Oconaluftee Mountain Farm Museum

During our stay at the Cherokee Indian Reservation (see my post of 26-July-2009) we drove about 1 ½ mile north out of the Qualla Boundary to the Oconaluftee River Valley. This valley is in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The valley’s bottomland was the site of a former Cherokee village and Appalachian community. As we drove along a country road we saw the sign to the Mountain Farm Museum and stopped to visit. (Click on pictures to enlarge them.)


Close to the Oconaluftee River the Park Service has recreated a late 19th century mountain “farmstead” of authentic log structures. These were moved from their original locations close by. They include the John E. Davis cabin and other log buildings. Altogether they depict a typical mountain farm in pioneer Appalachia.


The John E. Davis cabin was built in 1900 by Davis who was a master craftsman. He built it in 2 years from American chestnut wood (before the chestnut blight decimated these trees in the 1930s.) His two sons, aged 8 and 4, collected the stones for the chimney with the help of a sled and oxen.



It had a flower garden, a vegetable garden and all the amenities - read “privy.”


Here is the apple house, where apples were stored. Apples were an important staple to be eaten raw, or used to make vinegar, applesauce, apple cider and apple butter.


The blacksmith shop was built around 1900 and moved from Cave Code.


Corn was planted on the farm, as it was always an important crop.


On the grounds were also a springhouse used for refrigeration, a meat house, a wood shed, a sorghum press and still. It was used to draw sweet sorghum from cane and boiled into syrup.


Sorghum originates from Africa and was introduced to the southern United States by slaves in the early 17th century. It is still cultivated in the southern states. The syrup retains all its natural sugars and nutrients and is 100% natural. Hot biscuits with sorghum syrup is a traditional southern Appalachia breakfast – we eat it at our house from time to time (and we had it today so I could take a picture.) Our sorghum syrup pictured below was made in Tiger, Georgia.


We then walked toward the barn, but first made a detour to look at the river, the Oconaluftee, which borders the property. We passed a hen (I guess it’s a hen?) then arrived at the river.

(Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

We walked back through the fields, watching Rattlesnake Mountain in the background. Rattlesnake Mountain is a special site with magical meaning for the Cherokee Indians.

First, though, we passed the Hog Pen and had to stop to watch two little pigs sleeping.


We finally arrived at the barn. This is the only structure which was originally standing at this location. The roof consists of over 16,000 hand-split shingles. It was built around 1880 and housed livestock on the lower stalls and grain in its loft.



I could hear some chicken outside the barn but could not see it, or them. I looked out


but did not see the bird. I moved to the side to see better, then I saw part of it, on the outside, in the corner


I wanted to take its pictures, so I pushed the gate and went outside – there it was


I came closer, slowly, afraid to make it go away. It did not move or looked back at me


So I came even closer. Was this a rooster or a hen sitting on some eggs?


Quite a handsome rooster, but it ignored me, so I left him.

For such a large barn, there was a dearth of birds – to make up for it, here are some birds from my vintage postcard collection:


Pretty tired, I looked at the wagon wistfully


but kept on walking.


Now came the decision: should we return to the Cherokee Indian Reservation, or continue our exploration along the Oconaluftee River?


In a future post I’ll show and tell you what was decided - see y’all then!