Looking for Mayberry in Mount Airy, N.C.

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While Mayberry from the 1960s TV show "The Andy Griffith Show" was fiction, it was inspired by a real place: Mount Airy, N.C., the late Andy Griffith's hometown.

While the Mayberry from the 1960s TV show "The Andy Griffith Show" was fiction, it was inspired by a real place: Mount Airy, N.C., the late Andy Griffith's hometown. Here, Melvin Miles and D.C. Rawley, right, chat outside Wally's Service, a replica from the show, in Mount Airy.

The cast members from "The Andy Griffith Show," hardly need an introduction: from left, Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife, Ron Howard as Opie Taylor and Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Tourism in Mount Airy, N.C., is up since Andy Griffith died July 3, with about 10,400 people visiting the Andy Griffith Museum in July, almost double the 5,400 who visited in July 2011.

Visitors look at exhibits in the Andy Griffith Museum. Tourism, with an estimated economic impact of more than $100 million, is the second-most important industry in Mount Airy's home of Surry County.

Mike and Terry Jones sit outside Wally's Service, a replica of the Andy Griffith Show, in Mount Airy, N.C.

The keys to the jail from The Andy Griffith Show are on display at the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, N.C.

Kevin Mixon helps his wife Donna Gail Mixon, of Walterboro, S.C., from a sidecar in the Andy Griffith Museum.

People gather around a statue of Andy and Opie Taylor at the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mount Airy, N.C.

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While the Mayberry from the 1960s TV show "The Andy Griffith Show" was fiction, it was inspired by a real place: Mount Airy, N.C., the late Andy Griffith's hometown. Here, Melvin Miles and D.C. Rawley, right, chat outside Wally's Service, a replica from the show, in Mount Airy.

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