The Mountain Farm Museum is a collection of farm buildings assembled from locations throughout the Great Smoky Mountains Park. Visitors can explore a log farmhouse, barn, apple house, springhouse, and a working blacksmith shop to get a sense of how families may have lived one hundred years ago. Most of the structures were built in the late 19th century and were moved here in the 1950s. The Davis House offers a rare chance to view a log house built from chestnut wood before the chestnut blight decimated the American Chestnut in our forests during the 1930s and early 1940s. The museum is adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
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An small assortment of wildlife and plants that we found in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Gatlinburg.
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), Nantahala Gorge, Great Smoky Mts RR 4/24/2024Rooster (Gallus g. domesticus), Mountain Farm Museum 4/24/2024Elk (Cervus canadensis), Oconaluftee Visiters Center, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Elk (Cervus canadensis), Oconaluftee Visiters Center, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Elk (Cervus canadensis), Oconaluftee Visiters Center, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Elk (Cervus canadensis), Oconaluftee Visiters Center, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Find the Elk (Cervus canadensis), Oconaluftee Visiters Center, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Foxglove-tree (Paulownia tomentosa), Great Smoky Mts RR 4/24/2024Crossvine (Bignonia capreolata), Gatlinburg, TN 4/25/2024Magnolia Green Jumper (Lyssomanes viridis), Gatlinburg, TN 4/25/2024Rosy Maple Moth (Dryocampa rubicunda), Bent Creek Resort, Gatlinburg VA 4/26.2024Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus), Gatlinburg, TN 4/25/2024American Black Bear (Ursus americanus americanus), Roaring Forks, Gatlinburg TN 4/23/2024
Views from a couple of lookouts along Newfoundland Gap Road plus one waterfall photograph. Time of day and how much foreground changes the look of the image. Changing the skies would change the feeling a lot too.
Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024Newfound Gap Road, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024West Prong Pigeon R, Great Smoky Mts 4/24/2024
For a change of scenery we explored the area for covered bridges. We saw two of the 6 in this list: List of covered bridges in Tennessee – Wikipedia. The countryside is very lovely in Sevier County. Included are two old houses at the end.
We stayed for a week at Bent Creek Golf Resort, a Hilton Vacation Club in Gatlinburg, Tennessee while we explored the Great Smoky Mountains nearby. I loved the rooms which included all the amenities for a long stay. It was clean and quiet. I didn’t like the golf course because I could not walk around it or enjoy nature there. We could only look at it from a distance. One morning we were granted a brief look at the grounds before the golfers got there. Golf courses are such a waste of land and provide little for wildlife.
Half a mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center is Mingus Mill. Built in 1886, this historic gristmill uses a water-powered turbine instead of a water wheel to power all of the machinery in the building. Water flows down a millrace to the mill. There is a working cast iron turbine. When it is open a miller demonstrates the process of grinding corn into cornmeal. Mingus Mill is temporarily closed for preservation and rehabilitation work.
Marc at Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Marc at Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024Mingus Mill, Bryson City, Great Smokey Mts, NC 4/22/2024
The mountain was dubbed “Smoky Dome” by American settlers moving in from other areas. In 1859, the mountain was renamed by Arnold Guyot who named the mountain for Clingman because of an argument between Clingman and a professor at the University of North Carolina, Elisha Mitchell, over which mountain was actually the highest in the region. Mitchell contended that a peak by the name of Black Dome (now known as Mount Mitchell) was the highest, while Clingman asserted that Smoky Dome was the true highest peak. Guyot determined that Black Dome was 39 feet (12 m) higher than Smoky Dome.
In 2022, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, drafted legislation for the Tribe to support changing the name of Clingman’s Dome to Kuwahi (‘mulberry place’)—the original name given to the area by Cherokees.
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