Apples grown at high elevations, with hot summer days and cool nights, were known to have the highest quality and flavor. The conditions were conducive to both production and storage. Arable lowlands for crops are hard to come by in Appalachia, but the Fergusons harnessed the advantages of the high elevation with open meadows, raising cows for butter and growing fruit for the local market. The apple trees that the Fergusons cultivated grew well in the cool mountain climate. While some of the land had been owned by John’s father and there is evidence that an earlier property owner had built a cabin, this was the first record of agricultural use. Ten years later, the Fergusons built a cabin and a barn and eventually cleared the land for agriculture and livestock. ![]() ![]() In 1874, John Love Ferguson acquired “Purchase Mountain” near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina for the cost of $447 and one horse. Missie King Oakley making apple butter at Twin Creeks, once a common sight in the Smoky Mountains in the fall, circa 1933.
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