The Watauga River runs shallow over a gravel shoal here, and people have gathered at it for a very long time. In March 1775 Richard Henderson and Daniel Boone met more than 1,200 Cherokee at Sycamore Shoals, among them the leaders Attakullakulla and Oconostota. Henderson's Transylvania Company, a private firm, bought about 20 million acres between the Cumberland and Kentucky rivers for goods that some scholars value at about 10,000 pounds. Dragging Canoe refused to sign. He warned that the land would prove "bloody ground" and left with his followers for the south, where they became known as the Chickamauga. Virginia and North Carolina later voided the claim.
Settlers had already formed the Watauga Association in 1772, and in July 1776 a garrison under John Carter, James Robertson and John Sevier held the fort here against a Cherokee attack. On September 25, 1780, the Overmountain Men mustered at the shoals before marching to Kings Mountain, where they beat Patrick Ferguson's force eleven days later.
The park covers about 70 acres. Behind the visitor center stands a reconstruction of Fort Watauga, built from archaeology and a few written descriptions. On the east side of Elizabethton, the Carter Mansion, built between 1775 and 1780 by John Carter and his son Landon, is the oldest frame house standing in Tennessee, and the park's account of it includes the Carters' enslaved people as well as their dealings with Native neighbors.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour