Fall Heritage Days return this Friday
Dr. Carvinstein — also known as Ken Clayton — demonstrates a skill he’s been honing since he was 12 years old during last year’s Fall Heritage Days event at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris. Looking on, from left, are Jessica Bender, Vickie Gibbs and Leanna Keen, 8, visiting from Farragut Intermediate School. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The event will continue the following week, on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 30-31, and conc1ude with a final day on Friday, Nov. 7.
Hours each day will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“The event embraces the spirit of autumn with pumpkin carving, fall crafts, and the aroma of sorghum molasses cooking over an open fire,” museum spokesman Will Meyer said. “Guests can sip sassafras tea and listen to spooky mountain stories that capture the folklore of early Appalachia.
“Interactive activities, including crosscut sawing, quill-pen writing, candle dipping, spelling bees, and classic pioneer games, offer fun, educational ways to connect with the past,” Meyer said.
Other activities will include folklore and colonial history presentations, old-fashioned schoolhouse lessons, Appalachian music, shape-note singing, and animal encounters, he said.
Admission includes a self-guided tour of the museum’s 11-acre pioneer village, featuring more than 30 historic log structures, heirloom gardens, heritage livestock, and thousands of Appalachian artifacts.
The museum is expecting about 6,000 guests to attend the four days of the festival this year.
About 35 special fall-oriented activities have been lined up for visitors.
Guests can watch and take part in hands-on demonstrations that bring pioneer traditions to life—making apple butter, corn shuck and apple head dolls, brooms, baskets, fiber arts, powder horns, rugs, soap, lard, and barrels.
Skilled blacksmiths, coopers, woodworkers, and seamstresses will showcase the craftsmanship that once defined mountain life, while the Smoky Mountain Radio and Archives will share stories about the region’s rich musical heritage.
Products made on the site and available for sale include sorghum molasses, apple butter, and freshly churned butter.
Bluegrass bands and other entertainers showcase Appalachian music and storytelling throughout each day of the festival.
The Museum of Appalachia is a working demonstration farm, which also has a collection of Appalachian farm buildings, artifacts, implements and more than 70 animals.
For the event, museum staff and volunteers will help direct cars into parking lots, and visitors into the barns and animal pen areas where some of the events take place.
Tickets may be purchased online at museumofappalachia.org. Groups may contact bookings@museumofappalachia.org or call 865-494-7680 for tickets.
The Museum of Appalachia, at 2819 Andersonville Highway, comprises more than 65 acres with a re-created Appalachian community complete with 35 log cabins, barns, farm animals, churches, schools and gardens.
It displays more than 250,000 artifacts in three buildings, with vast collections of folk art, musical instruments, baskets, quilts, Native American items and more. There is a restaurant featuring Southern Appalachian country cooking, along with a gift shop selling locally made crafts.
The museum, founded by John Rice Irwin in 1969, is a nonprofit organization that is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
