Location
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Coordinates: 35.2664, -83.4218.
Type: Stop
Tour: Cherokee
County: Macon
Full
A viewing platform and information panel provides the closest access to Cowee Mound, site of an important Cherokee center prior to the American Revolution.
The sight is not marked at the highway (as of April 2023). As you near the coordinates, look for an old-style rail fence on the river side of the road. If you are approaching from the direction of Franklin (heading north), it is not far past the state historical marker you will pass on your right.
The platform has a wheelchair ramp.
Context
State-troop commanders from the Carolinas and Virginia have launched coordinated campaigns to destroy Cherokee settlements, in retaliation for a series of attacks on European-Americans living on Cherokee lands during the Summer of 1776.
Situation
Cherokee
Warned by residents fleeing west ahead of the North Carolina army, those who cannot fight have crossed over the mountains to refuge, while most of the men await the army on the Black Hole approach to the main crossing at Wayah Gap.
Patriot Militia
The army of Brig. Gen. Griffith Rutherford marched from Davidson’s Fort east of modern Asheville and occupied Wata