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Originally Posted by angel2222
I'd like to know more about Yancey County. I now it's not a well-heeled county but that is just fine with me. And it seems like such a lovely place.
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To be honest, I haven't been to Yancey County since the early 1970's when we went on a family visit (my father's father's family is long-time Yancey County residents - the family owned the side of Mt. Celo on the Mt. Mitchell side and farmed it up until the early 1970's when it was sold off as part of an estate liquidation), and then visited again in the early 1990's, but it is a beautiful, friendly place from all I remember and from all I've been reading about it recently.
It seems a fair amount of money has been moving into the Burnsville area since then, apparently starting with the Mountain Aire Country Club development, complete with its own air strip.
I've read recently that Yancey County is still a "dry" county - you cannot buy alcohol by the drink and I believe you have to go to Weaverville (just North of Asheville) to buy beer or wine or liquor to consume at home - but I personally don't regard that as a negative.
Land prices and home prices seem to be still reasonable, especially compared with Asheville, but they are going up (as they are almost everywhere else).
You'll probably have an easier time being accepted as a genuine member of the community if you live closer in to Burnsville than if you live out in the country where families have owned the same land for many generations, but a lot of one's acceptance into any community depends on one's attitudes & behaviors & willingness to adapt to local customs & culture (as it does anywhere in the world).
Yancey County and surrounding mountain counties are still very big on genuine mountain culture - the music & dancing styles, quilting & other arts & crafts, sustainable living, etc.
To begin to get a feel for what it might be like to live in the area, you might try listening to mountain music & old bluegrass, going to square dances & clogging exhibitions, studying up on mountain arts & crafts, read literature about living in the Smokey Mountains & Appalachian region, and studying sustainable living (growing one's own food, being able to live comfortably "off the grid" for when the power goes out during a storm, etc.).
My suggestion would be to go to Yancey County for an extended visit with an open mind, explore the entire area, and then make your moving decisions accordingly.
Perhaps stay at locally-owned Beds&Breakfasts and Inns (rather than chain motels) and converse with the owners, and do your best to converse with friendly locals to get a better feel for the area and what it would be like to live there.
Try to live like a local while visiting - eat where the locals eat, shop where the locals shop, stay at locally-owned accommodations, etc. - rather than visiting as a tourist and just doing the tourist thing. Ask friendly locals for their opinions and guidance as you seek to make your choices as to if/where to move into their area.
There is apparently an excellent independent book store in Burnsville which is a local gathering place for writers, families, women, etc. and which reportedly does a great job of entertaining children while their mothers enjoy quietly browsing, as well as supporting local literacy especially with the children. This might be an ideal location to begin to get genuinely acquainted with the Yancey County area and its local residents.
My husband & I are in the process of hopefully relocating from N. Central FL (Gainesville area) to the greater Asheville area, and we are very impressed with the helpfulness and friendly professionalism of everyone we've encountered up here thus far.
Mission Hospital in Asheville is SUPERB - the best hospital we've ever encountered anywhere. All the employees we met - from staff to nurses to doctors - were very friendly & helpful & wonderful to interact with. All of the people we've encountered thus far seem very intelligent in a down-to-earth, friendly, helpful kind of way.
Mission Memorial Hospital is rated in the top 100 in the nation for cardiology, and Mission St. Joseph's (just across the street from the Memorial campus) is in the top 50 for orthopedics. Greater Asheville is apparently now one of the top medical centers in the nation in many areas, as the nice quality of life here is attracting some very good doctors.
There are good roads from Asheville to the Yancey County area, so getting to Asheville for excellent medical care should not be much of a problem (although likely more so in winter during snow season).
I've grown up with FL (my father's parents & siblings lived in Gainesville) since the mid-1950's and I have watched FL change enormously over time. We are now ready to move out of FL and to enjoy the natural beauty and the warm friendliness of Western NC for the rest of our lives. It just seems like a much healthier, more enjoyable lifestyle up here in Western NC than one finds in FL any longer, although the Micanopy area (site of the filming of "Doc Hollywood" with Michael J. Fox - just South of Gainesville) is like living in FL the way it used to be, and they are working hard to keep it that way.
We are hoping the NC politicians learn from the mistakes of FL when it comes to development decisions, and that they choose to go slow & ensure not to over-develop nor allow much in the way of strip shopping centers nor paving over natural flood plains nor abuse of natural resources, and to make all developers contribute significantly to impact fees in order to help maintain good roads, good schools, and other good quality infrastructure to meet the needs of all residents in the area - regardless of which area of the state.
I realize it is idealistic to hope that common sense & a genuine love of community prevails over greed or ego-aggrandizement in politicians, but one can always hope & to try to influence for the better via positive active involvement in local politics, especially via becoming well educated about the issues & the true character of the people running for office, and voting the issues & for good people rather than along party lines. (Just my suggestion based on experience).
It is the quality of the people who choose to live &/or work in the area which determines the quality of life of anywhere one chooses to live - and being an actively contributing member in a positive way to your local area helps to keep it a good area in which to live.
Hope this helps! And may you find the perfect new home and be blessed with a long happy, healthy life in your new home!
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