Cable Mill Historic Area, Cades Cove, TN --Part II

Today concludes my posts from Cades Cove.   I hope you have enjoyed all of them.   If you didn't see yesterday's post,  click HERE.   You can see on the map on that post where the Cable Mill is.   Today I will share more information and pictures from that area of Cades Cove.  


Above is the Corn Crib.  Corn was the most important crop in the cove.  People ground it into meal for making bread and for some of the them to make moonshine.   They fed it to the mules,  horses,  hogs and chickens.  


Hogs grew fat on chestnuts and acorns in the fall.  But their owners usually brought them in and fed them corn the final two weeks before butchering them.  They said that the corn made the meat less greasy.  


The place to store corn is a corn crib with cracks between the logs to allow air circulation  to dry the corn.  Some farmers shucked corn before storing it in the crib;   others stored it with the shucks on.  Corn shuckings sometimes were social events,  where a fellow finding a red ear got to kiss a girl!!!

This is the Mill Flume.  Starting near where the wooden flume dumps its load of water onto the top of the mill wheel,  you can follow the path beside the flume to the earthen ditch and then continue beside the ditch to the milldam and the millpond behind the dam.  A watergate at the dam is opened to send water down the millrace to the wheel.

This is the John P. Cable Mill, specifically the waterwheel.  John P. Cable bought land in the 1860's.  He built a water-powered grist mill and sawmill in about 1870.  The same wheel provided power for both mills. 


John Cable was a farmer in addition to being a miller.  A son,  James V. Cable, inherited the mill and operated it well into the 20th century.  The park now operates the mill these days as a grist mill --so it is a great learning experience for those who visit this area.  

Cantilever is a new word for me.  This is the other barn on the property.  It is the LeQuire Cantilever Barn.  Large bars were common in the Cove where farmers neede shelter in the cold months for the livestock they grazed in the mountains during the warm season.  The over-hang in cantilever barns such as this one provided shelter for animals, as well as storage space for farm equipment.  Cantilever construction (counterweighted over-hanging beams)  originated centuries ago in Europe.

The old lady takes a little 'rest' along the way.  It was very warm that day --but we had a wonderful time.

Finally,  I just have to show you one more of the different fences found in Cades Cove.  There are many split-rail fences --but they  also had this kind.... Do you like that little bench????   Let's go back --and we can 'sit a spell'....


Hope you enjoyed seeing more of Cades Cove...  We may get back over that way when the leave change colors--but getting through the cove is hard in October due to the traffic.   


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I did today's post using the NEW EDITOR....   I've been experimenting this week --so decided to try it...  I find that it is easier to put all of the words in first and then insert the photos,  one by one --where I want them.  I'm still having trouble trying to keep the words from wrapping around the picture --which I do NOT like.   


I've also got much more blank space between things --which I need to work on.  I think the hard-returns must be double-spaced from what I'm used to.  I also had to change the photo sizes to get them to fit into my template.  And some of my pictures are centered and some are to the left (just to fit).   But--with more effort,  it worked...  


I truly don't see that much improvement from the old editor--but maybe I was just accustomed to the old one...   I would appreciate any tips or thoughts on this --if you use the new editor and like it.  Thanks!


Hope you have a great weekend.  George and I will be working in the yard --since there are OODLES and OODLES of nuts/acorns falling from our trees.  I try to keep them out of the flowerbeds --but right now,  they are winning the battle!!!! ha.....   See you Monday morning!!!


Hugs,

Cable Mill Historic Area, Cades Cove, TN --Part I

This will be my ninth post from our August trip to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains, TN. After this post, there will be one more, and then that will conclude the blog posts talking about this wonderful, historical place. IF you missed any of the other posts from Cades Cove, you can scroll down on my right sidebar to Labels --and then click on Cades Cove 2010.

These last two posts are from one of the most popular stopping places along the 11-mile loop tour in Cades Cove. The picture above shows the loop --and you can see the Cable Mill stop at the bottom left corner. George made this map from Google by using our Geotagger--following our route. Below are more pictures with some information I have put together about the area.

Looking at the Gregg-Cable House in the distance (talked about in a previous post), you can see the Sorghum Mill on the right. Molasses-making was a social event. The sorghum cane stalks were cut in the fall and stripped of their leaves. Then they are run through the rollers of the mill, powered by horses or mules ---pulling the long pole, and going around in a circle.

The rollers pressed out the cane juice, which was boiled in the furnace (center in photo). Other native sweeteners were honey, maple syrup, and maple sugar. Trees whose nectar made great honey were sourwood, basswood, and chestnut.

I showed the house and talked about its history in a previous post (click HERE), but hadn't shown the interesting chimney. Seldom do we see a chimney built from river rocks... Isn't this one neat????

George is standing at one of two barns on this property. This type of barn, with the drive-through in the center and the stalls on each side, was more typical in East Tennessee than the cantilever barn. Two men with pitchforks, one on a wagon load of hay in the drive-through and the other in the loft, could transfer the hay to the loft in a short time.

The hay was fed to draft animals and milk cows in the stalls below during winter months when grass in the fields was poor. The drive-through sometimes served as a storage place for farm equipment.

This was the Blacksmith Shop. Iron was essential in the Cove, and the blacksmith was its master. Every farm community had a blacksmith. With his strong muscles and heavy hammer, the blacksmith shaped white-hot steel into the tools of living: axes, knives, bolts and bits, chains and hooks, the bull tongue plow and the wagon tire.

Iron from the fire is very malleable, capable of being shaped and reshaped from one tool to another. A broken crosscut saw can be remade into butcher knives; a worn-out hatchet can become a hammer, provided there is a blacksmith to perform the magic.

This is the Smokehouse. It was where large sections of hogs were cured by smoking or salting and then stored for use until the next hog-killing time, usually during a cold spell in November or early December.

IF you wanted ham for breakfast, you carried a butcher knife to the smokehouse, took down a ham and cut off as many slices as you needed. Large families sometimes killed nearly a dozen hogs.

The meat from deer or bear was not easily cured and was eaten fresh. People ate lots of chicken for Sunday dinner. A chicken was killed, cleaned, cooked and eaten the same day.

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I hope you are enjoying not only the photos, but especially the information I have provided. When I was young, I didn't care much at all about history. BUT--now that I'm older and much WISER, I can't get enough of history... Doing Family History has helped me --since I can relate my ancestors to so much of what went on here in Cades Cove. Life wasn't easy for the pioneers back then... I'll post Part II tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

Hugs,