Location
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Coordinates: 35.2219, -83.3977.
Type: Stop
Tour: Cherokee
County: Macon
Full
View the site of this Cherokee town’s mound from the shoulder of NC 28. A business is on the east side (right side if coming from Franklin) near the coordinates. Park on the shoulder between it and the houses to the north, somewhere you can see clearly into the field behind the business.
Watauga Town and Mound
Look at the highest point of the farm field to the east.
Before you in 1776 lies the Cherokee village of Wata´gi (pronounced “wah-TAH-gee”[1]), now called “Watauga.” An anthropologist wrote, “‘Archaeological and historical research indicate that Cherokee and their ancestors have lived near this site for thousands of years.’”[a] At the high point of the hill is the town’s earthen mound, built hundreds of years earlier by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture or Cherokee ancestors and topped by a wooden community building.
