The first Euro-American settlers arrived in the area after the American Revolution, establishing scattered homesteads.

The town of Bakersville dates from the 1850s[6] and was named for David Baker, a Revolutionary War soldier and one of the first to live in the area around 1790 and described as "a large land owner, innkeeper, merchant and political leader until his death in 1838.

"[7] Situated on the main route leading over Roan Mountain and westward into Tennessee, the town developed slowly.

Traveler Frederick Law Olmsted passed through Bakersville in the early 1850s and noted that the "town" consisted of only a couple of cabins within a quarter-mile radius.

In the 1870s, as mica became commercially valuable, the rich local deposits of the mineral caused a temporary economic boom.

Historian and sociologist James W. Loewen has identified Bakersville as one of several possible sundown towns in North Carolina.

[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2), all land.