Posted on 04/30/2010 9:21:03 AM PDT by jay1949
The mountains of western North Carolina are rugged and their settlements were relatively isolated from the rest of the state for many decades. With the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the mountaineers' settlements and their cabins and other buildings were largely destroyed. The vintage monochrome photographs in this article depict the Oconaluftee Mountain Farm Museum buildings and other vintage log cabins of the North Carolina Smokies.
(Excerpt) Read more at backcountrynotes.com ...
Mountain Folk and Log Cabins Ping List
Did that drive last spring....beautiful
Ahh the curse of the enlightened leftists.
After the Park was formed, they could not wait to bulldoze every building there. Prmitive backwoods folks didn’t have anything worth preserving and their flea ridden cabins were blights on the land.
Belatedly they realized that human habitation was an essential part of the Park’s story and they saved some buildings and relocated more, some from outside the park.
I can’t wait to see what they end up doing at Elkmont. They COULD restore those homes and rent them generating jobs and income. But they want to destroy many of them and leave some as curiosities.
Ping
Great article, and pics.
Believe it or not, I live in N.J. in a log hose my wife and I built in 1983. Not as rustic as in the photos, and it was a kit, so no hand-hewn beams, but pretty nice as it is. Very effiecient energy wise also, and easy to take care of. I powerwash the outside every year and every 3 or 4 years spray a preservative and repellant on it.
Interesting.
The Thompson part of my family settled in Halifax North Carolina when they first came here from Ulster Ireland. Captain John Thompson, his brother William Thompson and his son Corporal Richard Thompson all fought in the Revolutionary war. Then after it was over they moved from North Carolina to Lawrence Co. Kentucky.
It’s interesting to see what type of homes they might have lived in. Kind of like getting a tiny little glimpse into their lives.
This looks like the exact spot where the final fight scene of "The Last of the Mohicans" was filmed. That waterfall was where they killed Uncas. This spot on the rocks was where Alice was standing when she saw her sister jump.
I can hear the banjo and guitar now............squeel like a pig!
Appreciate the pictures! I browsed the site and it’s now bookmarked - plan to return frequently!
I also do genealogy and have many old old pictures handed down to me of ancestors sitting or standing in front of similar cabins
Thanks for the link!
As that scene was filmed at Chimney Rock state park just outside of Asheville, NC...it probably is.
I knew they filmed that movie in North Carolina. It is amazing to see a picture from 1903 of that location. The waterfall looks the same—in spite of all the bad things people have done to the planet.
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Thanks potlatch
Lot’s of hardy Scots-Irish settled those mountains long ago
There are many more folks living up in cabins in the clouds in the Smokies now than you could imagine
I'd like to see them restored myself. Last pictures I saw a couple years back they were degrading pretty fast. That is one thing I do like about Tennessee State Parks is many of the parks have affordable to about anyone cabins. Some of us folks who love the mountains just ain't physically capable of the climb to Mt LeConte.
Yup, still there....
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