Mountain Farm Museum Springhouse

This springhouse was moved from the farm of Jim Caldwell in Cataloochee, North Carolina. Besides food, drinking water was one of the most important aspects of living on a mountain farm. When a family was searching for the right place to make their farm, a reliable spring was on the top of the list of requirements. Without one, there was no reason to build a farm in that area. Besides offering necessary drinking water, a springhouse was important to ensure that perishable food did not spoil. When water flowed from the spring up through the springhouse it moved along a stone-lined or wooden channel. Farmers placed containers of perishable foods inside of these channels so that the cold spring water ran over them, effectively refrigerating them. Besides perishable food, other foods were kept in the springhouse so that they remained cool, especially in the summer months. Besides being a makeshift refrigerator, storing food inside the building ensured that animals, both wild and domestic, did not eat the food that was essential to the survival of the family.

Tom Robbins, Mountain Farm Museum (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association), 11.