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NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT
More than 30 cabins are located in the Museum’s Pioneer Village. The property also features a café, craft and gift
shop, Appalachian Hall of Fame, and
the McClung House. A heritage hall is available for weddings and other events.
tion. Irwin may have been personally motivated to preserve the Appalachian commonplace because he and his family were twice uprooted and removed by government force, first to make way for Norris Dam when he was 5 years old and then again for the Manhattan Project when he was 12 years old.
About 3,500 Appalachian families had to move out of the path of Norris and its floodwaters, including taking with them even the graves of their an- cestors. The only building saved from watery burial beneath the subsequent 42,000-acres and more than 200-feet deep lake and reservoir is a tiny child’s structure that James Hubbard had built for his daughter Gwen to play in and that now stands intact outside the museum’s Appalachian Hall of Fame.
Irwin later recalled of his displaced kinfolk and neighbors, “People up there felt that they were being portrayed as if they were isolated, ignorant mountain people. And I don’t know what part TVA played, whether the pictures were from TVA, or whether it happened at the same time; but that was the one big criticism that I recall more than anything else.”
The second relocation seven years later was just as ham-handed and callous, according to Irwin: “We came home from Nash Copeland’s general store
one day...and there was a piece of paper attached to the screen door, flapping in the wind.” The notice from the War De- partment ordered the family to move in approximately three weeks without any offer of assistance or a place to move to.
In spite of the widespread perception that his people were ignorant hillbillies, Irwin went on to earn degrees in history, economics, and international law, before being elected superintendent of schools for Anderson County. After attending a public auction of local pieces and finding the auction distasteful to his historian sensibilities, Irwin began in his early 30s to travel the region to acquire anything indicative of its history and its people. Soon, his collection grew until he needed a museum to house it.
Letting the Past Touch Your Soul
Irwin’s legacy aims for an immersive experience, rather than a past to be ob- served through the uncrossable distance of time. “There’s nothing wrong with Ca-
des Cove,” says Meyer, “but I sometimes fear people think of us as similar—that you can drive through here with your family, looking at the outside of these preserved log buildings from your car, and that’s it. What people need to know is these structures are packed full of early American artifacts.”
She also believes that multiple trips to the museum will only increase a visitor’s appreciation of it. She cites the example of its primitive trap collection: “I’m constantly impressed by the ingenuity and creativity of those traps. Even after you’ve looked at some of these things 1,000 times, something will still hit you.”
Top Attractions at the Museum
The museum recently became a Smithsonian Affiliate. Besides a work- ing farm and garden that provide many of the ingredients for the café, its major continuous attractions include:
›› Entrance Building: Houses the café, a craft and gift shop featuring the work of more than 200 local artisans, and a heritage hall available for weddings and other special events.
72 CITYVIEWMAG.COM JULY AUGUST 2015