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Q&A: Preserving Rural History in Western North Carolina [1]

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Date: 2025-05-23

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.

I know Daniel Barron as my neighbor – he lives up the mountain behind my house. My porch overlooks his goat paddock. He has a dog, Daisy, whose bark sounds like a woman yelling.

But Dan is more than a hobby husbandry man. He has his hands full with multiple local boards, including the board of the Mitchell County Historical Society in Bakersville, North Carolina, where he preserves local history in thick, overstuffed binders. Dan is also a self-identified community activist and a cultural dabbler. He is currently the chair of the board that runs the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in nearby Burnsville, North Carolina.

Before his stint at the Mitchell County Historical Society, he was a high school librarian in Gastonia, and received his MLIS, AMLIS, and Ph.D. from Florida State University. He retired as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina after 30 years as a faculty member and Director of the School.

Dan is a 7th generation Mitchell County native who moved away for work as a young man and returned to his hometown in 2006. I hope you enjoy our conversation about preserving the history of a place we both love.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder: So, Dan, when did you return to Mitchell County?

Daniel Barron runs the local Historical Society in downtown Bakersville, North Carolina, the county seat of Mitchell County. (Photo provided by Daniel Barron) Daniel Barron: I returned to Bakersville, [the county seat of Mitchell County], to live permanently after 40 years away in college. I served as a high school librarian and then Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. I live on property that was owned by one of the earliest white settlers [in the region], David Baker, which he earned in 1796 by serving with Washington at Trenton, Valley Forge, and White Plains. These are facts I didn’t know until I came back and began my local history research, which I have continued to pursue for the past 20 years.

DY: How long have you been at the Mitchell County Historical Society?

DB: I joined immediately upon my return to Mitchell County, and I have served on the board for the past 10 years. My mother was a founding member of the Historic Society and was a notorious historical document, artifact, and stuff packrat. Her files and boxes continue to be a source of information and inspiration for me.

DY: Why is it important to preserve local history? Is it particularly important given our current political climate?

DB: I have always appreciated the insights of James Baldwin. He was not just a talented novelist but also a deep thinker. Two quotes especially sing to me any time someone asks me about why local history is important.

“Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.”

And –

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we are literally criminals.”

It is important to study and preserve local history for a variety of reasons. But they’re sometimes ignored in the current political climate through removal, avoidance, or denial.

DY: Why do state and local historical societies exist? What is their role in helping communities understand their identities?

DB: I believe this is reflected in our mission statement: “Lighting the past, enlightening the present, and illuminating the future.”

Historical societies are groups of people who believe that it is important to not just preserve the stories, documents, and artifacts of local history, but to encourage residents to know and understand “from whence they come” with the hope of providing them with an understanding and enthusiasm for not just knowing their ancestral background, but that of others around them and around the world. History can help us all to empathize with other people’s past which may help us all understand the problems we face today.

DY: And how does the Mitchell County Historical Society serve the community in particular?

DB: We do all sorts of things. We offer face to face programs related to local history and we also record them and make them available on our website. We regularly write articles for the local newspaper and share them on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media. We go into schools and clubs like 4-H to share stories. We always do so with the idea of linking it to people, places, and events that may seem a bit odd, but end up being ‘ah ha’ moments when folks see how they are not just isolated individuals when it comes to history.

One of our important services is working with people who are creating their family trees. We partner with the local library to offer folks access to Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and other expensive services that will help them. Some just want a little bit of their history and this helps others to become addicted to it – in a good way!

We also do our best to make learning history fun and entertaining. It’s not just about facts, dates, and things that happened somewhere out there, but how closely those things touch each of us and are really a part of our lives. I have never assisted anyone that somewhere along the line did not discover a unique relationship.

DY: What’s up next for the Society? What are you all working on?

DB: We’re continuing our work of digitizing photos and historic documents to make them more widely available to the public online. We are also continuing our public engagement work, including attending local events, like the local blacksmithing festival, with an informational booth.

DY: Do you have anything else you’d like to add – anything you think is important for our readers to know?

DB: I appreciate what Daily Yonder does to support storytelling that brings in local concerns as well as local history. It encourages readers/viewers to think!

This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox.

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