A community of neighborhoods and farms northwest of Hickory
Life moves at a laid-back pace in Gamewell, a town of 3,500 people in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. For example, Town Administrator Bonnie Caudle, the Gamewell government’s only employee, works three days a week. Caudle commutes to the town hall in less than 10 minutes, and she reaches the neighboring city of Lenoir for errands in about seven minutes. Caudle describes Gamewell as a “mixed community,” where “you may have a neighborhood and, next door, a 100-acre farm.” Gamewell isn’t packed with attractions or busy with events, but residents get to enjoy benefits such as little traffic and no city property taxes.
Rows of houses alongside rows of crops
Small neighborhoods of ranch homes and split-levels branch off to the east and west of North Carolina Highway 18. Small manufactured-home communities are also spread around town. Clusters of houses are broken up by thickets of trees, horse pastures and rows of crops. Manufactured homes sell between $95,000 and $185,000, while single-family prices range from roughly $150,000 to $350,000. Gamewell provides free trash pickup, and utility hookups are available to some residents, but most homeowners use well water and septic tanks.
Caldwell County Schools are nearby
Children can stay in the community to take classes at Gamewell Elementary, graded a C-plus by Niche, and Gamewell Middle, which scores a B-minus. Located across the street from Gamewell, West Caldwell High also receives a B-minus. For nearly 40 years, Caldwell County Schools has put on Taste of Caldwell, an annual fundraiser that invites people to sample food, drinks and desserts from around the county while catching some live music.
Gamewell Park is among the area’s top attractions
Gamewell Park is the main recreation spot, with playgrounds, tennis courts and basketball courts clustered on one end and a field on the other. “Our park is always packed,” Caudle says. “We have people from all over the surrounding counties come here for the park. It doesn’t have bathrooms, but that doesn’t seem to deter kids from coming here for field trips.” Youth teams play baseball at the Gamewell Optimist Club. The landscape becomes more mountainous and rural to the north, but hiking areas such as Tuttle Educational State Forest were closed indefinitely by Hurricane Helene in 2024. A pedestrian bridge over Abingdon Creek connects the park to Gamewell’s town hall. Next door, the community turned a brick building that once housed a post office, store and the original town hall into the Gamewell History Museum. The volunteer-run museum opens two Sundays each month. Visitors can see artifacts from the area’s history; though Gamewell wasn’t incorporated until 1981, settlers arrived in the 1700s.
Barbecue in Gamewell, more businesses in Lenoir
A handful of businesses sit along Highway 18. JD’s Smokehouse is one of the only restaurants in Gamewell, but its barbecue has built a reputation. “People drive from all over North Carolina to eat at JD’s,” Caudle says. Dollar General carries produce, or shoppers can get groceries a couple of miles outside Gamewell at Food Lion. In the neighboring city of Lenoir, people can grab coffee and craft beer downtown or shop big-box stores such as Walmart and Tractor Supply Co. in the shopping centers on U.S Route 321.
On the road between Lenoir and Morganton
Caudle says some locals drive north or south on Highway 18 to jobs in Lenoir or Morganton, but others don’t need to. “A lot of the folks here are retired, or they may have been involved with farming their whole lives,” she says. Interstate 40 passes through Morganton as it stretches across most of the state.
Hurricane Helene did some damage in Gamewell
Hurricane Helene hit many communities in western North Carolina in 2024, causing flooding and landslides. The storm damaged Gamewell, but Caudle says it wasn’t as severe as in other towns in the region. “Most people in this area were fortunate. We had trees down, and debris washed up from the creek.” Floods of that severity are otherwise rare. Few houses are in flood zones, and FEMA assigns the county a low level of flood risk.
Written By
Alex Soderstrom
