In September of 1780, the Revolutionary War marched through what is now the Toe River Valley. Hundreds of Overmountain Men from the Watauga Settlement in Tennessee came across Roan Mountain, and down Roaring Creek to the North Toe River. They followed the Toe through what is now Spruce Pine, proceeding to Gillespie Gap on their quest to quash a threat from British Major Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson had warned the people over the mountains, demanding they return back across the “watershed line” – the Eastern Continental Divide, so that they would more easily be under British command. The determined, independent, self-governing Overmountain people were irate and were determined to thwart the threat on their own terms. The Overmountain Men would decisively defeat the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. In a little over an hour’s time, British Major Patrick Ferguson and 119 of his men had been killed, 123 wounded, and 664 captured. The Americans Patriots lost 28 killed and 62 wounded. Thomas Jefferson called it “the turn of the tide of success” for the American patriots.
The original monument, as shown in this 1930’s photo, was made of native stone and
sat near the present location of Highway 226 and the intersection of the Blue Ridge
Parkway at Gillespie Gap.
On July 4, 1927, the North Carolina Historical Commission erected a monument memorializing these men at Gillespie Gap. Judge Heriot Clarkson, the founder of the resort community of Little Switzerland, spearheaded the drive to construct the monument. Every community in Mitchell County was represented at this momentous occasion, which featured then-North Carolina Governor Angus McLean, former Governor Cameron Morrison, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, and other dignitaries. Even Anna Jackson Preston, great-granddaughter of Stonewall Jackson, assisted in the ceremony, as well as many of the descendants of the Overmountain Men including the Sevier Family. The monument was removed when NC Hwy 226 was built, but the plaque was placed beside the North Carolina Museum of Minerals where it can still be viewed today.
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