continued II

Some other points of interest: The Visitor Center was the starting point for a walking tour of the Cable Mill Area.
An interesting
piece of farm
equipment.





A sorghum
mill.
"The sorghum cane stalks were cut in the fall and stripped of their leaves, then run through the rollers of the mill powered by a horse or mule pulling a long pole in a circle. The rollers pressed out the cane juice, which was boiled down into molasses in a nearby furnace."
The early Cove dwellers may have tired of cornbread three meals a day. Everyone grew corn as the major crop. So mills to grind it were necessary from the first .The earliest mills were tiny "tub mills" which ground slowly and ground only corn. (see yesterday's blog) Some say they only "cracked" the corn. It was 1831 before the Cove had a more sophisticataed mill, with stones for grinding wheat into flour, so people could eat biscuits--or even cake--on Sundays."











"For most of its history, Cades Cove has been a place to visit. But for more than 100 years it also was a great place to live. Around two million visitors come each year to drive the Loop Road. They enjoy seeing the deer and other wildlife. They like to feel the Cove's pastoral serenity and the protection of the surrounding mountains. And some delight in imagining themselves in the places of those who cut the trees and built the houses and barns, worked a living from the land and created a community." Guide Book
I like to think that we can count ourselves among those who came, saw, felt, and imagined the specialness of this place.
Worth viewing: http://www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html