Shop and learn: CCPA Craft and History Fair begins today

Unique items produced by local small businesses, books by local authors and a good dose of history will be available today and Saturday, April 26-27, at the Cades Cove Museum/Historic Thompson-Brown House in Maryville as the Cades Cove Preservation Association hosts its annual Craft and History Fair. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day on the museum grounds, 1004 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, near the Blount County Justice Center and Blount Memorial Hospital.

Gloria Motter, director of the Cades Cove Museum, said 31 booths with vendors, crafters with a wide variety of handmade products and several local authors will be on site. In addition, food will be available for purchase, and the Cades Cove Museum will be open. Admission is free for both the Craft and History Fair and the museum, which houses an extensive collection of artifacts from Cades Cove.

Vendors, crafters, authors

“Every booth will have very reasonable prices,” Motter said. “We have several new vendors and crafters this year. Children and adults who love cotton candy will be happy to see a booth by Penny Cherryberry, and Kaitlin Persnell will hold demonstrations of chainsaw art both days and have chainsaw art for sale. Rick Riley will have beautiful cedar items for home décor and outside.” In addition, Michael Mason will have plasma and metal home décor, Brown House Apothecary will sell candles and car scents, and Gentry Farms will have lotions and soaps.

Shoppers will find a good variety of handcrafted products, including wood crafts and quilted items, crocheted items, Native American-inspired jewelry, other jewelry, muscadine jelly, custom décor and vinyl work, pottery, custom-made dog and cat clothing, string art, wreaths, log cabin lamps and more. A complete list of vendors and merchandise can be found on the Cades Cove Preservation Association Facebook page.

“Each one is unique because they are handcrafted items like in the good old days, and there is something for any occasion,” Motter said. “Plus, this is helping local artisans and their families.”

Local authors Bernard Myers, Dorothy Gregory Sutton, Stanford Johnson and Lin and J.L. Stepp will have their books for sale. Myers will have copies of “A Kid from Cades Cove” Saturday only. Sutton is the author of “Cades Cove Teachers and Schools;” Johnson is the author of “Our Little Secret,” set in Tuckaleechee Cove, and coauthor with Richard Way of “At the Dead Hours of Midnight: A Bloody Reign of Terror in the Great Smoky Mountains.” Lin Stepp is a New York Times bestselling author of romance books set in East Tennessee and North Carolina. Her latest releases are “Shop on the Corner” and “Light in the Dark.” She and her husband, J.L., have written several guidebooks, including “The Afternoon Hiker,” “Discovering Tennessee State Parks,” “Exploring South Carolina State Parks” and the latest, “Visiting North Carolina State Parks.”

Information booths on Leaf Guard, Renewal by Andersen and Blount County Animal Welfare Society (BCAWS) will also be on site.

Food will be available beginning at 11 a.m. each day until sold out. Motter said, “Friday’s menu is a thick, grilled bologna sandwich with a drink and a bag of chips, and the Saturday menu will be a grilled hamburger or hotdogs with drinks and chips. The cost is $13.” CCPA Public Relations Officer Jim Motter will be the chef. Proceeds will benefit work projects in Cades Cove.

Preserving history

Motter said CCPA began the Craft and History Fair three years ago.

“Donations from the vendor spaces go directly for the repairs needed on the 244-year-old log house, home to the Cades Cove Preservation Association and Cades Cove Museum,” she said. “We all enjoy seeing old friends and making new ones. It gives folks a chance to see the Cades Cove artifacts and we get to tell the human history.

“Our events help to preserve the human history of our beloved Cades Cove with work projects that our great volunteers perform in the Cove. Also, it is helping to preserve one of Blount County’s treasures that houses the Cades Cove artifacts and memorabilia. We have the largest collection of Cades Cove items in the world. It’s also a chance for folks to talk to former Cades Cove residents, and I guess it’s another way to honor those who gave up so much for the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”

The Thompson-Brown House is believed to have been constructed in the first quarter of the 19th century by William Thompson. The Rev. William Beard Brown purchased the home in 1867. Blount County now owns the historic property and leases it to the nonprofit Cades Cove Preservation Association with an agreement allowing CCPA to fund vital repairs to preserve and protect the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Repairs meet guidelines from the National Register and must be approved by Blount County Mayor Ed Mitchell.