A story about shopkeepers, storytellers and superlatives.
Joan Vannorsdall
Burnsville’s New England-style town square is overseen by War of 1812 hero Captain Otway Burns.
You can tell a lot about a town by its claims to fame. Here’s what drew me to Burnsville:
- Yancey County (of which Burnsville is the county seat) is home to the highest per capita concentration of artists in America.
- The Parkway Playhouse is “proudly the oldest continually operating summer theatre in North Carolina.”
- Just outside Burnsville, the Mayland Earth to Sky Park is the first certified dark sky park in the Southeast. It houses the Bare Dark Sky Observatory, with the largest telescope in North Carolina.
- Featuring more than 250 juried vendors, the longstanding Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair is “one of the largest and most unique crafts fairs in the North Carolina mountains.”
- Rising above Burnsville is Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi.
Truth be told, that last one is what made me head down the backroads of western North Carolina, thinking that it would be pretty wonderful to stand 6,684 feet above sea level and look out at the Black Mountains beauty.
My mistake was to think I could do that in early February, when the long-range forecast called for high wind and cold rain. “The Blue Ridge Parkway up there’s been closed off most of this week,” they told me at the Burnsville-Yancey Chamber of Commerce office.
Joan Vannorsdall
Roaring Fork Creek Falls in the Pisgah National Forest flows fast with early spring rain.
So what was there to do but wander the town of Burnsville, learning its ways by walking its streets and meeting its people?
North, South, East and West Main Streets all bring you to the same place: Burnsville’s beautiful town square, its walkways lined with winter-blooming flowers and leading to the statue of the town’s namesake: Captain Otway Burns, a naval hero of the War of 1812. “He guarded well our seas, let our mountains honor him,” reads the base plaque.
Walk in any direction from the town square, and you’ll find artwork, shops, restaurants and historic buildings like the 1833 Nu-Wray Hotel (another superlative—it claims to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in North Carolina) and the imposing, Classical Revival Yancey County Courthouse (now the Burnsville Town Hall).
What you might not expect to find in a town with just 1,604 people is a bookstore like Plott Hound Books. Owner Ronni Lundy—a two-time James Beard Award (“the Oscar of the Food World”) winner—has collected a wide range of Appalachian literature, ranging from Denise Giardina’s “Storming Heaven” to David Joy’s “Those We Thought We Knew” and Jason Mott’s 2021 National Book Fiction Award winner, “Hell of a Book.” A fair number of the books are autographed.
Lundy shares information about the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, which every September brings the best and brightest writers across Appalachia to Burnsville. Readings, signings and workshops take place over three days. A faraway tiny town…with a big-name literary festival. Take note.
Across the street from Plott Hound Books sits a three-story antique shop owned and staffed by 88-year-old Ralph Hammond, known as “the sweetheart of Burnsville.” His is a mountain story that needs to be heard, and remembered.
“My father came down from Abingdon to work for Brown Brothers Milling—they cut just about all the lumber in these mountains. They clear-cut everything—tulip poplars, chestnuts…everything. Brown Brothers left—so my father started farming.”
Hammond realized early on that farming wasn’t going to make him rich. At 16, he became an auctioneer, then attended college for a year until the money ran out. He joined the military and caught the tail end of the GI Bill before it expired in 1956. He’s been a teacher, a coach, a collector, an auctioneer…and an agent for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
“I broke up illegal distilleries—157 of them,” he says proudly.
Joan Vannorsdall
Burnsville is a hub of the Toe River Arts Council, “connecting the artists, the arts and communities.”
Just up the street from Hammond’s store is the sprawling YummiYarns, where two women sit in rocking chairs knitting like Madam DeFarge. Owner Wendy Reid has been in Burnsville since 1997, and she knows how to spin a story. “I was ready to move. So I hung a U.S. map on the wall of my garage, and threw a dart. It landed on Burnsville. It’s a good place to hide out.”
Which may be one reason that artists flock to the Burnsville area, supported since 1976 by the Toe River Arts Council (TRAC). Twice a year, they oversee self-guided art studio tours, with over 100 studios included, bringing together what they call “the journey of the arts, and the art of the journey.”
One of the mainstays of the TRAC arts scene is the Penland School of Craft. Founded in 1929 by “Miss Lucy” Morgan as a crafts-based economic development project, Penland is one of the preeminent crafts schools in the country. With a 420-acre campus and 57 buildings, Penland is a must-see. The Gallery, Visitors Center, Coffee House and Supply Store are open to the public—be sure to call ahead, as the hours shift according to the season.
Also outside of Burnsville are dozens of mountain trails, ranging from easy, mile-long loops to longer, steeper climbs. And waterfalls, the likes of which you’ve only dreamed of. The Outdoor Recreation and Adventure guidebook at the Chamber Visitor Center on West Main Street (info@yanceychamber.com) is a must-have for exploring Yancey County.
Little Burnsville has one of the most engaging downtowns I’ve visited, where stories flow like waterfalls and astonishing art waits in nearly every storefront and restaurant.
It’s worth remembering that sometimes, good things come in small packages.
Lesley Riddle and the Carter Family
Born in 1905 in Burnsville, Lesley Riddle took up the guitar and never looked back. His collaboration with A.P. Carter started in 1928, the two traveling through the mountains collecting songs. The Carter Family recorded a number of songs either written or transmitted by Riddle.
Riddle disappeared from the music scene when he married and moved in 1942 to Rochester, New York—but was rediscovered by Mike Seeger in the mid-1960s. He recorded with Seeger for much of the next 20 years.
Lesley Riddle died in 1979, but he hasn’t been forgotten. Burnsville’s Parkway Playhouse produced a play about Riddle and his influence on the Carter Family music. And the town’s Traditional Music Group does an annual Riddlefest concert and seminar in the Burnsville Town Center. This year’s tribute happens on Saturday, October 19.
The story above first appeared in our May / June 2024 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!