A great part of the Great Smokies story is the story of men and women making their homes in these wooded eastern mountains. With few tools and even fewer manufactured fixtures and fasteners, pioneers settled in and became mountaineers. Industry—hard work, that is—and ingenuity came in handy. Many aspects of these traits are illustrated in this section through historic photographs of men and women going about their business in the Smokies. It was not all hard work, but even the play often exhibited these folk’s ingenuity in turning the things of field and forest into implements of recreation. For more insight into the lives of Smokies people, see the National Park Service book, _Highland Homeland: The People of the Great Smokies_, by Wilma Dykeman and Jim Stokely. It is sold in the park visitor centers and by mail (see “Armchair Explorations” on page 125). [Illustration: Fitting barrel to stock] [Illustration: _Chiseling a tub mill wheel_] [Illustration: _Coopering_] [Illustration: Interior of a mill] [Illustration: Hauling wood] [Illustration: Beekeeping] [Illustration: Rolling sorghum cane] [Illustration: Repairing a hauling sled] [Illustration: Splitting shingles] [Illustration: Hog butchering] [Illustration: Scrubbing a hide] [Illustration: Shaving barrel staves] [Illustration: Gunsmithing] [Illustration: Basket weaving] [Illustration: Blacksmithing] [Illustration: Mountain laundry] [Illustration: Churning butter] [Illustration: Carding wool] [Illustration: Weaving yarn into cloth] [Illustration: Ginning cotton] [Illustration: Making baskets] [Illustration: Wash day] Oconaluftee [Illustration: Pioneer Farmstead] What kind of people were the Smokies pioneers? Part of the answer awaits you at the Pioneer Farmstead next to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the North Carolina side of the park. The farmstead buildings suggest an independent people who were hardworking, laboring spring, summer, and fall to prepare for the coming winter. This is a typical Southern Appalachian pioneer farm. The life style of earlier years is demonstrated by people in period dress here from May through October. A few animals roam the farm-yard and the garden produces traditional crops. In the fall sorghum cane may be pressed to make sorghum molasses. Inside the cabin—you can poke your head through its open doors and windows—traditional breads may be baking, or a quilt be patching, or wool a-spinning. And don’t forget to notice the fieldstone chimneys, the squared logs’ careful notchings, and the handsplit wooden “shakes” up on the roof. [Illustration: Field work]