Mountain Farm Museum – Cherokee, North Carolina - Atlas Obscura

On the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park a thriving 1800s farm frozen in time.

Walk down a dirt path to the farm, which was originally constructed during the 19th century throughout various locations in the Smoky Mountains. Most of the structures relocated to the site during the 1950s.

Each of the buildings has its own story, and relevance to the overall theme of the site. A rustic home, built by John Davis along Indian Creek around 1900, uses expertly matched chestnut logs joined with dovetail notches. The chicken house, apple house, meat house, and the springhouse (used for refrigeration) were all relocated from various mountain farms. The blacksmith shop moved in from Cades Cove, and two corncribs from Thomas Divide. The barn is the only structure originally located on the site; even then, it moved about 180 meters from the 1880 original construction site. It features nearly 16,000 hand-split shingles. There are numerous other farm buildings , such as a hog pen, sorghum press and still for extracting molasses, an ash hopper used to extract lye for soap, and a woodshed.

Visitors are welcome to wander through the farm and imagine what life was like to farm the area in the 1800s, but thankfully can return to their cars and the 21st century when day is done.

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May 16, 2016

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