Great French Lick

Timothy Demonbreun, a French-Canadian fur trader born in Boucherville in 1731, saw buffalo and deer at a salt lick near here in 1766. The spring later became known as Sulphur Dell. He lived in a cave for several months before building a cabin by the river, and James Robertson's Watauga settlers found him already living there when they arrived to found Fort Nashborough. Demonbreun traded with local Native people and was called Nashville's first citizen; he died in 1826 and his burial place is unknown. His cave is listed on the National Register.

What the plaque says

Great French Lick In 1710, a French trader from New Orleans had a trading post near the salt and Sulphur spring which attracted game of all kinds. His successor was Charles Charlesville, who died here in 1780, aged 84. The spring was about 300 yards southwest; the trading post was on this spot.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee State Capitol — 0.6 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 0.9 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• Ryman Auditorium — 1.0 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Fisk University and Jubilee Hall — 1.0 mi
  The 1866 school for freed people whose Jubilee Singers paid for Jubilee Hall, a National Historic Landmark, and whose students helped start Nashville's sit-ins.

More markers nearby

• Baseball in Civil War Nashville — 0.3 mi
• Two Governors, Two Governments — 0.5 mi
• Morris Memorial Building — 0.6 mi
• Tennessee State Capitol — 0.7 mi