Location
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Coordinates: 35.4803, -82.8810.
Type: Stop
Tour: Cherokee
County: Haywood
Full
This location is fully visible from your vehicle near the intersection of NC 110 and Lake Drive. There is a partially paved, wide shoulder on the south side of Lake (left side when facing NC 110). From 110, larger vehicles may need to drive down Lake, find a turnaround spot, and nearing the highway, carefully cross opposing traffic to the “wrong side” of the road.
This page covers campsites and events along the Pigeon River, at the spot where the North Carolina militia army probably crossed it while marching against the Cherokees.
Camping in Canton
Cherokees had attacked European-Americans along the frontier in 1776 due to repeated treaty violations and threats by the Americans to invade. Brig. Gen. Griffith Rutherford marched an army west in September to retaliate by destroying Cherokee villages, in coordination with similar armies from South Carolina and Virginia.
It likely camped in modern Canton, five miles to your right, or a mile closer on the night of Wednesday, September 4.[1] The march from their previous camp on Hominy Creek near modern Candler was led by the Surry County Regiment, then-Lieutenant William Lenoir of that unit wrote in his campaign journal.[2] Do not imagine lines of tents, because these part-time “militia” soldiers did not travel with those niceties of regular army life! Instead the men would have slept under the stars, perhaps wrapped in blankets, trying to ignore the sounds of horses and beef cows throughout the night.
