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The North Carolina Historical Review

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The North Carolina Historical Review The North Carolina Historical Review Volume XXIV October, 1947 Number 4 THE TOE RIVER VALLEY TO 1865 By Jason Basil Deyton The history of the more isolated sections of the mountains of North Carolina has not received the attention from historians that it justly deserves. Such accounts as have been written are inadequate and in many cases totally misleading. The field has been a rich one for the feature writer, who has loved to paint lurid pictures of crime, laziness, and ignorance ; but such writers have refused, or at least have failed, to see the progress that has been made in these regions, and most of all they have failed to understand that an intelligent planning and leadership have been present quite as much as in the better known regions. The notion has been spread abroad that the pockets in the Carolina mountains were infested with an inferior people who were incapable of self-direction, who were unambitious, shiftless, reckless. The truth of the matter is that these regions have been greatly handicapped by geographical conditions but that, despite this handicap, steady progress has been made. The people have worked; they have lived; they have prospered. In addition, they have always shown a keen interest in state and national affairs and have directed quite intelligently their own local affairs. If they lagged somewhat behind other sections, it was not because they were apathetic but because they had more difficult problems to solve. This study of the development of the Toe River Valley before 1865 attempts to show that progress was made in that section under great handicaps; that it was populated by a respectable class of people, alert, hard-working, intelligent, and ambitious ; that this community was quite as capable of directing itself as other communities; and that it was possessed of high principles of democracy and nationalism. [ 423 ] 424 The North Carolina Historical Review Geographical Features The Toe River Valley lies in that part of the southern Appa- lachian Mountains which is in the western part of North Caro- lina. 1 It contains an area of approximately 687 square miles, entirely surrounded by high mountain peaks and connecting ridges. It has an average width of twenty miles and an average length of thirty-five miles. It extends from southwest to north- east, parallel to and west of the Blue Ridge and east of the Smokies. It forms the central-western pocket of North Caro- lina, bounded on the south by the Black Mountains, on the north by the divide connecting the Blue Ridge with the Smokies, and on the west by those segments of the Smokies known as the Bald Mountains, the Unaka Mountains, and the Iron Mountains. The valley contains the whole of Yancey and Mitchell counties, and a part of Avery County. A segment of Avery County lies east of the Blue Ridge, and hence only about three-fourths of this county lies within the Toe River Valley. Mitchell County com- prises 213 square miles in the central part of the valley; Yancey County with its 298 square miles occupies the southern and west- ern portion ; while approximately three-fourths of the 235 square miles of Avery County, or 175 square miles, lie in the north- eastern part. 2 The name of the valley is taken from the river Toe, an abbre- viation of the Indian word Estatoe. 3 This river with its trib- utary streams drains the entire valley. It breaks through the Unaka Mountains on the west and becomes the Nolichucky after it passes into the state of Tennessee. The course of its waters is then by way of the French Broad, the Holston, and the Ten- nessee rivers to the Mississippi. Hence, the valley slopes west- ward and the drainage is eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. In piercing the Unakas, the river flows through a deep gorge, a fact which suggests that at one time this may have been a lake country. 1 The account of the geography of the Toe River Valley is written largely from the personal knowledge of the writer and from the United States Geological Survey maps of the Depart- ment of the Interior. The Roan Mountain, Cranberry, Morganton, and Mount Mitchell quad- rangles give data for elevations, streams, topography, and the like for the entire valley. 2 Fourteenth Census, State Compendium for North Carolina (Washington, 1925), pp. 11-13. 3 Shepherd M. Dugger, The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain ( Philadelphia, 1892), p. 121. The Toe River Valley to 1865 425 The Toe River has a northern and a southern branch and the junction of these is near the center of the valley. The northern branch has its source in the slopes of the northeastern section of the valley. The southern branch flows from the southeastern side of the Black Mountains. The waters from the southwestern side of these mountains flow into Caney River, which joins Toe River at Huntdale, a station on the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railroad, located in the western part of the valley. In addition to these rivers, Poplar Creek, Pigeon Roost Creek, Brummett's Creek, Rock Creek, Cane Creek, Snow Creek, and Bear Creek join the Toe River from the north ; and Jack's Creek, Brush Creek, and Crabtree Creek flow in from the southern side. Bald Creek is an important tributary of the Caney River, while Little Crabtree Creek flows east into the South Toe. The North Toe has many important tributaries such as Henson's Creek, Roaring Creek, Squirrel Creek, and Grassy Creek. A description of these streams indicates in general the topog- raphy of the Toe River Valley. There is a central valley forking into a southern and northern branch. The central valley is broken into on either side by numerous smaller valleys, many of which broaden out into extensive areas of comparatively even uplands. These upper valleys are separated by highland ridges and in some cases by mountain peaks. Along the valley of the Caney River there are extensive bottom lands which are excellent for general agricultural purposes. A somewhat more extensive valley is that of the South Toe, while possibly the largest of all is that of the North Toe. As a rule there are swelling, rising coves at the heads of the creeks. The average elevation is well above 2,000 feet. At the Ten- nessee line where Toe River breaks through the Unaka Moun- tains the elevation is 1,729 feet. The highest point in the vicinity (though only partially in the valley itself) is Mt. Mitchell, which lies to the south in the Black Mountains. This peak rises to an elevation of 6,684 feet and is famous both because of its situation among a large group of peaks more than 6,000 feet high and also bcause it is the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. In this same group are the Black Brothers, Clingman's Peak, Balsam Cone, Cattail, Potato Hill, and Blackstock Knob. In the north and 426 The North Carolina Historical Review on the Tennessee line the Roan High Knob rises to a height of 6,362 feet. Just east of this mountain is the Big Yellow which is 5,600 feet high. The average elevation of the Blue Ridge is 4,000 feet, but there are two gaps, the Gillespie and the McKin- ney, which sink as low as 2,800 feet. The northwestern rim of the valley follows the divide in the Smoky Mountains, whose average elevation is also about 4,000 feet. Within the rim of the valley there are groups of mountains rising up between the smaller valleys, and some of these moun- tains are important enough to have names. For example, the Caney River Mountains in the southwest separate the valley of Caney River from the valley of Jack's Creek; just east of these, the Green Mountains separate the valley of Pig Pen Creek from the valley of Brush Creek; and in the north central part the Cane Creek Mountains, with their extension in the Spear Tops and in the Little Yellow, separate the valley of the North Toe from the valleys to the west. The mineral resources of this region are important. Large amounts of kaolin clay, feldspar, and mica are produced, and tests are now being made for the production of kyanite. This is the chief clay-producing area in the United States, and the center of feldspar and mica production. 4 Asbestos is found in large deposits near Ledger, Bakersville, and Minneapolis. Doli- mitic marble occurs on the north bank of Toe River near Sink Hole Creek. Magnetic iron is found in large quantities near Buladean. The total mineral production of Mitchell County alone is worth more than $1,000,000 annually. 5 The Toe River Valley is a paradise for the botanist. He finds a wider variety of plants in this section and adjoining ones than in any other temperate region on earth except Japan. 6 The val- ley is a special home for the azalea, the kalmia, and the rhodo- dendron. These plants flourish in great number and with most luxuriant growth. Sixty-three per cent of the total area of the valley is covered with forests, seventy per cent of which is farm 4 North Carolina Resources and Industries (Raleigh, 1929), p. 208. Also Holmes Bryson, Mining Industry in North Carolina (Raleigh, 1930), pp. 74-75. 5 North Carolina Resources, p. 208. 6 Asa Gray, as quoted in an unnamed folder issued by the management of the Cloudland Hotel, 1888. The Toe River Valley to 1865 427 woodland.
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