Unicoi Trail: Difference between revisions

The '''Unicoi Trail''', Unicoi Turnpike, or Trading Path, emerged from the Saluda Gap where North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia now meet. The trail headed west on the south side of the far west part of North Carolina over to the Tennessee border where it passed through the Unicoi Gap. The trail then curved north toward the Overhill Cherokee villiages and ended at either Tellico, or Vonore, or Knoxville. The Unicoi Trail was the most heavily used trade route into east Tennessee, but settlers were forbidden to use it prior to the decline of Cherokee military power in the 1790s.<ref name="ETHS1st">East Tennessee Historical Society, ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44435788 First families of Tennessee: a register of early settlers and their present-day descendants]'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, c2000) [{{FHL|976.8 H2ff}}], 23.</ref>  

The first&nbsp;British colonists known to have used the Unicoi Trail in 1690 brought trade goods from Charleston to the Overhill Cherokee villages. Furs and pelts exchanged hands for guns and rum.<ref name="ETHS1st" /> By 1700 French colonists from the Gulf Coast followed the [[Great Indian Warpath|Great Indian Warpath]] to trade in the same villages. In 1736 an Englishman named Priber used the Unicoi Trail to reach Tellico where he and a Cherokee named Motoy set up a utopian-communist society. However, after five years the British arrested Priber and accused him of being a French spy.<ref name="KirkL">Lowell Kirk, "The Unicoi Turnpike" in ''Tellico Plains Mountain Press: Online History and Feature Ezine'' at http://www.telliquah.com/unicoi.htm (accessed 14 August 2010).</ref>  

:*[[Unicoi_Trail|Unicoi Turnpike]] opened to a few European traders 1690, but the wagon road was not opened to settlers until 1795 from near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugaloo Tugaloo] headed northwest to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhill_Cherokee Overhill Cherokee villages] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville,_Tennessee Knoxville] in [[Tennessee Genealogy|Tennessee]]<ref>Lowell Kirk, "The Unicoi Turnpike" at http://www.telliquah.com/unicoi.htm (accessed 3 May 2011).</ref><ref>William E. Myer, ''Indian Trails of the Southeast''. (Nashville, Tenn.: Blue and Gray Press, 1971). ({{FHL|54678|item|disp=FHL Book 970.1 M992i}}) [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1523234 WorldCat entry].</ref>

Toward the the north end the [[Unicoi_Trail]] connects to:  

There is no known list of settlers who travelled the Unicoi Trail. However, some of the early residents of Tennessee ''may'' have used the trail to reach their destination, as well as several other routes like the [[Great Valley Road|Great Valley Road]], [[Wilderness Road]], [[Kentucky Road]], [[Avery's Trace]], [[Catawba Trail]], or [[Georgia Road]]. For early Tennessee settlers see: