The White Man cometh

After the American Revolution settlers begin to push into north Georgia. The Cherokee land cessions of 1782-3 and of Wofford's Tract in 1804 had brought the White man to near the eastern end of the Sautee-Nacoochee Valley. By 1810 settlers encroach once more on the Cherokee's "Enchanted Land."

Within two years investors hire James Wyly to build the Unicoi Turnpike from Tellico Blockhouse in Tennessee to the Tugaloo River. Entering the Unicoi Mountains at Tennessee's Unicoi Gap, the trail winds east to present-day Murphy, North Carolina. Here it joins the Hiawassee River, which it parallels through the southern end of the Smoky Mountains to the Cherokee villages of Quo-Neashee, Hiawassee, and Choestoe.

From Cloestoe the Unicoi Turnpike climbs the rugged eastern ridge of the Appalachians to Unicoi Gap and quickly joins the Chota River which it fords a number of times in a series of switchbacks. The lower portion of River Road and Escowee Street in present-day Helen closely follow the bed of the original Unicoi Turnpike.

Unicoi Turnpike

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