A Cup Covered House, a Bridge, and a Movie Set

 

This is the House of Mugs in Collettsville, North Carolina.  The house sets at the dead-end of a long and windy mountain road completely off the beaten path.  The couple who own the house were not at home when we visited, so we did not have a chance to meet them.  As the story goes, they found a box of mugs nestled in amongst other items they purchased at a flea market over 15 years ago.  Having no real need of the coffee mugs, and on a whim, the owners decided to hang the cups on the exterior of the house as decoration.  Apparently there is no homeowner's association.

Today there are over 34,000 cups and mugs hanging all over the house, outbuildings, gates, and fencing.  The owners, both artists and collectors, have hung most of the cups themselves, but curious visitors are encouraged to leave a mug of their own.  We saw quite a few cups marked with the date it was placed and its state of origin.  

Henry River Mill Village

Hickory, North Carolina

My pictures are on top, movie pictures below.

Neither Katniss nor Peeta were around the day we visited.

The Henry River Mill Village was established in 1905 and was home to the Henry River Manufacturing Company, a cotton yarn manufacturer.  When the town was originally established, the company erected 35 worker houses, a two-story boarding house, a bridge, a brick company store (pictured above), a power-producing dam, and a three-story brick mill where the yarn was produced.  The village of Henry River was occupied almost exclusively by millworkers.  The company permanently closed in 1973 citing an inability to compete with the overseas textile industry.  S H O P    L O C A L ! ! !

Despite the mill being closed, residents of "Mill Hill" continued to live there.  The last known resident moved out sometime in the late '90s.

Fast forward to 2012.  Hollywood happened across the run-down village and thought it would serve as the perfect setting for the post-apocalyptic dystopia of District 12 featured in the film, The Hunger Games.  The movie was filmed in many different locations, but Henry River is the set used for filming the house where Katniss lived, and the bakery where Peeta lived and worked.  In 2017, a group of local residents came together and purchased the defunct town.  They have begun to refurbish and restore the original cabins.  Currently, they have one cabin available for rent.  

Hickory, NC, is a long drive from where we're camped, but both consort and I, and all three grandsons, thoroughly enjoyed the day.  We had a knowledgeable tour guide who was fun and entertaining.

We ended the day with a quick stop at the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge.  It was originally built in 1894 and is one of 220 lattice truss bridges remaining in the US.