NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Contact Information For more information about the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or (864) 461-2828 or write to: Superintendent, Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, 338 New Pleasant Road, Gaffney, SC 39341 Purpose Significance Significance statements express why Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit. • The Overmountain Men’s arduous trek demonstrated remarkable dedication, frontier skills, and an ability to live off the land by navigating the formidable landscape. • The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail leverages collaborative efforts of numerous agencies, organizations, The OVERMOUNTAIN VICTORY NATIONAL and individuals partnering to protect, interpret, and provide HISTORIC TRAIL commemorates, preserves, access to a broad range of cultural and natural resources and and interprets, through public and sites. These public and private partnerships are essential to private partnerships, the spirit of patriot developing recreation, heritage tourism, economic benefits, militia and the routes through Virginia, and quality of life along the trail. Tennessee, North Carolina, and South • The experience of the Overmountain trek and relationships Carolina to and from the Battle at formed proved to be a training ground for emerging leaders, Kings Mountain in 1780, the first major many of whom rose to political and military prominence in victory of the Southern Campaign of the the new nation. The legacy of these men endures in the many American Revolution. places named after them across the southeastern United States that commemorate their contributions. • The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail reflects the struggles among friends, neighbors, and families who chose either the patriot cause for independence or loyalty to the King, thus intensifying civil conflict in the backcountry during the Revolutionary War. • The contributions of the Overmountain Men to the Battle of Kings Mountain caused a major blow to the British army by removing its western arm and diminishing loyalist recruiting efforts. Fundamental Resources and Values Interpretive Themes Fundamental resources and values are those features, systems, Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a other attributes determined to merit primary consideration park— they define the most important ideas or concepts during planning and management processes because they are communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining are derived from — and should reflect — park purpose, its significance. significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary • Partnerships and Collaborations for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore • Historic Trail Trace and relate to all of the park significances and fundamental resources and values. • Commemorative Motor Route • Responding to a threat by British Major Patrick Ferguson • Museum Collections and Archives to invade their overmountain homeland, more than 2,000 determined patriot militiamen mustered and searched for • Archeological Resources Ferguson’s army for two weeks during the fall of 1780. These • Certified/Certifiable Historic Sites Along the Trail resolute soldiers pursued and trapped Ferguson atop Kings Mountain in South Carolina, killing Ferguson and killing • High Quality and Broad Range of Visitor Experiences or capturing his entire force and bringing about a patriot and Opportunities victory that proved to be a pivotal change of course in the American Revolution. • As the British recruited and trained loyalist militias in the southern colonies, the revolution pitted American against American, in effect, a colonial civil war. • On the trail and in their daily lives, the backcountry and Overmountain Men demonstrated uniquely American attitudes, organizational approaches, and fighting styles derived from their experiences on the Appalachian frontier. • The participants in the Overmountain Campaign included many forceful, colorful personalities whose characters were shaped by the distinctive overmountain and backcountry culture of Scots-Irish, German, free and enslaved persons of Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail contains other African descent, American Indians in the region, and others resources and values that may not be fundamental to the who sought the challenges, freedoms, and opportunities of purpose and significance of the park, but are important to the colonial frontier. consider in management and planning decisions. These are referred to as other important resources and values. • In making their epic journey across the imposing natural barrier of the Appalachian Mountains, the overmountain • Sites of Historical Significance Not Located Within people (both as militia and as frontier settlers) encountered Trail Corridor a vast natural world of great beauty, but also rough, wild • Connections With Other Trail Systems terrain, unpredictable weather, dense forests, untamed rivers, and abundant wildlife. Description The American Revolution had been in progress for five of the trail along the route; however, parts of the trail intersect years when England found itself stalemated in the northern with the Blue Ridge Parkway and traverse Cowpens National colonies and turned its military strategy toward conquest of Battlefield near Gaffney, South Carolina, and the final segment the South. British General Charles Cornwallis was convinced of the trail enters and ends within Kings Mountain National that southern Whigs would flock to the loyalist side if British Military Park near Blacksburg, South Carolina. Extending strength were shown. He ordered British Colonel Patrick 270 miles through Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Ferguson into the Carolinas to recruit followers to the King’s South Carolina, Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail cause. In the summer of 1780 Ferguson and his regiment of traces the route marched by patriot militia during the pivotal American loyalists began to hunt and harass “rebels” who Kings Mountain campaign of 1780. Visitors can follow the continued to resist British authority. campaign along either a 330-mile commemorative motor route or multiple public walkways from the mustering grounds at During that summer Ferguson engaged in small actions with Abingdon, Virginia, to Kings Mountain National Military Park. patriot militias up and down the Carolina upcountry. These “Overmountain Men” hailed from valleys To Seven Mile Ford To site o illiam amells grave) Little Dry Run Roanoke Use I-81 Exit 39 Wilderness 81 er r iv ve R Ri on n 19 lst JEFFERSON NATIONAL FOREST lsto o Ho H rk 11 rk west of the Alleghenies around the Fo Fo th le r d r o d e N i iv Virginia Patriot Militia Depart Colonial Road R M September 24, 1780 n to ls Muster Grounds 58 o H Mount Rogers National Abingdon rk o Recreation Area headwaters of the Watauga, Holston, and F Town of Wolf Creek Abingdon th Trail 58 u Trail o Mount Rogers S 5729ft Lewis Fork 1746m Wilderness Little Wilson 58 81 Creek 421 Wilderness Nolichucky Rivers in the present states of Damascus 75 19 11 VIRGINIA 58 TENNESSEE North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 11 Bristol W 44 421 11E 19 Pemberton il ra CHEROKEE Oak T 81 South NATIONAL FOREST These hardy people had established Holston Lake ic n e Encampment c S September 24, 1780 91 r ve Ri Choates 421 w River e on Ford Fort Womack N st rk ol Fo remote settlements a few years earlier, H th S Bluff Choates Ford Trail or ou rk N th Fo Boone City l Lake a 11E n io 19W t a Rocky Mount N independent of Royal domination of the To State Historic Site Kingsport n 67 ia 19E h c a Piney Flats 91 l r a e v 26 p i p R Sycamore Shoals A w eastern colonies. Encampment Linear Big e N September 25, 1780 Park Laurel 421 Trail k Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area Carter Branch r River Trail o 67 F Wilderness Mansion EE S h Elizabethton e S A t ak E IN u Fort Watauga L L o Johnson City 91 N O S auga N R Monument at E W 67 321 T A 11E C H 321 T 362 R 359 Pond NO The National Park Service administers Gap Creek Mountain Monument Wilderness 19E 221 361 Elkin Doe River 321 Gorge 67 the Overmountain Victory National W CHEROKEE a 421 ta u Jonesville g y a a NATIONAL FOREST Roan Mountain w Community R k 21 iv r 268 Park Trail e Boone a r P Shelving Rock 26 ver Encampment 19E e 421 Ri in Historic Trail in cooperation with the U.S. September 26, 1780 g dk a d Tory Oak Y Surry County Patriot Militia Depart i Roan Mountain State Park 221 R Encampment September 27, 1780 Moses H. Cone Smoot Park Trail Birchfield Elk Park Memorial Park September 27, 1780 Unaka