Mountain Farm Building

Layers of Building Materials, Old Farm Building, Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
North Carolina  © Doug Hickok


Dating from the end of the 19th century, an old farm building at the Mountain Farm Museum in the Great Smoky Mountains displays a variety of building materials and their textures. Mountain folk used whatever natural resources they could to construct their farmsteads... stone, river mud, timber and bark, mixed in with a generous dose of blood, sweat and tears. For a hundred years pioneers used their skills and perseverance to eke out a rough living amid the harsh mountain wilderness of the Appalachians until the modern world gradually crept in and changed their lives forever.