Right now, I'm here with Sarah Thomas, the director of the Mitford Museum.

Sarah, I'm so delighted to be here.

It is absolutely fascinating, because this museum is not only a recreation of the mythical town of Mitford, but it's also kind of a retrospective of the life of Jan Karon when she lived here in Hudson.

- Absolutely.

The Mitford Museum focuses on Jan when she was living here in Hudson, her history, her family background.

But it also really digs into Mitford itself, the characters, where they came from, her inspiration.

People will come here and they'll see character sketches and things that the characters used in the books.

It's really a great way to make Mitford real for Jan's fans.

You know, people think that it was maybe an overnight success, but she began writing the books as a serialization in the Blowing Rocket Newspaper, up in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

And eventually she was able to get a small publisher, and the books came out, and they did okay, mostly because she put books in the trunk of her car and went around the country hand-selling to book stores.

Then when eventually they were picked up by a major publisher, they took off.

And I think that the books really speak to people in a way that they need.

The books are so genuine and sincere, and it's the kind of town that we all secretly want to live in, maybe not so secretly.

It's where we want to be, and it's such a warm, welcoming place that I think people just can't resist them.

The building was actually an elementary school, Jan's elementary school.

The first room of the museum was her first grade classroom.

But the town of Hudson came in, and they renovated this building, and made it into an art center, and there's a great local art gallery, there's a beautiful boutique.

There's three doors down, which is a beverage station.

Artists studios upstairs.

There's an auditorium here, and we actually have some remarkable theater going on in Hudson.

- [Deborah] Tell me what you hear from visitors, and how many people are coming?

- Well, in our first six months of being open, we had visitors from all 50 states and around the world.

We've had visitors from Australia, from Scotland, from France.

This is such a destination for people who are fans of the Mitford series.

We talked about how it really feels real to people, and they just long to come here and connect with this book and these characters that have been so real to them.

You know, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Carl Sandburg Place, they're great, but Thomas Wolfe and Carl Sandburg are long gone.

Jan is still with us, and she is actively interpreting this museum.

So when you read a placard here, she wrote it.

It's Jan speaking to her fans.

- Well, it's just so interesting.

Would you mind taking me for a tour?

- I'd love to.

Come on.

- Okay.

So what do we have here?

- So this is a character corner that really focuses on the characters from the Mitford novels.

We have Father Tim represented here with his ecumenical robes.

But then this cabinet is really fun.

- His favorite snacks.

- Yes.

Well, he had a church secretary who kept Little Debbie cakes in her desk, and Father Tim was diabetic, so it was a little bit of a challenge for him.

- Uh-oh.

- [Sarah] And we have Barnabas here.

- [Deborah] Hi, Barnabas.

- And Barnabas' leash and collar, so there's just some fun things that people come in, and they'll see them, and be inspired to remember characters from the book.

So this is probably one of the favorite fan items at the Mitford Museum.

Jan and her daughter Candace were shopping at an antique store, and they saw this nativity set, and it was in terrible condition.

She wanted to fix it up, but she didn't think she had time.

Candace suggested that she let Father Tim do it.

And that was the genesis of "Shepherds Abiding", which is her Christmas novel.

So in that novel, Father Tim finds a nativity set, and refurbishes it for his wife.

- Oh, how interesting.

- Well, and all of the decorations on the tree are sent from fans.

So they're from around the country sent to Jan to celebrate the holidays.

This is her keyboard that she wrote a lot of the Mitford novels on, and the really fun thing about this is that the M is worn off, because she hit the letter M- - Of course.

- So many times.

- Of course it is.

- For Mitford.

And one of the really fun things about this desk is that we invite visitors to open the drawers and see things like an original manuscript that Jan was editing.

So on her desk, we have copies of all the novels and the supplemental books, and then up here, above the desk, we have some of the original artwork for the covers of the novels.

- Well Sarah, thank you so much for showing me around the museum.

It's been fascinating learning about Jan Karon and her life here in Hudson, and also about Mitford, so I look forward to reading more about it in her books.

- Well, thank you so much for coming.

We love having you here, and we love having all our visitors come to the Mitford Museum.

- The Mitford Museum is at 145 Cedar Valley Road in Hudson.

That's in Caldwell County, and it's open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to four p.m. For more information, give them a call at 828-572-4898, or go online to themitfordmuseum.org.