[Gasshog]

Mayberry was actually a fictional town,

Yes but what about that sprawling Metropolis, Mount Pilot?
:P

[mbrfl]

Yes but what about that sprawling Metropolis, Mount Pilot?

There actually is a nearby town on which Mount Pilot was based, and its name is - wait for it - Pilot Mountain. It's probably about a fifteen minute drive south of Mt. Airey, and is named for an actual peak of the same name. Locals joke about the mountain's resemblance, when viewed from a distance, to a certain part of the female anatomy. Do an image search on it. And like it's fictional counterpart, its resemblence to a big city is very slight, to say the least. In fact I would venture to guess that today it is probably smaller and less developed than Mt. Airy, although things might have been different in Andy Griffith's youth.