The greatest natural talents are given to those who are willing to share them.

- Frank Vance -

The Mountain Medicine Room features a wide variety of artifacts relating to the medical care and physician practices in Avery and surrounding counties over the years.  Dr. Emma Sloop Fink began this collection by donating many of the items used by her parents, Dr. Eustace Sloop and Dr. Mary Martin Sloop.  The Sloop's were instrumental in turning Crossnore into a medical, educational and cultural center.  Once called the Sloop Exhibit, the Mountain Medicine Room now includes exhibits on other doctors, midwives and herbal remedies.  Artifacts include the sidesaddle that carried "Mrs." Dr. Sloop on her medical rounds through the County.  Samples of medicinal plants (ginseng, bloodroot and others), photographs, medical instruments, old bottles of medicine and much more fill the room.

Dr. Ebenezer Childs

(1764- 1862)

One display at the Avery Museum tells the story of Dr. Ebenezer Childs, the first known doctor in the County.   "Doc Childs" was both a physician and a surgeon.  Prior to the Civil War, he lived in the town of Childsville near where the Avery County Airport sits today.  He had a set of old medical saddlebags, which were much used by him on his long rides over rough and mountainous  country roads.  It is told that in his later years, he frequently fell asleep on his homeward trips, and that his faithful horse would bring him safely back to the stable door, where he would quietly stand until the Doctor awakened.

Doc Childs died from hardships during the Civil War.  Not wishing to be buried in the isolation of the mountains he was temporarily interred high on a mountain on his farm at Childsville in an above ground stone and dirt mausoleum called "The Tomb.  His burial is legendary in the mountains for he was placed in a lead lined coffin filled with whiskey to preserve him until the War was over and he could be moved to Lincolnton for proper burial.  The historian, Horton Cooper, wrote that "when Dr. Childs body was removed from the "Tomb" preparatory to sending it to Lincoln County for burial, the whiskey-filled lead coffin was opened and it was found that the body was well preserved, only a blue mold having formed on the face."