About Smokehouse (Mountain Farm Museum)
Behind nearly every mountain farmhouse stood a small, dark building with a fire pit. The smokehouse turned a hog killed in November into ham, bacon and sausage that would last until the next fall.
How it worked
After the meat was salted, it hung from rafters in the smokehouse over a low, smoldering fire. Hickory and oak were favored; pine would taste of resin. The fire burned slowly for days, and the smoke dried the surface and kept insects away. The meat was then stored in the same building, or in a meat house. The tight walls and small door held in the smoke and kept the interior dark.
At the museum
The Smokehouse is one of the outbuildings at the Mountain Farm Museum, grouped near the Davis House as it would have stood behind a real farmhouse. Notice how close it sits to the kitchen door. The museum's booklet and numbered posts explain the building's origin.
Visiting
- Where: the Mountain Farm Museum beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, 1194 Newfound Gap Road, Cherokee.
- Access: viewed from outside; the grounds are free and open in daylight.
- Time to allow: 45 minutes for the farm.
- Parking: the visitor center lot; a parking tag is required for stops over 15 minutes.
- Nearby: elk graze the adjacent meadow at dawn and dusk. Mingus Mill is closed until further notice.
Context
Compare the smokehouse with the meat house and the springhouse. Together they show how a farm managed meat and dairy without refrigeration. The Tipton Place and the Elijah Oliver Place in Cades Cove each have a smokehouse of their own. See the NPS Oconaluftee page for current information.
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.
