Exploring the Past and Imagining the Future: A community Works Together to Preserve and Protect the Smith Farm and Bailey Mountain

The story of Bailey Mountain Preserve and the Smith Heritage Farmstead is the story of community—a populace coming together to preserve approximately 300 acres of public lands where visitors are welcome to take in the natural beauty and traditions of this Southern Appalachian mountain locality.

Past Exhibits

River Cane Renaissance, on loan from the Mountain Heritage Center

“Every Simple Thing”: Revisiting Craft Through the Lens of William A. Barnhill

Sharing Responsibility for Our Future: Activism and Voting Rights in Appalachia

Unearthing Our Forgotten Past: Fort San Juan

Virtual Exhibition – Opening the Door to Change: Educating Rural Appalachia

Elements of Hand and Mind: A Selection of Historic Southern Highland Crafts From the Collections of the Rural Heritage Museum

A Fountain of Youth in the Southern Highlands: A History of Hot Springs, North Carolina

Understanding Our Past, Shaping Our Future (Cherokee Language and Culture)

The Civil War in the Southern Highlands: A Human Perspective

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

“Our Story, This Place”: The History of African American Education in Madison County, North Carolina: The Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School

Interwoven: Coverlets, Ballads, and America’s Discovery of Madison County Folklife

THANKS TO:
Madison County Visitor Center

The Rural Heritage Museum is a proud site on the