Vonore is a town in Monroe County, Tennessee, which is located on the southeast border of the state. The population was 1,574 as of the 2020 census.[8] The city hall, library, community center, police department, and fire department are located on Church Street.
Vonore developed at the confluence of the Little Tennessee River and the Tellico River, a place of indigenous settlement for thousands of years. It was a center of numerous Cherokee towns along the rivers.
Vonore is near the center of one of the richest archaeological regions in the southeastern United States. The now-submerged Icehouse Bottom site was occupied by indigenous cultures in the region as early as 7500 B.C.
The now-submerged Rose Island was home to a significant Woodland period (c. 1000 B.C. – 1000 A.D.) settlement. Later the Cherokee had the town there known as Mialoguo. A substantial South Appalachian Mississippian period (c. 1000–1600 A.D.) village was located at Toqua, immediately south of present-day Vonore. There is some evidence that Toqua's Mississippian village was the village of "Tali", recorded as visited by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1540.[9] The historic Cherokee also had a town at Toqua.
This area was part of the homelands of the historic Cherokee people, which extended into western Virginia, North and South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia, long before these colonies or states were founded. By the time Euro-American explorers arrived in the area in the 18th century, the Cherokee had established several towns along the Little Tennessee. They included Tanasi, the name source for the state of Tennessee, Chilowhee, and Chota, the "mother town" of the Overhill Cherokee in the mid to late 18th century. The English traders and colonists referred to these places as the Overhill Towns, because they crossed the Appalachian Mountains from the east to reach them. Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe came from Mialoquo, which was located just north of the site of the modern US-411 bridge. Tuskegee, which developed adjacent to Fort Loudoun, was the birthplace of Sequoyah (c. 1770–1843), creator of the written Cherokee syllabary.[9]
Fort Loudoun was a British colonial-era fort built in 1756 as part of their promise to the Cherokee of supporting their people, to gain an alliance against the French and Indian allies during the French and Indian War. It was one of the first major British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was garrisoned only until 1760, when the Cherokee captured it after a lengthy siege, in retaliation for the murder of Cherokee chiefs by South Carolina officials.[10]
After the American Revolutionary War, the United States built the Tellico Blockhouse in 1794, an American outpost located across the Tellico River from Fort Loudoun. It was designed to hold a garrison to help keep the peace between the Cherokee and the fast-encroaching American settlers. The Tellico agent, the chief American diplomat to the Cherokee, operated out of the blockhouse and ran a trading post there for a decade. He was married to a Cherokee woman.
In 1819, the Cherokee signed the Calhoun Treaty, ceding what is now Monroe County to the United States. The county was established shortly thereafter.
Niles Ferry, the primary crossing of the Little Tennessee River along the Old Federal Road (the predecessor of US-411), was established in 1805 by early settler Barclay McGhee. He leased the rights from the US Tellico agent. The ferry operated at this site until 1947, when the US-411 bridge was completed. Barclay McGhee operated the ferry until his death in 1819. It eventually was owned by his son, John McGhee. The ferry is named for J.W.J. Niles, a son-in-law of John McGhee who assumed ownership of the ferry in the 1850s.[11]
In 1890, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad laid tracks through Monroe County. A stopover known as Upton Station was established just beyond the railroad's Little Tennessee River crossing. Three years later, area doctor Walter Kennedy applied for a post office for Upton Station. When the US postal service informed him that the name of Upton Station had been taken, Kennedy chose the name "Vonore", a combination of the German word von (meaning "of") and the English word "ore", as Kennedy believed the town would become a mining town.[1]
In the 1930s during the Great Depression, preservationists aided by Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration reconstructed Fort Loudoun. This served as the anchor for a state historic park along the river.
The older part of town developed along Depot and Hall streets. In the 21st century, it includes many older houses, the library, the town hall, and other municipal buildings. A more modern retail corridor, with numerous franchises, spans most of the Vonore section of US-411.
Most of the valley's archaeological sites were flooded in 1979 when the Tennessee Valley Authority completed Tellico Dam at the mouth of the Little Tennessee. Additional reconstruction of Fort Loudoun was undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s. The fort was moved above the range of the water level of the newly created reservoir.
Archaeological surveys and excavations were undertaken along the Little Tennessee River prior to flooding in order to salvage artifacts from known pre-historic and historic sites, including the Cherokee town sites of Tanasi and Chota, and the early US federal period Tellico Blockhouse.
Sites were established above the level of the flood waters, with monuments to mark these two important Cherokee town sites. The one at Chota has eight plaques: seven for the Cherokee clans and one for the nation overall.
Excavators also located the foundation of the Tellico Blockhouse. An area was raised above the water level, and posts and fill were place in order to show visitors its layout on the historic site. The Tanasi and Tellico Blockhouse sites are both now within Fort Loudoun State Park.
Geography
Vonore is located along the northern border of Monroe County. A small portion extends into Blount County along Ninemile Creek. Vonore is situated primarily along the southwestern bank of the Little Tennessee River at its confluence with the Tellico River. This section of the Little Tennessee and the lower Tellico River are both part of Tellico Lake, an artificial reservoir created by Tellico Dam. The Unicoi Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains rise prominently to the south.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 11.9 square miles (30.9km2), of which 9.0 square miles (23.3km2) is land and 2.9 square miles (7.6km2), or 24.67%, is water.[8]
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,574 people, 715 households, and 515 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census[7] of 2000, there were 1,162 people, 496 households, and 333 families residing in the town. The population density was 133.6 inhabitants per square mile (51.6/km2). There were 571 housing units at an average density of 65.6 per square mile (25.3/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 95.52% White, 0.17% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.69% from other races, and 3.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.58% of the population.
A subdivision in Vonore, just off US-411, with the Great Smokies (left) and the Unicoi Mountains (right) in the distance
There were 496 households, out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.7% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 23.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $34,653, and the median income for a family was $41,125. Males had a median income of $31,429 versus $25,956 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,613. About 6.1% of families and 10.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.6% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.
Several swimming areas have been developed along the lake, including Vonore Beach along the lake's Creek Island Creek embayment near the center of town. Toqua Beach is located just south of Fort Loudoun State Park. The Sequoyah Marina is located off US-411, where the road crosses the lake.
Education
Public schools in Vonore are operated by the Monroe County School System, and include:
Vonore Elementary School, Grades K-4
Vonore Middle School, Grades 5-8
Vonore High School consolidated with Madisonville High School in 1995 to form Sequoyah High School in Madisonville. After students graduate from Vonore or Madisonville middle school, they may go to Sequoyah High School, Tellico Plains High School, or other surrounding schools.
Monroe County is a county located on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,250. Its county seat is Madisonville, and its largest city is Sweetwater.
Loudon County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the central part of East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,886. Its county seat is Loudon. Loudon County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Madisonville is the county seat of Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. It is located in East Tennessee on the eastern border of the state. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 5,132.
The Little Tennessee River is a 135-mile (217 km) tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portions of three national forests— Chattahoochee, Nantahala, and Cherokee— and provides the southwestern boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Tuskegee was an Overhill Cherokee town located along the lower Little Tennessee River in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The town developed in the late 1750s alongside Fort Loudoun, and was inhabited until the late 1770s. It was forcibly evacuated and probably burned during the Cherokee–American wars.
Tellico Dam is a concrete gravity and earthen embankment dam on the Little Tennessee River that was built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but was deferred for development until 1942. Completed in 1979, the dam created the Tellico Reservoir and is the last dam to be built by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Chota is a historic Overhill Cherokee town site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Developing after nearby Tanasi, Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns from the late 1740s until 1788. It replaced Tanasi as the de facto capital, or 'mother town' of the Cherokee people.
Tanasi was a historic Overhill settlement site in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village became the namesake for the state of Tennessee. It was abandoned by the Cherokee in the 19th century for a rising town whose chief was more powerful. Tanasi served as the de facto capital of the Overhill Cherokee from as early as 1721 until 1730, when the capital shifted to Great Tellico.
Fort Loudoun was a British fort located in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee. Constructed from 1756 until 1757 to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the French and Indian War, the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. The fort was designed by John William Gerard de Brahm, while its construction was supervised by Captain Raymond Demeré; the fort's garrison was commanded by Demeré's brother, Paul Demeré. It was named for the Earl of Loudoun, the commander of British forces in North America at the time.
Tellico Village is an unincorporated planned community, and census-designated place on the western shore of Tellico Reservoir in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Knoxville. Its population was 5,791 as of the 2010 census and and 7,311 at the 2020 census.
Fort Loudoun State Historic Park is a state park in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Established in 1977, it houses the reconstructed Fort Loudoun along with an interpretive center and recreation area. Park staff also maintain the nearby Tellico Blockhouse site.
Icehouse Bottom is a prehistoric Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located on the Little Tennessee River in the southeastern United States. Native Americans were using the site as a semi-permanent hunting camp as early as 7500 BC, making it one of the oldest-known habitation areas in Tennessee. Analysis of the site's Woodland period artifacts shows evidence of an extensive trade network that reached to indigenous peoples in Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. This was later an area of known Cherokee settlements, the people encountered by Anglo-European settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Tellico Blockhouse was an early American outpost located along the Little Tennessee River in what developed as Vonore, Monroe County, Tennessee. Completed in 1794, the blockhouse was a US military outpost that operated until 1807; the garrison was intended to keep peace between the nearby Overhill Cherokee towns and encroaching early Euro-American pioneers in the area in the wake of the Cherokee–American wars.
Overhill Cherokee was the term for the Cherokee people located in their historic settlements in what is now the U.S. state of Tennessee in the Southeastern United States, on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. This name was used by 18th-century European traders and explorers from British colonies along the Atlantic coast, as they had to cross the mountains to reach these settlements.
Toqua was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern Woodlands. Toqua was the site of a substantial ancestral town that thrived during the Mississippian period. Toqua had a large earthwork 25-foot (7.6 m) platform mound built by the town's Mississippian-era inhabitants, in addition to a second, smaller mound. The site's Mississippian occupation may have been recorded by the Spanish as the village of Tali, which was documented in 1540 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. It was later known as the Overhill Cherokee town Toqua, and this name was applied to the archeological site.
Tomotley is a prehistoric and historic Native American site along the lower Little Tennessee River in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Occupied as early as the Archaic period, the Tomotley site was occupied particularly during the Mississippian period, which was likely when its earthwork platform mounds were built. It was also occupied during the eighteenth century as a Cherokee town. It revealed an unexpected style: an octagonal townhouse and square or rectangular residences. In the Overhill period, Cherokee townhouses found in the Carolinas in the same period were circular in design, with,
Citico is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site's namesake Cherokee village was the largest of the Overhill towns, housing an estimated Indian population of 1,000 by the mid-18th century. The Mississippian village that preceded the site's Cherokee occupation is believed to have been the village of "Satapo" visited by the Juan Pardo expedition in 1567.
Bussell Island, formerly Lenoir Island, is an island located at the mouth of the Little Tennessee River, at its confluence with the Tennessee River in Loudon County, near the U.S. city of Lenoir City, Tennessee. The island was inhabited by various Native American cultures for thousands of years before the arrival of early European explorers. The Tellico Dam and a recreational area occupy part of the island. Part of the island was added in 1978 to the National Register of Historic Places for its archaeological potential.
State Route 360 is a north–south state highway in Monroe County, Tennessee. It serves to connect Vonore with Fort Loudoun State Park, Cherohala Skyway, and Tellico Plains.
Sequoyah v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 480 F.Supp. 608 (1979), was a Tennessee court case that ruled on the applicability of the Free Exercise clause to the relationship and significance of land sacred to the Cherokee people, specifically the Little Tennessee River and its surrounding valley. The suit, brought by three Cherokee individuals and two Cherokee organizations/bands to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, sought an injunction to restrain the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from flooding the sacred Cherokee land along the Little Tennessee River for the purpose of creating the Tellico Dam. The plaintiffs argued that the flooding of the Little Tennessee River valley, given their specific spiritual and historical relationship to the land, would infringe on their right to practice their religion.
1 2 Jefferson Chapman, Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1985).
↑ Carroll Van West, "Fort Loudoun," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Retrieved: February 23, 2014.
↑ Benjamin C. Clark, Jr., "Cherokees, Roads and Land: The Early History of the Niles Ferry," Tennessee Ancestors, Vol. 28, No. 3 (December 2012), pp. 3-22.
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