Latitude: 35.5268
Longitude: -82.9632
Lake Level Above Sea Level: 2562 ft (781 m)
Counties: Haywood Count

Information: On June 25, 1913, the Second General Missionary Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South convened in the new auditorium, beside a lake yet to be filled, created by damming Richland Creek. There were only 13 homes, and no hotel until 1914, so 4000 people had to stay elsewhere. Junaluska Inn was built in 1917 but burned the next year. A new hotel went up on the same site, eventually to be named for Bishop Walter Lambuth. In 1923, a classroom building called Shackford Hall went up on the lake's west end. Both Lambuth Inn and Shackford Hall have been named to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1922, the Junaluska cross was built on a hill overlooking the lake on its east side. In 1994, a replacement cross went up, and the original was eventually restored and moved to Mount Shepherd Retreat Center near Asheboro, North Carolina. The assembly went bankrupt, but in 1936, Methodist bishops raised $100,000 to pay off the debt, and the Methodist Church took over in 1940. The Southeastern Jurisdiction became the owner in 1948. The George R. Stuart Auditorium, named for the first director of the assembly, was enclosed, and The World Methodist Council moved its headquarters to Lake Junaluska, in the 1950s.