Old Cherokee Path: Difference between revisions

Scots-Irish (that is Ulster-Irish), and German farmers migrating along the [[Great Valley Road]] (sometimes called the Great Wagon Road) through Virginia began settling the counties near the north end of the Old Cherokee Path in the 1750s. However, during part of the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763 they decided to leave the area. Many of the settlers in the area became involved in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watauga_Association Watauga Association] (a semi-automomous government) starting in 1772.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Watauga Association," ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watauga_Association (accessed 8 April 2011).</ref> In turn this led to the tentative and short-lived [[State_of_Franklin|State of Franklin]].  

The south end of the [[Old Cherokee Path|Old Cherokee Path]] was in [[Oconee County, South Carolina]] at the convergence of several Indian trails and settler roads mostly leading to the lower [[Cherokee Indians|Cherokee Indian]] village of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugaloo Tugaloo] across the Savannah River in [[Stephens County, Georgia]]. Tugaloo was built at or became the nexus of several trails along the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina. The Cherokee Indians were forced to abandon Tugaloo and the other Lower Cherokee villages in South Carolina during the American Revolution. The [[Old Cherokee Path]] seems to have begun in Tugaloo, crossed the river into South Carolina, and worked its way north up to [[Watauga County, North Carolina]], through [[Johnson County, Tennessee]], and [[Washington County, Virginia]]. There it connected to the [[Great Indian Warpath]] or [[Great Valley Road]] as it was called in that area.