The sawmill plank home has changed so little over 137 years, that when you walk in, it may not seem surprising to imagine Johnny Johnson sitting at the kitchen table.

He built the house for his future wife in 1881 and now, even after all the family names that came after him— Sherfy, Garrett, Newmann and currently McCutcheon— you might envision Johnny in one of the chairs he handcrafted, facing the wooden clothes press he also made.

The privately-owned John Hiram Johnson House is on the National Register of Historic Places, and for one day, Saturday, May 12, it’s on the insiders’ tour of Green River Cove and Holbert Cove, offered by the Polk County Historic Association Museum.

The coves, defined as a “small valleys between mountains” rather than “small inlets or bays along the seashore” are now off the beaten path.

Frances McCain, board member of the museum, has many stories of her youth in the coves. Her nostalgia was the organizing force in mapping the route.

The first stop after leaving the museum by van at 9:30 a.m. is a tour of the grounds of the private Mills-Screven Plantation, with its former slave quarters. Also known as the Hilltop, the home is one of the largest and most distinctive antebellum residences in western North Carolina.

Frances lived there as a girl, and while the tour will respect privacy of the current owners and not go inside, she can tell how it was.

The itinerary will include a mountaintop view of Green River Cove, and a meeting at Silver Creek Church with Susan Howell, who will share facts and suppositions about those buried there. She is daughter of Beauford Arledge, author of “The Stories of Green River Cove.”

Tour guests will visit the site of the fire that burned for over 150 years, a rock touched by the devil, a church where only women went inside while the men sat outside for the sermons and more.

The journey through history will end by the river for a brown bag picnic. The museum will provide chairs, cookies and beverages. Tour guests are invited to bring blankets and sandwiches, relax, and enjoy discussing what they have discovered.

Tickets can be purchased at The Book Shelf or Vines & Stuff in Tryon; Flower Cottage in Columbus; and at the Polk County Historical Association Museum, 60 Walker St., Columbus. The museum is open Tuesday or Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

– Submitted by Vincent Verrecchio