Hickory King. Ever heard of it? It was the name of a variety of corn developed in the mid-1800s used in the southern mountains of the United States. This was the preferred corn grown in the Smokey Mountains. Families would grow a few acres or up to 20 acres in the low fertile valleys. They would protect the corn crops by a zigzag fencing using native timber. On the eastern side of the Smokey, just a few miles outside the Cherokee Indian Reservation is a splendid farm maintained by the park service. The house is original and the other farm buildings were either restored or moved in to represent the typical small family ranch of the area.
John Davis spent two years building this house near Deep Creek North Carolina. It was completed about 1900. A careful study of the logs which constructed the house, Davis split Chestnut logs in half along their length and “matched” the halves on matching positions on opposite walls.
Barns are of a different construction than we have seen elsewhere in our travels. The hay is stored up, wagons are riden and stored through the center and sides of the structures. The design is quite efficient with the least amount of timber exposed on the exterior weather. Quite ingenious.
Here are some other photos from the west side of the national park, including some very historic church buildings from pre-civil war times and cemetery gravestones.
Two sisters, through the good graces of their well-to-do father, lived in this home. They were both school teachers
Grist Mill powered by a local stream. Popular thought would suggest backward mountain people of the Appalachia in the 1800s, but to the contrary, the settlers were quite progressive and many traded widely and they were devoutly religious.
Beautiful rivers abound through the park. Although it had recently snowed here, it didn't slow down the outdoor recreational enthusiasts.
Notice two doors on the front of the church building. Building plans were used and not altered from previous colonial churches which required separate entrances for men and women who sat on opposite sides of the sanctuary. This congregation co-mingled, yet the plans were not altered. Each church had its own cemetery, the gravestones telling of life's sorrows and faith's hope in the epitaphs.
North Carolina Militia, Revolutionary War Veteran!
Amateur carving of natural gravestone rock
Dad enjoyed each church we visited and he was also quite impressed by the early gravestones found. Churches were critical to the life of the community. We visited three in all, the later was a break away from the Primitive Baptist, which did not believe in mission work, thus the Missionary Baptist Church.
Gatlinburg Tennessee was a nice, active, tourist-oriented town full of shops, restaurants and motels. The authentic art produced by regional artists are concentrated about three miles outside of town, due to the pricey costs of downtown, and it was a real treat to find shops full of locally made items; this being a rarity in this day and age of Made in China. Even the local deer are homegrown!
We did experience some wildlife on our tour. Deer were abundant and we found the bird feeding on red berries, the color of its head.
After spending a few days in the Smokey Mountains my dad, Floyd, my wife, Louise, and I headed east toward Cape Hatteras and Rondanthe on the outer banks of Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island. Our first stop was Ashville and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
One last picture of the house built by John Oliver around 1820. I love this place imagining how it would have been to live there.
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