Museum Interpreter Interviews

Since it opened in 1980 Hickory Ridge Living History Museum has brought people together who have a love of history and people from all walks of life. Their personal stories make up a large part of Museum’s history. 

This section of the exhibit is dedicated to preserving those stories through interviews with current and past museum interpreters. Each interview is broken up by interpreter and each were asked the following questions: 

1. When did you work at the museum?
2. What was/is your position at the museum?
3. What was/is your fondest memory from your time in Hickory Ridge?
4. How has the museum changed since you were worked there or how has it been changing if you are currently employed there?
5. In your opinion how is Hickory Ridge useful in preserving the history of the Colonial/Revolutionary War Period?
6. What is one memorable story from your time in the museum?

The interviews go in chronological order from when the interpteter worked in the museum. 

Carrie Curtis

I worked at Hickory Ridge the first year it was open, and I helped assemble the loom in the weaving house and demonstrated that summer.

The most important memories to me were the beginnings of lifetime friendships and the way the museum illustrated history.

The main change I have seen are the school visits, which seem to be a fine idea. Also the museum has grown enormously.

My most memorable story was when I met a woman who had apprenticed with a weaver from Scotland who wove Harris tweed and spent nearly an hour asking her questions.

Brian Fannon

I started working at Horn in the West in 1984 as an usher, and that is when I became interested in the Homestead. I started hanging out up there in my spare time, and by the 1985 season I had enough 18th c. clothing together to volunteer. I continued to volunteer at the homestead until the early 90s when I became head interpreter for several years, and then dropped back to volunteering for a few years, then back to interpreter for a few years. I should explain that I was working variable-term contracts in Alaska through the 90s, so I was coming and going a lot – sometimes I was an employee, sometimes a volunteer. It all depended on my contracts in Alaska. Usually if I had the summer free, I worked at both the museum and backstage in some capacity. I moved back to NC completely in 2001 and worked/volunteered at the museum on and off through until about 2014, when I started working full time in Winston-Salem and just wasn’t close enough to be practical.

I was a Volunteer, docent, Interpreter, and Head Interpreter.

Sitting in Tatum cabin on Saturday evening, after the show had started, with all the staff and volunteers (usually 10-15 on Saturdays). There was always a huge meal as a result of cooking demonstrations during the day (often cooked by my mother, Gail). We would gather in the cabin and on the back porch to eat and talk like one big family, finishing by candlelight, cleaning up, and usually leaving just before the show ended.

When I started in the mid-1980s, the historical emphasis was on weaving due to the Tatum family history. There was also a strong educational component to the work. Local schools brought groups, boy scouts camped on weekends to do programs, and we went out to schools and to summer camps with programs. In the mid-90s, we started including adult workshops as well, including cooking, leatherworking, sewing, herbs, and several others. We also made a strong push in the 90s to work on being more accurate with our interpretive work, and making sure that the volunteers and staff were well-trained with accurate interpretations that dealt with the conflict between research and local stories of both the cabins and the High Country in general. By the early 2000s we had continued this work, created more accurate interpretations of the cabins, and expanded the school programs to as many as 500 students/week in Spring and Fall visiting the homestead, coming from all over the Mountains and Piedmont of North Carolina. A change in management changed the museum’s focus and ended the educational programs and resulted in the staff and volunteers departing as well. That period didn’t last too long, but long enough to destroy all of the educational programs and contracts as well as many of the volunteers finding new hobbies and not returning. The focus became on-site demonstrations, particularly the Blacksmith shop, and weaving had become non-existent. Most of the interpretations focused on F&I war or Revolutionary War events. By 2013 interpretations had become more local history-focused, and the material culture of the area was used to set the background for the settlement story. The Tatum story was used as an example of that, but not the focus. Curtis Smalling and Dr. Cory Stewart did a tremendous amount of research on the Tatum family through the years, and this guided part of the new interpretative programming for context. Dave Davis, (one of, if not the primary, founder/builders of the museum) also returned during this time period and considerable revamping of the displays and reconstructive work on the buildings was done.

The museum has changed a bit through the 30+ years I have been involved with it. Education has been the most consistent theme, with 18th c. skills/mountain folkways probably being second, and settlement history being third.

The use has varied. Originally, the cabins were presented as belonging to the pre-revolutionary war period and being what was shown in the Drama. Over time, that has changed to a more accurate post-war setting, showing the results of the War and the westward expansion, and then back to a more “reenactment atmosphere” as different people have cycled through. In my opinion, it reached its most useful stages in the 1980s, when the focus was on mountain folkways and education, in the early 2000s when it had a very successful school program, and in the 2012-2015 period with the emphasis on the effect of the war and the westward expansion. The simple reality is that the cabins have almost no connection with the Revolutionary War; their existence is a part of the story of post-revolutionary expansion and settlement.

Lucas Clawson, Cory Stewart, and I decided to reroof Tatum, since it was a rotten mass of spongy wood held together by moss. Steve Canipe volunteered (or was volunteered, I don’t remember) to help since he had been a contractor. Turns out neither Lucas, Cory, or I had any experience with shake roofs, and we were relying on Steve to oversee it and guide us through. Turns out Steve had never put on a shake roof and was relying on us to know how to do that part while he handled the logistics! We all spent some serious time researching, and took the first few rows off carefully to make sure we knew how they were on there, and then we tore in to it whole-heartedly. It took us about a week going all out and learning new things every day, but by the time we finished we felt pretty good about our shake roofing skills. This was probably about 2004. Somewhere under one of the shakes is a quarter with the previous year’s date on it; we didn’t have one of the current year and decided that was close enough.

A close second would be the time a troop of Boy Scouts camped for the weekend and wanted to make moccasins… all thirty of them! When they left Sunday afternoon, all thirty did in fact have moccasins, but it took several days before I could move my fingers without pain!

The original focus of the museum was local history, especially the folkways of the mountains. Because of the Tatum weaving connection, fiber arts were a big part of that story – the warping peg holes on the Tatum cabin, the loom, growing a small bed of flax, were essential parts of the story. Apple Festival was a big event, making apple butter and demonstrating other early skills. It drew big crowds, but over time the story shifted to try to make more connections to the drama and focusing on Revolutionary War History. Musket/rifle firing demonstrations replaced weaving (we jokingly called it “musket-based interpretation”), and other skills demonstrations faded as well. This was partially due to the changing volunteer composition; we relied heavily on volunteers with those skills, and as they drifted away for various reasons, we lacked the capacity to continue those programs. Musket demos and fire starting were easy, and it became a chicken vs egg scenario: we lost some public interest and we started doing easier interpretative programs, and I am not sure which drove the other. It is hard to get excited about doing a day of log hewing when you know you will only have a dozen people come watch, but just doing the same simple musket/flint and steel demos wasn’t exciting for the visitors that had been there before (as in, most of the locals that had supported us before.) When John Peterson and I hewed the logs for the hog pen in the late 90s, we had a lot of people watching and asking questions. When I did a hewing demo in 2014, I had maybe a dozen people come watch. It is not entirely a fault of museum programming – society moved forward, and anyone could watch a hewing demonstration anytime they wanted on YouTube. I think the biggest challenge was (is?) keeping and promoting programs that draw interest from the community in order to gain their support. As we see more interest in renewable farming and off-grid activities, it might be time to go back to the roots of the museum and look to the folkways aspect to gain an audience that may be more interested in historical skills than historical facts. HRH started me into living history and nearly 30 years of Revolutionary War reenacting, but as a museum I think its greatest role may be outside of just the small segment of frontier history involving the Rev War.

Dr. Cory Stewart

I started volunteering in the summer of 1999 and was involved at some level until 2004.

I started out as a volunteer, then I was the Education Coordinator, served on the board and served one year after that as the Museum Director. 

Spending the nights in Tatum Cabin.  It would be cold and snowing outside and I would be in there cooking over the fire.  That and the people.  I was introduced to the Museum by Mike and Carole Lowe, who were friends with Mike and Jane Campbell. These two groups, along with Curtis and Mary Smalling are really the founders of the museum.  While working at the museum I also met Brian Fannon whose knowledge of 18^th century technical skills helped me greatly and Lucas Clawson who I worked hand in hand with for years at the museum.

The museum has always struggled for identity.  It is known as being associated with the Revolutionary War, but that is really one of five buildings.  At the time I was not sure how I felt about that, or what to do about it, but I have come to realize that the evolution of the identity may not be a bad thing.  

My most memorable story is when me, Lucas Clawson and Brian Fannon replaced the roof on Tatum Cabin in one week.  As soon as I started at the museum my goal was to get a new roof on the building.  It finally came to be in 2003 I think it was.  We did it largely with money from the donation box. We also had to replace the roof on the porch at the same time and did it mainly with materials harvested from the grounds of the museum there.  It is not only memorable because a long term goal was accomplished, but the comradery with Brian and Lucas made it even more so.

Travis Souther

I worked at Hickory Ridge Summer of 2009 to 2013.  I left to go to grad school, coming back on a fairly regular basis during my grad school experience and even a few times afterwards.

I was a volunteer docent.  I started out being a docent in the Tatum Cabin, then the blacksmith shop, then the tavern.  When in the tavern, I did my best first person impression utilizing a lot of humor to talk about taverns, tavern-keeping, and 18th century life while still presenting history fact.  I credit Hickory Ridge with not only inspiring my interest in colonial and Revolutionary America, but also breaking me out of my shell and teaching me, sometimes forcing me, to improve my presentation skills.  Were it not for Hickory Ridge, I would still be the shy person that I was in my younger years, afraid to converse with people that I didn't know.  I also learned about weaving and would often be seen on Saturday mornings weaving away.

My fondest meomory from the museum were the Candlelight suppers we had in the Tatum Cabin.

I haven't been to Hickory Ridge in close to 4 years, so I have no frame of reference as to how the area has changed.  I can tell you what changed in my time at Hickory Ridge.  When I started the pathways were all gravel but were changed to mulch.  The blacksmith shop had a corral that was built next to it.  Originally there was a smokehouse on site, however an ice storm caused a large limb to fall and crush the building.  The storm severely damaged the then-tin roof of the Coffey Cabin.  When the descendants found out about it, they paid to have a cedar shake roof replace the old one.

Hickory Ridge's use can be seen in conjunction with the outdoor drama Horn in the West.  Horn tells a fictional story, whereas Hickory Ridge is more fact than fiction, giving a true definition to "living history".  I think the interaction with people is where Hickory Ridge's strongest selling point lies.

I always saw Hickory Ridge as a place where people could come learn, grow, and become more intimate with the colonial and Revolutionary time periods.  I made some of my best friends and memories at Hickory Ridge, and though I be 1000 miles away, Hickory Ridge will always hold a fond place in my heart.

My most memorable story is from a 4th of July celebration that we had.  Part of the celebration was a series of 13 toasts to various things.  After each toast, a volley was fired.  This was the first time that I had fired a firelock and I was trying to do it rapidly.  I ended up actually ramming three cartridges down before I shut the hammer.  I'm glad that the toast that was for "Liberty" because half of Boone probably heard the Charleville go off.

Kathleen Baker

I was at the museum from 1995-2013. I was taken there as a baby by my mom (Mary Greene) and dad (Pat Baker) when she was doing music there. My dad ended up talking to guests and just picked up information and regaled it to anyone who would listen! Gail Fannon was my godmother and she and her son Brian essentially adopted me as well. If I wasn't with Gail, I was with Brian!

When I was a wee one, I was just a cute prop in handmade clothing Gail made! As I got older I began doing mini "tours" of the cabins. When I was 10 years old I started demonstrating in the Tatum cabin with Gail. When she passed I was the Tatum gal, and had a spiel adapted from her, Dave Davis, and other interpreters. I would cook, clean, sew, knit, whittle, and even toss a hatchet here and there. When I wasn't in Tatum with Gail, I could be found with Brian, blacksmithing. It was always a kick to see people's reactions to a girl in a skirt and corset, blacksmithing!

I can't really nail down a single memory that would be my fondest. I can say, without a doubt, my overall favorite thing was sitting down after the museum had closed, everyone in Tatum, enjoying a meal that Gail or myself had made on the hearth throughout the night. Sometimes we would have leftover Dan'l Boone chicken, but usually we just had the food that was made through the night as demonstration. I was the only kid, but man, I felt so at home. The people there were, and are, family. It might take us till midnight to actually get in our cars and leave. Cracking jokes, swapping stories, smoking cigars (not me, of course!), and just enjoying each other's company is a feeling that gets me choked up to this day!

It has gone through about 3 different curators during my time that I know of. I haven't been able to get back in a while, but I am hoping it is still being loved the way I love it! I can't really speak to any changes, unfortunately. I can say that Tatum is in desperate need of rebuilding, with correct foundation and chinking that doesn't destroy the wood. So that would be a change I hope to see!

I think it is incredibly useful! I've had literally hundreds of people tell me they didn't know anything about the time period until they came to the museum and the show. Being able to see, in person, the cabins, the clothing, the lifestyle, and the physical history is so incredible. It leaves a mark, and people remember it more than they would just reading a textbook.

My first thought goes to a July 4th celebration. During the effigy of King George, the musket Travis was firing decided to not fire anymore. Instead of emptying the existing powder, he added more! When it finally did go off, he had probably added 3 shots worth of powder to the plate. THAT was a loud noise! Other than that, every night we would listen for the first big boom in the show and listen for the following shrieks of the crowd. Always made dinner a little more savory.

Jewel Parker

 I worked in the museum from March to November 2017 as a Museum Interpreter

 My fondest memory is how I loved working Saturday mornings during the Watauga County Farmers’ Market season. The most SAHA employees and volunteers were there on Saturdays because we had the most visits and larger crowds. My coworker Pete and I opened the museum on Saturday mornings. We always got Bald Guy Coffee and pumpkin muffins from the local vendors. This was also the time that I interacted with the Horn in the West Staff and SAHA board members the most. Farmers’ Market Saturdays are great days for meeting more diverse demographics of guests to the museum, especially during Horn’s off season. I gave tours of the cabins to tourists from out of town, Watauga County locals, and college students attending App. On Saturdays, I also played a lot of Graces, a children’s game with sticks and hoops that became popular around the early 1800s, with the kids. They loved it!

 There has been several changes at Hickory Ridge since I left. The leadership has changed. The executive director and museum director that I worked for is no longer there. I moved away shortly thereafter, so I am not sure if anything has changed regarding the aesthetics or narratives of the living history site, but I have heard great things about the recent evolution of museum programs there.

 Hickory Ridge does a good job preserving the history of the Revolutionary War Period. The Tatum Cabin is unique because it is from the colonial period. Indeed, it is the only cabin on the property that is from the eighteenth century. As such, Mr. Tatum, who served in the Revolutionary War, offers a great case study of what it was like to not only fight in the Revolution, but also what is was like for he and his family to live in their home.  Sometimes, it surprises guests to learn that the other structures on the property are not from the eighteenth century, but these buildings are no less important. This is a good opportunity for interpreters to share some architectural histories and differences in the ways the cabins were built. All the cabins are local, and therefore serve as opportunities to teach guests what it was like for people to live specifically in Watauga County during and after the American Revolution. For example, people used candles instead of electricity and relied on their fireplace for heat during the winter. These are things that many people can only imagine today! Then, there are folks that become involved at Hickory Ridge, either as board members or volunteers, who have genealogical ties to those that once owned and lived in these homes. They can offer guests unique perspectives from stories passed through the generations. Over time, I noticed visitors asking more and more questions like “Is the way people dressed on TURN historically accurate?” or “Is Outlander’s depiction of people’s lives in Appalachia the way it actually was?” Hickory Ridge sometimes seems like it struggles for identity, perhaps because people are very interested in visiting North Carolina’s oldest outdoor drama, Horn in the West, but I think the growing popularity in historical television dramas has people thinking about historical figures and times as more than just names and dates. It’s as if they suddenly have the epiphany that these were indeed real people that lived through the colonial era, and they want to know more about that! Hickory Ridge offers them that opportunity to, at least for a moment, live in the past. If guests leave Hickory Ridge having a greater appreciation for the past and how far we have come, then historians are doing something right!

My most memorable story from my time at Hickory Ridge was when PBS’s North Carolina Weekend did a special on Horn in the West and Hickory Ridge Living History Museum. I was thrilled to be on tv!  Their video shares some good information about what guests can learn by visiting Hickory Ridge and the origins of Horn in the West.

Keven Shafer Jr.

I worked at the museum the summer of 2017 and was a summer intern at the Museum, doing most of my work in living history and running the gift shop.

My most fondest memory would have to be our July 4th Celebration, I was working in the Tavern and talking with visitors about what it was like for the people on the frontier and how they view the war. It was a unique experience and it was really fun to get to be the town caller who read the deceleration out to everyone.

The museum has changed a lot since I was there, and it has only gotten even more amazing.

It is telling a different story than some cites, while it does talk a far bit about the war and the wars effects on the Back Country, there is a connection to what life was like in general for people. It is a great cite to see not just how they lived but feel it as you are in the Back Country, and the museum displays life there in a great way, in such a wonderful and special place.

It is really hard to just chose one memory that made mine time at Hickory Ridge so amazing, to this day it is still a story I tell as the best place I have ever worked. However, I would say that my true memorable story would be sitting with a coworker who I became really close with while working there. Who took me under his wing and really tough me a lot. Just sitting on the poach of one of the cabins, watching the sun set after a busy day and feeling so close to what life was like back then. It was a moment where you just felt that you were back in time, no modern noise, no distraction, and no stress. It was just the sound of nature and a crackling fire as you saw for the briefest of moments the past come to life in yourself.

Shiloh Loveless

I worked at the museum starting April of 2018 to roughly October of 2018.

I started off as a Historian tour guide and then after a few months became Gift Shop Manager/Historian tour guide.

I think my most fondest memory from my time at Hickory Ridge was when we were taught by our Museum director, at the time was Mary Bohlen, how to cook from the revolutionary period. And I mean cook from scratch, cooking over a fire in. which we started. Visitors on certain weekends could actually watch us cook and have a taste of what we were cooking at the time. We would cook potatoes, pies, different kind of soups.

The museum, to me, changes every year. New historians come, visit, and share their vast knowledge with the historian tour guides. New items are added to the museum gift shop every year. They now have portraits of significant historical figures. They’re added more live historical reenactments such as “The Battle of Hickory Ridge.”

Hickory Ridge may be small, but it still contains a lot of history in it. And to be honest it’s the best, and I believe, only place in Boone, NC that has revolutionary history that people can visit. Visitor’s are able to tour and go into historical buildings that date all the way back to 1785. It’s rare to find buildings as old as the ones at the Museum still standing today. And Hickory Ridge stands out more than any other history museum I’ve visited to due to the fact that it can be a hands on interacting museum. People can touch and explore and try things out. Schools can visit and make historical learning really fun because its interactive and they can make crafts and take it home with them.

One memorable story from my time at the museum was when we had a small homeschool group of kids to come visit us. Each child got to take home two crafts, one was a candle they made, the other was a corn husk doll that they made as well. They did enjoy touring the buildings and exploring them, but they definitely enjoyed the craft making process the most. They really truly understand that there was no internet, or tv, or playstations back in the revolutionary period. They would either be doing chores or keeping themselves out if trouble by using their imaginations and crafting items from simple items from scratch. It was amazing to see that learning connection and how they thoroughly enjoyed learning history. They left with smiles on their faces and their crafts in their hands!

Taylor Osborne 

I was an intern for June 2018 as an extended job interview and was hired as a museum. interpreter in September of 2018. In January 2020 I was promoted to Senior Historical Interpreter which means I am over the planning of events and training new interpreters and volunteers.  I also am the Historical Analysist for Horn in the West.

My fondest memory would have to be all the friends I have made from working in the museum

and the friends I have made from the Horn in the West cast. Also being able to teach the public about my favorite time period. The haunted trail that is put on each October by Appalachian Mountain Brewery is also one of my favorite events that is hosted at Hickory Ridge. 

A lot has changed in the two almost three years I have been there. The first major change was when they did away with the Museum Director position in the middle of the summer of 2018. Also, in September of 2019 the Executive Director of SAHA stepped down which did cause some chaos for a short time while we figured out what we were going to do going forward but it ended up working out just fine. There has also been a lot of change in the interpretation (for the better) where we are now focusing on updating our facts to make our tours more historically accurate.

I think Hickory Ridge is a great venue to teach about the lesser known parts of the Revolutionary War’s Southern Campaign. Since we live near several key sites related to the Kings Mountain Campaign it is easy to gear our portrayal and events to that story. Also, the fact that one of our cabins was owned by a captain who fought at Kings Mountain really helps with that narrative. The museum also helps discuss how civilians were affected by the war even if all the major battles were happening in the piedmont region they still sent ripples into the mountain region.                

My most memorable story is from the event we did in June 2019 called Trail to Victory: The Kings Mountain Campaign. For the event I had several roles which were portraying Colonel Abraham Buford, Lord Cornwallis, and Major Patrick Ferguson. We put on several scenarios that a group would walk through that told the story of the Battle of Kings Mountain. One of the last scenarios was a small reenactment of the Battle of Kings Mountain where I was portraying Ferguson. to accurately do this I had to wear a red wig since it is well documented that Ferguson had bright red hair. The issue was that the wig didn’t fit my head well and was a very cheap and crappy Walmart Halloween wig that I had fixes to look colonial. So during the reenactment I took a hit since Ferguson was killed in the battle. As soon as I hit the ground it started a downpour. It was so bad that one of the other reenactors in character said “be respectful and cover the poor man’s face” So they put my hat over my face to keep the rain off it. The battle ended and the Loyalist were marched off as prisoners. When they and the public were gone I sat up and as soon as I did the wig fell off. I shouted “Good Lord the Overmoutain Men have scalped me!!” And all of us still on the hill died laughing.

Marrena Greer

My employment at Southern Appalachian Historical Association, the parent organization of Hickory Ridge Living History Museum, started in February 2019 and I am currently still employed there.

I am now the Operations Manager/ Museum Director for SAHA.

To date my fondest memory, I would have to say is the interaction with kids who tour our museum. In particular when they are in our Tatum cabin, which is 245 years old, and ask where the light switch is. Our reply is, “Welcome to the 18th Century.”

As this is my first year with the museum, I can’t speak to how things have changed over time. There are videos and photos of things not seen on the grounds any longer such as signs, a flagpole and what looked to be a small garden in the past. The cabins and activities did not change over the Summer of 2019. However, we did rearrange the interior of a couple of the cabins to better represent what the museum is hoping to convey to the visitors.

I feel with an added note that the cluster of cabins were not located on property but in fact were separated by several miles, Hickory Ridge is a great tool in displaying life for the earlier settlers in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The time the cabins were built reflected just how the colonists wanted to live, away from growing towns. They were seeking their own land and religious freedom. Their focus was on important things such as food/water, shelter and clothes. But they were not one to shy away when pushed into a conflict. They were Scots and Irishmen after all.

Andre Jagot 

I started working at the museum in April 2019 and I am still employed there as a Museum Interpreter

Since I have only worked at the museum a short time I have not seen very much change but I am sure after this year I will be able to see any changes.

My fondest memory has been getting to know the other interpreters and volunteers that worked during the year.

Hickory Ridge offers an interesting look at the life and little-known roll of the Mountain folk in regard to their role in the revolution

Mackenzie Laney

I worked at Hickory Ridge in the Spring and Summer of 2019 as a Museum Interpreter

Most of my fondest memories from my time at Hickory Ridge are probably Saturdays spent on the porch, hanging out with the other staff, and talking to Farmers Market customers as they meandered around the grounds. Learning to weave on the loom in the Coffey Cabin is a close second.

Unfortunately I have not been able to visit the museum yet this season (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) but I am very excited to see what all has changed since the last time I was there. I have been able to keep up with some of the changes virtually though, and I know there are lots of cool additions and changes to the cabins and gift shop!

I think historical sites and buildings like Hickory Ridge are vital to preserving the history of a place and of a people. The cabins and artifacts at Hickory Ridge take history out of a textbook for students and engage people in so many different ways. Hickory Ridge makes Colonial and Revolutionary War history accessible to people who may not otherwise interact with it and weaves history into the fabric of the community. Learning about history while also looking at it, touching it, smelling it, hearing it, and even tasting it (when someone is cooking in the Tatum Cabin!) makes it all the more meaningful and impactful. By learning history and continuing to engage with it in interactive ways, we can address not only our past, but contemporary concepts and issues as well.?

One day as I was closing up the museum and walking to my car, a family stopped me and asked if the museums were closed and I of course told them that unfortunately the last tour leaves at 3pm. They were disappointed but asked if there was any way they could possibly see just the Tatum Cabin, as they were members of the Tatum family and were visiting from out of town. I was shocked, and found it pretty cool that I was talking to the descendants of the people I talked about everyday and spent so much time in their home. I opened up the Tatum cabin for them to take a look around and ended up having one of the most memorable conversations in my time at Hickory Ridge. The grandmother of the family told us all about how they were directly related to James Tatum and lots of family stories about these people I spoke about on each tour. Hearing these stories (some scandalous!) made the Tatum’s so much more real, and getting a bit of their family drama made them seem like regular people! I was so happy they caught me before I got in my car, and I even got to photograph one of James Tatum’s young descendants holding his sword, standing on his porch.

Xeleighta Bernardo

I was employed at the museum right after the show ended in 2019, as I wanted to continue to work for SAHA just a little bit longer.

I was a costumed interpreter. So I had to do a lot of studying about the cabins so I could properly give tours.

My fondest memory actually happened after I left as an interpreter. I decided to continue as a volunteer, and in doing so I was invited to help record some promotional videos for the reenactment that was supposed to happen beginning of April. I was originally going to have one line as a tavern lady, but ended up putting on a male costume and getting way more lines! Despite it being really cold I had a lot of fun.

As I was recently employed, and changed to mainly a volunteer, I can’t say much for change. Tours are currently if you call ahead now I believe as it’s the off season. Right now it’s closed because of COVID-19. But other than some management changes, it’s still the same good people.

It lets you have a little peek at what life back then was. It’s not big like other living museums, but small enough to kind of show how settlements would start off as. Small, and simple.

A memorable story would have to be when it  was about thirty minutes to closing one day and this group of women walked in. I asked if they were here for the tour and they said they were just looking around, so I just explained the general area and what the tour was about as well as the play that happens during the summer because they had mentioned horn in the west and how every summer they just miss it. I told them I played Nancy Ward and they then proceeded to ask me if I was Cherokee myself, I responded no but it’s flattering to be mistaken as so since that’s what I had to portray. They then told me they were descendants of Dragging Canoe and that they had to come back and see me. I then learned a friend of Daniel Boone actually married one is Dragging Canoes daughters so I guess there was a connection there.