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
The Old Unicoi
Trail and Unicoi Toll Road
If you have
taken time to stop and read the inscription on the historical marker
near the Nacoochee Indian mound south of Helen, Ga., you will find
information about the trail and the road which was at first a trade
route and later became a major vehicular road to bring early settlers
into Habersham and other mountain counties formed from Cherokee lands.
The sign reads:
“This is the
Unicoi Turnpike, the first vehicular road to link eastern Tennessee,
western North Carolina, and north Georgia with the head of navigation
on the Savannah the Tugalo River to the east of Toccoa, the road led
through Unicoi Gap, via Murphy, N.C., to Nine Mile Creek in 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. Georgia and
Tennessee granted charters to the company.”
Historian
Chandler in his “The
Colonial Records of the State of Georgia” (Vol. 22, Part II,
page 245, 1913) states that the Unicoi Road contract drawn in 1813 was
not the first venture to set a road into the wilderness of North
Georgia.
As early as
1740 the young Georgia colony (founded in 1733) had a trading route
from Augusta on the Savannah River overland to Toccoa, and then later
into Nacoochee Valley and on to Hiawassee Town. This first route was
the Unicoi Trail, mainly a horse route, whereon riders strapped their
goods for trade and made their way inland. Both Indians and white
traders plied this route. Called “Unicoi” by the Indians, the name
means “white road.” It is not known whether the Indians derived the
name from the white fogs that surrounded the mountains in spring,
summer and fall, the frosts and snows of winter, or because the “white
skinned traders” also used the road.
But even before
1840, we have a record of travels on the Unicoi Trail. In January of
1716, Colonel George Chicken, a white Indian trader, travelled the
Unicoi Trail. Coming from
Colonel Chicken
kept a journal of his travels. He wrote that he set out on a Sunday (ye
22 of January, 1716) from Chota at eight o’clock in the morning and
went to Quo-neashee. He must have had several in his party because he
said they “marched 20 miles” over very steep and stony ground. He wrote
of seeing the headwaters of the ‘Chatoochee’
River that runs south and east and “another river” (the Hiawassee)
“that rones into masashipey” (the
(Next
week: More on the Unicoi Trail and Toll Road.)
[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.]
Updated July 10, 2018
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