Rural Heritage Museum opens exhibit on barns and building traditions of the Southern Highlands

Press release from The Rural Heritage Museum at Mars Hill University:

Shelter on the Mountain: Barns and Building Traditions of the Southern Highlands

Exhibition dates: October 23, 2016 – May 28, 2017

MARS HILL, NC. October 20, 2016. The Rural Heritage Museum at Mars Hill University opens a new exhibition beginning October 23, 2016: Shelter on the Mountain: Barns and Building Traditions of the Southern Highlands. This exhibition presents an overview of the unique built environment created by the peoples who have, over many thousands of years, inhabited the mountains, valleys, buffalo trails, and river basins of the Southern Appalachians. These makers – from native peoples to European settlers – created new horizons as they sought to transform the unforgiving mountains into a land of promise, for themselves and future generations. The exhibition features an introductory film, a large log-pulling sled, broad axes and other log-shaping tools, tobacco planters, 27 large informational panels, and over 70 photographs, many never seen before.

The exhibition documents the settler’s remarkable ability to make a living from a less-than-hospitable environment. Through dogged persistence, they fashioned agricultural and residential structures using the few tools and resources that were available, many made by hand, leaving an inventory of historic barns and homes that mirror a singular melding of cultures, histories, and architectural traditions that still remain on view today.

The RURAL HERITAGE MUSEUM is open daily (except Mondays) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment. It is located in Montague Hall: from Asheville take US 19 North to exit 11, then on Rt. 213 1.3 miles to the campus of Mars Hill University, a 20 minute drive. Admission is free.

Mailing address:

Rural Heritage Museum
Box 6705
Mars Hill University
Mars Hill, North Carolina, 28754.

For more information or to reserve a group tour, please call (828) 689-1400. Visit the Museum’s website: www.mhu.edu/museum or Facebook page.