Yancey County was established in 1833 from parts of Burke and Buncombe counties and named for…read moreBartlett Yancey, a North Carolina congressman and education reformer. The county seat, Burnsville, honors naval hero Otway Burns, and the region became a hub for agriculture, mica mining, and mountain crafts. Prior, it was Cherokee land. Today, Yancey is known for its rugged terrain, including Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. (Oddly, not Mitchell County, but hey, whatever.) The original courthouse in Burnsville was a modest wooden structure built in 1834, replaced by a brick building in 1836, and then by the third building, a Classical Revival courthouse in 1908, and now serves as the Burnsville Town Hall. The current, fourth courthouse, was completed in 1965. It is a two-story red brick and concrete building designed in a restrained Modern Colonial Revival style, with a central peaked entrance and a slender cupola rising from the roof that adds vertical emphasis without grandeur. There is free street parking around the Burnsville Square and a dedicated parking lot to the rear. There are clear "no cameras" signs posted so I was not able to take pictures of the inside of the courthouse. The second-floor courtroom serves as the building's centerpiece, while county offices occupy the lower level. [Review 1227 of 2025 - 4412 in North Carolina - 24779 overall]

This marker is located in the town square just across from the county courthouse and points out the…read moreeducational institution nearby. There is ample parking. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "A Baptist preparatory school, 1901-1926. Two of the buildings later used by public schools. 1/2 mile northeast." It is marker number N-27 and it was erected in 1987 by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History. Online, there is more information. Yancey Collegiate Institute operated in Burnsville from 1901 to 1926 as a Baptist preparatory school, offering secondary education when public high schools were scarce in North Carolina. The idea for the school emerged from a Baptist Association meeting in 1899, and local support led to the acquisition of land and construction of brick buildings funded by church boards and private donors. Initially focused on high school subjects, the curriculum expanded in 1917 to include college-level courses in history, Biblical studies, and classical languages. Student life featured literary societies and athletics, with facilities for basketball, baseball, tennis, boxing, and wrestling. After closing as a private institution in 1926, the site transitioned into a public high school and later Burnsville Elementary, which closed in 1993. Today, the location houses the Blue Ridge Reading Team and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [Review 1292 of 2025 - 4437 in North Carolina - 24844 overall]

We enjoyed walking around the Visitor Center, learning more about Zebulon Vance and the area. We…read morealso enjoyed looking at the buildings on the grounds. Very nice historic site!

The Vance Birthplace is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Weaverville, NC. Admission to the…read moremuseum is free. With Covid, masks are required and the front entrance is closed. You enter through the back of the visitor's center. I did not know much about Vance before coming to his birthplace. I was familiar with Vance County and monument in Downtown Asheville and schools named after him. I wasn't aware that Vance was a NC Governor or in the US Senate just his white supremacy. I still have a difficult time figuring out why all these places were named after a man filled with hatred. The museum did do a great job of telling the history of both Vance and the enslaved people. The Vance family moved to the property once home to the Cherokees. The enslaved put in the labor for the Buncombe Turnpike and farm. The Vance family owned 18 slaves and Zebulon Vance owned 6 of them. Outside shows how life would be on the plantation.

Located at the intersection of Skyland View Drive and US-321, this marker recalls the place where…read morean educator had an impact on the local community. The marker reads, "Emily Prudden, 1832-1917. Missionary. Founded 15 western N.C. schools including Pfeiffer College forerunner. Her Skyland Institute stood here." Online, there is more information. "Few educators were better known in western North Carolina at the turn of the century than Miss Emily C. Prudden (1832-1917). In his eulogy Congregational minister George Dickerman estimated that no less than 10,000 students had passed through her schools." "Prudden was one among many "Yankee schoolmarms" who came South in the late nineteenth century. At age fifty-one, she left her native Connecticut, where she had raised her late sister's orphaned children, to serve as housemother at Brainerd Institute in Chester, South Carolina. Her accomplishments over the next thirty years were all the more remarkable in light of the fact that from the age of seventeen she was deaf. She began her work in North Carolina in 1884 when she acquired fifty acres at All Healing Springs in Gaston County. Her school there was known in time as Jones Seminary and later as Linwood College. In 1888, she established Lincoln Academy nearby for black females. From this beginning she went on to found schools at Blowing Rock, Connelly Springs, Saluda, Elk Park (one white, one black), Mill Springs, Cedar Valley, Lawndale, Brevard, Tryon, and near Lenoir. This last one was her greatest success. Oberlin Home and School, transferred to the care of the Woman's Home Missionary Society in 1903, was the direct forerunner of Pfeiffer University at Misenheimer." "The strategy she followed at Oberlin was the one she used elsewhere: to establish a school and, after a few years, transfer control to an organization (usually religious and most often the American Missionary Association) better able financially than she to keep it going. Consequently Prudden usually did not stay in one community more than two or three years. Upon retirement in 1909 she returned to Blowing Rock, site of her Skyland Institute founded in 1887. Prudden's body was returned to Connecticut for burial. The site of Skyland Institute and her home is now the location of a condominium complex." [Review 15910 overall - 3126 in North Carolina - 1415 of 2021.]

I like old towns like this with a big grassy square, a monument to some historical dude named…read moreBurns, and some neat shops. It has a quilt shop on the square, some churches, an old historic inn that Elvis stayed at, a coffee house, some galleries, and a few places to eat that nook neat. Worth a stop if you are traveling through, but not a destination unless you are going for some big hiking at Mt. Mitchell or some of the other great outdoors places it has nearby. I'd stop here again.

The road from Asheville was finished last year and already the town is perking up with new…read morerestaurants and longer hours for some of the existing eating establishments. The Grapevine has really great women's clothing, Appalachain Java has nice food all the way until 8pm, Homeplace brewery has some kind of food truck each night, music, trivia, and great beer. Rescue Dog Cafe and Burnsville Donut Company are keeping East Main Street lively and well fed, and Garden Deli and Snapdragon are consistently good on the Town Square. Rad Dawgs and the ice cream parlor next to it are just plain fun. I'm addicted to the Gyrate taco there. Ye Olde Country store has quality deli items and mile high sandwiches. Main Street Shoes has really cute footwear and YummiYarns has a great selection of yarn for knitting, crochet, or weaving. Quilt and Code has quilting supplies on one side and computer help on the other. There's a terrific health food store, an outdoor living store that just opened, a music store, a couple galleries including one that is part of Toe River Arts Council, Dark Sky Wood handcrafted furniture, an outfitter store, Parkway Playhouse, Yancey Theater, a wine shop, a couple of antique stores, a pizza shop and the new Mountain Chef Bistro. NuWray Inn, the Terrell House, and Carolina Country Motel all offer accomadations. The Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors Center can direct you to the History Museum and other points of interest. There's a Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and free events for families and kids on the square on Saturday mornings during the summer. Also there is bargain shopping at New to You furniture, Felicity's Closet, Alexandra's Closet, and Barkin Basement. There is definitely plenty to keep you busy for a full day or more.

It was easy to spot this marker on the highway at the intersection of Penland Road. It is about as…read moreclose to the actual subject so that it can be seen by passersby. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Penland School. Founded 1929 by Lucy Morgan (1889-1981) to promote traditional crafts including pottery, metalworking and weaving. Campus 1 mile southwest." There is more information online. The school originated from Morgan's efforts to revive traditional weaving in western North Carolina, using a cabin at the Episcopal Appalachian School to train locals and sell their work to tourists. In collaboration with other regional craft leaders, Morgan helped establish the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild and expanded Penland's curriculum to include pottery, metalwork, and silversmithing. After her retirement, Bill Brown introduced woodworking and glassblowing, and today the school spans 400 acres, hosting over 1,200 artists annually. This is marker number N-46 as it was erected by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History in 2007. [Review 1289 of 2025 - 4434 in North Carolina - 24841 overall]

This marker is on the campus of what is now Mars Hill University and is in a parking lot next to…read moreFounder's Hall. It's easy to stop and read this marker. It has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Baptist; coeducational. Founded 1856 as French Broad Baptist Institute. Name changed 1859. Senior college since 1962." Mars Hill College began in 1856 as the French Broad Baptist Academy, with land donated by Edward Carter and early funding from local sponsors ‐ though financial trouble soon led to the seizure of a slave named Joe Anderson as collateral, until public gifts saved the project. The school was renamed Mars Hill College in 1858, inspired by Acts 17:22, and endured Civil War disruptions including troop occupation and building damage. After reopening post-war, it faced decades of financial instability, briefly serving as an orphanage and subscription school, with fourteen presidents between 1865 and 1897. Robert Lee Moore revitalized the college, guiding it to junior college status in 1921, and his successor Hoyt Blackwell later oversaw its transition to a four-year institution and the awarding of baccalaureate degrees in 1964. Mars Hill became one of the South's earliest integrated colleges in 1961, enrolling Oralene Graves ‐ the great-great-granddaughter of Joe Anderson ‐ and today spans over 200 acres, with 32 buildings, 31 majors, and a nationally acclaimed dance team. This is marker number P-34 and it was erected in 2011 by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. [Review 1231 of 2025 - 4416 in North Carolina - 24783 overall]

McDowell County is named for Joseph McDowell, who was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War…read moreand who took part in the Battle of Kings Mountain. The county was created in 1842 and Marion has been the county seat ever since. This building is the second to serve as the county courthouse, replacing the one that was built in 1844. It was completed in 1923. It has a Neoclassical architecture with a central block flanked by slightly recessed wings. The features horizontal brickwork on the first story and five tall vertical windows on the upper levels and a flat roofline. It was designed by Erle G. Stillwell who is also responsible for the Henderson (NC) City Hall and the Sumter (SC) City Hall plus a large number of theaters across the southeast. [Review 641 of 2025 - 4128 in North Carolina - 24202 overall]

Support staff, Clerks, Deputies, etc., all very nice and professional. District Attorney's Office…read morereasonable and friendly. Courthouse beautiful on the outside, a bit of a dog on the inside. (Needs to be renovated.) District Court is in the BASEMENT fo the building. Roadside parking available, but you made need to drive a block or two to find it. DON'T TRY TO BRING A CELL PHONE IN, as you'll have to turn around and walk back to the car. There also is a security checkpoint, so leave your knives, brass knuckes & mace in the car. Beautiful part of the state. Easy to find. Nice people.