The first Bailey settler in Mitchell County is said to have been John Bailey (1771-1838), who was the son of pioneer Edmond Bailey. Family tradition holds that following service in the French and Indian War, Edmond Bailey moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. ...
In 2005 the Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) was adopted as the official state Christmas tree of North Carolina. The idea came from eighth-graders in Mr. Chris Hollifield’s North Carolina History Class at Spruce Pine’s Harris Middle School who petitioned legislators...
William E. Keller was born 10/15/1855 near Taylorsville in Alexander County, NC, the son of Joseph and Rinda Keller. When he died on 5/26/1969 in Mitchell County at 111, he was the state’s longest living Social Security pensioner, and may also have been the oldest in...
In the early part of the Twentieth Century, Jason Burleson was known as the mica king of Mitchell County, and unbeknownst to most travelers today, “Burleson Hill” in Spruce Pine was named for him. He lived atop that hill in a large white house where the Spruce Pine...
You felt safe and loved in this place. But sadly, that small-town charm diminishes when you grow up and move on. As anything else, things looked grand and bigger than life, as it did for me back in the late-1950s. Growing up in Spruce Pine was the best years of my...
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