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Beginning of history in the Great Smoky Mountains

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-11284.jpg
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  • A few years ago Professor Herbert K. Bolton, who has specialised in th© records of Spanish exploration and colonisation of North America, stated that De Soto did not go out into Georgia through the Rabun Gap but that he crossed th© Great Smoky Mountains into fan s*s* ts the series "Chronicles of America, ** published by the Yale University Press, is i volume by Professor Bolton on "The Spanish Borderlands" in i*ieh he says: "Sown days* marching .rought the Spaniards into th© country of the Cherokees; and five days later they reached Xuala, a Cherokee town above the junction of the Tuckaaeege© end Oceans, (sic) Luft©e rivers, in Swain County, North Carolina. « , , .still paaaiajp on towards that 'richest province,' De Sot© crossed the Smoky Mountain a and went int© Tennessee.1* In that case D© Soto must have gone to Has headwaters of the Luftee end crossed through th© Indien Gap. There seems to bo, at first sight, corroborative evidence to this effect. In the 42d Annual Report of the Bureau of .American Ethnology, published two years ago by © r Government, there 1© an elaborate study of the "Indian Trails of th© Southeast,** by a Tennessee archeologiat, William Bdward Myer, Speaking of John Iederor*© ©rploratloa, in 1671, of a part of the Southern Appalachian oountry, he saysa "De Soto had visited the Saura (i»®«» the Suali or Cheraw Indiana) 220 years before (this should be 151 years before), when their town was situated at or near the Junction of the Ooeao (sic) JAtfty and Tuekaseege© rivers, in Swain County, N, C.K W© citizens of Swain County, and residents of a town only five miles from th© aforesaid river junction, would naturally be pleased to have this route confirmed* But a deep regard for historical accuracy, more potent than any local pride, compels me to correct a grave error 12
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