Guaxule

Guaxule lies in the high valleys of the southern Appalachians, where the Great Smoky Mountains fall toward the Pigeon River and Cosby Creek on the Tennessee and North Carolina line. Steep ridges left only narrow bottomlands for corn, beans and squash, so Cherokee families built along creeks and river terraces and hunted deer, bear and turkey in the coves above. Trails crossed the ridges toward the Tuckasegee and the French Broad, linking mountain towns with one another and with distant hunting grounds. In 1761 British forces under James Grant marched through the Cherokee country and burned many of its towns and fields, ending the Anglo-Cherokee War.