page_title: Scott's Gulf
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Scott's Gulf / History
caption_attribution_description: The Caney Fork Trail at the base of Scott's Gulf in White County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern United States. The trail parallels an old wagon road and miners' path, and connects the Polly Branch and Virgin Falls trail systems.
context_page_description: Scott's Gulf is a canyon situated along the Caney Fork in White County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The canyon stretches for approximately 18 miles as the Caney Fork drops from the top of the Cumberland Plateau down to the eastern Highland Rim. This remote section of the river is home to a wilderness area consisting of a largely undisturbed deciduous forest, numerous waterfalls, caves and other geological formations, and Class IV and Class V whitewater rapids.
  Roughly 10,000 acres of Scott's Gulf is owned by the State of Tennessee, most of it situated within the Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wildernesswhich is managed by TWRA and the Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness Area, managed by Tennessee state parks.
context_section_description: Settlers began arriving in the area now known as Scott's Gulf as early as the late 18th century. One of the first settlers in the area was James Davis who is recorded as being in the area as early as 1783 when his son Ephraim was born. Eventually the area, as well as much of the surrounding land, was ceded by the Cherokee in the Third Treaty of Tellico in 1805. Additional  settlers soon followed, establishing two small communities in the area Dodson, and Bethesda.  The early settlers used the power of the Caney Fork's rapids and nearby waterfalls to power grist mills, including the oldest mill in the county along Lost Creek.  While the Caney Fork provided ample power for area mills, the mills were often wiped out when the volatile river flooded.
  In 1840, architect Christopher Haufmann built the Bon Air Hotel just north of Scott's Gulf where the Plateau's elevation approaches 2,000 feet (610 m).  In 1842, John B. Rodgers purchased the Bon Air Hotel, hoping to use the area's relatively cool summertime air and mineral springs to develop a health resort.  While Rodgers had some early success, the hotel was destroyed during the U.S. Civil War.
  In 1886, entrepreneur George Dibrell established the Bon Air Coal, Iron, and Lumber Company at the site of the old resort to exploit the area's natural resources.  Dibrell managed to have the railroad extended from Sparta, and as demand for coal rose steadily into the 20th century, Bon Air began to boom.  As operations moved southward into Scott's Gulf, the mining towns of DeRossett, Clifty, and Eastland sprang up along the edge of the Plateau above the Caney Fork.  The boom ended with the Great Depression in the 1930s, and little remains of the area's coal mining history.
  In the 1960s, Firestone, Inc. purchased a large tract of land 
  above Scott's Gulf in hopes of developing a retreat for its employees.  When the company was purchased by Bridgestone, however, the plans were dropped.  In the 1980s and 1990s, Bridgestone/Firestone attempted to sell the property, but withdrew its offer in the face of local opposition after a rumor spread that a potential buyer sought to log the area.  In the late 1990s, the company donated the bulk of its acreage to the state of Tennessee on the condition that it be used for low-impact activities and no structures be built in the gorge.  The Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness Area was donated by Bowater under similar conditions in 1978.
caption: The Caney Fork Trail parallels an old wagon road and early 20th-century miners' paths
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