page_title: Oconaluftee (Great Smoky Mountains)
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Oconaluftee (Great Smoky Mountains) / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: I took photo of fences at Mountain Farm Museum in GSMNP with Canon camera.
context_page_description: Oconaluftee is a river valley in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, located in the Southeastern United States. Formerly the site of a Cherokee village and Appalachian community, the valley's bottomland is now home to the main entrance to the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
  The Oconaluftee area parallels the Oconaluftee River as its basin gradually broadens from Smokemont in the north to the southern tip of the Qualla Boundary. The Qualla Boundary, commonly known as Cherokee, North Carolina, comprises the bulk of a federal trust that acts a reservation for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. The national park 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 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_section_description: 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.
  Mingus was followed by Abraham Enloe (1770–1840), who settled downstream from the Mingus plot.  Due to Enloe's resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, many locals believed he was the president's father.  Later Euro-American arrivals included Isaac Bradley (1772–1855), whose family settled in the vicinity of the stream that now bears their name, and Aden Carver (1844–1945), who lived near Smokemont.
  In 1831, Enloe entered into a partnership with William Holland Thomas (1805–1893) to form the Oconaluftee Turnpike Company.  The company widened the Indian Gap Trail from Oconaluftee to the crest of the Smokies, allowing wagon access to saltpeter mines on Mount Le Conte.  The road's first tollkeeper, Robert Collins, would later guide Arnold Guyot on surveying expeditions across the crest of the Smokies.  Mount Collins, between Clingmans Dome and Newfound Gap, is named for him.
  Thomas, the son of caucasian parents who was adopted by Cherokee peace chief Yonaguska, took control of Cherokee business affairs in the 1830s.  His land purchases for the tribe included the Qualla Boundary, which became the backbone of the federal trust for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee.  After the 1835 Treaty of New Echota ordered the Cherokees' removal from all eastern lands, Thomas went to Washington and successfully argued that since the Oconaluftee Cherokees were North Carolina citizens, the treaty didn't apply to them.  In 1868, the Eastern Band was recognized as a separate tribe.
caption: 19th century fence at Mountain Farm Museum
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