Mountain Lifeways
A great part of the Great Smokies story is the story of men and women making their homes in these wooded eastern mountains. With few tools and even fewer manufactured fixtures and fasteners, pioneers settled in and became mountaineers.
Industry—hard work, that is—and ingenuity came in handy. Many aspects of these traits are illustrated in this section through historic photographs of men and women going about their business in the Smokies. It was not all hard work, but even the play often exhibited these folk’s ingenuity in turning the things of field and forest into implements of recreation.
For more insight into the lives of Smokies people, see the National Park Service book, Highland Homeland: The People of the Great Smokies, by Wilma Dykeman and Jim Stokely. It is sold in the park visitor centers and by mail (see “Armchair Explorations” on [page 125]).
Fitting barrel to stock
Chiseling a tub mill wheel
Coopering
Interior of a mill
Hauling wood
Beekeeping
Rolling sorghum cane
Repairing a hauling sled
Splitting shingles
Hog butchering
Scrubbing a hide
Shaving barrel staves
Gunsmithing
Basket weaving
Blacksmithing
Mountain laundry
Churning butter
Carding wool
Weaving yarn into cloth
Ginning cotton
Making baskets
Wash day