Little Switzerland is an unincorporated community in McDowell and Mitchell counties of North Carolina, United States. It is located along NC 226A off the Blue Ridge Parkway, just south of Spruce Pine. At this location, in 1909, on eleven hundred acres surveyed from the top of Grassy Mountain, the "Switzerland Company" was founded by North Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Heriot Clarkson, and became one of the few private resorts on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Its naming illustrates the gradual change in meaning of the 19th century term little Switzerland from an area of limestone formations to one of mountainous appearance. Famous oboist John Mack used to hold an annual "John Mack Oboe Camp" in the community before his death in 2006.