1960 School consolidation continues. East Henderson and West Henderson high schools open. Students from Flat Rock and Dana begin attending East Henderson High School. Students from Fletcher, Mills River and Etowah begin attending West Henderson High School. Other high schools are at Edneyville and Hendersonville. The former Flat Rock High School becomes a junior high. Schools at Dana, Mills River, Fletcher and Etowah serve students through the eighth grade.

1960s Two industrial parks open in Mountain Home and Hoopers Creek (site of old airport)

1960s Volunteer fire departments form in Edneyville, Mills River, Mountain Home and Etowah-Horse Shoe.

1961 Faith Christian Day School opens. This later becomes known as Hendersonville Christian School.

1963 County begins forming an ambulance service. The first ambulances were supplied by Jackson Funeral Service. This later leads to the formation of the Emergency Medical Service.

1965 Marine Joe Herbert Webb dies during military action in the Dominican Republic.

1963-71 Vietnam War. An estimated 3,000 men and women from Henderson County served in the military during the war. Sixteen county men were killed in battle.

1964 School segregation ends in the city and county. The former black union school becomes Hendersonville Junior High School. Today it is a middle school.

1964 County opens the first landfill and animal shelter.

1966 New post office in Hendersonville was built on Fifth Avenue West. The old post office becomes the Federal Building.

1966, July 17 Most infamous and mysterious murder in county’s history occurred. Vernon Shipman, Charles Glass and Louise Davis Shumate found murdered near Lake Summit.

1967 Last run of the passenger train “Carolina Special” to Hendersonville.

1967 Interstate 26 opens from Asheville to Hendersonville with a connector to U.S. 25.

1967 Piedmont 727 Jetliner and private plane collide over Henderson County. 82 people die.

1968 Land was donated by Sadie Smathers Patton in memory of her husband, P.E. Patton, to the city. This becomes Patton Park. A public swimming pool is built.

1969 Voters approve the formation of Blue Ridge Technical College, now Blue Ridge Community College. The school was first located in Hendersonville, then at the former Flat Rock High School. The present school campus was built on land donated by Sadie Smathers Patton.

1968 Sheltered Workshop opens. It is now known as Vocational Solutions.

1970 A new Henderson County Public Library opens on Washington Street.

1970s Volunteer fire departments form in Dana, Bat Cave, Gerton and Saluda (serves Mountain Page and Macedonia communities)

1971-72 Arsonist sets fire to several government buildings and schools. Dana Elementary and Flat Rock Junior High suffer major damage.

1971 School consolidation continues with the building of Flat Rock and Rugby Junior High Schools. The schools later become middle schools.

1970s Wide Main Street disappears to become a two-lane serpentine street. Four-lane Four Seasons Boulevard is built.

1974 Carolina Village opens. This was the county’s first retirement center.

1975 Jackson Park opens. The county’s first public park is named for Clyde S. Jackson.

1976 Last link of Interstate 26 is completed through Henderson County, from East Flat Rock to Columbus over the Peter Guice Bridge crossing Green River, which, at that time, was the highest bridge east of the Mississippi River.

1980s Hispanics begin arriving in the county in large numbers, first as migrant workers, replacing black migrant workers as main agricultural work force.

1980s Several of the county’s textile mills begin closing. Most will close by 1990.

1980s through 1990s Most of the county’s dairy farms begin closing. The number of apple orchards also begins decreasing. The “green” industry (trees, shrubbery, nurseries) becomes the county’s largest agricultural producer by the 21st century.

1980 Computers enter the school system.

1980s Holmes Educational State Forest opens in the Crab Creek community.

1989 Town of Fletcher is incorporated.

1992 About 10,000 people line streets in rain to hear speech by President George H.W. Bush outside Historic Courthouse.

1990s State builds WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher and begins holding the N.C. Mountain State Fair at the site in Henderson County.

1990s County parks expand to East Flat Rock, Etowah, Edneyville and the Westfeldt Park in Fletcher.

1993 The city and county school systems merge.

1993 North Henderson High School opens to students. Edneyville High School closes. The buildings that housed the school in Edneyville become the location of the N.C. Justice Academy’s western campus, training law enforcement personnel from throughout the state.

1993 Village of Flat Rock incorporates.

1994 Duke Energy turns over extensive acreage along Green River and Hungry River to the Nature Conservancy, which gives the land to the N.C. Wildlife Resources, forming the Green River Game Lands.

1995 New Henderson County Courthouse built on Grove Street.

1997 DuPont plant closes, selling some of the property to the state. This site becomes DuPont State Forest.

2001, Sept. 11 Terrorists attack New York City and Washington, D.C., many young men and women serving in armed forces will fight in the following years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2003 Town of Mills River incorporates.