The Oconaluftee is the valley of the Oconaluftee River in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Formerly the site of a Cherokee village and an Appalachian community, the valley is now North Carolina's main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Oconaluftee gradually broadens from Smokemont in the north to the southern tip of the Qualla Boundary. The Qualla Boundary, commonly referred to as Cherokee, North Carolina, comprises the bulk of a federal trust that serves as a reserve for the federally recognized tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The National Park Service lands in Oconaluftee are home to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, Mingus Mill, and the Mountain Farm Museum. Much of the area is part of the Oconaluftee Archaeological District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Geology
Near Newfound Gap, several small creeks converge to form Beech Flats Prong. This stream flows south along the southern base of Mount Kephart, dropping 2,000 feet (600 m) over before merging with Kephart Prong, Kanati Fork, and Smith Branch to form the Oconaluftee River. The Oconaluftee continues southward, cutting a valley between the Richland Mountain massif to the east and the Thomas Ridge massif to west. The confluence of the Oconaluftee River and Bradley Fork at Smokemont strengthens the river considerably, with the has broadened from this point.
Near the park boundary, a large and relatively flat bottomland has been created by the river's junction with Raven Fork, which flows down from the northeast. Past Cherokee, the river turns west en route to its mouth along the Tuckasegee River, near Bryson City.
The rock formation underlying the area around the Oconaluftee-Raven Fork junction contains some of the oldest exposed rocks in the Eastern United States. This formation, which is composed primarily of an Early Precambrian basement rock known as granite gneiss, was formed over a billion years ago from the gradual accumulation of marine sediment and igneous rocks.
The upper elevations of the Oconaluftee Valley are underlain by a Late Precambrian metamorphic rock of the Ocoee Supergroup, which is the dominant rock class in the Great Smokies. These rocks were formed from ocean sediments nearly 400 million years ago, and were thrust upward during the Appalachian orogeny, when the North American and African plates collided.
The Greenbrier Fault, which crosses the Oconaluftee River between Tow String Creek and Mingus Creek, divides the basement formation from the Late Precambrian formation. Exposures of both rock formations can be seen along U.S. Route 441 between Newfound Gap and Cherokee.
History
Early history
The Cherokee considered the waters of the Oconaluftee sacred. Dora Woodruff Cope, who lived in the Oconaluftee valley near Smokemont around 1900, recalled a legend her Cherokee neighbors told her:
... part of the river was called Ya'nu-u'nata wasti'yi, "Where the bears wash." It was a deeper part of the river, where all the animals came to wash and heal their wounds when they had been hurt by hunters. No white person had ever seen this place because evil had blinded us to its existence. The animals knew how to find it, and diving into it meant instant healing.
The term "Oconaluftee" comes from the Cherokee village name Egwanulti, which means "by the river". it was recorded by naturalist John Bartram in his journals of 1775. the located of the village was unknown, although early although anthropologist James Mooney believed it to be situated near modern Birdtown, between Cherokee and Bryson City.
An archaeological survey and its evidence, however, has identified a Cherokee settlement along the Oconaluftee north of the Qualla Boundary and just inside the present-day national park. While the Cherokee ranged widely over the Smokies, this is the only known permanent Cherokee settlement within the park boundaries. This village was likely destroyed in 1776 by the army of General Griffith Rutherford during the American Revolution.
19th century
''See also Cherokee, North Carolina
John Jacob Mingus (ca. 1774–1852), who arrived in the Oconaluftee in the 1790s, was the first Euro-American settler in the valley and the first within the boundaries of what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mingus purchased the land from Felix Walker, a land speculator and later North Carolina Congressman. While Mingus roamed from county to county in the Southern Appalachians, his descendants would remain in the area until the establishment of the park.