Near Humpback Rocks, in rural Virginia, an exhibit known as the William J. Carter farmstead is open to visitors who are curious about what mountain life was like in the late 1800s. The land was purchased by Carter in the late 1800s for $3 an acre, paid for in Confederate money. In the 1950s parkway planners moved period buildings from other areas and arranged them on the property to show what a typical 19th century mountain farm might have looked like.
The self-guided trail at the Carter farm meanders past a cabin, weasel-roof chicken coop, root cellar, a barn with a bear-proof hog pen, spring house, a lye hopper, and a household vegetable garden enclosed within a rustic wooden fence.
Log cabins such as this were very common in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Trees were felled on the property and would be squared off with a broad axe and foot adz, which left their mark in the…
Read full article originally published on naturalbuildingblog.com