Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area (Tennessee)
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| Sycamore Shoals | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
| Location: | 2 mi. W of Elizabethton on the Watauga Rive |
| Nearest city: | Elizabethton, Tennessee |
| Designated as NHL: | July 19, 1964 |
| Added to NRHP: | October 15, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000721 |
| Governing body: | Tennessee State Parks |
The Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area is located in Carter County on U.S. Highway 321 in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Situated on the Watauga River, the seventy-acre park is approximately thirty miles from Interstate 81. From Exit 57 on I-81, take I-26 into Johnson City, Tennessee to Exit 24 (Old Exit 31), then take Highway 321/67 traveling approximately six miles into Elizabethton.
The Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area also includes the historic Carter Mansion that is found at a satellite location approximately three to four miles upstream on the banks of the Watauga River and on the Broad Street Extension on the eastern side of Elizabethton.
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[edit] Picnic pavilions
There are three handicapped accessible picnic shelters that can be reserved at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area. A picnic area with grills is also located beside the Visitor's Center.
[edit] Riverside walking trail
A 1.5-mile-loop graveled walking trail follows the course of the Watauga River, passing by the historic river crossing of the Overmountain Men from Rocky Mount.
[edit] Facilities
A spacious visitors' center at the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area houses:
- interpretive displays
- a theater offering free screenings of a short documentary film of the American Revolutionary War history pertaining to Sycamore Shoals and the Overmountain Men, as narrated by John Cullum (well-known to television audiences for his regular role as Holling Vincoeur on the quirky CBS series Northern Exposure)
- park offices
- a well-stocked bookstore and gift shop.
A reconstructed replica of Fort Watauga, based on historical and archeological research, stands behind the Visitors' Center, near the Watauga River.
[edit] Amphitheater
A 450-seat amphitheater at Sycamore Shoals is located immediately adjacent to both the fort and the Watauga River. The park area amphitheater is the site of the Official Outdoor Drama of the State of Tennessee, Liberty: The Saga of Sycamore Shoals" (and formerly billed as The Wataugans).
[edit] The Carter Mansion
Build between 1775 and 1780, the Carter Mansion may be the only remaining link to the Watauga Association and is the oldest frame house standing in Tennessee. John Carter and his son, Landon, built the frontier mansion, and the finely-detailed interior and over-mantle paintings place the mansion among the most significant historic houses in Tennessee.
John and Landon Carter were both prominent political and military affairs, serving during the American Revolution and several conflicts with Native Americans.When Tennessee was admitted into the United States in 1796, Carter County was named for Landon Carter, and the county seat of Elizabethton was named for his wife, Elizabeth Maclin Carter.
[edit] Historical significance of the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area
[edit] Colonial settlement: "...a defperate Body of Settlers"
In 1759, a young James Robertson accompanied explorer Daniel Boone on his third expedition to lands beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The party discovered the "Old Fields" (lands previously cultivated by generations of Native Americans) along the Watauga River valley at present day Elizabethton, in which Robertson planted corn while Boone continued on to Kentucky.
Robertson later returned to North Carolina, and married Charlotte Reeves in 1767. After the Battle of Alamance in 1771, many North Carolinians refused to take the new oath of allegiance to the Royal Crown and withdrew from the province. Instead of taking their new oath of allegiance, James Robertson led a group of some twelve or thirteen families involved with the Regulator movement from near where present day Raleigh, North Carolina now stands.
[edit] Watauga Association
In 1772, Robertson and the pioneers who had settled in Northeast Tennessee (along the Watauga River, the Doe River, the Holston River, and the Nolichucky River met at Sycamore Shoals to establish an independent regional government known as the Watauga Association.[1] However, in 1772, surveyors placed the land officially within the domain of the Cherokee tribe, who required negotiation of a lease with the Watauga settlers. Tragedy struck as the lease was being celebrated, when a Cherokee warrior was murdered by a white man. Robertson's skillful diplomacy made peace with the irate Native Americans, who threatened to expel the settlers by force if necessary.
[edit] American Revolution
Elizabethton (at Sycamore Shoals) was also the Fort Watauga site of the Transylvania Purchase. In March 1775, land speculator and North Carolina judge Richard Henderson met with more than 1,200 Cherokees at Sycamore Shoals, including Cherokee leaders such as Attakullakulla, Oconostota, and Dragging Canoe. In the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals (also known as the Treaty of Watauga), Henderson purchased all the land lying between the Cumberland River, the Cumberland Mountains, and the Kentucky River, and situated south of the Ohio River. The land thus delineated, 20 million acres (81000 km?), encompassed an area half as large as the present state of Kentucky. Henderson's purchase was in violation of North Carolina and Virginia law, as well as the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited private purchase of American Indian land. Henderson may have believed that a recent British legal opinion (the Camden-Yorke opinion) had made such purchases legal.
Before the Sycamore Shoals treaty, Henderson had hired Daniel Boone, an experienced hunter who had explored Kentucky, to travel to the Cherokee towns and inform them of the upcoming negotiations. Afterwards, Boone was hired to blaze what became known as the Wilderness Road, which went through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Along with a party of about thirty workers, Boone marked a path to the Kentucky River, where he established Boonesborough (near present-day Lexington, Kentucky), which was intended to be the capital of Transylvania. Other settlements, notably Harrodsburg, were also established at this time. Many of these settlers had come to Kentucky on their own initiative, and did not recognize Transylvania's authority. A Daniel Boone Trail historical marker is found just outside the downtown Elizabethton business district.
Early during the American Revolutionary War, Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals was commanded by Captain James Robertson and was attacked in 1776 by Dragging Canoe and his warring faction of Cherokee opposed to the Transylvania Purchase (also referred by settlers as the Chickamauga), and the surviving frontier fort on the banks of the Watauga River.
The Overmountain Men fought with the British at the Battle of Musgrave's Mill in South Carolina, and later, Fort Watauga served as the September 26, 1780 [2]staging area for the Overmountain Men who were preparing to trek over the Blue Ridge Mountains at Roan Mountain (Roan Highlands) to both engage, and later defeat, the British Army Loyalist forces and later at the Battle of Kings Mountain in North Carolina.
Prior to the American Revolutionary War very little gunpowder had been made in the United States; and, as a British Colony, most had been imported from Britain.[3] In October 1777, the British Parliament banned the importation of gunpowder into America.[3] Five hundred pounds of black powder was manufactured for the Overmountain Men by Mary Patton and her husband at their Gap Creek powder mill, and the Overmountain Men stored the Patton black powder on that first rainy night in a dry cave known as Shelving Rock that is located nearby the Roan Mountain State Park at present day Roan Mountain, Tennessee.[4] During January 1781, the Overmountain Men also fought the British at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina.
[edit] Annual events
- Traditional Arts Workshops, January-December
- Garrisons and Living History Weekends, January-December
- Sunday Jams at the Carter Mansion and the Shoals, January-October
- Mountain River Concerts, January-October
- Muster at Fort Watauga, May
- Native American Festival, June
- Colonial Kids Day Camp, June
- "Liberty: The Saga of Sycamore Shoals", The Official Outdoor Drama of the State of Tennessee, July
- Watauga Valley Art League Art Show and Competition, July
- Carter Mansion Celebration, August
- Celtic Festival, September
- Overmountain Victory Trail Celebration, September
- Fort Watauga Knap-In, October
- Mysterious Candlelight Tours of the Carter Mansion, October
[edit] Hours of operation
Visitors' center: Monday through Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, 1;00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
[edit] Contact information
Sycamore Shoals State Historical Area
1651 West Elk Avenue
Elizabethton, Tennessee 37643
Office: 423-543-5808
or
Tennessee State Parks
401 Church Street, 7th Floor
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Phone: 888-867-2757
EEO/AA Coordinator: 888-867-2757
ADA Coordinator: 615-532-0059
Tennessee Relay Service for the Hearing Impaired: 800-848-0298
www.tnstateparks.com
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.tcarden.com/tree/ensor/Watag.html "Watauga Petition". Ensor Family Pages.
- ^ U.S. National Park Service.
- ^ a b Brown, The Big Bang: A History of Explosives, p?
- ^ U.S. National Park Service.
