Fort Loudon State Historic Park
Visiting Fort Loudon State Historic Park | Vonore, TN | January 2023
At this point during our stay in Tellico Plains, we had gone South, South West, and East, and so we decided that it was well time to go North. I laid out a plan to visit a couple historic spots, and then to cross the Little Tennessee and drive up to the South edge of the Smoky Mountains for some kayaking and a new county.
We followed TN-360 North out of Tellico Plains, and soon enough we started to see the side passages and tendrils of Tellico Reservoir. The shear number of dams and reservoirs in this area is honestly shocking. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – which came out of FDR’s plan for developing the region during the Great Depression – operates all of them and it makes for some great recreation areas (as we saw the day before). With perhaps one exception – Tellico Reservoir.
We eventually stopped at our first attraction of the day: Fort Loudon State Historic Site. As we organized ourselves getting out of the car, we were immediately greeted by the park rangers who invited us to visit the museum and visitor center – WITH Charlotte. That’s a first. We don’t know how much Charlie enjoyed the exhibits, but we certainly enjoyed being able to walk through together for once. Satisfied, we then exited the Visitor Center and started the tour of the reconstructed fort.
The actual tour itself wasn’t very long, but we enjoyed walking along the banks of the reservoir, which we remarked was very smooth, offering tantalizing glimpses of the Smoky Mountains to the East. But I had several questions that weren’t answered by the information signs around the fort, so we went back to the Visitor Center to try and get them answered. And that’s how I ended up having one of the best ranger interactions I’ve ever had. I spent a good half hour conversing with one of the rangers, a native Tennessean, who answered every question in full, provided greater historical context, other sites we had and hadn’t visited, and even gave book recommendations. The net result was a much greater understanding of Cherokee history. Meanwhile, Jess and Charlotte stayed outside and had equally great conversations with another ranger as well as a local (who it turned out was the first ranger’s father).
A Brief History of the Cherokee Nation
From 1750’s to the 1830’s, the Cherokee nation went from its zenith to its lowest point and most all of it was centered around Fort Loudon. The Fort itself was built around the French and Indian War to promote British influence in the area, as the Cherokee – while nominally allied with the British – had strong ties to the French. But by the middle of that war, relations between the Cherokee and British soured; minor misunderstandings and differences in culture between the would-be allies broke out. Virginians killed some Cherokees for allegedly stealing horses, Cherokees killed some Virginians as retribution. The South Carolinians held several Cherokee leaders hostage at Fort Prince George to ensure a peace. The Cherokee mounted a siege of the fort and killed the commander, whose successor ordered the execution of the captive chiefs.
By then, a general state of war existed between the Cherokee tribes and the British. In response to the massacre at Fort Prince George (Feb, 1760), the Cherokee attacked and besieged the other forts near their land including the small assault on Fort Dobbs in late Feb, 1760, an unsuccessful siege of Ninety-Six, and the siege of Fort Loudon. An attempt was made to relieve Fort Loudon, but ultimately failed in the North Carolina mountains, forcing the Loudon garrison to surrender. But, perhaps because the British did not follow the surrender agreements, or perhaps as a blood-for-blood justice, as the garrison was leaving, they were ambushed and 22 members (mostly officers without native wives, and approximately the same number as those killed at Fort Prince George) were killed.
This prompted the Carolina provisional government to launch a punitive expedition that invaded the Middle Villages where they burned the crops and store houses of some 15 villages. This forced the Cherokee to sue for peace, and during the inter-war years, the Cherokee worked hard with the British Crown to obey the terms of the treaty and preserve their land. But the provincials in the colonies had other plans and frequently violated the land boundaries, settling and taking land from the Cherokee at every chance.
So when the Revolutionary war broke out, the Cherokee sided almost unilaterally against the young United States and with the Crown. General Francis Marion, who had previously participated in the punitive expedition, at some point reflected that they (the Army of provisional militia) had ‘Sown seeds of hate’ by burning the Cherokee homeland.
But as we know, the British did not win the War for Independence, and the Cherokee were forced to reconcile with the Young Government – which meant ceding more land to the neighboring states and establishing boundaries that would not be respected. By the 1790’s more border wars between Tennessee and Cherokee people prompted the government to establish a fort, Fort Tellico, or the Tellico Blockhouse, across the river from the remains of Fort Loudon. This Fort, along with the ‘Factory Act’ were the progenitors of the modern Indian Reservation System – the Cherokee (and other tribes) would conduct business directly with the Federal Government through their agents.
But as the white Americans continued to claim the land, the Cherokee continued to lose their land. Three separate cessation ‘treaties’ were signed at Tellico blockhouse, including the loss of all land in Georgia when gold was discovered there. Even after the Cherokee assisted the Army (under General Andrew Jackson) in fighting the Creek in 1814, Cherokee land was still taken away. By the 1830’s, the Cherokee were left with only the small area of mountains along the TN/NC border. And then that too was taken from them, and only the small number of Cherokee who ‘owned their own land’ were permitted to stay. The rest were deported across the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. Within the lifetime of a single generation, the entire Cherokee culture was destroyed.
Obviously, this is a somber and difficult history to grasp (and I’ve left out a lot), but to be able to discuss it with someone who knows a lot about it, and to connect it with other places and things we’ve seen (and would continue to see on this trip) is really exciting. So much so that we decided to just spend the rest of the day at the site reflecting on its history.
We first went for a long loop hike along the length of the park. The trail passed over a short summit that gave great views to the East, allowing us to look out over the lake and glimpse more of the mountains. We took a brief lunch and then, because the park had a kayak launch, we decided to do our kayaking for the day here at the Fort. This provided some different views of the Fort, the Blockhouse, and the distant mountains. We also enjoyed listening to the loons who sat on the placid lake with us.
Done with kayaking, we packed everything up, drove a bit to grab a new county and then made a brief stop at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Sequoya, who was born around the Revolutionary War, was a Cherokee leader during those cessation years, as well as the developer of the Cherokee language. Unfortunately, the actual birth place is under Tellico Reservoir. We walked the grounds, but couldn’t visit the museum proper and so finished our drive and went back to our home.
