Cantilever Barn

A feature of the Cable Mill display at Cades Cove is the preserved cantilever barn, a design in which the upper story was larger than its base. The design is a 19th century farm structure that is generally found in the Sevier County area. Since the structure was not popular in other areas as well, […]

Smokehouse

smokehouse

Pork was the principal meat of the time, so smokehouses were common in Cades Cove, and other areas throughout the Smokies. Smokehouses were the way for the early settlers would cook the meat for meals. Using the Smokehouse in Cades Cove It was customary in the Smokies to fatten the hogs on abundant chestnuts found in […]

Corn Crib

About the Cades Cove Corn Cribs In the early days of Cades Cove, when settlers were making a life in the Cove, corn was an important crop. Both settlers and animals required corn to survive, and the corn crib was the building that protected the crop. Aside from grain for livestock, the corn was ground […]

Primitive Baptist Church

primitive baptist church

In Cades Cove and the surrounding Smokies area, it took faith to settle the American frontier so religion was a big part of life for the settlers. Up until the founding of the Baptist Church, the Cades Cove members had to travel through the Smoky Mountains to attended Sunday meeting in Millers and Wears Coves. […]

Dan Lawson Place

Dan Lawson

Around 1856, Dan Lawson built a cabin home on the property that originally belonged to his father-in-law, Peter Cable. Unusual for the Smokies in the 1850s, this cabin has a brick chimney. As were most bricks in Cades Cove, they were handmade on the property. Due to the beautiful woodwork and architecture of the cabin, it’s […]

Carter Shields Cabin

George Washington “Carter” Shields lived in his Cades Cove cabin from 1910 through 1921. A beautiful location in which to retire, Shields was crippled in the Battle of Shiloh. Dogwood trees bloom here in the early spring making this cabin one of the loveliest in the Cades Cove.

Tipton Place

Tipton place

Miss Lucy and Miss Lizzie, were schoolmarms in Cades Cove in the second half of the 1800s. They were daughters of Colonel Hamp Tipton, a veteran of the revolutionary war, who shortly after the Civil War, built this two story home. The Smoky Mountain homestead he built, eventually included a smokehouse, a woodshed, corn crib, […]

Gregg-Cable House

Cable Mill farmhouse

Cades Cove’s Becky Cable died in her Cades Cove home in 1940 at age ninety-four. At the time she and her house were located on Forge Creek Road but after her death the Great Smoky Mountain National Park service decided the Cable Mill area was a better location—for the house that is. Becky Cable was […]

Cable Mill Barn

Not all barns in Cades Cove were of the cantilever design. Most Smoky Mountain barns were of similar design of which we have today with a row of stalls on each side of an isle. In the cantilever design the stalls were in the middle of the structure with a large loft overhang on both […]

Cable Mill Historic Area & Cades Cove Visitor Center

Cable Mill Historic Area One of the most popular stops on the Cades Cove tour is the one at Cable Mill.  Corn meal and molasses are sometimes available. Of course the main attraction of the Cable Mill area is the outdoor displays. The Cable Mill is definitely one of the most historic pieces in Cades […]