Bakersville is a town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 450 at the 2020 census. It is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Mitchell County.

History

In prehistoric times, local

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

deposits were extensively mined by Native Americans. The first Euro-American settlers arrived in the area after the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, establishing scattered homesteads. The town of Bakersville dates from the 1850s and was named for David Baker, a Revolutionary War soldier and one of the first to live in the area around 1790 and described as "a large land owner, innkeeper, merchant and political leader until his death in 1838. Some of David's sons and daughters remained and were equally influential in the area for many years after David's death." Situated on the main route leading over Roan Mountain and westward into

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, the town developed slowly. Traveler

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

passed through Bakersville in the early 1850s and noted that the "town" consisted of only a couple of cabins within a quarter-mile radius. In 1861, a post office was established and named "Davis" after

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

. Following the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the county seat of newly created Mitchell County was relocated to the town that had been renamed Bakersville by the Republican state government, leading to the construction of a courthouse and a growth in population. In the 1870s, as mica became commercially valuable, the rich local deposits of the mineral caused a temporary economic boom.Kevin W. Young, "Following in Ancient Footsteps: The Birth of the Mica Industry in Bakersville, North Carolina." ''Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine'' (Summer 2013), pp. 30-31. Bakersville is also home to the North Carolina Rhododendron Festival. The pageant attracts visitors from across the state and nation, most notably

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

in 1968. Historian and sociologist James W. Loewen has identified Bakersville as one of several possible

sundown town Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States. They were towns that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combinati ...

s in North Carolina. The Mitchell County Courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1979.

Geography

Bakersville is in central Mitchell County, in the valley of Cane Creek, sitting at an elevation of above sea level. Pumpkin Patch Mountain () and Meadlock Mountain () rise above the town to the north, and Roan Mountain rises to beyond them, north of the town. North Carolina Highway 226 runs through the center of Bakersville, leading southeast to Spruce Pine, the largest town in Mitchell County, and west, then north to the

border at Iron Mountain Gap. North Carolina Highway 261 starts in Bakersville and leads north to the crest of Roan Mountain at Carvers Gap on the Tennessee border. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town of Bakersville has a total area of , all land. Cane Creek, running through the center of town, is a west-flowing tributary of the North Toe River, one of the headwaters of the

Nolichucky River The Nolichucky River is a river that flows through western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the southeastern United States. Traversing the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the river's wate ...

which flows west into Tennessee.

Education

Bakersville has one public primary and middle school, with approximately two hundred students.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 357 people, 168 households, and 97 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 206 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 99.72%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

and 0.28% Native American.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.28% of the population. There were 168 households, out of which 20.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.7% were non-families. 39.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.72. In the town, the population was spread out, with 19.3% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 20.4% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 26.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females, there were 77.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $19,286, and the median income for a family was $31,563. Males had a median income of $27,500 versus $22,083 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $15,997. About 15.2% of families and 18.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 16.9% of those under age 18 and 23.7% of those age 65 or over.

Educational facilities

Bakersville is home to Gouge Primary School (K–4), Bowman Middle School (5–8), and Mitchell High School (9-12). The Mitchell County Library, a branch of the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Regional Library, is located at 18 North Mitchell Avenue.

Notable people

* Del McCoury, bluegrass musician *

Red Wilson Robert James "Red" Wilson (March 7, 1929 – August 8, 2014) was a professional baseball and college baseball and football player. He played 10 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox (1951–1954), Detroit Tigers (1954–1960 ...

, bluegrass musician * Waddell Wilson, former crew chief and engine builder in

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

* Ralph Yelton, served in the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

from 1977 to 1989Hayes, Hank. (February 8, 2015)
Colleagues remember late state representative
''timenews.net''. Retrieved December 16, 2020.

References

External links

* {{authority control Towns in Mitchell County, North Carolina Towns in North Carolina County seats in North Carolina