Mountain Farm Museum Corn Crib and Gear Shed
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Original Corn Crib and Gear Shed on Jim Beard's farm
Re-location of corn crib and gear shed
Side view of original corn crib on Joe Queen's farm
Detail of the open panel where corn was placed on Joe Queen's farm
Corn crib on Joe Queen's Farm
Present-Day Corn Crib and Gear Shed
Present-Day Corn Crib
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
These two buildings served very important functions on a farmstead. The first building was a corn crib that was moved from the Davis-Queen farm. The second building was a corn crib and gear shed that was moved from the farm of Jim Beard on Indian Creek, north of Bryson City, North Carolina. Corn was an extremely useful crop on a farm and most mountain farmers grew it. Corn was used to feed both the families and the livestock. Corn was either eaten fresh or turned into cornmeal and cooked into dishes such as cornbread and much. Dried corn was crushed up and turned into feed for the livestock on the farm. Corn that was not used fresh, was dried on the stalk and then stored in a corn crib. By placing the corn in the crib, it protected it from the different weather elements and also the threat of animals getting into the supply. The first building originally had a portion of the roof that was hinged, this made it easier to load the corn into the crib. It also had a smaller front door which enabled the corn to be removed from the crib when need be.
The second building had even more function than just a regular corn crib, by combining a crib and an area to store tools and other useful gears for the farm, a farmer was able to streamline the buildings that were needed on his farm. The overhead portion of the shed was used by driving a wagon up underneath it with a load of dried corn. Then the dried corn was thrown over the log wall into the crib section of the building
Sources
Tom Robbins, Mountain Farm Museum (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association), 9-10.
Oconaluftee Farmstead, Open Parks Network . http://purl.clemson.edu/B41C4D408F58148E760CD20B314EB6AE.
Oconaluftee Farmstead, Open Parks Network. http://purl.clemson.edu/3FEBE8E5EF86E1CCC2D7B08A8F9D7C5F
Oconaluftee Farmstead, Open Parks Network. http://purl.clemson.edu/1A139DB3F562CFD9D45F5648ABB943D9
Oconaluftee Farmstead, Open Parks Network. http://purl.clemson.edu/23F526245C09B5CB6F51A2C317951A1A
Oconaluftee Farmstead, Open Parks Network. http://purl.clemson.edu/F758C5B48D08F70537A7F26960095350
Sydney Johnson Photography
Sydney Johnson Photography