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Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center Brings History To Life
PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS HERITAGE CENTER
The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center preserves the history of the region by bringing it to life.
More than a museum, the center’s mission is to “preserve, interpret and share the history and culture” of the people who have inhabited the Southern Appalachians. “There’s a lot more than meets the eye at the Heritage Center. We have really an immersive experience,” Executive Director Brent Lambert explained. This summer the center is adding even more, with some planned before the COVID-19 pandemic and some emerging in response to health guidelines. In early May the center reopened its Historic Village, home to 13 buildings that visitors can walk through and see furnished as they would have been at the time they were in use, from rope beds in cabins to the equipment in the wheelwright’s shop. Many of the buildings were taken down and reconstructed on the site. Before even entering the Heritage Center, visitors can stop at the Isaac Anderson cabin beside the road. The oldest building on the site, constructed in 1802, it features panels that tell the story of the man who founded what would become Maryville College more than 200 years ago. The center is adding a map at the cabin to show visitors how much more there is to experience. “They’ll be able to see there’s an entire village just up this hill,” Lambert said. On June 20, the Heritage Center reopened its galleries, which house several permanent exhibits. The National Parks Gallery features not only the history and artifacts of the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park but four others in the region: Big South Fork, Obed Wild & Scenic River, Cumberland Gap and Andrew Johnson. The Native American Life exhibit includes stone tools, pottery and other artifacts unearthed in one of the largest archaeological dig projects in Tennessee history. East Tennessee Mountain Culture is, of course, a permanent exhibit, along with a Transportation Station, which includes a Ford Model T and horse-drawn transport, from a surrey to a reproduction of a Civil War cannon, just donated to the center. At press time the center was working on plans for another permanent exhibit, which Lambert could not reveal but said would be “a tremendous opportunity.” The Heritage Center works with the national park staff to feature temporary exhibits too. Although work was delayed because of the pandemic, Lambert was hopeful that by mid-summer a quilt exhibit featuring the Walker Sisters will be ready for visitors.
From page 16
Raised in Little Greenbrier Cove, the sisters were skilled at making textiles from materials on their homestead, where they remained after the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was dedicated until the last sister died in the 1960s.
Hands-on and virtual
Typically when school tours have visited the Heritage Center children have been able to experience life of an earlier era with activities from churning butter to practicing with Native American style blow darts. School shutdowns this spring, unfortunately, canceled those visits for thousands of students. However the center has found a way to offer a popular summer activity for parents or grandparents to do with children, providing four weeks of Virtual Family Fun that started June 22. People will be able to purchase material kits from the Heritage Center and receive virtual instructions for making items such as cornhusk dolls and Native American pottery. With a $5,000 grant for more virtual programming through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, the Heritage Center also is creating and posting online up to half a dozen videos. The first, on nonnative invasive plants in the region, went on its Facebook page June 12.
Summer concerts
The Heritage Center plans to resume its Summer Sunset Concert series in July, with a smaller in-person audience but reaching more people online. To follow social distancing guidelines the Heritage Center plans to issue only about 150 tickets for it outdoor, covered amphitheater, which usually seats about 500. The concerts are free for Heritage Center members, and this year more people will be able to listen for free. “We intend to stream those concerts on our Facebook page,” Lambert said. In early June the Heritage Center already was planning fall events. Wilder Chapel Church, built in 1910, is in the foreground of this view of the Historic Village at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center. The chapel, which was moved to the center, is one of the facilities at the
center than can be rented for events. “At this point we definitely intend to have the country fair,” Lambert said, explaining that in addition to any challenge presented with health guidelines for the late September event organizers also will be working without longtime leader Judy Krueger, who died this spring. “We’re having to soldier on without her, and that’s a huge loss,” he said. The Tennessee Pottery Festival is scheduled for October.
Walk through history
In late summer the Heritage Center plans to being something It has never done before, evening walking tours through the Historic Village. Near Halloween those will become ghost walks, and as Christmas approaches they will focus on holiday traditions in the Southern Appalachians. While the center has hosted some re-enactors in the past, Lambert said, “We’re moving in the direction of creating a real living history experience.” The goal is to give visitors a feeling of walking into a different time so they can experience how people living in the region at different times would live and interact.
The 500-seat amphitheater at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center will be limited to about 150 guests while social distancing restrictions are in place because of COVID-19. However, the center plans to also show summer concerts online.
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