Tyson McCarter Place

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Tyson McCarter Place

McCarter-place-tn1.jpg

McCarter smokehouse (left), corn crib (right), and barn (rising beyond)
Location 10 miles east of Gatlinburg on State Route 73 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Coordinates 35°45′37.204″N83°18′8.481″W / 35.76033444°N 83.30235583°W / 35.76033444; -83.30235583 Coordinates: 35°45′37.204″N83°18′8.481″W / 35.76033444°N 83.30235583°W / 35.76033444; -83.30235583
Area Less than 1 acre (0.40 ha) [1]
Built circa 1876 [2]
NRHP reference # 76000204
Added to NRHP March 16, 1976 [1]

The Tyson McCarter Place was a homestead located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Before the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1930s, the homestead belonged to mountain farmer Jacob Tyson McCarter (1878–1950), a descendant of some of the area's earliest European settlers. While McCarter's house is no longer standing, several outbuildings— including a barn, springhouse, corn crib, and smokehouse — have survived, and have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. [1]

Great Smoky Mountains American mountain range along North Carolina/Tennessee border

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and, with over 11 million visits per year, it is the most visited national park in the United States.

Sevier County, Tennessee County in the United States

Sevier County ( "severe") is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 89,889. Its county seat and largest city is Sevierville.

Tennessee State of the United States of America

Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017.

Contents

The Tyson McCarter Place— like the Noah Ogle Place a few miles to the west— was once characteristic of the hundreds of small farms that once dotted the isolated coves and valleys of the northern Smokies. McCarter's house and outbuildings were arranged in an unusual circular formation around an open barnyard, probably to allow the livestock maximum protection from wild animals. Another unique feature of the McCarter outbuildings is the adjoined barn and corn crib (these are usually two separate structures). [1] Two chimney falls and the remnants of a foundation mark where McCarter's house once stood, and several well-built rock walls criss-cross the homestead. [2]

Noah Ogle Place

The Noah "Bud" Ogle Place was a homestead located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The homestead presently consists of a cabin, barn, and tub mill built by mountain farmer Noah "Bud" Ogle (1863–1913) in the late 19th century. In 1977, the homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places and is currently maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Location

The Tyson McCarter Place is situated along Webb Creek, which flows northward from its source high up on the slopes of Greenbrier Pinnacle and empties into the Middle Fork of the Little Pigeon River at Pittman Center. The 15.8-mile (25.4 km) Old Settlers Trail crosses the Tyson McCarter Place 3.2 miles (5.1 km) west of the trail's junction with the Maddron Bald Trail (near the Sevier-Cocke county line). An unmarked 0.5-mile (0.80 km) gravel maintenance road (usually gated, but open to foot traffic) connects the Tyson McCarter Place to U.S. Route 321, just west of the Rocky Grove community. With the exception of a small clearing containing the barn, corn crib, and smokehouse, and a small clearing containing the house ruins and springhouse, the area is covered in a dense hardwood forest.

Little Pigeon River (Tennessee) river in Sevier County, Tennessee

The Little Pigeon River is a river located entirely within Sevier County, Tennessee. It rises from a series of streams which flow together on the dividing ridge between the states of Tennessee and North Carolina inside the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The river is subdivided with three separate tributaries: East, Middle, and West.

Pittman Center, Tennessee Town in Tennessee, United States

Pittman Center is a town in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 477 at the 2000 census and 502 at the 2010 census, showing an increase of 25.

Maddron Bald Trail

The Maddron Bald Trail is an American hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Cocke County, Tennessee. Rising from the outskirts of the Cosby community, the trail ascends Maddron Bald, a 5,212-foot (1,589 m) mountain crowned by one of the park's most substantial heath balds. The trail also provides access to Albright Grove, a patch of old growth hardwood forest that contains some of the oldest and tallest trees in the Smokies. The Maddron Bald Trail's terminus— at its junction with the Snake Den Ridge Trail— is just 0.7 miles (1.1 km) from the Appalachian Trail.

Historical structures

Smokehouse Smokehouse-tyson-mccarter-tn1.jpg
Smokehouse

The barn and outbuildings at the Tyson McCarter Place were probably built around 1876 (they were definitely built before 1900) [1] [2] The farm was one of a dozen or so farms that once comprised the Webb Creek community. McCarter's daughter Olive "Ollie" McCarter (1904–1998) recalled that she, her father, and her sisters built the farm's rock walls, some of which are still standing and run parallel to the Old Settlers Trail for a short distance (rock walls such as these were common in the northern Smokies, where they served the same purpose as barbed-wire fences). [3] The McCarters raised hogs, and used the large barn stalls to house mules. The farm's main crops were corn, rye, wheat, and tobacco. Their farm also included a peach orchard and an apple orchard. [2]

Springhouse Mccarter-springhouse.jpg
Springhouse

The barn is a one-story double-pen rectangular log "drive-through" barn with an attached lean-to corn crib. The side walls of the barn are built of saddle-notched unhewn logs, whereas the front and back walls are built with hewn logs. The barn's gabled roof was originally built with hand-split shingles, and the foundation was originally built of loose stones and logs. The two pens are each 11 feet (3.4 m) by 16 feet (4.9 m), and are separated by an 8-foot (2.4 m) drive-through (wagons were usually parked in the drive-through). [1] The corn crib is built of unhewn saddle-notched logs, and originally included a handmade door secured by a wooden latch. [1]

The smokehouse, used for curing meat, is a one-story structure built of hewn, dove-tail notched logs, measuring 11 feet (3.4 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m). Like the barn, the smokehouse has a gabled roof originally covered with handmade wooden shingles and a foundation of loose stones and logs. The door and storage shelves are missing. [1] The springhouse, used for refrigeration, is a rectangular structure built of hewn chamfer notched logs, measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) by 12 feet (3.7 m). The earthen floor contains a stone trough through which a spring flowed, which kept perishables cool. [1] Two chimney falls, each approximately 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and 30 feet (9.1 m) apart, indicate the former location of the McCarters' house. [2]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Paul Gordon, National Registration of Historic Places Nomination Form for Tyson McCarter Place, 30 May 1973. Retrieved: 2009-09-15.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Michal Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association, 2003), pp. 274-276.
  3. ↑ Carson Brewer, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Portland, Ore.: Graphic Arts Center Publishing, 1993), p. 21.
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