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Friday, May 20, 2011

GSMNP Mountain Farm Museum

museum collageThe Mountain Farm Museum is a collection of 10 historic log buildings located at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) on U.S. Hwy 441 near Cherokee, NC. The park assembled buildings from throughout the Great Smoky Mountains to create the farmstead which has a house, barn, apple house, spring house, chicken house, corn crib, blacksmith shop, and meat house. Other buildings include a hog pen, sorghum press, ash hopper, woodshed, and out house.museum collage2The museum is based on a typical 1880s mountain farm in pioneerIMG_0308 Appalachia. It’s open year-round and admission is free. In season, park staff and volunteers demonstrate how families may have lived 100 years ago. Gardens are planted during the spring and summer, and barn fowl roam the premises.

Most of the structures were built in the late 19th century and moved to the park in the 1950s. Because most of them were not moved from their original locations intact, they are ineligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. house collage

The John Davis Cabin was built in 1900 and originally located on Indian Creek several miles to the west above Bryson City. John Davis moved to the area in 1885 to free-range his livestock. The cabin was constructed with matched chestnut logs joined with dove-tail notches. The house is a rare chance to view a log house built from chestnut wood before the chestnut blight decimated the American Chestnut during the 1930s and early 1940s.

barn collageThe Enloe Barn was built around 1880 by Joseph Enloe, grandson of Abraham Enloe who owned the land where the museum is now found. This large barn housed livestock in its lower stalls and grain and fodder in its lofts. The roof consists of over 16,000 hand-split shingles.This is the only structure that was originally located in Oconaluftee and moved only 200 yards from its native spot. IMG_0337

The Messer Apple House,was built by Will Messer of Cataloochee, a valley located in the park on the other side of Cataloochee Mountain to the east. At its original location, the apple house was partially underground to help insulate it from summer heat and winter cold.

The meat house (not shown) was moved from Cataloochee. To cure meat (usually pork) and give it flavor, a small fire was built just inside the meat house, exposing the meat to several hours of smoke.

chicken houseThe Baxter/Jenkins Chicken house was built by Willis Baxter in the late 19th century and originally located in Tennessee. Chicken houses were used to protect chickens from carnivorous animals.

blacksmith (2)blacksmith

The blacksmith shop was built around 1900.

spring house (2)spring house

The springhouse was used by farmers for refrigeration.

corn crib

This is one of two corn cribs, built around 1900, that were moved from north of Bryson City. Corn crib roofs were raised to place the recently-cut corn crop inside protecting it until it was ready to be taken to the mill.

16 comments:

grammie g said...

Hi Beatrice I love the way you did up these photos's they look like there old ones !!
But glad you left the Rooster colored he is a handsome fellow!!
A lot of hard work went into those peoples lives...we don't know what work is today!!
Thanks for the tour..lovely history lesson!!

Montanagirl said...

Very interesting post. Love all those old buildings - so much history there. Nice Rooster too!

Anonymous said...

I love places like this! We have something similar south of Gothenburg and we visited it several times when I went to school.

The guide loved talking about that place but he hated children :-) So the thing I remember best from those trips was that he threatened to hit us if we weren´t quiet :-) :-) :-)

Great photographs!

Have a great day!
Christer.

Christine said...

This is one of my favorite places in the park. So glad you got a photo of the rooster, he's quite the little character! How was the garden coming along. The new visitors center was very nice too. Glad you had a great trip!

possum said...

Looks like you had an interesting day!
Pretty rooster!

Connie said...

Great pictures, Beatrice. What a nice trip through history.

Out on the prairie said...

I like to see your shots, I followed that rooster around in the barn for a few good ones.

Out on the prairie said...

I almost forgot, the snake was a Northern Watersnake, a real big one.

john bain said...

One day when I have learnt how to use a computer properly I hope that my blog will look as good as yours. Thanks for stopping by at mine and for your kind words. I am pleased to be a follower.

MadSnapper said...

this will go on my bucket list, i would so love to see all of this. we have always wanted to retire in a real log cabin, as in OLD not the new ones they build. these are wonderful and i can't pick a favorite because they are all my favorites. thanks for sharing. your video is probably to large a file, i had that happen to me

Pauline said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I love these old buildings. It's great that their history has been retained. Most the old ones I see just look desolate and I always wonder about their history. I love how you presented them, too, with the brilliant splash of colour from the rooster.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Folks, this effect was done by using the sepia setting on a Canon PowerShot 130SX camera. I had originally taken the photos in color and then realized they needed to have an older feel and look, so I reshot them and then deleted the color shots, except for the rooster.

Grammie G., Mona & Daisy, glad you liked the rooster, he was the only chicken we saw that day and crowed loudly to let us know he was there.

Mama-Bug, a garden had been started, but I neglected to take any photos. Thanks for mentioning the new visitor center which is really nice, but then I never saw the old one. One thing I noticed is there's a charge for nearly every brochure, except the park map, most likely because park admission is free and it's a way to raise funds and not have brochures go to waste.

Christer, unfortunately, our visit was self-guided as there were no tours or programs going on, but they are conducted during summer months. That guide you talked about sure was in the wrong job it seems.

Steve, I agree this farm was an interesting bonus to our park visit, except that the gnats were out in force(s) that day. The rooster wasn't too active and was in the back of the barn. Thanks for the snake info.

Welcome John (Don't Unplug Your Hub) and thanks for the visit and compliments - both are much appreciated. We just have fun with the blog and it's great to have visitors, please come back anytime. I'll visit your blog too.

Hi Sandra, log cabins are nice, but I would opt for a modernized one over these basic models. I don't suppose there are many log cabins in Florida.

Welcome Pauline and thanks for the return blog visit. I'm glad you enjoyed this post and I also learn a lot about history in getting the background info. The rooster just HAD to be in color. Drop in again anytime and I'll do the same.

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

I was there this fall. Nice photo editing.
nellie

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Nellie (Beyond My Garden) thanks for the visit and kind words. I really enjoy exploring and learning about old buildings and this place was a great find. Usually my research is done post-visit when looking at the photos. I can imagine this would be a great visit in the fall months with all the foliage changes. I will be dropping in for a visit to your blog spot too. Please feel free to re-visit anytime.

Unknown said...

Looks real familiar except we're just a little further north in Southwest Virginia! Loved the tour and the photos are great!

Elaine said...

Looks like a great place to visit and your photos are lovely!