Sylva is an incorporated town located in central Jackson County, in the Plott Balsam Mountains of Western North Carolina, United States.

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.

The Jackson County Courthouse was constructed in 1914 and is located on a hill at the end of Main Street in downtown Sylva.

The building no longer serves as the official courthouse; the Justice Center was constructed in 1994 a few blocks away.

[12][13] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km2), all land.

Sylva is close to the Cherokee Indian Reservation (the Eastern band) and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, both of which are popular, well-known vacation spots.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,578 people, 1,151 households, and 552 families residing in the town.

Sylva is home to the Jackson Campus of Southwestern Community College and is the closest town of size to nearby Western Carolina University (6 miles (9.7 km) away), one of the seventeen schools of the University of North Carolina system.

The facility also serves Swain, Macon and Graham counties in western North Carolina and is affiliated with Duke LifePoint.

Greening Up The Mountains Festival takes place on the fourth Saturday in April, a family-friendly downtown street festival that draws more than 10,000 people for arts, old time Appalachian crafts, local music, ethnic and locally inspired cuisine, tastings from multiple local craft breweries, and many child-friendly activities.

The train wreck scene in The Fugitive was filmed 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Sylva in the town of Dillsboro.