The Richness of Tennessee Mountain Culture at the Museum of Appalachia

As luck would have it, the Museum of Appalachia was just a mile's walk from our campground here in Clinton, Tennessee.  We checked it out online and it received great reviews so today, after our longer hike yesterday, and because of the wet forecast, we strolled over to immerse ourselves in the Mountain culture of Tennessee.

As we entered the main museum building, we were greeted by this memorial to the friends and acquaintances of the founder of the museum, John Rice Irwin, who, sadly and coincidentally, just passed away at age 91:

The museum is a living history museum that interprets the history and culture of the Southern Appalachian region of the United States. Recently named an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum is a collection of more than 30 historic buildings rescued from neglect and decay and gathered onto expansive grounds. The museum preserves and displays thousands of authentic relics, maintains one of the nation's largest folk art collections, and hosts performances of traditional Appalachian music and annual demonstrations by hundreds of regional craftsmen.  In building the museum starting in the 1960s, Mr. Irwin, an East Tennessee educator and businessman, followed the basic philosophy of preserving not only structures and artifacts relevant to the region's history, but also preserving each item's individual history— who owned it, when and how it was created or obtained, and how it was used. These oral histories and recollections are housed, along with thousands of photographs, in the museum's archives.

The exhibits in the main museum building ranged from the sublime to the quirky.  

Perhaps included in the latter category was Old Uncle Billy Billbry's Corn Crib, which, the placard told Kathy, Old Uncle Billy and his family were so poor that they didn't even have a corn crib, so he stored corn for his family in this old barrel.  Rat holes in the barrel attest to the obvious challenges he faced in the process:

One large exhibit was devoted to the contributions to the region by Native Americans.  One of the most interesting displays described Sequoyah, a Native American polymath of the Cherokee Nation, who was born in the Cherokee town of Tuskegee, Tennessee, around 1778 and lived beyond age 70.  In 1821, he completed his independent creation of the Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. His achievement was one of the few times in recorded history that a member of a pre-literate people created an original, effective writing system. His creation of the syllabary allowed the Cherokee nation to be one of the first North American Indigenous groups to have a written language.  Sequoyah was also an important representative for the Cherokee nation, going to Washington, D.C. to sign two relocation and trading of land treaties.  According to the placard in the museum, Sequoia trees in California were named after him.  A statue of him, given by the State of Oklahoma in 1917, resides in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

An entire room of the Museum is devoted to musical instruments common to Appalachia, including banjos, of which a wide variety have been collected by the Museum --

-- including perhaps the quirkiest one, a Ham Can Banjo:

The exhibit explores the lives and music of several great Bluegrass and Mountain Music artists from Tennessee, including Grandpa Jones, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, who was one of our country's strongest proponents of old-time music:

Another exhibit features Bill Monroe, known as the father of Bluegrass Music --

-- and yet a third exhibit focuses on the Carter Family, of Country music fame:

The Museum houses a wide range of unusual mountain music instruments, including an entire wall of dulcimers:

Whittling and wood carving has been a common and well-loved art in Appalachia, and the Museum examines several noted carvers and whittlers, including John Morton, who carved this "Three-Chains-In-One" from a single wooden stick:

What has to win First Prize as the most unusual exhibit in the Museum is Asa Jackson's Fabulous Perpetual Motion Machine!  Apparently in response to a reputed offer by the Federal Government to award $1,000,000 to anyone who could invent a perpetual motion machine, Asa Jackson became obsessed with designing and assembling one.  During the Civil War, people were reputedly so focused on finding and appropriating the machine that Jackson took it apart and hid the pieces in a cave.  Eventually, Jackson was able to get the machine to operate, and it is said that, once started, it could operate continuously with no input of power for over a month.

Another interesting exhibit is on Tennessee's former Senator Howard Baker.  Prior to serving in the Senate, he had been Chief of Staff to President Ronald Reagan.  The display quotes Senator Baker's recollection that, "...it occurred to me that I hadn't seen any good aerial photos of the White House.  I told one of my staff members to get me a plane and take me up over the White House [Baker was an avid photographer].  [The staff member] said, "Nobody can fly over, or even near, the White House.'  I said, 'Well, find out who has the authority to authorize this.  Somebody has to have the authority.'  In a couple of hours, he came back and said, 'There's only one person who can authorize aerial flights over the White House.'  I asked, 'Who is that?' and he said, 'Only the Chief-of-Staff can grant you that authority.'  I said, 'Well, I hereby grant myself that authority.  Go get the plane."

So you see how much we enjoyed the Museum.  We could have spent twice as much time inside, but we still had 38 more historic buildings to tour outside.  They were left in the condition in which they were found (perhaps repaired), but not glamorized, and each contained actual historic furnishings, equipment, etc. that they would have contained when they were in use.  The contents of the buildings themselves are valuable antiques.

We won't bore you with photos or descriptions of all of them.  Suffice it to say that every one was impressive.   One interesting one was  Tom Cassidy's cabin.  Cassidy (1920-1989) was a musician from Tennessee who spent the last few decades of his life living alone in this one-room shack:

If he stretched his arms out, Tom could almost touch the opposing walls of his 8x8 foot home.  Such tight quarters would likely feel confining for most, but for this independent bachelor, it was more than enough.  Tom once said, "I've got that little cot in there, a chair, a stove for heat and cooking, a frying pan, a bean pot, an old dresser, my fiddle, and my pistol.  What more does a man need?"

One structure was the first we had ever seen or heard of its type -- a Bark Gringing Stone.  It was used to pulverize slabs of peeled tree bark to produce tannic acid for tanning hides for leather:

Kathy's favorite structure was most likely this whisky still, typical of those found throughout Appalachia.  This one was built by the famous "Popcorn" Sutton, a free-spirited, longtime moonshiner, one of the most colorful characters in the region, who, sadly, was convicted of illegal moonshining in 2009 and committed suicide rather than go to jail.

While not advertised heavily, the Museum also boasts a number of friendly animals, including four cats (two of whom we met), two burros, some goats, and several gorgeous peacocks, who were deeply involved in their Spring courting rituals:

Kathy found that she could purchase chow for the birds and goats, so she sprang for it and fed the peacocks.  As we left the Museum grounds, we hailed the goats, and several came over for tasty afternoon treat:

The Museum of Appalachia was incredibly well curated, well organized, and stood out for the numerous explanatory placards.  If you want to immerse yourself in the Mountain Culture, stop by and plan to spend the better part of a day.