Yancey County, North Carolina facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yancey County
U.S. county
Yancey County Courthouse
Seal
Location within the U.S. state of North Carolina
North Carolina's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	North Carolina
Founded	1833
Named for	Bartlett Yancey
Seat	Burnsville
Largest town	Burnsville
Area
• Total	313 sq mi (810 km2)
• Land	313 sq mi (810 km2)
• Water	0.6 sq mi (2 km2)  0.2%%
Population
• Estimate  (2018)	17,903
• Density	57/sq mi (22/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	11th

Yancey County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 17,818. Its county seat is Burnsville.

This land was inhabited by the Cherokee prior to European settlement, as was much of the Southern Appalachian region.

History

Independent and sturdy Scottish, English, and Scotch-Irish settlers of the Carolina frontier had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and settled the Toe River Valley by the mid-18th century. In the year 1796, one of the early land speculators, John Gray Blount, paid for 326,640 acres (1322 km²) of land, a portion of which later became Yancey County, N.C.

In December 1833, the General Assembly established a new western county, named Yancey, from sections of Burke and Buncombe Counties. Yancey County was named in honor of one of North Carolina's most distinguished statesmen, Bartlett Yancey, of Caswell County. As a U.S. Congressman (1813–1817) and as speaker of the N.C. Senate (1817–1827), he was instrumental in many accomplishments that benefited the state, including the creation of an education fund that was the beginning of the N.C. Public School System. He was an advocate of correcting the inequality in representation in the General Assembly by the creation of new western counties; but he died on August 30, 1828, over five years before the General Assembly created a new county named in his honor. In Yancey's boundaries looms Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Eastern U.S., at 6,684 feet (2037 m) above sea level.

On March 6, 1834, "Yellow Jacket" John Bailey conveyed 100 acres (0.4 km²) of land for the county seat. John was given the nickname for his famous temper as told in the books "The Bailey Family of Yancey County,North Carolina" and "Heritage of the Tow River Valley" by Lloyd Richard Bailey, Sr. The town was named Burnsville in honor of Captain Otway Burns, who voted for the creation of the new western county when he was serving in the General Assembly. The grateful people named their county seat for Captain Burns, a naval hero in the War of 1812. A statue of Captain Burns stands on a 40-ton, Mount Airy granite pedestal in the center of the town's public square, which was given the official name of "Bailey Square" by the Yancey County Board of Commissioners on September 1, 1930. The statue of Captain Burns was given to the county on July 5, 1909, by Walter Francis Burns, a grandson of the sea captain. The inscription reads:

Otway Burns - Born in Onslow County, North Carolina, 1777 - Died at Portsmouth, North Carolina, 1850. Sailor - Soldier - Statesman. North Carolina's Foremost Son in the War of 1812-1815 - For Him, This Town Is Named - He Guarded Well Our Seas, Let Our Mountains Honor Him.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 313 square miles (810 km²), of which 313 square miles (810 km²) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²) (0.2%) is water. Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (2,037 m), within Mount Mitchell State Park in Yancey County is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.> The Black Mountains, of which Mt. Mitchell is a part, contains five of the 10 highest peaks east of Mississippi, all over 6,400 ft (1,951 m). In descending order of height, they are: Mount Mitchell, Mount Craig, Balsam Cone, Mount Gibbs and Potato Hill.>

Adjacent counties

• Mitchell County - northeast
• McDowell County - southeast
• Buncombe County - southwest
• Madison County - west
• Unicoi County, Tennessee - northwest

National protected areas

• Blue Ridge Parkway (part)
• Pisgah National Forest (part)

Major highways

• US 19
• US 19E
• US 19W
• NC 80
• NC 128
• NC 197

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 18,470 people, 7,510 households, and 5,081 families residing in the county.

2015

As of 2015 the largest self-reported ancestry groups in Yancey County, North Carolina are:

Communities

Map of Yancey County, North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels

Town

• Burnsville (county seat)

Townships

Unincorporated communities

See also

In Spanish: Condado de Yancey para niños