The Story Behind the Cabin

Dot and her husband Bob were living in Beltsville, Maryland and working at the USDA. Dot was studying methods of sterilizing cannabis seeds and enjoying time working with Dr. Duke, herbalist extraordinaire and author The Green Pharmacy and Dr. Duke’s Essential Herbs. His work at the USDA culminated in Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical databases that contain in-depth plant, chemical, bioactivity, and ethnobotany information pertinent to pharmaceutical, nutritional, and biomedical research, as well alternative therapies and herbal product research. Needless to say, Dot was more than inspired by Dr. Duke and her botany work and moved to West Virginia as a back-to-the-lander around 1975. she began learning the ways of the land and how to grow and use herbs, from her older neighbors on Smoke Camp Road. She started a small business out of the 1800s cabin on her farm. That cabin is still standing at the end of Smoke Camp Road and it's still featured in Smoke Camp Crafts’ logo. Dot had wide ranging interests and immense creative capacity, as reflected by the hundreds of products in her product line. Dot also published a book called “Modern Uses of Traditional Herbs.”