Isunigu (also called Seneca, Esseneca, and Sinica) was a Cherokee town on the Keowee River. It was on the west side of the Keowee River, near the mouth of Coneross Creek, in today's Oconee County, South Carolina. Present-day Clemson and Seneca, South Carolina later developed near here.
During the colonial period, Isunigu was classified by English traders and colonists as one of the Cherokee "Lower Towns", a geographical grouping that included Piedmont towns along the Keowee River in southwestern South Carolina and towns along the Tugaloo River in northeastern Georgia. The principal town of this grouping was considered to be Keowee, on the river of the same name. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Cherokee ceded their land of the Lower Towns to South Carolina.
Andrew Pickens developed his "Hopewell" plantation on the east side of the Keowee River. Following the American Revolution and conflict between the Cherokee and European Americans, this was where the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell was signed by both parties.
The site of Isunigu, a settlement that likely had more than a thousand years of previous indigenous habitation, as did other towns in the area, was flooded by the creation in the 20th century of Lake Hartwell. It was formed as the reservoir behind Hartwell Dam on the Keowee River. The meaning of the name Isunigu is lost, along with the artifacts and other materials from prehistoric and historic years now submerged under Lake Hartwell.
Oconee County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,607. Its county seat is Walhalla and its largest community is Seneca. Oconee County is included in the Seneca, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area. South Carolina Highway 11, the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway, begins in southern Oconee County at Interstate Highway 85 at the Georgia state line.
Seneca is a city in Oconee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,102 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Seneca Micropolitan Statistical Area, an (MSA) that includes all of Oconee County, and that is included within the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area. Seneca was named for the nearby Cherokee town of Isunigu, which English colonists knew as "Seneca Town".
The Tallulah River is a 47.7-mile-long (76.8 km) river in Georgia and North Carolina. It begins in Clay County, North Carolina, near Standing Indian Mountain in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and flows south into Georgia, crossing the state line into Towns County. The river travels through Rabun County and ends in Habersham County. It cuts through the Tallulah Dome rock formation to form the Tallulah Gorge and its several waterfalls. The Tallulah River intersects with the Chattooga River to form the Tugaloo River at Lake Tugalo in Habersham County. It joins South Carolina's Seneca River at Lake Hartwell to form the Savannah River, which flows southeastward into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cherokee Path was the primary route of English and Scots traders from Charleston to Columbia, South Carolina in Colonial America. It was the way they reached Cherokee towns and territories along the upper Keowee River and its tributaries. In its lower section it was known as the Savannah River. They referred to these towns along the Keowee and Tugaloo rivers as the Lower Towns, in contrast to the Middle Towns in Western North Carolina and the Overhill Towns in present-day southeastern Tennessee west of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Anglo-Cherokee War, was also known from the Anglo-European perspective as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, or the Cherokee Rebellion. The war was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee bands during the French and Indian War.
The Tugaloo River is a 45.9-mile-long (73.9 km) river that forms part of the border between the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina. It was named for the historic Cherokee town of Tugaloo at the mouth of Toccoa Creek, south of present-day Toccoa, Georgia and Travelers Rest State Historic Site in Stephens County, Georgia.
Lake Jocassee is a 7,500-acre (30 km2), 300-foot (91 m) deep reservoir in northwest South Carolina. It was created in 1973 by the state in partnership with Duke Power. The lake is known for the clean and cold Appalachian mountain rivers that flow into it, keeping its waters cool and clear year-round. The Jocassee Dam, which forms the lake, is 385 feet (117 m) high and 1,750 feet (530 m) long. The lake is within Devils Fork State Park.
Three agreements, each known as a Treaty of Hopewell, were signed between representatives of the Congress of the United States and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw peoples. They were negotiated and signed at the Hopewell plantation in South Carolina over 45 days during the winter of 1785–86.
Fort Prince George was a fort constructed in 1753 in the Province of South Carolina, on the Cherokee Path across the Keowee River from the Cherokee town of Keowee. The fort was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III of the United Kingdom. It was the principal Carolinian trading post among the Cherokee "Lower Towns".
Lake Hartwell is a man-made reservoir bordering Georgia and South Carolina and encompassing parts of the Savannah, Tugaloo, and Seneca rivers. Lake Hartwell is one of the Southeastern United States' largest recreation lakes. The lake was created by the construction of the Hartwell Dam, completed in 1962 and located on the Savannah River seven miles (11 km) below the point at which the Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers join to form the Savannah. Extending 49 miles (79 km) up the Tugaloo and 45 miles (72 km) up the Seneca at normal pool elevation, the lake comprises nearly 56,000 acres (230 km2) of water with a shoreline of 962 miles (1,548 km). The entire Hartwell "Project" contains 76,450 acres (309 km2) of land and water. I-85 bisects Hartwell Lake and makes the area easily accessible to visitors.
The Keowee River is created by the confluence of the Toxaway River and the Whitewater River in northern Oconee County, South Carolina. The confluence is today submerged beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee, a reservoir created by Lake Jocassee Dam.
The Seneca River is created by the confluence of the Keowee River and Twelvemile Creek in northwestern South Carolina, downriver from Lake Keowee near Clemson. It is now entirely inundated by Lake Hartwell, and forms a 21-mile-long (34 km) arm of the lake. The Seneca River and the Tugaloo River join to form the Savannah River.
The Little River originally flowed 27.0 miles (43.5 km) from its headwaters in northern Oconee County, South Carolina near Salem into the Keowee River northeast of Seneca.
Lake Keowee is a man-made reservoir in the United States in the state of South Carolina. It was developed to serve the needs of power utility Duke Energy and public recreational purposes. It is approximately 26 miles (42 km) long, 3 miles (4.8 km) wide, with an average depth of 54 feet (16 m), and a shoreline measured at 300 miles (480 km) in total, and is approximately 800 feet (240 m) above sea level.
Keowee was a Cherokee town in the far northwest corner of present-day South Carolina. It was the principal town of what were called the seven Lower Towns, located along the Keowee River. Keowee was situated on the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path, part of the Upper Road through the Piedmont. In 1752 the Cherokee established New Keowee Town nearby, off the traders' path but in a more defensible location.
Tugaloo was a Cherokee town located on the Tugaloo River, at the mouth of Toccoa Creek. It was south of Toccoa and Travelers Rest State Historic Site in present-day Stephens County, Georgia. Cultures of ancient indigenous peoples had occupied this area, and those of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture built a platform mound and village here. It was an administrative and ceremonial center for them.
Sugartown was the name of at least three Cherokee towns. In Cherokee, the name was Kulsetsiyi (Syllabary:ᎫᎳᏎᏥᏱ), meaning "honey-locust place" from "kulsetsi" (honey-locust) and "yi" (locative). The word "kulsetsi" came to be used for "sugar" as well, thus the town name was often rendered "Sugartown" by the English colonists. One Sugartown was located on the Keowee River near Fall Creek, close to present-day Salem, South Carolina. It was just upriver from the principal "Lower Town" of Keowee. A second Sugartown was located on the Cullasaja River close to the mouth of Ellijay Creek, near present-day Franklin, North Carolina. The Cullasaja River's name is a rendering of "Kulsetsi". This Sugartown was near the principal "Middle Town" of Nikwasi. A third Sugartown was located on Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Taccoa River, near the present-day city of Blue Ridge, Georgia.
South Carolina Highway 11 (SC 11), also known as the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway, is a 119.850-mile (192.880 km) state highway through the far northern part of the U.S. state of South Carolina, following the southernmost peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The route is surrounded by peach orchards, quaint villages, and parks. It is an alternative to Interstate 85 (I-85) and has been featured by such publications as National Geographic, Rand McNally, and Southern Living.
Kituwa or giduhwa (Cherokee:ᎩᏚᏩ) is a Woodland period Native American settlement near the upper Tuckasegee River, and is claimed by the Cherokee people as their original town. An earthwork platform mound, built about 1000 CE, marks a ceremonial site here. The historic Cherokee built a townhouse on top that was used for their communal gatherings and decisionmaking; they replaced it repeatedly over decades. They identify Kituwa as one of the "seven mother towns" in their traditional homeland of the American Southeast. This site is in modern Swain County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains.
The historic Cherokee settlements were Cherokee settlements established in Southeastern North America up to the removals of the early 19th century. Several settlements had existed prior to and were initially contacted by explorers and colonists of the colonial powers as they made inroads into frontier areas. Others were established later.