The Tyson McCarter Place was a homestead located in the

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') 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 ...

of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

. Before the establishment of the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, wh ...

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 A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing str ...

corn crib A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It may also be known as a cornhouse or corn house. Overview After the harvest and while still on the cob, corn is placed in the crib either with or without the husk. T ...

, and

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

— have survived, and have been placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

. The Tyson McCarter Place— like the

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&n ...

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). 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.Michal Strutin, ''History Hikes of the Smokies'' (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association, 2003), pp. 274-276.

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 Old Settlers Trail crosses the Tyson McCarter Place west of the trail's junction with the

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 mountain crowned by one of the park's ...

(near the Sevier-

Cocke Cocke is a surname (pronounced ''cock'', ''cox'' or ''coke'') and may refer to: *Charles Lewis Cocke (1940- ) Professor of Physics at Kansas State University, winner of 2006 Davisson–Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics *Erle Cocke Jr. (19 ...

county line). An unmarked gravel maintenance road (usually gated, but open to foot traffic) connects the Tyson McCarter Place to

U.S. Route 321 U.S. Route 321 (US 321) is a spur of U.S. Route 21. It runs for from Hardeeville, South Carolina to Lenoir City, Tennessee; with both serving as southern termini. It reaches its northernmost point at Elizabethton, Tennessee. Becaus ...

, 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.

Historical structures

The barn and outbuildings at the Tyson McCarter Place were probably built around 1876 (they were definitely built before 1900) 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).Carson Brewer, ''Great Smoky Mountains National Park'' (Portland, Ore.: Graphic Arts Center Publishing, 1993), p. 21. 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. 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 by , and are separated by an drive-through (wagons were usually parked in the drive-through). The corn crib is built of unhewn saddle-notched logs, and originally included a handmade door secured by a wooden latch. The smokehouse, used for curing meat, is a one-story structure built of hewn, dove-tail notched logs, measuring by . 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. The springhouse, used for refrigeration, is a rectangular structure built of hewn chamfer notched logs, measuring by . The earthen floor contains a stone trough through which a spring flowed, which kept perishables cool. Two chimney falls, each approximately tall and apart, indicate the former location of the McCarters' house.

References

External links

Tyson McCarter Place
— Library of Congress — Historic American Buildings Survey
Jacob Tyson McCarter
— entry at Smokykin.com {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarter, Tyson Historic American Buildings Survey in Tennessee Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Houses in Sevier County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Sevier County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Great Smoky Mountains National Park 1876 establishments in Tennessee Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee

Location

Historical structures

See also

References

External links