The Nantahala River: A History & Guide

By Lance Holland

Most everyone who comes to western North Carolina has heard of the Nantahala, but few know its history. Long before it was a mecca for rafters and thrill seekers, it was traveled by naturalists and explorers from William Bartram to John C. Frémont. After the Cherokees were driven out, settlers arrived and began exporting the wealth of the mountains in the form of timber, talc and minerals. Tourists arrived on the Western Turnpike soon after, and the railroad brought more around 1890. The federal government began purchasing land for the new Nantahala National Forest, and the need for aluminum to fight World War II precipitated the construction of Fontana Lake and Nantahala Lake. Local author Lance Holland has crafted an enlightening and entertaining narrative history of this unique region.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781439670774

Lance Holland

Lance Holland is a man of varied talents: backcountry guide, builder, author of Fontana: A Pocket History of Appalachia and coauthor of Hiking Trails of the Smokies. He worked for twenty years as a location manager/scout for motion pictures. Lance produced and directed the historic documentary films Nantahala: Land of the Noonday Sun and Hiking on Hazel Creek. He lives in the Stecoah community in the heart of the western North Carolina mountains and established the Southern Appalachian History Center in Bryson City, North Carolina.

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Sun

INTRODUCTION

I grew up in East Lake, an enjoyable neighborhood barely five miles from the center of the then sleepy southern city of Atlanta. A part of the Civil War battle of Atlanta was fought in our neighborhood. Occasionally, while playing football, particularly in Jim Ripley’s backyard, a contestant would land on a newly surfaced Minié ball or some other debris left over from the hostilities. We all took the field trips to the Cyclorama and Stone Mountain and experienced other reminders of that war. Automatically, the study of history became as much a part of our childhoods as our bicycles. Also, in our neighborhood was what some people might call a coppice of woods. A pleasant stream ran through this little oasis. We called it the Swamp. While considering the prospects of writing this book, those times came to mind. The Swamp and the war instilled in me a desire to seek wild places and figure out what happened there before I arrived.

The Cherokee name Nantahala roughly translates to Land of the Noon Day Sun. The designation comes from the narrow lower gorge’s geographic orientation; running south to north, allowing the sun to reach the valley floor only during midday. The geographic location and geological composition of the river valley has affected it more than its orientation.

Horace Kephart, writing in the early 1900s, referred to the neighboring Fontana area, particularly Hazel Creek, as the back of beyond. Fontana’s rugged terrain and isolated location made it worthy of the label—and it still is today. The Nantahala area, equally or even more rugged, was closer to populated areas and provided a slot of passage through high mountains between settled areas. Nantahala was also endowed with natural resources and ripe for exploitation. The wildlife, minerals, timber and water all provided livelihoods and commerce to inhabitants and outlanders from Indians to rafting entrepreneurs. I sometimes refer to it as the land of the noon day opportunity.

The Nantahala has been called Eastern America’s Favorite River. Swain County Chamber of Commerce.

I have enjoyed working as everything from a logger to a moviemaker and was usually asked to guide someone to something. Twenty years as a location scout for film projects resulted in my approach for this book. Even though I have lived near the Nantahala for almost forty years, produced a documentary film about it and wrote a book about the area just downstream, I knew there were hidden gems still to be found. The best way for me to find them is to thoroughly scout the area, and I invite you to come along.

PART I

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

AT FIRST

Evy Liebfarth and Wasseton had a lot in common. Both grew up around the Nantahala River and did big things as young teenagers. Evy started paddling a kayak on the Nantahala when she was seven years old under the tutelage of her father, Lee. He was a U.S. Junior National Team coach and a former national whitewater slalom team member. In April 2018, Evy took first place in the junior women’s and women’s kayak races at the U.S. Slalom Team Trials. The top three finishers in these races determine the members of the National Team. That team represents the United States in the Olympics and other competitions. At fourteen, Evy was too young to claim her seat on the team this time but will have other chances before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Wasseton took part in what James Mooney called a tragedy that may well exceed in weight of grief and pathos any other passage in American history. The tragedy was the removal of the Cherokees from their homeland, resulting in the Trail of Tears. Mooney recorded the information he gleaned from the lips of actors in the tragedy between 1887 and 1890 in his Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. Wasseton was one of the actors whom Mooney interviewed, basing much of his version of the episode on him. This version is the most popular rendition and the one the outdoor drama Unto These Hills has told every summer since 1950 in Cherokee, North Carolina. Wasseton’s father, Tsali, was the star of the show. We will further explore this pivotal time later.

Olympic hopeful Evy Leibfarth readies for competition in Bratislava, Slovakia. Jean Folger.

The adventures of these two young people are representative of the dynamic vitality of the Nantahala. The entire river was captured millions of years ago and forced to flow into the Little Tennessee River (Little T) forty miles upstream from where it once did. Some of it was captured again in 1942 and forced to abandon eight miles of its original stream bed. The sweeter soils in the Blowing Springs area, laden with the mineral hornblende gneiss, produce one of the showiest spring wildflower displays in all of Appalachia. The Cherokee town of Nantahala Town was decisively involved in the Trail of Tears and made partially responsible for the Cherokees who were allowed to remain in their homeland. Locomotive whistles signaled the beginning of serious commercial utilization of the watershed. Nantahala Dam provided vital electrical power to produce aluminum for aircraft and help win World War II. The Nantahala is the most popular whitewater river in America.

I feel that history could have happened 3 million years ago, three hundred years ago or three days ago. Let’s start with 3 million or so years ago. Arthur Keith was exploring western North Carolina for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1904. He had probably noticed the distinct ninety-degree bend in the Nantahala River near Beechertown (today the location of the powerhouse and raft put-in) on the maps of the day and became curious. Upon field examination, he determined that something extraordinary had happened here. He concluded that at this location, the river originally ran straight through Tulula Gap (sometimes Tallulah) and followed the course of present-day Tulula Creek through present-day Robbinsville and the Cheoah River to flow into the Little T at the site of Cheoah Dam. But a small stream eroding back through the soft limestone abducted the main flow, causing the sharp right turn. The increased water flow in the new channel accelerated the erosion, creating the precipitous gorge we have today. It’s interesting to note that after re-licensing of Santeetlah Dam and periodic water releases of the Cheoah River into its original stream bed, the Cheoah is a far more dramatic whitewater paddle than the Nantahala.

Similar to most of western North Carolina, the geologic recipe of the Nantahala basin is akin to vegetable soup. Slates, schists, quartz, mica, garnet, staurolite and other rocks appropriately referred to as conglomerate all go into the mix. Several small slate quarries producing building stone dot tributary streams, particularly Silvermine Creek just out the back door of the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). There was a railroad siding for loading this valuable commodity across the river from the mouth of the creek before NOC acquired the property to accommodate expanded raft rentals. Nantahala Talc and Limestone’s large quarry at Hewitt, in the center of the lower gorge, is the largest operation on the river. It is the oldest continually operated quarry in North Carolina, started in its present incarnation around 1890, even though there is evidence of commercial mining there as early as 1850. The first materials produced were marble, talc and limestone, but the main product now is crushed stone for roads and other construction.

Many geologically minded folks have marveled at the exposed skeleton of the mountain over the years. Before giant trucks hauled road stone from giant quarries, someone had to build the first roads. To accomplish this, small quarries were established along the route where suitable rock could be found. Portable crushers were employed to render the gravel, and often horse-drawn wagons transported it to the worksite. The observant eye can spot these little sites of industry alongside many mountain roads. A vertical face of weathered rock perhaps thirty feet high decorated with the telltale half-pipe of the bore holes confirm an old quarry. The other half of the shaft left with the blasted rock. At first, the holes were made with a sledgehammer and a long chisel called a drill steel. Next came a charge of black powder, later replaced by nitroglycerin-soaked sawdust. Even later, much safer and more powerful stick dynamite was used. Also later, the hammer and steel were replaced with steam drills reminiscent of the song about John Henry. Nowadays, long arm track hoes equipped with hydraulic drills make the holes, which are filled with diesel fuel–soaked ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Not as romantic and no song.

These little quarries are often pleasant and interesting places to visit, but care should be taken to avoid unstable rock. Lichens, mosses, liverworts and ferns usually adorn the rock face. A few are used by rock climbers for rappelling practice. One of my favorites is alongside the Old River Road off Wayah Road in the upper gorge. It has the entire flora and a spring of clear, cold water emanating from the base of the face. There is a nice primitive riverside campsite across the road.

To make a river in the southern Appalachian Mountains, you start with rain. Very little of it falls directly into the water course, and almost none runs off the forest floor except during heavy rains on saturated ground. Man-made structures such as roads channel some directly to a stream, but most of the water in the Nantahala is the result of percolation. The rain falls onto the forest litter and is filtered to the soil. The soil further filters it to the underlying permeable rock. The filtering continues on its downward course through the rock to a fissure called the water table. The wandering water table occasionally intersects with the surface to create a spring. These springs can be a wet spot, a seep, a trickle, a small flow or a bold eruption. The Blowing Spring alongside Highway 19/74 in the lower gorge is one of the boldest in the southern Appalachians. After a rainy spell, when the water table is full, it can emanate a flow equal to an eight-inch diameter pipe. This spring can only be safely observed from the passenger seats of a passing car. There is no close pull-off and minimal road shoulder. It is unsafe to look away from the road at any time while driving in the gorge.

Old River Road quarry. Notice the vertical half-pipe bore hole in the center of the photo. Lance Holland.

The Nantahala River’s source is several high-elevation springs near Moody Gap and the Appalachian Trail. These spring branches merge with others to form Moody Creek. A few miles down the mountain, Moody joins Laurel Branch to form the Nantahala River proper. A trail from FS road #67 (Standing Indian Campground Road) provides access to this spot. Part of this trail is along the old Ritter Lumber Company Railroad grade. Some of the original crossties are still in place along the trail. The Nantahala empties into Fontana Lake, which prior to 1944 was the Little Tennessee River. The Little T is impounded by man-made dams almost all the way to its intersection with the Tennessee River. The Tennessee is a major feeder of the Ohio River, which flows into the mighty Mississippi. Those drops of water that bubbled up in a small spring near Moody Gap high in the Nantahala Mountains finally join the Gulf of Mexico at the southern tip of Louisiana.

All this water has affected everything about the Nantahala watershed. First, it sculpted the land itself, creating valleys, silted bottomlands and the climactic gorges before emptying into the Little Tennessee River, now Fontana Lake. Noted biologists and foresters refer to the headwater section as a temperate rain forest, receiving more than sixty inches of rainfall each year. The resulting abundant and diverse plant life fosters bountiful animal residents, contributing to the success of the first humans about twelve thousand years ago. Modern man has reaped the bounty of agriculture, minerals, timber and waterpower. Finally, the water has powered a multimillion-dollar outdoor adventure industry. The Nantahala River has been and continues to be a lot of big things to a lot of people.

Cherokees sometimes referred to a river as the long man, with his head in the mountains and his feet in the sea. To the Cherokees and the first Anglo-Americans living in or traveling through the Nantahala region, there were two men involved. The leading man was the Little Tennessee River (Little T), as it was the main route of movement for the Cherokees and the Indian people who preceded them. The second was the Nantahala—the more remote, rugged and lofty of the two.

When Europeans first penetrated the back country of southeastern America, the Cherokee settlements could be grouped into three areas. The folks from the lower towns in north Georgia and South Carolina traveled up the Savannah River, overland to the headwaters of the Little T and then downstream to the middle towns at Nikwasi (Franklin) and around its confluence with the Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee and Nantahala. From there, the journey followed the Little T through the gap between the Unaka and Smoky Mountains or overland through Cheoah (Robbinsville) to the overhill towns in the foothills of east Tennessee. This travel was both by dugout canoe and on foot via well-worn trails.

The Nantahala and the Little Tennessee Rivers were like brothers. They run roughly parallel, being divided by a high ridge topped with a significant north–south trail now known as the Appalachian Trail. They were connected by cross trails through both Wayah Gap (Wayah Road) and Winding Stair Gap (U.S. Highway 64.) Most of the early explorers and traders starting in Charleston, South Carolina, and heading west toward and across the main Appalachian Divide made their way via the Little Tennessee. William Bartram, the famous flower finder, followed this route in 1775 to the town of Cowee near present-day Franklin, where he encountered, and wrote about in his book Travels, young and innocent Cherokee virgins staining their lips and cheeks with strawberries while disclosing their beauties to the fluttering breeze. The best-preserved Indian mound in the middle region is at Franklin (Nikwasi). It is generally accepted that the Cherokees did not build earthen mounds but rather inhabited these landscape improvements, built basketful by basketful by Indian people who preceded them.

The Little Tennessee River watershed encompasses all the land drained by the Nantahala, Tuckasegee, Oconaluftee, Cheoah and Tellico Rivers. The most intensive archaeological study in the region was done between 1967 and 1981 by the University of Tennessee on 34,444 acres of bottomlands and uplands. The study area was around the confluence of the Little T and Tellico Rivers and represented more than twelve thousand years of occupation. The study was undertaken in preparation for the impoundment of Tellico Lake, which would cover 14,400 of these acres in the most controversial episode of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) drowning prime farmland and archaeological sites on record.

The results of this study were published in Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Little Tennessee River Valley by R.P. Stephen Davis Jr. and can be generally applied to the Nantahala River watershed. Remnants from the Paleo-Indian (11,000–8,500 BC), Archaic (8,500–1,000 BC), Woodland (1,000 BC–AD 800), Mississippian (AD 800–1600) and Historic (AD 1600–1838) phases were found during excavations. These archaeological or cultural phases and time frames were defined by specific projectile point types and ceramic types.

The first visiting humans to wander into the Nantahala River watershed had probably been living a bit north of the region, maybe for generations. They might have been looking for food or possibly escaping or seeking an enemy. Maybe they were just exploring, as visiting humans tend to do. The general definition of a watershed is an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water, such as a larger river, a lake or an ocean. My old friend George Ellison likes to refer to a watershed as a giant catchment basin. I like to call the basin that forms the Nantahala River simply the Nantahala country.

The Cherokee emerged as a distinct culture after splitting from the Iroquoian people and migrating south from the Great Lakes region. They brought the language with them. The language has evolved, and a few linguistics experts doubt the Iroquoian lineage. Several versions of their original name exist, such as Aniyvwiya and Tsalagi, but it is generally accepted that they referred to themselves as the Principal People. The tribe originally claimed lands in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

De Soto discovers the Mississippi River. W.H. Powell, 1868.

Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his six-hundred-man expedition passed through Cherokee country in 1540. His exact route has been the source of much scholarly debate. A few folks around Murphy, North Carolina, argue that the expedition force passed through that area, but the present official thinking is that their contact with the Cherokees was farther east. Another group of gold-seeking Spaniards led by Juan Pardo did skirt the Nantahala area in 1567. There is strong evidence that his group camped near the Cherokee town of Kituwah on the banks of the Tuckasegee River two miles upstream from present-day Bryson City. According to James Mooney, the English first had contact with the Cherokees in 1654. James Needham and Gabriel Arthur, traders from the Virginia colony, arrived in the overhill town of Chota on July 15, 1673. Their trading venture was not as successful as they had hoped, but Arthur stayed on with the Cherokees at Chota for about a year. He accompanied Cherokee hunting and raiding parties throughout the Southeast, so it is possible that Gabriel Arthur was the first Englishman to pass through the Nantahala area.

Needham and Arthur were not able to establish the trade pipeline to Virginia, but the Cherokees must have seen merit in their plan. They strongly believed in a natural balance of things; although they had previously only hunted for food and skins for clothing, they were quickly caught up in the commerce of the day. By 1700, a regular flow of trade goods from the Cherokees such as animal hides, beeswax and bear oil was arriving in Charleston, South Carolina, for export to England. Much of this trade probably followed the trusty Little T and its tributaries. English export records show that in 1708 about fifty thousand deerskins were shipped annually from Charleston, and by 1735, more than 1 million whitetail deer had given their all for mother England.

My favorite outlander of this period was Sir Alexander Cuming. He was a Scotsman who has been characterized as a promoter, showman, diplomat, con man, genius and fool. Cuming and a small entourage left Charleston in March 1730; he also had a plan. He met with regional chiefs all around Cherokee country, probably including Nantahala Town. Next he arraigned a big rendezvous at the council house atop the mound at Nikwasi. Most of the chiefs and headmen showed up and were reportedly quite taken with the audacious Scotsman. At Cuming’s request, they knelt and acknowledged King George II as their ruler. The next part of the plan was for him to establish himself as the key to an alliance between the Cherokees and the British. To demonstrate his connections, he persuaded seven chiefs to accompany him to London and meet with none other than King George himself. The experienced traders who had come with Cuming to Indian country were amazed at the Scotsman’s brashness and even more amazed at his success.

The mound at ancient Nikwasi alongside the Little Tennessee River in present Franklin, North Carolina, is the best-preserved earthwork in the region. Elayne Sears.

Cuming and his colorful group of Indians arrived in London in June 1730 and immediately became the toast of the town. They were wined and dined and shown all the important sights of the city. The English had long thought that an alliance with the Cherokees was essential to protect their colonies on the Atlantic seaboard from overland attack from the French and their Indian allies. The group dined with the king and gave him gifts from their homeland. In return, the king directed England’s Board of Trade and Plantations in America to give the Cherokees gifts to take home. These included guns, gunpowder, bullets, flints, hatchets, folding knives and brass kettles. Acceptance of the gifts required that the Cherokees shall not suffer their people to trade with the white men of any other nation but the English. The seven Indians returned home laden with their booty, and trade flourished. The Cherokees were not as exclusive in regard to their trading partners as the British had hoped, but nevertheless, a bond had been established between the Crown and the mighty Cherokee Nation.

Sir Alexander Cumming’s entourage for England in 1730. Attakullakulla is at the far right. Bureau of American Ethnology.

In 1754, the Cherokees requested that the English authorities build a fort in the far western reaches of their territory to protect them from the Indian allies of the French. The British agreed, but implementing the construction became problematic. The rugged mountains that lay between Charleston and the future site of Fort Loudon near the mouth of the Little Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee, home turf to the Cherokees, were quite challenging to the 250 soldiers dispatched to build and garrison the fort. They did not arrive at the site until 1756. A trader named John Elliot had an even more arduous task. He was contracted to transport twelve cannons across the mountains to arm the fort. When Elliot and his men reached the fort with all twelve cannons intact (although one blew up in an artilleryman’s face at its first firing), he was asked how he accomplished this feat. Main strength and awkwardness, he replied.

Relations between the English and Cherokees started to deteriorate soon after the fort was completed. A series of unfortunate incidents in which both Indians and whites died caused tensions to escalate. The British rejected an attempt by Chief Oconostota to resurrect the peace. The British sent a force of 1,500 men under Colonel Archibald Montgomery to punish the Cherokees and rescue the soldiers besieged at Fort Loudon. Oconostota’s warriors ambushed and routed Montgomery’s forces near Nikwasi. The British turned back to Charleston.

Finally, the soldiers at Fort Loudon surrendered the fort to the Cherokees on August 9, 1760, and were allowed to return to Charleston. As the 180 men and 60 women broke camp their first morning on the trail to Charleston, the Indians massacred many of them, especially the officers. Historians cannot explain this action, although the episode was similar to the surrender of Fort William Henry during the French and Indian War, as depicted in James Fennimore Cooper’s novel and the 1993 movie The Last of the Mohicans. Engaging a sort of eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth rationale, the Cherokees once again sued for peace. The British general responsible for the frontier, Jeffery Amherst, was not receptive. He dispatched Colonel James Grant and two thousand veteran troops fresh from their victory in the French and Indian War to punish the Cherokees once and for all. Chief Oconostota repeated his ambush attempt, but despite heavy losses, Colonel Grant prevailed. He proceeded to lay waste to Indian towns along the Little T, Tuckasegee, Nantahala and Cheoah Rivers. This was probably the first time the Cherokees retreated to the mountain fastness of the Nantahala and Smoky Mountain region to escape the