The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-02
MUSCLE SHOALS


 The selection of the shoals of the Ten nessee as a location for nitrate plant, to be built by the government, to a cer- tain extent, at least, arouses public in- terest in the early history of that imms- diate locality. Only few scraps of the early history of the shoals and the coun- try adjacent. however have come down to the present day, but among these bits of history Is one that Double Head the famous Cherokee chief, once lived there.
 AS fact. however, the residence Of Double Head at or near Muscle Shoals Cor Mussel Shoals, as correctly spelled), was about the same as the residence of his predecessor. Chief Black Fox, at the present site of Murfreesboro, Tenn. merely hunting camp. The Cherokees were at one time assigned a right to hunt in that territory, but never had any other right to that part of the country It was about 1903 that Chief Double Head of the Cherokees sold his "interests'' in the lands near the shoals to the whites, and shortly after that time this sale, being in violation of the tribal law, Dou- ble Head was killed, Major Ridge, an- other chief of the Cherokees, being chief executioner. The killing took place at the home of Double Head at or near the Indian town of Hiwassee. some 90 or loU miles east of Chickamauga. in what is now Tennessee The shoals of the Ten nessee. or at least the land on the north side of the Tennessee at that point prop erly belonged to the Cfhckasaws. whose counsel house stood somewhere near the Cnickasaw old fields, short distance be- low what Is now known as Hobbs Island. some 30 miles below GuntersvilIe.
 1t was evidently at or near the Chicka- saw old fields that the Chickasaws To- cated when they first came to this coun- try probably about the year 1530. and 1t was here, too, that James Adair. an educated Englishman, located and lived and traded among the Indians from 1 about the year 1735 to 1775. 40 years, and who left behind him a volume giving much valuable information as to the In. dians With whom he traded The straiP' i then led from Charleston, In a northwest eriy direction, crossing the mountains near the spring which forms the head waters or the Savannah, and also the i spring which forms the headwaters of | >NAA,So'Sc' | HCllSS LHG UTAH. Eied on down by It. Loudon, Chicka- l mauga, which, in the Cherokee langua ge meant boiling pot" and refers to the dangerous whirl in the Tennessee a short distance away. and crossing the Tennes- 1 see at point a short distance below the present site of Chattanooga, 1t led direct i to the Chickasaw old fields, the home ot the Chickasaws. Incidentally if mieht | be added that Adair is authority for the statement that from this point there were three trails" leading to Mobile as early 1 as about TAO. The middle one of these trails" he says. led through the Mus cogee or Creek, country, and the western 'traiP' through the Choctaw country. which was by Natchez. It was evidently this middle trail" that Jackson foI- lowed, and which Is now known as the 1 Jackson trail
 | The exact location of the first settle i ment of the white people at or near Mus. sei shoals was made about the time when Nashville was settled, which was abou, the year 17so. Capt. Gilbert Inlay i. authority for this statement. Imiav,s writings were published in 17o7. and h, refers to the fact that those who settled 'Cumberland," later Nashville wer, people who fled from the approach n, Lord Cornwallis, and in this connection he adds that There are settlements stiI to the southward Of this in what is calJar tne great pend or the Tennessee or the Muscle Shoals. which have been made without the permission of the federal rov, | ernment."
 colbert county, of course, takes tts name from the Colberts, haifbreec Chickasaws. one of whom was chief of his trne, and went west, and lived and diec with his people. Incidentally. 1t mfgh, De added that the Chickasaws in the early days were reckoned the hirhes, type of the American Indian.
 according to Inlay the shoals of th. tennessee take their name from eth, number of shoals in this part of the rive, that are covered with these shellftsh. and each of the plates and maps showins the shoals spell the name mussel. thougl m the context it usually appears as Muscle Yours. ED D HAMNEp l Attalla. Octoher cS lal1 .----