In 1851, when Yadkin County was created out of part of Surry County, the act named and directed commissioners to locate the center of the new boundaries of Surry County and fix a new county seat. It also named commissioners to acquire fifty acres of land by purchase or donation and construct a new courthouse. The law stipulated that the town was to be named Dobson, which has been the county seat of Surry County ever since.

Black Wolf Vineyards and The Wolf's Lair Restaurant are colocated at the north end of the Yadkin Valley, North Carolina's first designated viticulture area. The tasting room and restaurant are set atop the highest point on the vineyard grounds, with sweeping panoramas of the surrounding Piedmont foothills and the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. Visitors are welcome to walk the grounds, and visit a spring-fed well house and "secret garden," where you can look for a meteorite set into the stone wall that surrounds the garden.