YANCEY COUNTY

Yancey was formed in 1833 from Burke and Buncombe. It is named in honor of Bartlett Yancey, an eloquent orator, many times a member of the Legislature, speaker of the State Senate and member of Congress. He was also one of the earliest advocates of the public school system in North Carolina. It is in the western section of the State and is bounded by the state of Tennessee and Mitchell, McDowell, Buncombe and Madison counties. The present land area is 312.45 square miles. The population from the 2010 Census was 17,818. Of that population, 16,967 were white, 145 were black or African American, 79 were American Indian, 34 were Asian, 5 were Pacific Islander and 420 were of a different race. Another 168 were reported to be of two or more races and 814 were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The act establishing the county named and authorized commissioners to purchase land, lay out a town, and erect a courthouse. Burnsville, named for Captain Otway Burns of Beaufort, North Carolina, who won fame in the War of 1812, is the county seat.

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Yancey County is in the French Broad River Basin. It is a part of the mountain region of the state.

References:

"American Factfinder." 2011. U. S. Census Bureau. Online at http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Accessed 3/3/2011.

Corbitt, David L. 2000. The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. Sixth printing. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History.

Powell, William Stevens, and Michael R. Hill. 2010. The North Carolina gazetteer: a dictionary of Tar Heel places and their history. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Additional resources:

North Carolina Digital Collections (Government & Heritage Library and NC State Archives)

NC LIVE resources

NC Natural Heritage Program database

WorldCat (Searches numerous library catalogs)