Big Ridge is a naturally beautiful place. It is the perfect example of the ridge and valley area of East Tennessee.
Big Ridge has quite the historical relevance as well as being a beautiful place. For thousands of years a native people called these rolling hills along these riverbanks home.
Through the 18th century, European settlers started traveling through the mountains looking for new land to hunt and farm. Many of these settlers used these rivers as a means of transportation, floating their belongings westward. Some of these settlers are still famous to this day, people like John Sevier and Daniel Boone.
Around the year 1792 settlers from different parts of Europe traveling together decided to settle an area along the Clinch River. The settlers built a fort and named it after Henry Sharpe. Henry was a German settler looking for land to claim along the river shores. The place they chose was at the bottom of what is now known as Big Ridge.
The settlers called it Lone Mountain. This fort called Sharpe’s Station was an outpost for other settlers to have a safe place to trade and stay when passing through. This location was likely chosen due to the rich soil for farming that the flooding river deposited in these valleys.
The fort was a necessary safe haven for the settlers against Native American attacks. A group of Cherokee people lived at the confluence of the Powell and Clinch Rivers. This was very close to the location the settlers had chosen to farm and live.
Around the year 1794, one of the settlers named Peter Graves was brutally killed by a small group of Cherokee Indians on top of Big Ridge.
It was said that the Indians had made it clear that if they caught a white person on the other side of the ridge they would kill them.
Peter was out hunting wild game when he was said to have heard turkey noises coming from atop of the ridge. As he topped the ridge he was ambushed by natives waiting behind some boulders. He was shot at point blank range and then scalped.
Peter was the first causality of the settlers at Sharpe’s Station. It was believed that the Native Americans made the turkey sounds to lure Peter to the place of ambush.
Soon after Peter’s death many of the healthy men of Sharpe’s Station had traveled downstream a ways to a cave where they were digging saltpeter. Saltpeter is the nitrogen rich soil in the bottom of caves that bats leave inside. The saltpeter is then processed into gun powder.
As the men were away, the Indians attacked the fort. The gates were closed, and the women took up their firearms. After several minutes of gun fire, the Cherokee attackers retreated. The Cherokee knew enough of the English language that one was recorded as yelling open just before their attack.
The time was probably chosen by the Cherokee people to attack when the men had left the fort, but apparently the women were good at handling firearms.
None of the settlers were wounded or killed during the attack. It is uncertain whether or not the Cherokee had any casualties. The report was that some kind of blood had been smeared across the fort during the attack. No other trouble was had between the Cherokee and the settlers near Big Ridge.
In the next article I will share the history of the settlers and their relationship with the river, the town of Loyston, the TVA and electricity.