Museum Where
the Action Was
Thc\y all c*ani€k this way — the frontier
.settlers, inclinn fighters, soldiers,
railroad builders, and now the niwcl-
er n tourist.
«»/
u:0\ M. SILER
Log» from McDowell County'» first Presbyterian
church were used lo build this one-room log
cobin on the museum's mexxonine Moor. It's
equipped with homekeeping orticlct of coloniol
day».
Eorly-day fircploces in mony a Western Corolino
home looked like this one in the Old Fort Mu¬
seum. On the mantle ore teakettle, |ug, whole
oil lamp, wooden canteen, hog scraper condle
holder, copper tankord. Below, a trommel,
toaster- broiler, two griddles, ond long-handled
Iry pon.
Exhibits in the ne» "Mountoin Goteway Mu¬
seum" ot Old Fort, pictured here, recoil the days
ond the deeds of Western Corolino frontiersmen
and of the builders who followed them up to and
then across the mountains. Mill Creek, flowing
down from Mount Mitchell, in the foreground
Davidson’s Fori
The museum's exhibits, mostly pho¬
tographic at present, seek to recall the
«lays and the deeds of the frontiers¬
men. and the builders who followed
them.
Л
stone structure put together in
WPA days for use as a community cen-
They are calling it. at the suggestion
of the Stale Department of Archives
and History, the ’’Mountain Gateway
Museum," and at the risk of having a
name unconscionably long it might be
well to add "At Old Fort. Where the
Action Was."
By the time this is published, there
probably will be signs along U.S. 7(1
both cast and west of Old Fort, and
also along Interstate 40 — if the objcc-
lions of bureaucrats can be overcome
— calling attention to the museum and
inviting the traveling public to pause in
the historic McDowell County town
for an interesting look into the past
which the new museum offers.
Governor Scott spoke of the "tug
of history" when he helped dedicate
the museum, and the exhibits offer
plenty of tugs, all right, for the his¬
torically inclined.
Farly-day white settlers, military
men. highway and railroad builders,
tradesmen, promoters all paused at Old
Fort, or nearby, before tackling the
mountain barrier immediately west of
the town, on their way to whatever lay
westward. In the way of a frontier com¬
munity where stout-hearted men gath¬
ered in search of opportunity. Old Fort
was the real thing.
THE STATE,
О
CTO OCR 1, 1971
