The McCoy Farm and Gardens oral histories digital collection includes interviews regarding the history of McCoy Farm and Gardens and Walden Ridge located on Signal Mountain in Tennessee. The interviews offer insight into the lives of the Bachman and McCoy families and buildings and grounds on McCoy Farm and Gardens, including the arboretum and apple orchard. Interviewees detail mountain culture, historic mining and bootlegging industries on the ridge, and memories of artist, author, and naturalist Emma Bell Miles.
McCoy Farm and Gardens is a nonprofit organization located in Walden, Tennessee that aims to preserve the McCoy home which dates to the late 19th century. Senator Nathan L. Bachman purchased the property in 1912, and he and his wife, Pearl Duke Bachman enjoyed sharing their home with the community on Walden Ridge. Their daughter, Martha Bachman McCoy carried on her parents’ tradition of engaging with the local community by conveying her family’s farm to the town of Walden in 2004.
