Monday, November 28, 2011

Sherwood Tennessee - Part 1

After leaving the Templeton Library on Saturday afternoon we headed back to Hwy 56, turned right, bypassed the Natural Bridge that I had visited only the day before, and headed down the winding two lane road that would take us down the back side of the mountain.
When I found this area the other day I had left the Natural Bridge and driven down the mountain intending to only explore this new-to-me area for a short while.
I hoped (and assumed) that once I got off the mountain I would hit a road that would lead me to I-24 Interstate or (at the very least) a secondary road that would circle me back towards Cowan or Winchester.
I found neither one of those things.
What I did find though were these buildings.
My camera battery had died right in the middle of my explorations at the Natural Bridge so I could not take any pictures of these unknown buildings at the time.
Thankfully my Mountain Boy was curious enough to want to drive this way again the next day and inspect the buildings for himself.
This series of buildings are located in the very small community of Sherwood.
I saw many homes on a regular basis, a post office and a school.
There are no stores or any other obvious businesses in this community with the exception of one...............
On this large piece of property (nestled in the middle of cow pastures and surrounding hills and quiet residences) was not only these old, architecturally beautiful but dilapidated buildings, but also one small trailer.
The kind of trailer that you see set up as working offices on construction sites.
Although the old buildings are no longer part of the operation it appears that Sherwood Mining Company is an active working mine that will soon be expanding its operations locally:

After hours of exploring lakes and retreats and fancy libraries I was still game for more.
I had been enthralled with these buildings as I bypassed them the day before, and now that LC and I were at this place again (and my camera was fully charged) I wanted to really take a good look around.
There were signs everywhere warning people to stay out because the buildings were unsafe.
I took them at their word and kept my distance...........
While researching the buildings I found this link.
It answers many questions about the site and provides other links to the history of this hugely interesting place that is located in the middle of nowhere (including old pictures of when the mine was in full operation in the late 1800's into the mid 1900's).
I had to laugh at the first sentence in the link though.
It begins "I took a wrong turn at the Tennessee Alabama line..........."
I could definitely relate :-)
A picture taken from the gravel driveway of the mining company...........
Heading further down 56 LC plugged in the GPS believing that we would find a road somehow and somewhere that would lead us back towards home without having to either cross over into Alabama or go back the way we had come.
We were firmly entrenched in farming country.
Beautiful green fields, cows, horses, surrounded by tree-filled hills and low mountains.
It was a lovely area and (as I have a thousand times since arriving back in Tennessee) I wondered again how this area could be so close to home and I did not know it was here.............

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