Hickory Ridge Cabin Histories
Hickory Ridge Living History Museum is home to seven log structures dating from the 1770s to the 1930s. Each cabin is used to portray a particular part of life from the North Carolina Backcountry in the 18th Century. This section of the exhibit will give each cabin’s history and goes in the order of a typical museum tour.
Click the Cabin Title to See a Video on each Cabin
Frazier Cabin (mid-1800s)
The Frazier cabin was built during the mid-1800s and eventually owned by the Frazier family. It was originally located in Watauga County but was later moved to Lenoir North Carolina. The cabin was donated to SAHA in the 1980s by Wilfong Frazier III, who was working at the museum at that time. It is unknown to SAHA how the cabin looked originally, but it current is used as the museum visitor center/gift shop. The inside is now one large open room which is most likely how it was originally. After it was moved to the museum a small loft area was added for storage as well as a counter next to the door for visitors to pay for museum tickets and gift shop items. There are also shelves lining one wall with merchandise on them for visitors to buy. The Frazier cabin is the first part of a typical museum tour. There visitors are given the history of the region and can look at a wall of portraits of local Revolutionary War figures as well as maps of 18th Century North and South Carolina.
Coffey Cabin (1875)
. The Coffey Cabin was built as a wedding gift from Thomas Coffey to his new wife Ellen Cook Coffey in 1875. Tom had it constructed by housewright Jules Triplett in a different location so that he could perfect the cabin before setting it up permanently in Aho North Carolina. In each log there are roman numerals carved to show how the cabin was assembled and moved. Tom and Ellen would have thirteen children two of which unfortunately died as infants. The cabin was donated to SAHA in the early 1960s. It originally was located on the far end of the parking lot where part of the Watauga Farmers Market sits today. While there it served as the Horn in the West gift shop and eventually served as a Boy Scouts of America museum and meeting place. In 1987 it was moved to its current location on Hickory Ridge and lights and electricity were installed. Today the cabin is used to portray what types of crafts were done during the 18th Century in the North Carolina Backcountry. Inside there are three spinning wheels that are used to demonstrate spinning fibers. The main artifact in the cabin is a larger Barn Loom. The loom belonged to the Tatum family and id believed to date to the late 1700s. It is still fully functional and is used to demonstrate weaving.
Springhouse
The Springhouse is the smallest structure in the museum. It is constructed exactly how springhouses were in the 18th Century with gaps in the walls to allow air to flow through. Springhouses were used for food storage as well as a source of fresh water. There was an artificial spring connected to this one but after it flooded the Horn in the West stage it hasn’t been used. There is also a second springhouse located next to the Tatum Cabin.
Blacksmith Shop (Early-1800s)
The Blacksmith Shop was originally an outbuilding on Ivy Moore’s farm in Valley Crucis North Carolina. The building is building is believed to have been built in the early 1800s. It was donated to SAHA in the early 2000s and stood as a three walled roofless structure for several years until it was completed with a fourth wall and a roof. A period accurate bellow was added so it could be used as a blacksmith shop in 2011. The shop is fully functional and be seen in use by the Hickory Ridge Blacksmith during the Horn in the West season.
Tavern (Late 1800s)
The Tavern was originally an outbuilding on a farm across from where Tweetsie Railroad is today. It was one of two cabins donated to SAHA in 1967 with its twin being sold to raise money for the organization. The building was placed on the ruins of an old schoolhouse hat used to be on site and even used the chimney of the old schoolhouse. It originally was called the Weaving Cabin since it housed the Barn Loom that is now in the Coffey Cabin. It was eventually modified into a tavern that for years was named Blackhorse Tavern but in recent years it has went nameless. In 2020 the tavern was given an official name: Hawks Nest Tavern.
Tatum Cabin (1775)
The Tatum Cabin was built in 1785 in Todd North Carolina on the New River by Captain James Tatum. He was a veteran of the American Revolutionary war and fought at the pivotal Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780 and was given a commission as a captain in the North Carolina Militia after the Revolution. A unique feature of the cabin is the two loopholes on the longer walls of the cabin. A loophole is a hole in a structure for a gun to be fired out of on each wall. At some point a loft was added to the cabin. This was for the oldest of the ten Tatum children to sleep. The main floor consisted of a table and bed as well as a cradle for the youngest child. The main cabin was eventually added onto creating a large two-story cabin that was lived in by the Tatum family until 1935. In 1958 the cabin was donated to SAHA making it the first cabin to be moved to the site that would become Hickory Ridge Living History Museum.
WPA Cabin (1935)
The WPA Cabin is the youngest cabin at the museum. It was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935 as a bunkhouse for workers. Those workers helped to construct many buildings in Boone and on Appalachian State University’s campus. It was originally located on Appalachian’s campus where the Holmes Convocation Center is located now. When the center was set to be built in 1995 the cabin was donated to SAHA. Today it is used to portray a Long Hunter cabin like what Daniel Boone stayed in during his time in the area. The cabin also houses one of the last WPA Buckeye stoves with most of them being sold and melted down during World War II.
Cabins Gone but not Forgotten
School House
Where today the tavern sits one can still see some of the stone foundation of the original schoolhouse. The schoolhouse dated to the 1800s. Appalachian State University Co-Founder Blanford Barnard Dougherty began his teaching career in this school. In 1967 during a student protest the cabin was burned down and never rebuilt. All that was left were three benches from the school with one being in the tavern and the other two in Tatum as well as the rock foundation and chimney which are used by the tavern today.
Smoke House:
During a reenactment at the museum a group of reenactors built a rudimentary smoke house for demonstration purposes. The structure was built without a proper roof causing many of the logs to rot. During an ice storm a large limb fell on the smokehouse crushing it and forcing the museum to tear it down.
