About Enloe Barn (Mountain Farm Museum)
A barn was the biggest building on most mountain farms, and the one at the Mountain Farm Museum is the largest structure in the collection. It sits at the edge of the farm's fields, with the Davis House and the outbuildings gathered closer in.
What a barn did
Mountain barns did several jobs. The lower level held mules, cows and horses; the loft held hay and fodder for winter; the space between could house wagons and tools. Some barns in the Smokies had cantilevered lofts, where the upper floor extended over the lower pens; this shelters animals and keeps hay dry without a separate shed. Farm families built them of logs hewn on the farm and roofs of split boards.
The setting
The Oconaluftee valley had some of the best bottomland in the Smokies, and the Enloe family was one of the large landholders of the valley in the 1800s. The museum collects buildings from across the park, and this barn stands for the larger farms of the valley floor rather than the small mountain homesteads. Use the numbered posts and the booklet from the visitor center to see where each building came from.
Visiting
- Where: the Mountain Farm Museum beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, 1194 Newfound Gap Road, Cherokee.
- Access: the barn is viewed from outside; the grounds are free and open in daylight.
- Time to allow: 45 to 60 minutes for the farm.
- Parking: the visitor center lot; a parking tag is required for stops over 15 minutes.
- Elk: the herd often grazes in the meadow beside the museum at dawn and dusk. Stay 50 yards back.
Context
Compare this barn with the cantilever barns of Cades Cove at Cable Mill and the Tipton Place. Mingus Mill, about a half mile to a mile north on US-441, is closed until further notice. See the NPS Oconaluftee page for the current picture.
Good to know
- Do I need a parking tag?
- A Park It Forward parking tag ($5 a day, $15 a week or $40 a year) is required for any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Entry is free, and federal passes such as America the Beautiful do not replace the tag.
