One of the easiest to understand definitions I found was on this websitevisit link. It says "A drop of rain runs off your roof, into your yard and joins other drops. They flow into a creek, then into a larger stream and finally into a river. People call the land area that collects all of these raindrops a watershed". A watershed includes the soil, air and water within it. Just remember, water flows downhill!
The coordinates will take you to a very special place to view the watershed of Tellico Lake. The blood of these people run through my wife’s veins. This area is full of incredible history. Not far from this very spot were the Cherokee villages of Tanasi and Chota. When you stand at the spot where you are supposed to take your picture, look out across the river at Bacon Bend. There have been several significant archaeological digs there. Most artifacts found were from the Mississippian Period.
Prehistoric sites
The Little Tennessee River, looking out over the now-flooded Icehouse Bottom siteThe Little Tennessee River and its immediate watershed comprise one of the richest archaeological areas in the southeastern United States, containing substantial habitation sites dating back to as early as 7,500 B.C. Cyrus Thomas, who conducted a mound survey in the area for the Smithsonian Institution in the 1880s, wrote that the Little Tennessee River was "undoubtedly the most interesting archaeological section in the entire Appalachian district."
Substantial Archaic period (8000-1000 B.C.) sites along the river include the Icehouse Bottom site and the Rose Island site, both located near the river's confluence with the Tellico River. These sites were probably semi-permanent base camps, the inhabitants of which may have sought the chert deposits on the bluffs above the river which they used to create tools.
Evidence of Woodland period (1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.) habitation has been uncovered at numerous sites along the Little Tennessee, most notably at Icehouse Bottom, Rose Island, Calloway Island (near the river's confluence with Toqua Creek), Thirty Acre Island (near the river's confluence with Nine Mile Creek) and Bacon Bend (between Toqua and Citico Beach). Excavations in the 1970s uncovered large Woodland-period burials on Rose Island and Calloway Island. Pottery fragments uncovered at Icehouse Bottom in the 1970s show evidence of interaction with the Hopewell people of what is now Ohio.
Mississippian period (c. 1000-1500 A.D.) sites in the Little Tennessee Valley include the Toqua site (at the river's confluence with Toqua Creek), Tomotley (adjacent to Toqua), Citico (at the river's Citico Creek confluence), Chilhowee (near the river's confluence with Abrams Creek), Tallassee (below Calderwood Dam), and Bussell Island (at the mouth of the river). Toqua's Mississippian inhabitants constructed a 25-foot (7.6 m) platform mound overlooking a central plaza. By 1400, the village covered 4.8 acres (0.019 km²) surrounded by a clay-covered palisade.
Historic sites
Several Cherokee Middle towns, including Nikwasi, Jore, and Cowee were located along the river's North Carolina section. The river was also home to most of the major Overhill Cherokee towns, the most prominent of which included Chota, Tanasi, Toqua, Tomotley, Mialoquo (near Rose Island), Chilhowee, Tallassee, Citico, and Tuskegee (adjacent to Fort Loudoun).
Euro-American traders were visiting the Overhill towns along the Little Tennessee by the late 1600s, and there is some evidence that Hernando De Soto and Juan Pardo passed through the Little Tennessee Valley in 1540 and 1567, respectively. Fort Loudoun, a fort built by the English in 1756, was located at the river's confluence with the Tellico River and has been reconstructed. Two early American sites are located along the Little Tennessee— the Tellico Blockhouse, an outpost at the river's Nine Mile Creek confluence, and Morganton, a river port and ferry town near modern Greenback that thrived in the early 1800s.[ The Hazel Creek section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located on the north shore of the river's Fontana Lake impoundment, was home to a substantial Appalachian community in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
A Little Dam History
Tellico Reservoir stretches 33 miles along the Little Tennessee River into the mountains of east Tennessee. Tellico has 357 miles of shoreline and 15,560 acres of water surface for recreation activities. Tellico Lake was created by the construction of Tellico Dam which began in 1967. Construction was halted because of the discovery of the Snail Darter by University of Tennessee biologist and Professor David Etnier. The snail darter is a small fish native to the waters of East Tennessee. It was put on the endangered species list in 1975. The creation of the dam would alter the habitat of the river to the point of extirpating the snail darter. After a long drawn out battle, Jimmy Carter signed a bill that exempted Tellico from the Endangered Species Act paving the way for the completion of the dam on November 29th, 1979. More information on this can be found at this site visit link
You will pass a really cool virtual cache on the way to this one. It’s GCH8Q9 the Famous Village by DavidMac. Please use good Geocaching etiquette and respect the area. Remember to CITO.
To get credit for this Earthcache you must email me the answers to the following questions:
(1) Take a picture of yourself and or group with GPSr at the neat looking tree by the lake (Using coordinates above). Please don’t post a picture of the monument in your log. (I don’t want any spoilers)
(2) How many “clans” are there?
(3) What is your favorite clan?
(4) Who’s name is on the memorial?
(5) What is the name of the watershed upstream from here? (Hint: my son cj10 has an Earthcache there)
(6) Where do the waters of the Tellico Lake/Little TN River end up? (Hint: my good friends OxSling have an Earthcache there)
(7) Follow the trail down to the final set of coordinates. Standing at these coordinates, look straight out in front of you. What feature do you see that was created by the flooding of the Little Tennessee River?
This cache can't be done at night. Please don't post your answers in your log.
Any "FOUND IT" log without your picture and without the correct answers emailed to me will be DELETED. Thanks and HAPPY CACHING!
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