Tennessee Overhill

06/01/2026

Overhill Stories
June 1

This week, we’re looking at one of the most discussed events in McMinn County history: the Battle of Athens.

On August 1, 1946, tensions surrounding local elections in McMinn County came to a head in Athens. In the years after World War II, a group of local veterans and citizens challenged the county’s political leadership, raising concerns about election practices, law enforcement authority, and local government. The dispute escalated on election day, when ballot boxes were taken to the county jail and an armed confrontation followed.

The events of that night remain an important and complex part of local history. For some, the Battle of Athens has been remembered as a stand against political corruption. For others, it raises difficult questions about violence, public order, and how communities resolve disputes over elections and government authority.

Nearly eighty years later, the Battle of Athens continues to be studied, debated, and remembered across McMinn County and the wider Tennessee Overhill region.

To learn more, join us for the next Gems of the Past Lecture Series featuring Sheriff Joe Guy, who will present “The Battle of Athens.”

The lecture will be held Thursday, June 4, doors open at 6:30pm and the lecture will begin at 7pm at the Gem Theater, 700 Tennessee Avenue, Etowah, TN 37331.

This event is free and open to the public.

Gems of the Past Discover the rich history of the Tennessee Overhill Region! Join us for an engaging lecture series exploring the stories, people and events that shaped our area. […]

05/31/2026

Sundays At Our Overhill Table
Sunday, May 31

This week, we turn to one of Appalachia’s most interesting wild foods: pokeweed.

Known to many as poke sallet, pokeweed has long been gathered in spring when the shoots and leaves are still young. It is not a casual food. The plant is toxic and has to be identified correctly, harvested at the right stage, and prepared with care. For those who grew up with it, that careful preparation was simply part of the tradition.

Across Southern Appalachia, poke sallet became a food plant tied closely to knowledge passed down through families. Some cooked it with bacon grease, some mixed it with eggs, and some served it like any other pot of spring greens. The flavor is earthy, a little sharp, and strongly connected to the season.

We recently found some for sale at the Delano Farm Market, and we are looking forward to cooking it up. How do you prepare your poke sallet?

Photo Credit: Briana Pagdon

05/29/2026

Written of This Place
Friday, May 29

This week we return with words from Mary Noailles Murfree, writing as Charles Egbert Craddock, where a small household light becomes part of the larger night along the river.

“now with a lucent yellow flicker from the wide-open door gemming the night with the scintillations of the hearthstone, set like a jewel in the center of the wilderness.”

Mary Noailles Murfree, The Story of Old Fort Loudon, 1899

Murfree’s historical novel returns to the world around Fort Loudoun, where the Tellico River meets the Tennessee, and where Cherokee towns, soldiers, traders, settlers, and river paths shaped the early history of the Overhill. In this passage, the light is not grand or distant. It comes from a doorway, from a hearth, from a small place of shelter held against the surrounding dark.

At this time of year, when lightning bugs begin to rise from the grass and woods, Murfree’s image feels close at hand. Their light is brief, but it changes the evening. A field, a roadside, a yard, or the edge of a creek becomes marked by small, living flashes. The Tennessee Overhill is often remembered through forts, rivers, roads, and mountains, but it is also held by these smaller lights. They remind us that a place is not preserved only through stone, timber, maps, and names. It is preserved through attention to the lives that move through it, however briefly they appear.

Photo Credit: Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association

05/23/2026

Looking for someplace to stay in McMinn County? Discover Hiwassee Acres in Calhoun! Enjoy this beautiful bed and breakfast along the river and meet the farm animals that live there. https://rebrand.ly/al4uko7

05/22/2026

Written of This Place
Friday, May 22

This week we return with words from George Scarbrough, where the song of a cicada rises from the bark of a persimmon tree, carrying the force of memory and reminding us of the value of lives too often overlooked.

“Where the bloom of the sourest honey was, the cicada is,
Close to the similar bark. The persimmon tree
Is a high, apt place for such a song as his.
He is too much like a new blade running free

Behind a headstrong team, though, to put my mind at ease.
He recalls too well the three, hand-running springs
When the white mares broke the mower. I have forgotten these.
And he talks only of such fast, dangerous things.”

George Scarbrough, “The Cicada”

Scarbrough was born near Patty Station in Polk County, and his poetry often holds close to the natural world of the Overhill. In his work, the smallest living things are not merely background. They belong to the same remembered ground as fields, creeks, roads, ridges, and family houses.

This photograph, taken in downtown Etowah, brings those words back into the present. The cicadas gather not in a distant hollow, but on a tree beside the street, their bodies pressed to bark, their sound rising into town.

The Overhill is often remembered through rivers, rail lines, farms, and roads, but it is also marked by these smaller beings. Their bodies may be smaller than ours, but their lives are not smaller. They are equally part of the life of the Overhill, as important to this place as anything we more easily name or preserve.

In Scarbrough’s poem, the cicada is not a quiet or decorative presence. Its song stirs memory and danger, reminding us that even the smallest lives can alter the feeling of a place. At the L&N Depot, where our offices are located, beautiful barn swallows nest and move above us each day. They remind us how quickly life passes, and how important it is to preserve and protect what is here. We often deem lives smaller than ours as lesser, but that is not true. It is a reflection of a flawed outlook. To see the cicadas on the trees and the swallows beneath the eaves is to be reminded that this place is held not by human memory alone, but by every life that returns, nests, calls, and passes through it.

Photo Credit: Briana Pagdon

05/21/2026

The Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association is deeply saddened to share the passing of Robert Mark Morris Sr., known to many as Mark or “Moose.”

Mark was a valued member of our board and a dedicated community servant whose time, knowledge, and generosity made a lasting impact on Coker Creek and the Tennessee Overhill region. We are grateful for his service and for the care he showed to the people and places around him.

We extend our sincere condolences to his wife, Lisa, his family, and all who knew and loved him.

Service details and obituary are available here:

View Robert Mark Morris Sr.'s obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

05/18/2026

Overhill Stories
May 18

On May 18, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law, creating the TVA during the height of the Great Depression. The new federal agency would go on to reshape life across the Tennessee Valley, including here in the Overhill.

At the time, much of the region remained rural and economically isolated. Flooding was common, electricity was limited in many communities, and jobs were scarce. The TVA was created to improve navigation, control flooding, expand access to electricity, and support economic development throughout the valley.

In the Overhill, rivers that had long served as transportation routes and industrial corridors became central to a new era of hydroelectric power. Existing facilities like Ocoee Dam No. 1, which had been built in 1911 along the Ocoee River, became part of a larger regional system managed by the TVA. Hydroelectric development helped power homes, farms, mills, and industries across Southeast Tennessee while permanently changing the landscape of the river valleys.

The TVA also transformed daily life in smaller communities. Access to electricity brought refrigeration, radios, electric lights, and new opportunities for schools, businesses, and farms throughout the region. At the same time, dam construction and reservoir projects altered historic communities and displaced families whose connections to the rivers stretched back generations.

Today, structures like Ocoee Dam No. 1 remain reminders of how the rivers of the Overhill shaped both the natural landscape and the modern history of the Tennessee Valley.

Photo: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the TVA Act on May 18, 1933. Courtesy of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

05/18/2026

Sundays At Our Overhill Table
Sunday, May 17

This week, we turn to a Southern Appalachian favorite: fried catfish.

Fried catfish has long had a place on tables across the South, especially in communities shaped by rivers, creeks, and ponds. It is a practical dish at heart. A good piece of catfish does not need much more than seasoning, a cornmeal coating, and hot oil. When it is done right, the outside is crisp and golden while the fish stays tender inside.

Fried catfish feels right at home in the Overhill. This is river country, and around here, fish is a staple. Whether it comes from a home kitchen, church supper, Friday night fish fry, or a local restaurant. A plate of fried catfish carries the kind of simple, familiar comfort that has long been part of Southern Appalachian cooking.

As with most traditional foods, preparation depends on the cook. Some use mostly cornmeal, others mix in flour. Some keep the seasoning simple with salt and black pepper, while others add cayenne, paprika, garlic, or a favorite house blend. Tartar sauce, slaw, hush puppies, fried okra, potatoes, or a soft roll may all find their way onto the plate beside it.

This fried catfish came from Tellico Junction Cafe in Englewood, one of our staff’s favorite lunch spots. Plates like this are part of why local restaurants matter. They keep familiar foods on the table and serve them without fuss. We don’t need fancy, just good old-fashioned homestyle cooking.

Photo Credit: Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association

05/15/2026

Written of This Place
Friday, May 15

This week we return with words that carry the name of the state back to the river towns of the Overhill.

“a name which can not be analyzed, commonly spelt Tennessee, occurring in several places in the old Cherokee country, viz: 1. On Little Tennessee river, about halfway between Citico and Toco creeks, in Monroe county, Tennessee; 2. ‘Old Tennessee town,’ on Hiwassee river, a short distance above the junction of Ocoee, in Polk county, Tennessee; 3. on Tennessee creek, a head-stream of Tuckasegee river, in Jackson county, North Carolina.”

James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, 1900, entry for Tănăsĭ′

Mooney’s brief entry returns the name Tennessee to its origins. Before it named a state, it belonged to towns, rivers, and crossings within the homelands of the Cherokee. One found along the Little Tennessee in Monroe County, near Citico and Toco. Another, remembered as Old Tennessee town, stood on the Hiwassee just above the Ocoee in Polk County.

The meaning of the word had already been lost by the time Mooney recorded it. The name we use every day did not begin as an abstraction. It began in the living and ancient landscapes of the Overhill in Cherokee towns, river bends, fields, and council grounds. The state still carries that older name, and here in the Overhill, the name remains closest to its source.

Photo Credit: Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association

05/14/2026

Overhill Stories
May 14

This week, we are exploring the history of the Burra Burra Mine, one of the most important industrial sites in the Overhill and a place that helped shape the communities of Ducktown and Copperhill.

Discovered in the mid-1800s, the rich copper deposits of Ducktown quickly transformed the region into a center of mining and industry. At the heart of it all stood the Burra Burra Mine, once considered one of the richest copper mines in the world. Thousands of workers came to the basin seeking opportunity, and the demand for copper helped fuel the growth of railroads, businesses, and entire communities across Southeast Tennessee.

Mining at Burra Burra was difficult and dangerous work. Deep underground, miners faced long hours, collapsing tunnels, flooding, and poor air quality as they extracted copper ore from the earth. Above ground, the environmental impact of copper production dramatically changed the landscape. By the early 1900s, large portions of the basin had been stripped bare by logging, smelting, and acid rain, creating scenes that became known across the country.

Today, the Burra Burra Mine site stands as both a reminder of the Overhill's industrial past and a testament to environmental restoration efforts that transformed the once barren hillsides into the forests we see today.

Photo courtesy of the Ducktown Basin Museum & Burra Burra Mine State Historic Site