State Parks
A replica of Fort Watauga stands on the grounds of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area.
Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area
Sycamore Shoals State lator, met with Cherokee Historic Area is located in representatives at Sycamore Elizabethton. The state park Shoals near the present site preserves the history of not of Elizabethton. Henderson only the community but wanted to purchase a tract of events that helped to shape land in what is now Kentucky the state and nation. and Middle Tennessee, where Sycamore Shoals was the he planned to establish a foursite of the first permanent teenth colony. The venture American settlement outside posed several problems: the of the original 13 colonies Cherokees held the strongest and was the site of the first among competing claims to government formed indepenthe region, and there was no dently of the British crown in guarantee of British recognithe new country. The Watauga Displays in the museum at Sycamore Shoals State tion of the purchase since it Association, the first majorHistoric Park share the stories of some of the area’s first represented a violation of the ity-rule system of American residents, including notable figures the Reverend Doak Proclamation of 1763. Neverdemocratic government, was theless, Henderson had spent and gunpowder maker Mary Patton. founded here in 1772. the previous year organizing Prior to the American the Transylvania Company Revolution, Sycamore Shoals served as the site of the and conducting negotiations with the Cherokees. Four largest private real estate transaction in the history of the days after the conference began, the Cherokees agreed nation — The Transylvania Purchase. to the Sycamore Shoals Treaty, whereby they transferred The Transylvania Purchase occurred on March 14, 1775, to the Transylvania Company a tract of 20 million acres when Richard Henderson, a North Carolina land speculying north of the Cumberland River, southeast of the Page 6 • Carter County Visitors Guide Fall/Winter 2020/2021
