Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

NPTC Southeast Convention Road Trip➤

My friend Patty and I travelled to Asheville, North Carolina for the 2023 National Park Travelers Club Convention. The convention rotates to a different region each year. For 2023, it was in the Southeast region. On the way down, during the convention and on the way home we visited nine National Park Service units and some other parks. On the third day of our road trip we took the club’s Great Smoky Mountains Bus Tour. The tour stopped at the Oconaluftee Center and Mountain Farm Museum.

Mountain Farm Museum➤

Adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center lies the Mountain Farm Museum, a recreation of pioneer Appalachia through a collection of log buildings sourced from various locales within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The museum thrives with gardens blooming during the spring and summer, while chickens freely roam the area. The park service maintains the buildings to uphold historical standards.

The Mountain Farm Museum features a diverse array of structures, mostly devoted to preserving food. These include the 1900 John Davis Cabin crafted with chestnut logs, the Enloe Barn dating back to around 1880, with its hand-split shingle roof, and the partially underground Messer Apple House, offering insight into early insulation techniques.

There are also a range of functional buildings such as a meat house for smoking pork, a blacksmith shop relocated from Cades Cove, and a springhouse utilized for refrigeration, alongside other relics like corn cribs, a sorghum press, and native fencing, all reflecting the agricultural heritage of the region.

We walked the path around the buildings, taking the self-guided tour. There was a ranger in the Davis house providing insight into the family who had lived there.

Southeast ConventionNational Monument ➤

• Booker T Washington National Monument
• Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
• Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site
• Museum of the Cherokee Indian
• Great Smoky: Oconaluftee River Trail
• Great Smoky: Mountain Farm Museum
• Blue Ridge Parkway: Waterrock Knob
• Kings Mountain National Military Park
• Cowpens National Battlefield
• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
• Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
• Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park
• Antietam National Battlefield

---

Location: 1194 Newfound Gap Rd, Cherokee, North Carolina
Designation: National Park
Date designated/established: June 15, 1934
Date of my visit: August 3, 2023