Once in a while you just stumble upon cool things during your travels. Driving on a two-lane road in Tennessee recently, a baked bean can appeared in the distance and we just had to take a look!
A museum dedicated to beans wasn’t something on our vacation radar, but here we are… checking out the history of Bush’s Baked Beans! We were greeted with southern hospitality at the front door by a friendly grandmotherly woman who told us that the place we were standing was the original country market, owned by the Bush family from the early 1900’s. A.J. Bush started the cannery way back in 1908, in a place called Chestnut Hill, Tennessee. The business not only concentrated on beans, but canned tomatoes, peaches, blackberries, corn and other vegetables. Production had rapidly increased so much that A.J. and his sons invested in more equipment and trucks, eventually launching their own trucking line in 1962.
The mascot for Bush’s Baked Beans, Duke, appeared in many commercials and is prominent in their museum shop.
Connected to the visitor’s center is a restaurant with fabulous food, including of course, a wide variety of beans for side dishes.
This was an unexpected surprise for us and well worth the stop. It took less than an hour to look through the museum (which is FREE) and the gift shop. The restaurant pricing was very affordable, compared with restaurants in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
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Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133 