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Interview with Robert Proffit  [October 3, 1980]

Robert Proffit talks about Meat Camp's early history from the first settler John Green in 1788. Over the next few decades, people began to trickle in to Western North Carolina. He talks about the first churches in the area: Hopewell Methodist Church and Meat Camp Church. He also describes the civil war, how many members of the community enlisted with the confederate army, but after the war there wasn't much difference in Meat Camp. Proffit explains Meat Camp well with this statement: "there was never anything here to begin with except just natural things."

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In this interview father and son, Bea and Mike Hensley, talk about their occupation of blacksmithing. Bea and Mike explain different processes they used in their craft along with how they both got into the trade. They talk about their shop in Spruce Pine, North Carolina and then demonstrate how to forge metal and the way anvil language works. Mike and Bea also describe demonstrations they have done for universities and permanent displays they have in the Smithsonian. As a surprising piece of information, Daniel Boone passed on the trade that eventually both Bea and Mike learned through his ancestors.

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