Cocke County Rivers And The Conquistadors

The French Broad was first known by the Indian name “Agiqua” but received the present name from hunters and trappers to distinguish it from the Broad River in eastern Buncombe County that flows into South Carolina. Before 1763, much of the area west of the Appalachian Mountains was controlled by France, thus the “French” Broad river.

Cocke County

Rivers And The

Conquistadors

By Eddie Walker

The French Broad is the largest of the three rivers in Cocke County. Considered to be one of the three oldest rivers in North America, the French Broad is estimated to be between 260 and 325 million years old, making it older than the Appalachian Mountains through which it courses. The other two rivers are the Susquehanna of NY and PA and the New River of NC, VA and WV. These three rivers are the only ones to bisect the mountain chain. The headwaters of the French Broad are in Transylvania County, NC near the town of Rosman, where the North Fork and West Fork join just west of the Eastern Continental Divide. A few miles downstream, the river is joined by

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From page 6 the East and Middle Forks. In all, the French Broad is 219 miles in length, 117 of those in NC and the rest in Tennessee, about 40 of which are part of Cocke County. The other Tennessee counties it touches are Jefferson, Sevier and Knox. It is about seven miles east of Knoxville where the French Broad joins the Holston River to form the Tennessee River. The French Broad was first known by the Indian name “Agiqua” but received the present name from hunters and trappers to distinguish it from the Broad River in eastern Buncombe County that flows into South Carolina. Before 1763, much of the area west of the Appalachian Mountains was controlled by France, thus the “French” Broad river. In more recent times, the French Broad has been linked with the author Wilma Dykeman, who wrote the book by that name as part of the Rivers of America series. Published in 1955, “The French Broad” brought to life the history of the river and its people. It was only natural that Ms. Dykeman be the one to write this book, herself a native of Asheville, where the river had been so significant, and Jehu Stokely, John Huff, William Robinson, Edom Kendrick, Peter Fine and Swan P. Burnett, ancestors of Ms. Dykeman’s husband, James R. Stokely, had all emigrated to Cocke County and settled along the French Broad. In this book, Ms. Dykeman divulged the damaging effects which “progress” and pollution had wrought on the river and had sounded the alarm that such might be irreversible. This was some years before Rachel Carson jolted the cause of environmentalists with her book “Silent Spring”. Ms. Dykeman certainly planted a seed, which germinated to the point that citizens took note and took steps to bring the river back from the brink of destruction to the point where it is today. Not only does the river provide water for municipalities, such as Newport and Cocke County, but it also offers many recreational opportunities for the citizens and habitats for wildlife. Ms. Dykeman did not touch on one part of the history of the French Broad River and that was its part in the explorations of the Spanish conquistadors who came to this continent to lay Spain’s claim on these lands and to discover

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Tennessee Historical Society This detailed map shows the route used by Hernando de Soto as he traveled through portions of East Tennessee.

From page 8 vast sources of wealth, hopefully gold and silver. Students of American History may recall the names of such men as Christopher Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Hernando Cortez, Francisco Pizarro and Vasco Nunez Balboa, but two men on that list were actually in what is now Cocke County. Fortunately, for history there were scribes on these expeditions to record the events and encounters. The first was Hernando de Soto. The de Soto expedition landed in May 1539 near present Tampa, FL. They went northward and wintered in the Florida panhandle. In the spring of 1540, they traveled up into what is now Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina; by May 21st they were near present Morganton, NC. On the 26th they reached the headwaters of what is now the Toe River and followed it to its confluence with the Cane River near the community of Relief in Mitchell County, NC where is formed the Nolichucky River, which the Indians called “Nonachunkeh.” Historians have traced the route down the Nolichucky, through the present Tennessee counties of Unicoi, Washington, Greene and Cocke, where just below the community of Rankin in the Irish Bottoms, it empties into the French Broad. De Soto’s expedition was then on the French Broad going through the Dutch Bottoms on down the river about three miles below the present town of Dandridge where they reached the palisaded Indian village of Chiaha on what was later known as Zimmerman’s Island. The impoundment of Douglas Lake in 1942-43 submerged Zimmerman’s Island, as well as The Dutch and Irish Bottoms. De Soto and his men left Chiaha on June 28th and traveled southward into Alabama and Mississippi. The second expedition was that of Juan Pardo, who left Fort Santa Elena (near present Parris Island, SC) on December 1, 1566, and headed inland to further Spain’s colonial ambitions and search for food. When they reached a point near the present Morganton, NC, they erected Fort San Juan. Pardo left there on March 7, 1567, and returned to Santa Elena, leaving Sgt. Hernando Moyano in charge of Fort San Juan. In the summer of 1567, Moyano and a detachment of men traveled into the Upper Nolichucky region in search of precious metals and gems. They burned the village of Guapare on the Watauga River and followed the de Soto route down the Nolichucky, then the French Broad, arriving at Chiaha on Zimmerman’s Island where they built their own fort and explored. At some point, the Indians must have become suspicious of Moyano and his men as they were confined to their fort, although they were well-fed and well-treated. In September 1567, when Juan Pardo returned to Fort San Juan and learned of the fate of Moyano and his men, he set out immediately to rescue them. On October 6th, his group reached the fortified village of Tanasqui which historians believe was between the French Broad and Big Pigeon Rivers. (Could this have been the village at the forks of the rivers, the remains of which were described by Francis Baldridge in the Knoxville Register, February 25, 1825?) The next day they reached Olamico which was another name for Chiaha. They left there on Olamico on October 22nd and arrived at Cauchi (near present Marshall, NC)

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From page 9 on the 27th. They eventually arrived back at Fort Santa Elena on March 2, 1568. The easiest and most direct route between those two locations would have been on the French Broad River right through the heart of what is now Cocke County. In the 1980’s National Geographic published an article on the Juan Pardo Expedition describing the route just that way. There is quite a bit of information online dealing with these two expeditions. Here is a glimpse into some of our earliest history. These disciples of Columbus were right here where we are today. With the exception of occasional hunters and trappers, it would be over two hundred years before many Caucasians came into what is now Cocke County. Col. William Christian led an army of men from Virginia and the Carolinas through our area on an Indian raid in 1776. Many of the men returned home with glowing accounts of the rich land, good water, abundant game and moderate climate, and within a few years the flood of emigration followed. They might have settled on the Big Pigeon, on Cosby Creek or perhaps the Nolichucky, but their land grants and deeds would place their lands on the waters of the French Broad River.

Tennessee Historical Society

De Soto marched parallel to the Nolichucky to the French Broad River and Chiaha, seven days away. Archaeologists now believe this major, fortified town, subject to the chiefdom of Coosa in north Georgia, was on Zimmerman Island, near Dandridge.

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