Ellicott City to Hagerstown

Monday June 24, 2013

Up feeling like ourselves again! After breakfast and breaking camp we reviewed our plan for today. We planned to continue on the National Road through Frederick with visits to see the home of one of Jane’s relatives, visit Monocay National Battlefield and Antietam National Battlefield, and then  head to a KOA campground near Hagarstown. The day went pretty much as planned.

Primarily we are following MD Route 144 and/or US 40. They follow the old route of the National Road also known as the Old Pike. I 70 is also usually a little to the north. In fact often one or the other is within sight of the National Road. It is interesting as we see the old homes that were probably originals in the 1800’s right up along the road – there are beautiful farms with homes set back on hills, and then there are modern housing developments interspersed along the way. Some of the old buildings have been repurposed but many still seem to be homes and even a few remain as inns. There seems to be a small village about every 10-15 miles which would have been the distance traveled in a day. Back in the day – the inns had large barns behind them to care for the horses. Each stage line had certain inns that they tended to frequent and all the drivers and inn keepers knew each other.

Somewhere along the way we got on a wrong road and drove about 12 miles out of the way but found our way back. In Frederick we found Rose Hill a large manor house that was the home of Thomas Johnson who was uncle to Jane’s great great grandmother Ann Johnson Nesmith. Thomas Johnson was the first Governor of MD and evidently a wealthy man from the looks of the home. It is now a children’s museum and we did not visit. We did drive through Frederick a very well preserved town. Jane had hoped to visit the historical society for some documents but alas – closed on Monday. One interesting sign along the road was a small metal sign of a man on  horseback – Jane was just able to make out the words – George Washington traveled this road. Sure wish I could have gotten a photo.

Rose Hill in Frederick MD

We headed south to Monocacy National Battlefield. This was a battle of the Civil War, that neither of us had ever heard about – it was much smaller in scope than Gettysburg and Antietam but was critical as it forced the northern troops to defend a raid of the south towards Washington. After the battle the south withdrew back into VA. It has been designated a national battlefield early in the 1900^th century but not funded until in the 90’s. Something we would never have known about without a stop to get a “stamp”!

We enjoyed lunch beside a river in the shade. Rain was expected and we hoped it would hold off until we reached camp. We enjoyed more scenery along the 20 miles to Antietam National Battlefield. This battlefield was much like Gettysburg with numerous markers and statues for the troops from the various states. We watched a film and toured the museum. There are some outstanding paintings here done by an artist who observed the battle. The losses on both sides here were enormous. Lincoln’s decision to sign the emancipation proclamation came soon after this battle. Jane tried the automatic panorama setting on her new camera and I do believe it works! You however will have to wait until I have adequate internet to post.

 

Not quite perfect – seems I stopped too soon!

Storm clouds were gathering as we left Antietam and headed towards Hagerstown. We found the KOA easily and selected a site. We are hooked up and have the air cooling down the Sprinter as we sit besides a creek/river reading in the shade. Relaxing way to end the day…. Jane cooked dinner and Ben tried to get the cable TV to work. Never did so we watch a movie from his collection. Jane is trying to write and post 4 days of blog….done in fairly short order since no photos will post at all. This is a nice campground but definitely old and not as technologically up to date as some. Can’t complain tho it has some internet.

KOA at Hagerstown

We like everything about the state parks – settings, spacing of sites, etc – but few of them have wireless. We are likely back in state parks for next couple nights so may be no photos until we are home.

Beginning of the Historic National Road

June 23 Sunday

With that new air-conditioner it is a wonder we didn’t sleep till 10:00! We woke up at 8:30 and made it through the morning tasks and left by 9:45. We have been in and out of Tuckahoe State Park everyway possible – when we left this morning we looked at the GPS showed we had been all 4 ways from a crossroad…I will have to say I still don’t think I could make it without the GPS. The traffic on the main roads here on DELMARVA continues to amaze us. There never seem to be a lot of people any where we go but the traffic is constant.

Cross road near campground – blue means you have driven on the road!

It was beginning to spit a few drops of rain as we headed back towards the bay bridge. Huge difference from our crossing on Friday afternoon. Now 3 of the 5 lanes are going back towards the mainland and there are cloudy threatening skies. Back on the mainland we headed north towards Baltimore. Sunday morning traffic was not too bad but we would not have wanted to make this trip on a weekday! THANK YOU GPS for getting us to Fort McHenry. We wanted to get the National Parks Passport Stamp. They have a fairly new and very impressive visitor center. A good movie ends with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner and as it ends the screen opens to a view of the fort with the flag flying! Since it is raining heavily they are not flying the 32x40 foot flag they usually fly – but one about half that size. Still quite impressive.

We hiked out to tour the fort, and viewed the Baltimore skyline from across the inner harbor. They have a shuttle running back and forth to the Inner Harbor on weekends. It would have been a nice trip if we had wanted to go to that area. Jane was photographing a flag folding demonstration and ended up getting drafted to hold one end of the flag. They had various individuals in period costume telling about life in the time of the battle – very well done.

It finally quit raining but was very hot and humid…we had a nice lunch under a tree in the parking lot before heading out of Baltimore on the Historic National Road.

The second part of our trip is to discover what life was like in the 1800’s along the National Road – this first “highway” was envisioned by George Washington and finally begun by Thomas Jefferson in 1806. The road carried many early settlers west and one of Jane’s great-great grandfathers was an innkeeper along the road.

We have directions downloaded from the National Road website, the original book by Robert Bruce published in 1916, and several family historical documents. The road begins in Baltimore and eventually ends in Illinois. We will follow it through Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and into Ohio before turning south on I 77 and heading home. Later in the summer we will complete the remainder of the road.

GPS took us to the Bromo-Seltzer Tower and then we followed Frederick Avenue out of Baltimore towards Cantonville and Ellicott City. The streets were lined with row houses right along the sidewalks as in most cities of the northeast. We were again glad it was Sunday traffic.

When we reached Ellicott City we toured the First Railroad Station in the country – the first railroad was more like horse drawn cars on a track- Some of the early rail cars looked very much like stage coaches on runners! The first line was between Baltimore and Ellicott City about 10-15 miles. While we had not traveled very many miles today we were beat from the humidity.

Model of Early Train !

So we headed to Patapsco Valley State Park which is on a bluff above Ellicott City. Great difference in the Maryland Park System in the Eastern Shore and here in urban MD…. We never saw a park official at Tuckahoe. Our campsite had our name on it when we arrived and we did pass a ranger in a pickup once or twice. Here Ben had to read 2 pages of rules and then sign them in front of a ranger before we could enter the park! It was a nice park and we relaxed for a while before heading out for supper at Bon Chon Chicken. Jeff and Robin had raved about it since their last visit up this way…it was only 2 miles from the camp so we searched for it…. It was a Korean Restaurant with a variety of dishes to offer. We had the wings, drums and pot stickers. It came with rice and a sweet slaw. Great supper and it certainly was crispy and finger lickin’ good ! There are Bon Chon in several locations and we will definitely go again if we find ourselves near one.

 

 

Back at camp we watched a move and were soon sound asleep. Like I said we are on vacation!

DELMARVA for a day

Saturday June 22, 2013

Our plan for today was to enjoy camp, take in the Seafood Festival at Tinghman Island, maybe look around St.Michaels (Gatlinburg by the sea), and then find another restaurant to enjoy seafood for dinner….It is now 9:00 PM and we did all we expected !

Jane cooked breakfast – had to remember how to cook the eggs and had not made coffee in the Sprinter since we had to buy a new pot in Hunting Island last fall….got it all figured out. We enjoyed a nice quiet morning at camp. The slightly hilly campground loop has about 30 sites well spaced. Jane walked it in 10 minutes but not sure of length as phone was charging…All sites are wooded. The bathhouse is in the center of the loop and is barely visible through the woods. We noticed the campers are split about evenly between the large family size tents and RV’s of various sizes. There are more tents than we usually see.

There is no WIFI – 3G on phone varies from 1-3 bars and is slow – but it keeps you connected. When we get out to a main road it is much better.

About noon we left for the 24 mile drive to Tinghman Island. The Seafood Festival was definitely a community thing – run by the Volunteer Fire Dept. They had crafts, t-shirts, stickers and lots of food tents. We enjoyed a band that sang songs about the Eastern Shore Rednecks, watched the crab races, and enjoyed splitting a crab cake sandwich and a soft shell crab sandwich. Both were good. Ben enjoyed viewing the work of a St. Michaels silver smith. He found a bracelet design that he wants to try out for selling at the shop in Abingdon.

After enjoying the festival and doing some people watching we drove down to the dock and looked at the Skipjack Boats. Not many of them are still working today. We continued on to the end of the island where there is a small naval observatory. Driving back through town we luckily just missed the Volunteer Fireman Parade as we must have passed a fire truck from every fire dept on DELMARVA.

We stopped and viewed the fishing boats including several Skipjacks – evidently a dying breed of working sail boat.  They were offering 2 hour tours but we passed that by. We drove to the end of the island where a US Naval Lab is located.  As we came back we had to wait for the draw-bridge was up for several sail boats to pass.

Back at camp we relaxed with good books and about 6 got ready to head out in search of Harry’s – Virtual Tourist’s 2nd best restaurant in Denton that is about 8 miles east of us. It was a super great restaurant in an old house that reminded Ben of the house he lived in during his years at NC State. The food with a French twist was great – the best by far of this weekend. Ben had more crab cakes – Jane had seafood crepes with crab, shrimp, and fish. We both had a cup of very rich cream of crab soup. Everything got a star rating!!!

Back at camp Jane wrote up the blog and Ben watched another movie. We can truly say we are on vacation!!!

On the Road – for crabs and family history!

June 20-21 Kingsport to DELMARVA

Thursday - We left Kingsport at 3:45. Ben had to conduct an inspection in Morristown so Jane packed everything in the Sprinter and was ready to leave when he got home. We had reservations for the weekend in DELMARVA so wanted to get part of the trip behind us.

The traffic on I 81 was very heavy…the semi’s were out in force.

I 81 Traffic

We ate some crackers along the way, listened to a Vince Flynn thriller on a CD and drove into the Quality Inn in Roanoke at about 6:30. Searching for a nearby good quick supper we selected a Golden Corral and it was good. Ben always likes their buffet and Jane had to admit most everything she selected was very good. Just had to be sure not to select too much!

One interesting point of interest was we drove through a tunnel under the runway of the Roanoke Airport to reach the Golden Corral.

Since this was a “free for points” hotel room I always hate to complain but the alarm went off at midnight not a good thing. But the bed was good, the bathroom clean, and the breakfast excellent.  All in all a good start for our trip.

Friday - We were on the road by 9AM expecting a long day of interstate driving…and we were not disappointed! The trip up I 81 and I 66 into DC was fairly uneventful. We continued our CD and stopped for a great picnic lunch at a Rest Area near Winchester. Traffic was not as heavy as yesterday and we made good time. We stopped near Manassas VA for diesel before we had to spend extra for taxes in MD. We got on the DC Beltway to skirt around DC and 45 minutes later in heavy but not horrible traffic we exited on US 50 towards Annapolis and the Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore. Here the traffic was very heavy and we never were able to determine a reason – except it was about 3 PM on a Friday and maybe the city was escaping for the Eastern Shore!

The lines were not too bad at the toll gates for the bridge – 3 of the 5 lanes were going east. After going through the toll gate we entered what I can only call a SUPER MERGE, 12 toll gates merging into 3 lanes of traffic to cross the bay. Glad Ben was driving – he enjoys it – particularly in the Sprinter.

Super Merge onto Bay Bridge

After crossing the bridge it was about 25 miles to our State Park campsite. There are quite a few small to medium towns and lots of farmland. We have been here before primarily on the southern part of the DELMARVA - Tuckahoe State Park is near Ridgely in the northern part. It is a very nice campground and park. The roads to get here are through beautiful farmland. Sure was good we had the GPS ! It is probably 5-8 miles each way to a small town. Quiet, a lake, trails, an arboretum, equestrian center, and campsites and cabins. Strange in searching for campsites on DELMARVA – at least in the MD portion – the only private campground was about 25 miles further north on the bay.

We found our campsite as reserved, got all setup, rested a couple hours and headed back towards the bay for our first crab dinner! We selected Fisherman’s Inn at Kent Narrows which was about 12 miles from camp. We had a deal where you had a crab cake and another seafood entree for a set price….Jane had crab cake and scallops and Ben had crab cake and soft shelled crab- both were very good. The restaurant had a huge collection of antique oyster plates – not something you see everyday!

Crab Cake and Scallops

We drove back to camp, watched a Jesse Stone movie and with the new air conditioner in the sprinter slept great – did not wake up until 8:30! Catching up for being awakened by that alarm clock last night.

Ben’s Historical Analysis of OVNHT

May 5, 2013

The Over mountain Victory National Historic Trail…….Commemorates the route of patriots marching into the Carolinas from the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia settlements to attack the threat against their lives and property.
General Cornwallis landed at Charleston intent on turning the southern flank and enlisting increased support of the loyalist population. He delegated the task of forming loyalist militias to Major Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson went about the task diligently and with success. As he progressed westward into the Carolinas, into the areas of Scotch Irish Presbyterians, his task became more difficult. He encountered armed resistance. And there was a Skirmish at Cane Creek after which he issued a proclamation that all must declare loyalty to the crown or forfeit property and maybe life.
To the assembled leaders across the mountains in the Watauga settlement, that was a declaration of war. The decision was made to go get him. And, that’s just what they did.
The Over mountain men, the militia, are described as patriots from the East Tennessee settlements that crossed the mountain to do battle. The impression is that they gathered into ad hoc units and crossed the mountain to fight the war. While that is in fact true, it misses the mark. The men in the ad hoc militia groups that crossed the mountain were hardened to battle. They were accustomed to fighting. They had been fighting a war since at least 1775. Their foe were the Cherokee who made raids and fought battles, skirmishes, for the 5 years preceding the march over the mountains.
They had for all this time existed in small units with elected officers that in turn were part of larger units having superior elected officers. They fought the Cherokee in the small units and as necessary in larger units as the threat demanded. That is, when Major Ferguson issued his threat, they mobilized these preexisting militia units to go destroy his army.
They came from the settlements called the Holston Settlements that extended from present day Abington Virginia down the river into East Tennessee, the Watauga settlements along the Watauga River and the Nolichucky settlements extending down the Nolichucky River. People lived on farms with forts or strong points scattered around as necessary. This was all Cherokee land. Some had been purchased from the Cherokee and because of vague or even ignored boundaries some was not. The old chiefs wanted to get along, but the younger leaders did not. The young leaders led the attacks on the settlers.
They were also motivated by the British. The British wanted to gain control over these western areas and encouraged the young bucks to do what they could not. That is, control by force of arms. The young chief Dragging Canoe, loser of the battle of Island Flats was receptive to the message. The sacred Long Island of the Holston at the present Kingsport Tennessee is roughly a hundred miles northeast of the major Cherokee villages southwest of the present Knoxville. He led his warriors all that distance to lose the battle and control, forever. The distance seems large but is actually small when compared to Dragging Canoe’s travels. He had negotiated in person, on site with British military and political officers in their offices in far away Mobile, Alabama.
This is to say, that there was from the beginning, a British effort to mount pressure from the south, Georgia and Alabama. The intent was to enlist the Cherokee to reclaim their lost lands and do the fighting. The British agents from the south regularly visited all the Over Mountain settlements as well as all the Cherokee settlements. The Over Mountain settlements were winning or perhaps even won their own local theater of the war.
All that is prelude to the march. The units gathered at the Muster Grounds in Abington, marched south always along a creek or river to Sycamore Shoals. There at the Watauga fort, other units came from the eastern more Holston and Nolichucky settlements. They formed their army and set out over the mountain.
The Cowpens Park Service Ranger John Robertson used existing reports and letters and topographical maps to plot the actual route taken by the marchers. He is a map maker researching and drawing maps for historical publications. Another of his efforts is a map with pins locating a revolutionary war action. It is immediately apparent that there were many more engagements in the South than in the north.

Green squares indicate battles

T-Ball, Good Food and Family

April 27 and 28

We spent a quick weekend in Durham enjoying a T-ball Bat-a-thon; some great seafood and Chinese take-out.  Jane got to visit a Pensy Spice store and Ben made plans for an NC State reunion for the fall. Mostly we just enjoyed visiting with family.

The Durham Bulls T-Ball team with coaches

Grammie and Dan

The trip home on Sunday was uneventful, We had rain all the way to Wytheville.  Crossing the mountains in fog was not much fun – several months ago there was a huge multi-car wreck in that same section of the highway near the NC –VA state line.  We traveled safely with light traffic all the way home.

We enjoyed our quick 4 day trip. The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail could easily take 3-4 days. We skipped a few of the homes and graves located along the trail, did not visit the Morganton locations due to their being closed, and could easily have spent more time at both Cowpens and Kings Mountain.  In hindsight we might add another day to the trip.  We will probably go back to Morganton on a weekend to visit Quaker Meadows.  We will definitely return to Sycamore Shoals to visit the museum.

A historical analysis by Ben will follow in a few days….

Day 2 on Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail

April 26, 2013

After a typical hotel continental breakfast we continued on the second day of our journey. We knew from internet research we would not be able to tour the McDowell home at Quaker Meadows but we anticipated being able to visit the cemetery and grounds. We stopped at the Historical Society Museum in downtown Morganton hoping to get better directions.

Well, the Burke County Historical has a very nice facility – they have very friendly staff – but they know very little about the Revolutionary War history of their area. Evidently there are two historical groups in Morganton – this one and the Historic Burke Foundation, Inc. which manages the McDowell House and the Quaker Meadow area. McDowell House as we knew was open only on Sunday afternoons. The cemetery was locked and the lady who could allow entry not available.  Oh – well another day!

Declining a tour of the Burke County Historical Museum – mainly the Civil War and anything the townspeople brought in – we headed on our way down the OVNHT.

The Patriots were traveling from Quaker Meadows, where they had been joined by the NC and SC militias, towards Gilbert Town in the area of today’s Rutherfordton NC. They expected to find Major Ferguson and his Loyalists near Gilbert Town.  This trip was through mostly level land with occasional rolling hills. Surely this was easier travel that the mountains they had previously crossed. They camped two nights in rainy weather at Bedford Hill. During this stop they discussed at length leadership for the impending battle. After much discussion it was determined that Col. Campbell should be the leader since he had traveled the furthest and brought the most men. Each commander gave a “pep talk” to their men – offering them one last chance to back out of the battle  - not one man left their ranks.

The militia continued on, camping on Oct 3 at Marlin’s Knob. We identified the area along the road but did not stop.

We stopped at the New Brittain Church built in 1852 on the site of the Brittain Church of 1780. The cemetery here includes the graves of a number of militia wounded in the battle at Kings Mountain.  This location was a primary stop as the militia traveled back home after the battle. We walked through the cemetery noting several centuries of graves. Most of the Revolutionary graves had been replaced with plaques in the ground. Numerous civil war graves were located here as well as families – what stories this graveyard could tell.

New Brittain Church and Cemetery

As the Patriot Militia were meeting in Quaker Meadows and beginning to travel south in search of Ferguson – the two deserters from their ranks arrived at the Loyalist camp. They told Ferguson about the Overmountain Men crossing the mountains to engage him.  Ferguson realized his predicament and started towards Charlottetown (Charlotte NC today)  where Cornwallis’s larger army was camped. Charlotte is located north of here by maybe 60 miles.

We continued towards Gilbert town – this area was not easy to follow as again the names of roads were different in the guidebook, maps, and actual road signs. We finally put Cowpens National Battlefield in the GPS and headed across the state line into South Carolina.

Ben wanted to buy gas in SC and found a $.60 difference in a gallon of diesel in SC from NC! We were getting hungry so Jane pulled up Travel Advisor on the i-phone and found the #1 restaurant in the area - Strawberry Hill. About 3 miles away was a huge strawberry farm, peach orchard and restaurant!  We had great sandwiches – Ben’s country ham sandwich had more ham than bread!  Then we had homemade ice cream and stopped to buy strawberries straight from the field….mmmm good!

Ice Cream and Strawberry fields at Strawberry Hill

South Carolina has wonderful signage for the OVNHT – at each and every turn. TN, VA, and NC could learn from SC ! Perhaps they will add signs as the trail becomes better known and more traveled. Guess we need to be pro-active and write letters to the other states!  We followed the signs straight to Cowpens and had a nice visit with a park ranger. His passion is the Revolutionary War and he has done significant research on each and every battle location and plotted them on a map. His study was used to identify the light brown line identifying the actual trail on the NPS map of the OVNHT. Interesting fact was that of all the churches in the area – 28 of 32 were Presbyterian.

Jane has been collecting NPS stamps along the way and we will have 8 after we visit Kings Mountain. We have traveled quite a few  National Historic Trails – this one became a part of the system in  1980.  The main visitor center will be built in Morganton – a site has been located but construction has not begun.

The actual battle at Cowpens was not a part of the Kings Mountain campaign.  This battle occurred in Jan 1781 after the Kings Mountain battle took place in Oct 1780.  We enjoyed a short video that clearly explains the battle but due to listening to too many ranger stories we did not have time for hiking the battlefield. This location served as an overnight stop for the Overmountain Militia on Oct 6th.

Cowpens National Battlefield and some of beautiful azaleas enjoyed on this trip.

While camped at Cowpens the Militia learned of Ferguson’s march to reach Cornwallis at Charlottetown so knew their time was limited to intercept his loyalist troops.  They learned that he was camped on King’s Mountain and planned carefully their surprise attack.  901 of the best men were put on 901 of the best horses and rode all night to mount a surprise attack on the morning of Oct 7th.

The militia rode on the cold wet night  to reach Kings Mountain along  much the same route we took on Interstate 85 from Cowpens to Kings Mountain.  The mountain is 60 ft high – so not much of a mountain but it was high enough to give Ferguson the high ground to defend.

Arriving at Kings Mountain we hurried inside the visitor center to get passport stamps, view the exhibits and watch the film. A longer visit would have allowed hiking to the top of the mountain but alas – we wanted to be in Durham for dinner!

Kings Mountain and Col. William Campbell

The video explained the battle well – the persistence, determination, and “indian play” fighting tactics (firing from behind trees and rocks) were factors in the outcome of the battle. When Ferguson was killed on the third assault of the Patriots, the loyalist resistance evaporated.  By the morning of Oct 8 when the Patriot troops departed Kings Mountain they had 800 prisoners. They marched the prisoners back towards Quaker Meadows and eventually further into NC.

The loss of Ferguson and his loyalist troops was a surprise and huge disappointment to Cornwallis.  He retreated into SC for a winter camp. Other victories were required over the next 12 months to secure America’s independence, but the battle at Kings Mountain was a major turning point!   In about 2 weeks these Scots-Irish patriots from the southern Appalachian Mountains had left their homes, traveled across the mountains, and searched for and defeated those who were trying to destroy their way of life and their freedom.  What great patriots they were! 

We got into the Sprinter, plugged the Durham address of our son and family in the GPS and found we would not arrive until 7 PM.  Too late for dinner but in time for a good night’s sleep!

A quick stop for a sandwich along the way and we arrived in Durham as expected. The only excitement along I 85 and I 40 was pretty heavy traffic and construction around Charlotte.

Day 1 on Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (OVNHT)

April 25, 2013
We left Kingsport about 9 AM headed on a two day adventure going back almost 233 years to the days of the American Revolution.  Strong willed and independent patriots living in the “overmountain” region (then Virginia and North Carolina) –  now , East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and Southwest Virginia heard about the possibility of the British, under the leadership of Major Patrick Ferguson invading their area. They set out to stop any such advance. Their impact on the US struggle for independence is said to have turned the tide of the Revolution. We live in the “over-mountain” area and have heard and read the story of these patriots many times  but neither Ben nor I had traveled this trail that is practically in our own back yard! 
Redbud and dogwood trees were blooming and most other trees were leafing out in bright greens. Blue sky, sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s made for a perfect journey.
Our first stop was at the Muster Grounds in Abingdon VA.  The city of Abingdon has partnered with the National Park Service and has a very informative visitor center. Staffed with a friendly and informed staffer, we experienced a little  history and were soon on our way with a recently written guide book.  Men as well as cattle and even a few women from across Southwest VA under the leadership of Col. William Campbell gathered here on Sept 24th to travel to Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals where they would meet others joining in their cause.

Abingdon Muster Grounds
The trail today follows several state and county roads as it makes its way through the valleys of East TN.  The militia primarily followed the creeks and streams. The TN “topo” maps have one name on roads, the park service map another, and the road signs often an even different name – but we found our way to the next mustering spot – the Pemberton Oak.  Here Captain John Pemberton gathered his militiamen under the huge spreading oak.  This tree thought to be the last living thing on the trail survived into the 21st century. Only a portion of the tree remains today.  While the tree sits on private property – the owner, a descendent of the Pemberton family, was walking her dog and invited Ben to walk over to the tree remains. She explained to Ben the route of the road during the 1780’s. It would have followed the driveway of the home – looking back towards our van.

Remains of Pemberton Oak

Original Trail with Sprinter in background
From Pemberton Oak we journeyed on along the trail passing the site of Womack’s Fort and stopped briefly at a small city park in today’s Bluff City  to view Choate’s Ford – a river crossing. Today there is a railroad bridge and a new pedestrian bridge built at the site.
We journeyed on reluctantly passing without stopping the best BBQ restaurant in east TN.

Ridgewood Barbeque near Bluff City TN
While the Virginia militia was traveling south towards Ft. Watauga at Sycamore Shoals – the militia from the areas of now East TN were traveling to Fort Watauga under the leadership of Cols. John Sevier and Issac Shelby. On Sept 25th the militia all met near Fort Watauga to prepare for their journey across the mountains.  Today Fort Watauga has been reconstructed and is a part of a TN State Park at Sycamore Shoals.  The town of Elizabethton has grown up around the park that now sits behind a developed business strip. We explored the fort but the museum was closed for renovation so we will have to come back (only 30 minutes from our home if coming directly) – perhaps during their summer outdoor drama of the events.

Fort Watauga through the dogwood
On Sept 26th the combined force of 1000 men set off on their journey to meet up with the North and South Carolina militia at Quaker Meadows Plantation near Morganton NC,
After eating a quick sandwich on the “strip” in Elizabethon we were back on the road.   We followed modern day roads towards Elk Park and Roan Mountain and stopped as the militia did at Shelving Rock just to the south of Roan Mountain.  We covered in about 45 minutes what took the militia all day. The weather was bad on their journey and they needed a dry place to store their gun powder.  Shelving Rock was the answer – they camped in the nearby pasture where now each fall re-enactors camp as part of the annual re-enactment of this journey.

Shelving Rock today – road construction has filled in some of the cave said to have been much deeper in 1780’s
 
Location of Sept 26th encampment
Attempts to follow a small road through Yellow Mountain Gap failed and we took US 19 and arrived at the site of the Sept 27th encampment near the intersection of Roaring Fork creek and Highway 19E. This mountainous section of the trip must have been difficult on horseback. Again what took the militia a day took us less than an hour.

Site of Sept 27th encampment where records document several inches of snow in 1780!
It was at the Yellow Mountain encampment that the leadership noted the absence of two of the militia members. Since the two were suspected of being loyal to King George III it was feared they had gone ahead to warn Ferguson of their arrival.
On Sept 28th the militia proceeded along the plateau of the Blue Ridge reaching Grassy Creek near today’s Spruce Pine NC. As they left Grassy Creek and reached Gillespie Gap they could see the Catawba Valley of NC spread out below them. Knowing that two good paths lead down the mountains the leaders were forced to make a bold decision – to split their force to prevent Ferguson heading up one way as they traveled down the other – they could not risk Ferguson reaching their communities, left with little protection.
Today a monument to the “Over-Mountain Men” sits near the NC Museum of Minerals located where US 221 crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway at Gillespie Gap. The day was clear and sunny but my photo did not turn out well.  The small museum is interesting and does have a small display about the Over-Mountain Men; but primarily it explains the various minerals of the area.
The split groups traveled on towards Quaker Meadows planning to arrive on the 30th. We followed the path of the Campbell group that camped the night of the 29th near Turkey Cove. While this is not an excellent photo it shows both the terrain and what is now a large industry in western NC – growing Christmas Trees! 
 
Turkey Cove area near Marion NC
We continued into Marion NC passing by the home of Joseph McDowell brother of the Charles McDowell of the Quaker Mountain Plantation. Traffic did not allow photographs at this site.
We continued from Marion to Morganton NC  again following creeks through a valley along the Catawba River. We stopped at Paddy’s Creek, now a part of Lake James State Park. A part of the actual OVNHT passes nearby and we were able to cross an interesting newly constructed bridge and walk down a part of the trail.

Jane taking photos along the trail and sprinter in the distance.
Our day ended in Morganton NC where we spent the night. For dinner we chose Judges on the River – supposedly a very good barbeque restaurant.  The location was great – turned out to be at the site of where the militia crossed the Catawba at Greenlee Ford.  Morganton has a developed a greenway trail along the Catawba River and our restaurant was located at one end of the greenway. The site was fantastic but the food was mediocre at best. There was however a good crowd for a Thursday night!

Judges on the River – Morganton NC