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Sycamore Shoals is a stretch of the Watauga River near Elizabethton, Tennessee, USA, offering a ford crossing of the river.

American pioneers constructed Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals. They met with the Cherokee Indians to treaty over land which became known as the Transylvania Purchase. The fort became a staging area for the march of the Overmountain Men to the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolutionary War. In 1776, a faction of warring Cherokees led by Dragging Canoe—angered over the massive transfer of lands with the Transylvania Purchase and allied with the British during the war—launched an attack on the Watauga and Holston settlements. The settlers around Sycamore Shoals were warned by the Cherokee leader Nancy Ward and prepared defenses. One battle was fought near the Long Island of the Holston River (in present-day Kingsport, Tennessee), and another at Sycamore Shoals and Fort Watauga along the Watauga River.

Contents 1 History 2 National Historic Landmark 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

In 1772, the pioneers who had settled in Northeast Tennessee (along the Watauga River, the Doe River, the Holston River, the Nolichucky River, and Carter Valley) met at Sycamore Shoals to establish an independent regional government known as the Watauga Association.

In 1775, a treaty was held between the Cherokee and a delegation of the Transylvania Company, headed by Richard Henderson. Under the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals (or the Treaty of Watauga) the Transylvania Company purchased a vast amount of land from the Cherokees, including most of present-day Kentucky and part of Tennessee. The treaty was technically illegal since the purchase of land from Native Americans was reserved by the government (the British, the governments of Virginia and North Carolina, and, later, the United States, all forbade private purchase of land from Indians).

During the treaty, Dragging Canoe, son of the Cherokee chief Attacullaculla, made a speech condemning the sale of Cherokee land and broke from the general Cherokee government to form the sub-tribe known as the Chickamauga.

After Henderson's Transylvania Company had bought Kentucky (although other tribes claimed it, such as the Shawnee), Daniel Boone was hired to widen the Indian path over Cumberland Gap to facilitate migration. This road became known as the Wilderness Road.

In September 1780, the "Overmountain Men" assembled, forming a militia under Colonel John Sevier and Colonel Isaac Shelby. These patroit troops days later climbed the Appalachian Mountains at Roan Mountain, Tennessee, and successively engaged the British Army at the Battle of Kings Mountain, a southern battle recognized as one of the turning points of the American Revolution.

Today, Sycamore Shoals is a park. A reconstruction of Fort Watauga stands near the Sycamore Shoals River crossing. The original location is believed to be approximately 1,500 yards (1,500 m) to the southwest of the reconstructed fort. Some historians question the location of Fort Watauga, pointing to discrepancies in the historical accounts and the lack of good primary sources. Archaeological and archival research indicates that there was some kind of fortification near Sycamore Shoals, but it may have been one of many blockhouses built in the region rather than Fort Watauga. A scenic trail leads from the fort and the bank of the Watauga River by the historic shoals.

Sycamore Shoals is listed as a National Historic Landmark and is also protected as a Tennessee State Park and Historic Area located within Elizabethton. The state park features both a visitors center and reconstruction of Fort Watauga just upstream from the original fort site. The annual summer play "The Wataugans" at the state park re-enacts the Cherokee war party attack led by Dragging Canoe against Fort Watauga.

• Compton, Brian P. "Revised History of Fort Watauga". (Masters Thesis, 2005) [[1]]
• National Historic Landmarks Program - Sycamore Shoals

• Kings Mountain National Military Park

• Sycamore Shoals State Park
• Photographs from 2003 re-enactment