Record #:

10815

Author(s):

Sharpe, Bill; Gilmore, Voit

Abstract:

Most travelers on Interstate 40 who travel through the Pigeon River Gorge are unaware that their route carries them right past a predecessor transmountain highway that made history more than 100 years ago. Jonathan Creek, in Haywood County, is the beginning of the new I-40 stretch to Tennessee, and it was also the North Carolina terminus of the historic \"Jonathan's Creek and Tennessee Mountain Turnpike,\" which served pioneers of the Civil War era. Completed in 1860 at a cost of $25,000, the mountain highway was used as a military artery during the Civil War, providing passage for troops who fought in the area of contention between pro-Confederate Western North Carolina and pro-Union East Tennessee.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 36 Issue 20, Mar 1969, p13, 22-23, il, map

Subject(s):

Turnpikes--North Carolina, Western--History