North Carolina Forest Services

About forestry service, 28736, Glenville, NC, US, North Carolina

Sylva is an incorporated town located in central Jackson County, in the Plott Balsam Mountains of Western North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 2,588. It is the county seat, taking over the role from nearby Webster in 1913. == Etymology == According to popular accounts, Sylva is named after William D. Sylva, a Danish handyman who spent a month in the home of General E. R. Hampton, who owned much of the land later developed as downtown Sylva. When the town applied for a post office, Hampton asked his young daughter, Mae, what the town's name should be. She liked the handyman so much that she said, "Sylva." This account is disputed. According to a 21st-century investigation, the handyman, William D. Sylva, was not Danish, and it is likely that his surname was not Sylva. His last name was "Selvey;" the letter that he wrote to the town was likely in Portuguese, not Danish; and he was probably from the Little Canada Community. His daughter's maiden last name was Selvey, according to genealogical archives. Her daughter (who recently came to the town) said that her grandfather's surname was "Selvey" instead.