At the Rush Wray Museum, 

you will step back in time as you enter the McElroy House. The Georgian style home built in the 1840’s by local businessman John Wesley McElroy has seven fireplaces and an L wing to the back of the home. Much of the house appears as it would have in the mid-1800. Our goals of portraying are met through our artifacts from the frontier era until the 1950’s and a bit later.
The first floor houses our pre-history exhibit of: American Indian artifacts (one of the best exhibits found in Western North Carolina aside from the Cherokee Museum) featuring artifacts of the Paleo, Archaic and Woodland periods as found in the valleys from Cane River in the West through to Brush Creek in the Northeastern part of the county and all points between. The grounds also include:

• Annex Building – The lower level houses the association office, genealogy library, Ce-Nan Museum Gift Shop, Medical Display, Veteran’s Hall of Honor, Mineral Display and other changing and permanent exhibits. The second level houses our archival storage
• 1860’s Civil War Era Log Smokehouse – The smokehouse originally stood on Gilder’s Creek, off Jacks Creek Rd and dates to the 1860’s featuring a smoldering unvented style fire pit for smoking meat.
• 1920’s Gas Station – The 1920’s Gas Station that once operated on West Main Street, now serves as the Visitor’s Center for the Yancey Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber displays our Transportation exhibit, a 1927 Dodge Roadster, which can be seen in the front showroom window.
• Proffitt-Cousins Cabiin – The 1860’s era cabin originally stood on Elk Shoal Creek, where the last residents were the family of Noah Edwards. In the deed of Dave Proffitt one of the early owner s mentions the old grist mill which stood to the east of the cabin. Proffitt a Confederate soldier along with his family owned thousands of acres between Elk Shoal and Cane River to Prices Creek. Owner Clark Cousin also a Confederate soldier was a relative of Proffitt’s and is buried just above the original house site in the King Cemetery.
• Jim Ray Heritage Gardens – The garden named in honor of the late Jim Ray, an agriculture agent who devoted his life to the crop production of our county. Our gardener has a well stocked garden from tobacco which at the time was grown for chewing to beans, corn, squash and herbs of the era.
• The Winnie Lou Garden – The flower garden named in honor of Winnie Lou Ray (the last private owners of the house and grounds), consists of more than 2,000 daffodils in the spring, to some 50 types of wildflowers. A perfect spot for various outdoor events.

The Museum is open for tours from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm, Wednesday through Saturday from each year April-November. Tours are $3.00 with exception of special exhibits which are $5.00, unless otherwise advertized.