“It’s wonderful to really experience for yourself some of the things that our great grandparents actually lived,” Hill said as she pulled a hot cake of cornbread from the fire.

Hill was among many women adorned in period dress that gathered at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on June 20 for the annual Women’s Work Festival, where re-enactors perform chores that were the responsibility of women pioneers.

Hill was demonstrating the art of hearth baking in a Dutch oven, a small oven placed over an open fire that was used to bake treats such as cornbread, yeast loaf bread, cinnamon roles, and apple pies.  

“When you live in a region, it’s nice to know something about it,” she said. 

Park ranger Lynda Doucette, who was supervising the event, said it is important to preserve mountain traditions. 

“We are interested in looking more at the process than the products,” she said. “If you can’t remember your past, you can’t live on to the future … It’s important to remember where we come from and how we got here.”  

The other demonstrators echoed similar sentiments.  

Hannah Reed, a volunteer of 25 years, talked as she made lye soap over a fire.

“It makes me feel closer to my family,” she said. “There’s not a time that we (make soap) that I don’t think of my mother.” 

Gee Phillips, a volunteer since 1992, was born and raised on a farm in east Tennessee and actually lived many of the things that were demonstrated at the festival. 

“This is my early childhood,” she said. “[Making soap] brings back childhood memories.”