Cantilever barns

Cantilever barns apparently are found only in the southern highlands, primarily east Tennessee, but also to a lesser extent in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. As can be seen in the photograph, they're built on one or two log ricks or cribs, with the top layer of logs extending some eight to ten feet beyond the log base. The upper level would have been used for hay, with livestock housed in the cribs below. The overhang provided shelter from the weather for farm equipment or for livestock pastured around the barn.

Most cantilever barns were built on two log cribs with a drive or "dog-trot" between them. The drive allowed hay to be unloaded into the loft out of the elements if a rain shower had come up. Over the years, many cantilever barns had the overhangs enclosed for hanging tobacco to cure, as was my grandfather's barn in eastern Kentucky.

The origins of cantilever barns are obscure, although many think they may have derived from German prototypes. Another hypothesis considers them to be a local invention to meet the needs of farming in a humid climate and to make use of local materials in their construction. Whatever their origin, they definitely are southern Appalachian in their distribution. A survey in the 1980s found them to be most common in east Tennessee, with 289 of 316 barns located in just two counties.  I photographed three of them at the Museum of Appalachia, that I wrote about yesterday.

Museum of Appalachia

 

 Beginning in the early 1960s, John Rice Irwin began assembling a collection of architecture and artifacts documenting the pioneer history of the southern highlands. The Museum of Appalachia opened to the public in 1968, offering a glimpse into the lives of southern Appalachian farmers in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Located just a few miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee, the museum sits at a convenient exit on the major north-south highway connecting the Midwest with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Florida.

John Rice Irwin (center) and friends

 A former educator and school superintendent, Irwin became concerned that the history of the region was being lost, with artifacts either destroyed or separated from their historical context through sale as antiques. He began scouring the region for buildings, tools, and other items of daily lives and assembled them on his farm near Norris, Tennessee. The site now contains more than 35 pioneer buildings, livestock displays, and two display buildings that contain more than 1,000 artifacts.

There is a one-room school,

a stable with sheep,

a blacksmith shop,

and an old-fashioned haystack, which we never see on farms anymore.

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There is the cabin once occupied by Samuel Clemen's parents in Fentress County, Tennesse, which I wrote about earlier here,

artifacts such as these millstones,

and cantilever barns, a uniquely Appalachian structure that I'll write more about tomorrow.

In addition to the static displays at the museum, there are special programs that keep alive the traditions of the southern highlands. The annual Independence  Day celebration includes an "anvil shoot," in which black powder is placed into the bottom of a blacksmith's anvil, ignited, and shot high into the air. Several events include mountain music, the largest of which is the annual Fall Homecoming event that draws the biggest names in traditional music, as well as dozens of traditional crafters who demonstrate and sell their crafts. For more information, visit the Museum's web page at the link near the top of this page.