Hickory Ridge engineer

returns to lend a hand
By Scott Nicholson

Hickory Ridge Homestead has been promoting “living history” over the years, but now it is getting new life at the hands of one of its founders.

The homestead, which is located on the Horn in the West grounds in Boone, is a series of cabins set up to replicate the mountain experience of the mid- to late-1700s through 1800s. The structures are a combination of actual settler cabins from the region and close recreations of historic structures.

Dave Davis, who helped start the living history museum in 1976, has returned to help renew the educational opportunities for the property, which is owned by the town of Boone and operated by the non-profit Southern Appalachian Historical Association.

More than 30 years ago, Davis was hired as a gunsmith and pyrotechnic engineer for Horn in the West, and his first season on the job, he fixed up the two cabins that had been moved to the site. He was a member of the American Mountain Men, a group dedicated to preserving the history of the “longhunters” who were the early European explorers of remote areas.

“I’ve always been a history nut,” he said. “The Tatum Cabin and the weaving house had been moved here, and I found an old loom in the loft of the Tatum cabin and I set it up. We had two people back then. The Coffey house was used as a greeting cabin.”

The Tatum Cabin dates back to about 1760, and the one-room cabin once housed 13 children. Davis has fixed it up so that the cabin now has period artifacts, with the table set much the way it would have been when it was a frontier home. The cabin was moved from the Todd community and Davis says the exhibit has a number of educational benefits.

“It was doing pretty good,” Davis said. “If we can get the support of the community, we can get it rolling again and do actual cooking and show what our forefathers went through and how tough they really had it.”

In addition to the work of Davis and volunteers, several Eagle Scouts are helping get the place ready for summer exhibits. Solomon Stone and Karl Wheeler provided 14 benches at the Hickory Ridge Homestead.

The seating helps people take in the scenic nature of the area, said Southern Appalachian Historical Association director Virginia Roseman.

New benches also replaced rotten logs that had served as seating for the programs, which should make presentations more inviting, Roseman said.

“Now you walk up there and feel like you’re in a real history museum,” Roseman said. “It gives the students a place to sit when we’re putting on programs.”

Scout Gerald Goff will be coming soon to make a new walk-way between the picnic tables up on the hill across from the cabins. Arvil Sales is scoutmaster overseeing the projects.

Watauga High School’s Mountain Alliance recently cleaned up the Horn amphitheater and set the chairs out. “That alone saved us two days of tech work,” Roseman said.

The homestead also features a smokehouse and a blacksmith shop, and Davis said the grounds accurately reflect how people used to work with native materials and their surroundings.

“We want to get back to the periods of the 1760s and 1770s and show their way of life,” Davis said. “A lot of people look at these as crafts, but it used to be part of everyday life.”

The living history museum will have some Horn in the West actors on hand, as well as volunteers in replica costumes, and Davis said more volunteers are always needed. “Anybody’s welcome to come learn because that’s why this is here,” he said.

Davis said donations would help provide more educational opportunities, including allowing school groups to visit the grounds and learn about the region’s history.

Money, materials and supplies would help the museum show how people worked wood, tin, wax, cornhusks, dyes, fiber and other goods to make objects for survival as well as recreation.

“We are in serious need of suppliers or donations to the Hickory Ridge Homestead,” Roseman said. For more information, call (828) 264-2120.

The programs will be held nightly from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. while the Horn in the West is in season. The performances begin on June 19.