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| Mural in the Sycamore Shoals museum |
Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park is on the left as you
drive into Elizabethton. The park includes a museum/visitor center, a
reconstruction of the historic fort and a number of interpretive signs. The
people and State of Tennessee made the decision to rebuild this site because of
its significance.
The site is located downstream from where the Watauga and
Doe Rivers converge and was a natural meeting place. It was at this location in
1772 that the Watauga Association formed the first democratic society in the
state of Tennessee – this was a radical act prior to the Revolutionary War.
President Theodore Roosevelt said, “It was the first free and independent
community on the continent.”
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| One of the reconstructed buildings of the fort |
Three years later it is where the Treaty of Sycamore
Shoals was signed to purchase 20 million acres of Cherokee land for 10,000
British pounds. This is still the single largest private real estate
transaction in US history. In 1776 it is where the fort held off an attack by
the Cherokee that helped to end the campaign by the Cherokee to push the
settlers out of the region. Four years later the site is where men gathered to
fight the British in the Battle of King Mountain.
For all these reasons the site was designated a National
Landmark in 1965 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1974. The park opened in 1976.
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| One of the museum exhibits |
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| Kettles used to make gun powder |
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Each of the reconstructed buildings in the Fort have been
furnished to show what they were like inside |
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| This is where I camped that night |
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