Today’s journey was from Cleveland to Newport, both in Tennessee, but with a significant section in North Carolina. I was able to find a route that was 95% on designated scenic byways and, although it wasn’t Alaska, it was very pleasant driving for the east coast in spring.
I made a couple of photo stops along the way but my only tourist stop was at The Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC. The Smoky Mountains area was the traditional home of the Cherokee before the US forcibly relocated most to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears. Some evaded the move so there is a small Cherokee reservation in North Carolina with a larger one in Oklahoma. The museum did a great job of communicating Cherokee history from a video visualizing their traditional stories of the creation of earth and how they came to be in this area to the culture and lives of today’s tribe. One part of their history I had never heard about was that they signed a treaty with the British in the late 1700s that white settlers would not move onto their land. Unfortunately, for them, the American War of Independence invalidated that agreement.
My first scenic byway photo stop of the trip.
and the Ocoee river which the road followed.
The Cherokee were accomplished potters and this effigy pot probably dates from the 12th century.
Three local Cherokee leaders traveled to London in 1762 and met King George III resulting in the “Proclamation Line of 1763”, which forbade white settlers from claiming land west of the Appalachian Mountains.