THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Unicoi Turnpike
The Unicoi
Turnpike was an
old road that played prominently in the early days of settlement of
Union and
Towns Counties, and, indeed, as a trade route in parts of Tennessee,
North
Carolina and Georgia prior to the settling of the mountain region by
whites. The historical marker that
designates the
road is at GPS reading N 34� 41.209` W 083� 42.616` in White
County,
Georgia. The message on the marker
states:
The
Unicoi
Turnpike
This road is
the Old Unicoi Turnpike, first
vehicular route to link East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and
North
Georgia with the head of navigation on the Savannah River system. Beginning on the Tugalo River, to the east of
Toccoa, the road led this way, thence through Unicoi Gap and via
Murphy, N. C.
to Nine Mile Creek near Maryville, Tenn.
Permission to
open the way as a toll road was
given by the Cherokees in 1813 to a Company of Indians and white men. Tennessee and Georgia granted charters to the
concern.
Prior to its
establishment as a road, the trace
was part of a trading path from Augusta to the Cherokees in East
Tennessee.
Georgia
Historical Marker
Marker @ GHM
154-1R Date:
2003
In recent
correspondence
with Mr. Carey Waldrip, a history buff (as am I) and member of the
Towns County
Historical Society, he announced that Saturday, November 12, 2011 has
been
designated as Unicoi Turnpike Day in
Towns County. Plans are to meet at any
time between 9:00 and 12:00 noon on that date at the Unicoi Gap Parking
Lot (GA
Hwy 17/75). Hiking directions will be
given for those who wish to walk the remnant of the old Unicoi
Turnpike, a
rough, sunken road from the Gap that leads for two miles northward into
Towns
County. Mr. Waldrip warns that people
should come prepared for a rugged hike, with good walking shoes, and
bright hat
and jacket, “because it is hunting season.”
Another feature of the Unicoi Turnpike Day will be a lecture
beginning
at 9:00 a. m. by Dr. Paul Arnold of Young Harris College who will speak
on the
subject of “Geocaching.” Those who have
a hand-held GPS instrument should bring it for the lecture session.
Now
to more history on the Unicoi Turnpike:
In the September-October, 2008 issue of the Sautee-Nacoochee
Community
Association Newsletter, some of the history of the Unicoi Turnpike was
given. Dr. Tom Lumsden, a resident of the
Nacoochee
Valley and one who strongly works to preserve history, stated that the
Unicoi
Turnpike Trail was originated by “engineers with four feet.” Even prior to the Indians’ use of the trail
as a footpath, large mammals went from eastern Tennessee to the
piedmont and
coastal plains of North and South Carolina as they migrated for the
winter
months and returned along the same route in the spring.
Since the trail was already there, cut through
the forest by migrating animals, the Indians began to use it as a trade
and
migratory route as well. The route was
seen as useful for trade, and from 1813 through 1817 a company headed
by a Mr.
Russell Wiley began at Mullin’s Ford on the Tugalo River and began to
improve
the trail across the top of North Georgia, into western North Carolina
proceeding to Murphy, and then northwestward to Vonore, Tennessee on
the Little
Tennessee River.
With
improvements on the turnpike, it was turned into a toll road for
freight
wagons. From Augusta in Georgia to
Knoxville in Tennessee the toll road continued to operate until after
the Civil
War. Drovers went over the road with
hogs, cattle, turkeys and other livestock along the trail.
I have heard my grandfather, Francis Jasper
Collins, tell of taking a “drove of turkeys” along the Turnpike from
Choestoe
near Blairsville all the way to Augusta.
I could not envision how the drovers managed to keep the turkeys
on
trail and on task, and often wish I had been old enough when I heard
him tell
his stories of the turkey drives (and sometimes live cattle and sheep)
to ask
about particulars. I do remember his
saying that the turkeys roosted in trees at night as the horses and men
camped
beneath them. Then early in the
morning
the turkeys would be fed from corn in the wagons and started on the
next trek
of the long journey. Also, at places
along the Unicoi Turnpike were inns and rest stops, places where the
men could
get cooked meals and spend the night.
These were sometimes at about fifteen-mile intervals. But not
all the
trail from Tennessee through North Carolina and Georgia had the
convenience of
inns for rest stops.
The
Unicoi Turnpike Trail was more than just a path. It
became the thoroughfare over which our
ancestors moved from South or North Carolina into North Georgia, many
arriving
before the Cherokee were ousted from the mountain lands.
People, events, and places along the ancient
trail are a part of our history.
If
you should plan to attend the Unicoi Turnpike Day on November 12, 2011,
and
walk a portion of the still discernible trail, you will be treading on
ground
almost sacred to the memory of a hardy people seeking a better way of
life. Next week we will examine some
more history of the Unicoi Turnpike—a “trail through time.”
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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