Letters from the Alleghany Mountains

The Cherokee word Dah-lon-e-ga signifies _the place of yellow metal_; and is now applied to a small hamlet at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, in Lumpkin county, Georgia, wh...

During my stay at Dahlonega I heard a good deal said about a native wonder, called “Track Rock,” which was reported to be some thirty miles off, on the northwestern side of the...

I now write from the most charming valley of this southern wilderness. The river Nacoochee is a tributary of the Chattahooche, and, for this country, is a remarkably clear, cold...

The little village where I am now staying is decidedly the most interesting in the northern part of Georgia. There is nothing particularly fine about its buildings, and it only...

As a natural curiosity the _Falls of Tallulah_ are on a par with the River Saguenay and the Falls of Niagara. They had been described to me in the most glowing and enthusiastic...

The subject of my present letter is Adam Vandever, “the Hunter of Tallulah.” His fame reached my ears soon after arriving at this place, and, having obtained a guide, I paid him...

I now write from near the summit of the highest mountain in Georgia. I obtained my first view of this peak while in the village of Clarksville, and it presented such a commandin...

The distance from Hubbard’s Cabin, on Trail Mountain, to the Owassa river, in a direct line, is eight miles, but by the ordinary mule-route it is thirteen. In coming to this riv...

The distance from Murphy to this place is reported to be fifty miles. For twenty miles the road runs in full view of Valley river, which is worthy in every particular of the str...

The little village of Franklin is romantically situated on the Little Tennessee. It is surrounded with mountains, and as quiet and pretty a hamlet as I have yet seen among the A...

In coming from Franklin to this place, a distance of thirty miles, I travelled over a wild, mountainous, and thinly settled country, where I was pained to witness the evil effec...

_Qualla Town_ is a name applied to a tract of seventy-two thousand acres of land, in Haywood county, which is occupied by about eight hundred Cherokee Indians and one hundred Ca...

The plan adopted for the civilization of the Carolina Cherokees differs materially from any others adopted in the United States. Their amusements are not interfered with, except...

In the present letter I purpose to give you a brief historical account of certain celebrated Cherokee Indians, who are deservedly considered as among the bright particular stars...

The distance from Qualla Town to this place is sixty miles. The first half of the route is exceedingly mountainous and almost entirely uncultivated, but the valley of Pigeon riv...

I have just returned from an excursion down the French Broad River to _Patton’s Warm Springs_, and the neighboring curiosities, and I now purpose to describe the “wonders I have...

Twenty-five miles from this place, in a northerly direction, stands _Black Mountain_, which is the gloomy looking patriarch of the Alleghanies, and claimed to be the most elevat...

I now write from a log cabin situated on the Catawba river, and in one of the most beautiful of valleys. My ride from Ashville to Burnsville, a distance of over forty miles, was...

The prominent circumstance attending my journey from the North Cove to this place was, that it brought me out of the great mountain wilderness of Georgia and North Carolina into...

Since my last letter was written, my course of travel has led me towards the fountain-head of the Holston river, whose broad and highly cultivated valley is bounded on the north...

Since the date of my last letter, I have been travelling through a very beautiful but thickly-settled portion of the Alleghany country, whose natural curiosities are as familiar...