[4] On September 27, 2024, the majority of Chimney Rock was substantially damaged by flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, with the Broad River inundating the village.

[6] According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2), all land.

The Henderson Gneiss lacks any cross-cutting pegmatite dikes and associated economic mineral deposits in the region of Chimney Rock and Bat Cave.

The closest pegematite dikes, which lack any observed, commercial mineral deposits, occur in biotite-muscovite granitic gneiss forming the upper part of Sugarloaf Mountain.

[7][9][12] The Chimney Rock - Hickory Nut Gorge area is part of a block of crust known now as the Tugaloo terrane.

This piece of crust was a microcontinent that collided and accreted to North America during the Cambrian and early Ordovician periods.

During this and later times, the rocks of the Tugaloo terrane experienced multiple periods intense folding, faulting, and metamorphism.

Between 390 and 340 Ma, the granodiorites were altered by a period of intense metamorphism and thrust faulting to form the Henderson Gneiss and the gently dipping northeast-southwest trending foliation and folding associated with it.

[7][13][14] During the post-Paleozoic, stresses caused by the uplift, erosion, and decompression of the Henderson Gneiss fractured it into orthogonal, sub-vertical joints.

These joint sets lie parallel and perpendicular to the Hickory Nut Gorge and define the rectilinear drainage networks.