Smithville's Old Time Fiddler's Jamboree and Crafts Festival next weekend!

It’s Jamboree season once again in DeKalb County! 

This time of year Smithville,  our county seat, invites everyone in for the Fiddler’s Jamboree and Crafts Festival. This is the 44th year for the event, the biggest thing that happens in these parts. It draws tens of thousands from all over the world for two days of fun and food.

Young cloggers take the stage to dance to some good old time music

at the The Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree and Crafts Festival.

This year's event will be held next Friday and Saturday, July 3rd and 4th, in and around the town square in Smithville, in DeKalb County.
The main stage, where competions are held, sits on the courthouse steps.

Some of the  Jamboree's best music can be heard offstage, though, where musicians gather in the shade for impromptu jams on old time favorites. If you're up for a stroll, there's plenty to see in the many booths which line the square and streets surrounding it. Some celebrate traditional Southern crafts, some more modern renditions of varied arts.

The Jamboree was our first introduction to the area way back in 1977. We’ve been here that long. A third of a century.

Over those years I developed a real fondness for and understanding of  the music the Jamboree celebrates: old time bluegrass and mountain music still popular throughout the South. All acoustic: guitar, banjo, mandolin, upright bass, dobro, dulcimer, and the fiddle of course. 

I now know many of the old time standards contestants play during the various events. Can even strum a few myself on the guitar. One of the joys of country living is to sitting on the front porch in the evening, watching the hills and hollows slip into darkness, strumming some chords on the guitar.

There was a time when that was the only regular entertainment folks in these parts could enjoy, after a long hard day’s work. The Jamboree helps keep those traditions alive. If you're ever in these parts the weekend nearest the Fourth of July it’s worth the trip to Smithville. And if you don’t know what clogging is, well, y’all come.

Snows Hill Battlefied in DeKalb County

Last Friday marked the 152nd anniversary of the Battle of Snows Hill. The Civil War skirmish took place along our road the morning of April 3, 1863, involving several thousand troops. I have a copy of the New York Times from later that month with a front page headline and account of the battle.

The story is based on dispatches from a correspondent traveling with the Union Army of the Cumberland. As much an anecdotal account of the battle and its aftermath as the actual skirmish. Looking out at these hills, it’s hard to imagine soldiers racing through here, ducking minie and cannon balls.

Over the years I’ve done a lot of research on the battle, also combed the fields and hollers with a metal detector. Found shards of cannon balls, used and unused lead shot, remnants of breastworks and fox holes. A friend once found a complete parrot shell that had drilled into the road embankment, deep into dirt where its fuse was extinguished. When we found it was cracked half open, exposing the grape shot and powder.

Our luckiest find was made by my son Marcus. He was 11 or 12, walking through the woods near our house, metal detector under arm, when he found a union boot spur sticking up out of ground.

Season for Cider....and some pests

With the abundance harvest of apples, a friend retrieved a cider mill from 12 years in storage, and hired my son as his accomplice The novice “cidermeisters” spent a couple of days mashing and pressing bushels of apples into gallons of fresh juice. I’ve never tasted better, and have a bucket of apple mash fermenting in a half hearted attempt to make some jack.

They’ve had to shut down the cider mill for a while with arrival of what has become one of the autumn’s most unwelcome events: invasion of the Asian ladybugs. Now out in full force as buzzing swarms in the afternoon sun. When they rest, they trail an orange stench along windows and doors, and on your hands should you try to brush one off. Were just one to fall into the vat get pressed with the cider, they fear the batch would be ruined.

I read these ladybugs were first brought to the U.S. in a government effort to control aphids. But without any natural controls in place, the Asian variety proliferated, becoming a seasonal nuisance all the way north. That’s what I heard, anyway.....another well intended government cure.

Off The Beaten Path

As a writer, I’ve worked with a group of local artists to promote their activities and annual fall tour, the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour held the last full weekend of October in and around DeKalb County.Aptly named, it also describes the lifestyles they and we have chosen here in rural Tennessee. To some, our deep woods, hills and hollows, creeks and dirt roads may sound idyllic. It’s a way of life, like any other with its own challenge and rewards.

There’s something we all draw from these surroundings, an abiding peace away from the chaos which too often defines modern life. Sure, it can intrude this far, but there’s the landscape, and buckets of stars at nigh,t to re-orient our personal compass.

We chose to be here, accepted the good and bad of rural life. And though we all aspire to the financial rewards success in our respective arts may bring, there’s a success we already enjoy in choosing our way and making a life on our terms. That’s the draw and reward for those bold enough to wander “off the beaten path.”

Fall's Colors Coming On

Fall is long and warm in the hills this year. Though some were predicting a dearth of colors,the season has again come on in all its glory. I’m looking out now at a landscape ablaze with reds and orange, yellows and fading greens.

What’s most noteworthy about this fall, however, is the bountiful harvest of nuts and fruits. The limbs of apple and pear trees in the area seem overburdened. I’ve never seen as many walnuts on the black walnut in our yard. I’ve already raked a regular season’s worth and as many, if not more, still cling to the branches.

There’s differing theories about this. Some say the bountiful harvest is nature’s way of protecting itself against a pending harsh winter. By spring we’ll know if there’s truth to that. 

The other notion proposes an alternative strategy. Dry years put a lot of stress on trees. Several long-standing hickories and oaks succumbed to the lack of water by late August. Under such conditions, proponents hold, trees go into overproduction of seeds as a way of ensuring survival, come spring

Whatever the cause, the harvest is ours to enjoy. 

Tennessee Archaeology: Arrowhead Show, Relic Hunters Highlight Rich Native American History

Tennessee has a rich heritage predating modern history, and it’s all around us, literally anywhere you look, right down to the dirt under your feet. 

Walk any plowed field after a spring rain, wander the shores of our lakes reservoirs, creeks and rivers, and you could  discover echoes of that past in the many stone tools, pottery and other items those people left behind.

I’ve been hooked ever since I stumbled across my first arrowhead in a walk across a field. Now, whenever I spy a patch of bare earth, I always scour the ground for a telltale shard of flint. Rarely , when out on a “hunt” have I failed to find some evidence of those who walked here before.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, Tennessee’s outstanding State Museum in Nashville has an excellent collection and section chronicling the local prehistory and prior cultures.p. If you’re up to something less formal, check out the relic  or “arrowhead shows”  held in various sites across the state throughout the year. This past weekend I stopped by the fall show at Baxter Elementary School in Baxter, TN in Putnam County.

It’s sponsored by the Volunteer State Archaeological Society, one of 19 state groups affiliated with the Central State Archaeological Societies 

These shows, usually free, give you a dirt under the fingernails intro to archaeology, as amateurs show off their collections, and share stories of their finds with anyone who will listen. The relics they’ve massed are often museum quality, and many are offered for sale. Displays this weekend included arrow and speak points, all types of tools, grinding stones and bowls, bone awls, beads, axe heads

It can be a fun way for a quick survey part of Tennessee history. Check the websites for next years show schedule.

World's Biggest Treehouse in Crossville

Tennessee has all sorts of hidden treasures. One well worth exploring is the world’s biggest treehouse, just off Interstate 40 in Crossville up on the Cumberland Plateau. 

Unfortunately,  the place was closed by the state fire marshall this past summer. We’re on watch for word of its re-opening. Below is my original review:

Tennessee has all sorts of hidden treasures, and this past weekend we explored one: the world’s biggest treehouse, just off Interstate 40 in Crossville up on the Cumberland Plateau.

Words and pictures can’t fully convey the marvel of what Horace Burgess has created at the end of Beehive Road there. Inspired by God, since 1993 he’s been working on this expansive complex built entirely of scrap and donated lumber on and around a towering white oak.  The house itself sprawls up and out in all directions, much like that massive tree.

It’s like a fun house on a grand scale with crooked, winding stairs, halls to nowhere, many rooms, layers of decks and ample seating throughout.  If you climb all the way to the top, you can ring the bells in the bell tower.

At center of this straggling complex is a chapel for pause and reflection of all one man has achieved with discarded materials. And, he’s opened this labor of love to all, free of charge.

If you go, bring a marker to show you’ve been there, and don’t miss the donation box where the winding stairs begin their climb along the tree. 

His generous spirit deserves a little support; if he asked, many would be more than willing to pay for the privilege of rambling though the treehouse

You can read an article and see some great shots here