including a state of the art wooden play castle.
Each summer, the Park hosts the Mt. Gilead Summer Park Program which provides a wide range of activities for school aged children living in the Town or surrounding communities.
Industry . . .
We have a diverse industrial base - electronics, manufacturing, tourism and sawmills. Tobe Manufacturing, McRae Industries, Toshiba, Paper Works, Mohawk, Piedmont Components, and Jordan Lumber have facilities here. The Town's industrial site, located on NC Hwy. 109, was recently named as a certified industrial site by the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Education . . .
We have a county-wide school system. Elementary students attend Mt. Gilead Elementary (Montgomery County's only School of Distinction), while middle and high schools students travel only a short distance to attend West Middle School and Montgomery Central High School.
Montgomery Community College (MCC), a post-secondary institution serving this area of the state, is located in Troy. The college has gained national acclaim for its specialty programs in areas such as gunsmithing, taxidermy, and pottery. In recent years, MCC has been approved to offer an LPN program, and a one-year college transfer program. The continuing education department of the college meets a variety of community needs by offering in-plant training for business and industry as well as fire, law enforcement, and rescue training. The department further offers personal enrichment programs of interest to the county's citizens.