A living history museum: Southern Appalachian Farmstead

Imagine coming around the bend beside the Chattooga River in 1900 in a stagecoach that left Walhalla early that morning. The long bumpy ride that took all day has worn you weary and the sight of a bustling farmstead comes as a relief on your journey up to Highlands, NC.

This will be the beginning of the journey that visitors to the Southern Appalachian Farmstead will experience if all goes as planned. The Oconee Heritage Center (OHC) is in the application process with the National Forest Service to obtain a Special-Use Permit for the historic Russell Farmstead on Highway 28. A decision is expected by fall of 2009 and if accepted, work may begin shortly thereafter.

As a living history museum, the Southern Appalachian Farmstead will offer visitors a chance to experience, not just see, how people lived in this region between the years of 1875 and 1925. The project includes many areas of interpretation including the history of the Russell/Nicholson Farm, the stagecoach road, everyday life in the mountains, the role of the National Forest Service and eventually the Cherokee town of Chatuga as well.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in America, the Russell Farm lost the boarding house to arson many years ago. However, many of the outbuildings that functioned on the self-sufficient farm still remain as a testimony of the culture that once thrived throughout the Southern Appalachian region. Along with the preservation of the existing farm, the application includes the addition of another farmstead further along the old roadbed in the valley. This farm would consist of log and frame structures collected over the years by the OHC which includes cabins, a blacksmith shop, smoke houses, a corn crib and others.

Many of the structures planned on being relocated for this project originated from Oconee County but not all of them. Several years ago, volunteers from the OHC relocated a dogtrot cabin from Elizabethtown, KY. Another cabin, originally from Gum Log, GA, had been moved to Westminster many years ago and was recently dismantled again and placed in storage. Even before the OHC opened in 2004, the collection of buildings and equipment for this project were being collected- choosing the site was one of the last pieces of the puzzle.

For security of the farmstead, it is planned to have an on-site tenant. Another Oconee structure, the old Cleveland schoolhouse, is scheduled to be relocated to the site for this tenant’s residence. Built as a two-room school in 1921, the structure later served as a home for teachers when a new school was built next door. The school fits into the years being interpreted at the farmstead and will become a part of the overall ambiance and experience patrons will get when they stop for a visit.

During the summer of 2009, the National Forest Service and the OHC will be conducting an environmental study of the proposed project. Following this and public input, a decision will be made whether or not to grant the request. If granted, visitors might again come around the bend on Highway 28 to the sights, smells and beautiful view of a working Southern Appalachian Farmstead.