Cross Keys grew around a crossroads community named for the tavern operated by Laban Hartley, Jr., who built a stone house here about 1818. Mount Pisgah, located one-half mile southwest, served as a reference point when surveyors created the 1783 Military Reservation line establishing the southern North Carolina land grant boundary. Pull Tight Hill, the highest point in the county, rises 1,256 feet above sea level. Area landmarks include Mount Zion Methodist U.S.A., active from 1869 to 1994, and Cross Keys Baptist, established in 1954. Choctaw School operated from 1871 to 1946, and Joe D. Trice opened a store at this crossroads in 1910. Other early families in the area included Anderson, Bigger, Crafton, Creswell, Giles, Hargrove, Henderson, Irvin, McCall, Skinner, and Walton.