Cantilever Barn
A feature of the Cable Mill display at Cades Cove is the preserved cantilever barn, a design in which the upper story was larger than its base. The design is a 19th century farm structure that is generally found in the Sevier County area. Since the structure was not popular in other areas as well, there’s very little information about them. These barns featured and overhang for an upper loft. The lofts were used for storage of...
Smokehouse
Pork was the principal meat of the time, so smokehouses were common in Cades Cove, and other areas throughout the Smokies. Smokehouses were the way for the early settlers would cook the meat for meals. Using the Smokehouse in Cades Cove It was customary in the Smokies to fatten the hogs on abundant chestnuts found in huge chestnut groves once common in Cades Cove. The farmers actually took their hogs to a chestnut grove and left them...
Corn Crib
About the Cades Cove Corn Cribs In the early days of Cades Cove, when settlers were making a life in the Cove, corn was an important crop. Both settlers and animals required corn to survive, and the corn crib was the building that protected the crop. Aside from grain for livestock, the corn was ground into cornmeal and used for making cornbread, grits or simply left whole to make hominy as well as other traditional uses. Cades Cove...
Primitive Baptist Church
In Cades Cove and the surrounding Smokies area, it took faith to settle the American frontier so religion was a big part of life for the settlers. Up until the founding of the Baptist Church, the Cades Cove members had to travel through the Smoky Mountains to attended Sunday meeting in Millers and Wears Coves. They also went to campground revivals in Tuckaleechee Cove, present day Townsend. The Cades Cove Baptist church was...
Dan Lawson Place
Around 1856, Dan Lawson built a cabin home on the property that originally belonged to his father-in-law, Peter Cable. Unusual for the Smokies in the 1850s, this cabin has a brick chimney. As were most bricks in Cades Cove, they were handmade on the property. Due to the beautiful woodwork and architecture of the cabin, it’s believed that Peter Cable helped Dan Lawson build the cabin (Peter Cable was a carpenter at the time). A...