Black Fox Camp Spring

Black Fox, called Inali or Enola in Cherokee, rose to Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1801. He signed the 1791 Treaty of Holston and the 1806 treaty that ceded nearly 7,000 square miles in Tennessee and Alabama for a lifetime annuity of $100. In 1808 younger chiefs led by James Vann and Major Ridge deposed him, and a compromise restored him. The spring's 1794 story is told two ways: as an attack by Ore's expedition, and as an overnight camp by Ore's army without incident. The leap into the spring is legend.

What the plaque says

Black Fox Camp Spring 1/2 mi. east were the hunting grounds of Cherokee Chief Black Fox, Inali. On Sept. 7, 1794, Ore's Expedition overpowered Black Fox at the spring. According to legend, to avoid capture Black Fox leaped into the spring and emerged from Murfree Spring, 3 miles away. In the early 1800s he became a Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nations. The area was one of the first communities settled in Rutherford County. The spring was a resting site for the Cherokees during the Trail of Tears.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 6.3 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 22 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 24 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 27 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• Murfreesboro — 1.4 mi
• George Smith Patton, Jr. — 1.9 mi
• First Baptist Church (East Castle Street) — 2.6 mi
• Dr. James Robertson Patterson — 2.7 mi