McDowell High School is a public high school located in the Western North Carolina town of Marion. The school has approximately 1,700–1,800 students. It is the only high school in McDowell County. The school was built in 1971, and has its own student-run newspaper, the Iliad, and literary magazine, The Muses. McDowell High's yearbook finishes the trilogy of MHS publications, and is dubbed The Odyssey. Also there is now a T.V. show on YouTube entitled "MHS Titan News".

Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare earned him the name "Swamp Fox". Marion's Main Street Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The population was 7,717 at the 2020 Census.