The second visit of the second day of my Southern Campaign Weekend Road Trip was Kings Mountain State Park, adjacent to the Kings Mountain National Military Park. While not directly related to the American Revolution, it does feature a living history farm that represents how 18th/19th Century farm families lived. It’s interesting to compare and contrast the living history farm with the plantation at Rose Hill that I visited to start the trip. The yeoman class certainly lived a different life than the southern “aristocracy” did.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a living history event going on when I visited, but you could still walk around the farm and see the buildings and pasture. In addition to the farm house, barn, and pasture the farm also features a blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, smoke house, and cotton gin. I was also interested to see what I, as a coastal resident, thought was cane grinding apparatus, but it turned out to be sorghum grinding apparatus. Just like the cane grinding I’m familiar with that results in cane syrup, the process with sorghum seems to be very similar.

If you’re visiting the Kings Mountain National Battlefield, it’s well worth the very short drive over to the state park to visit the Living History Farm. It will give you an idea how the area’s yeoman farmers lived in a beautiful setting.