Last week, the cold officially arrived in North Carolina with much of the state under a freeze warning as overnight temperatures dipped as low as the mid-20s. As cold as that feels after experiencing 80 degree temps the week before, it’s certainly not the coldest temperature North Carolina has seen. In 1985, a polar vortex swept the Southeast and on January 21, Mount Mitchell recorded the state’s coldest-ever temperature at -34 degrees. This same polar vortex also caused Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration to be moved indoors and the parade to be cancelled. This week, we’re traveling to North Carolina’s coldest county: Yancey.
Located along the Tennessee border, Yancey was formed in 1833 out of Burke and Buncombe counties. The county gets its name from Bartlett Yancey, a Chatham County native who represented North Carolina in congress from 1817-1827 and then returned home to serve as speaker of the NC Senate from 1817-1827 (until 1868 the leader of the Senate was referred to as “Speaker”).
During his time in the Senate, Yancey was instrumental in legislation that created the NC Supreme Court, reorganizing the state treasurer’s office, as well as reforming how UNC trustees were appointed. He is also credited with crafting a bill that established the fund that led to the formation of the state’s public school system. His advocacy for western representation in the General Assembly proportional to the region’s population was never realized in his lifetime as he died in 1828. However, Yancey catalyzed representational reform that would impact the western part of the state for much for the 1830s.
The county seat of Burnsville also gets its name from a non-Western North Carolina native who advocated for the West’s representation in the legislature. Otway Burns served as a naval hero in the War of 1812 before entering the legislature in 1821 representing Carteret County. where he served seven terms in the NC House and four in the Senate. In 1835, Burns was voted out by his eastern constituency, in large part due to his strident advocacy for the West. It is believed his vote to form Yancey directly cost Burns his seat. In 1909, a copper statue of Burns facing West was placed in Burnsville’s town square.
Burnsville’s town square is named Bailey Square after the man considered to be Yancey’s founding father, John “Yellow Jacket” Bailey. Nicknamed “Yellow Jacket” for his temper, Bailey was dogged in his lobbying for Yancey’s formation. Bailey himself conveyed the land for Burnsville and insisted it be named after Burns.
Today, Yancey County solidly favors Republicans – Donald Trump in 2020 and Ted Budd in 2022 each carried the county by more than 30 points. However, the county has not always produced runaway margins for the GOP. Yancey went for Jimmy Carter in both 1976 and 1980 and for Bill Clinton in 1992. In 1996, Clinton lost the county to Bob Dole by fewer than 20 votes. John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 came within 6 points. However, in 2012 the county went for Mitt Romney by nearly 14% and has only grown in its GOP support over the past decade.
