I'd gone purely for the music. Each autumn the Museum of Appalachia hopes the three-day Tennessee Fall Homecoming, a festival that showcases bluegrass and old-time - and mountain crafts. After tasting a little donkey-milled sorghum (sweet, odd aftertaste), I headed to the main exhibition barn to look around. It included an extraordinary number of axes, a huge dead hornet's nest, and the creepy wooden dolls pictured above. I was sold.
The Museum's more than just this indoor collection - it's a whole village of original mountain cabins (Mark Twain's included), schoolhouses, outhouses and even a small wooden chapel where services are still held, and shape notes sung, every week. A fascinating and hands-on insight into the life of the pioneer mountain dwellers. Just keep an eye on those dolls.