Editing Bryson City, North Carolina (section)

==History==
===Indigenous settlements===
Indigenous cultures of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] have been living and hunting along the [[Tuckasegee River]] in the vicinity of what is now Bryson City for nearly 14,000 years.<ref>{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Beadle |url=http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/05_06/05_24_06/out_mothertown.html |title=Remembering the Mother Town |publisher=Smokymountainnews.com |date=May 24, 2006 |access-date=August 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813081547/http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/05_06/05_24_06/out_mothertown.html |archive-date=August 13, 2009 }}</ref> The village of [[Keetoowah|Kituwa]], which the [[Cherokee]] believed to be their oldest village and "mother town", was located along the Tuckasegee River. The ancient mound and village site is now controlled again by the federally recognized [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]] and is preserved as a sacred site. (Bryson City developed downstream from this site.)

In 1567, an ''orata'' (minor chief) from Kituwa is believed to have met with Spanish explorer [[Juan Pardo (explorer)|Juan Pardo]] in the [[French Broad River|French Broad Valley]] to the north.<ref>Charles Hudson, ''The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568'' (Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2005), 97.</ref> During the American Revolutionary War, many Cherokee allied with the British, hoping to expel European Americans from their territory. American soldiers burned and destroyed the town of Kituwa in 1776, but the Cherokee continued to hold annual ceremonial dances at the site throughout the 19th century.<ref name="brysoncitync.info">{{cite web |url=http://www.brysoncitync.info/cherokee.htm |title=History of Bryson City and Swain County, North Carolina |publisher=Brysoncitync.info |access-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509134549/http://www.brysoncitync.info/cherokee.htm |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Everett Street, Bryson City, NC (46647749271).jpg|alt=|thumb|Buildings on Everett Street]]
Around 1818, a Cherokee chief known as Big Bear received a {{convert|640|acre|km2|adj=on}} reservation of land immediately west of the confluence of Deep Creek and the Tuckasegee River. Big Bear sold part of his reservation to Darling Belk in 1819 and another part to John B. Love in 1824.  Throughout the 1830s, Belk's heirs and Love fought an extended legal battle over control of the former Big Bear land, with Love finally prevailing in 1840. The following year, Love sold part of the land to James and Diana Shuler. The Shulers, in turn, sold parts of their land to Colonel Thaddeus Bryson and merchant Alfred Cline.  A small hamlet known as Bear Springs developed on what was once Big Bear's reservation.<ref name="brysoncitync.info" />

===Contemporary history===
With its population having increased, Swain County was formed from parts of [[Jackson County, North Carolina|Jackson]] and [[Macon County, North Carolina|Macon]] counties in 1871, during the [[Reconstruction era]]. The new commissioners first met at Cline's store at Bear Springs. Lucy Ann (Raby) Cline agreed to sell several lots of her land to form a county seat. Initially known as Charleston, the county seat was laid out in a T-shape, formed by what are now Main and Everett streets (the latter street was named for the county's first sheriff, Epp Everett). The first Swain County Courthouse was completed in 1874.<ref name="Swain County 2008">{{cite web |url=http://www.brysoncitync.info/first_years.htm |title=History of Bryson City and Swain County, North Carolina |publisher=Brysoncitync.info |access-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509082351/http://www.brysoncitync.info/first_years.htm |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  In 1872, shortly after completion of the new jail, a gang led by Harvey Cooper stormed the jail and freed Tom Colvert, whom they deemed unjustly imprisoned for killing a rival at a saloon in [[Robbinsville, North Carolina|Robbinsville]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brysoncitync.info/Jailbreak.htm |title=History of Bryson City and Swain County, North Carolina |publisher=Brysoncitync.info |access-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509133431/http://www.brysoncitync.info/Jailbreak.htm |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1889, the people of Charleston changed the city's name to "Bryson City" to acknowledge the role of Thaddeus Bryson in its development, and to eliminate confusion from sharing a name with [[Charleston, South Carolina]].  The Western North Carolina Railroad laid tracks through Bryson City in 1884, greatly improving transportation to the previously isolated area. The Bryson City Bank opened in 1904. The current Swain County Courthouse was completed in 1908, replacing the former one.<ref name="Swain County 2008" />

[[File:Bryson City Depot, Bryson City, NC (45732828165).jpg|alt=|thumb|[[Bryson City Depot]]]]
The [[Great Smoky Mountains National Park]], which was established in 1933 during the [[Great Depression]], generates considerable revenue to for Swain County.  [[Horace Kephart]], an author and outdoors enthusiast who was based in Bryson City for several years, was a key early proponent for creation of the park.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brysoncitync.info/horancekephart.htm |title=History of Bryson City and Swain County, North Carolina |publisher=Brysoncitync.info |access-date=August 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721190230/http://www.brysoncitync.info/horancekephart.htm |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  The Deep Creek section of the park, which is immediately north of Bryson City, has a large campground and multiple trailheads.  The park's main eastern entrance is located just a few miles east of Bryson City at [[Cherokee, North Carolina|Cherokee]].  Cherokee is the southern terminus of the [[Blue Ridge Parkway]]. It is also the base of the [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]], the only federally recognized tribe in North Carolina. Many are descendants of Cherokee who avoided removal in the late 1830s.

The completion of [[Fontana Dam]] in 1944 created a reservoir, which inundated the only highway connecting Bryson City with the remote area of the Smokies known as the North Shore.  The U.S. government began constructing a new highway in 1948, now known as Lakeview Drive, but it was slow. By 1972, only {{convert|7|mi|km}} had been completed.  Environmental and financial issues stalled the project, and the road became known to locals as "The Road to Nowhere".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thesmokies.com/road-to-nowhere/ |title=Road to Nowhere NC: History of the unfinished road in Bryson City |date=November 2021 |publisher=TheSmokies.com}}</ref>

In 2007, the National Park Service deemed the road's construction to be in violation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's general management plan, and began working with Swain County to find an alternative.<ref>{{cite web|work=The National Park Service, et al. |url=http://www.northshoreroad.info/feis.htm |title=Final Environmental Impact Statement &mdash; North Shore Road |date=September 2007 |publisher=Northshoreroad.info |access-date=November 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509071518/http://www.northshoreroad.info/feis.htm |archive-date=May 9, 2008 }}</ref>

The increasing usage of the automobile led to a decline in railroad transportation, and [[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern Railway]] (which had replaced the [[Western North Carolina Railroad]]) dropped passenger service in 1948. After [[Norfolk Southern]] ended freight traffic on the railroad in 1985, the state of North Carolina purchased the tracks. In 1988, the state established a scenic line, known as the [[Great Smoky Mountains Railroad]], with its [[Bryson City Depot|depot]] and departure point in Bryson City.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gsmr.com/about/history.php |title=About the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad |publisher=Gsmr.com |access-date=August 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820205801/http://gsmr.com/about/history.php |archive-date=August 20, 2008 }}</ref>

In 2015, the city's first FM station was launched. [[WTIJ-LP]] (100.7) broadcasts local and nationally syndicated ministers, and Christian music.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Call Sign History |url=https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=197575&Callsign=WTIJ |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=licensing.fcc.gov}}</ref>  The station is owned by Grace Christian Academy and broadcasts over the air and online 24/7.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Patrick |first=Emily |title=Community radio comes to Swain County |url=https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/11/23/new-community-radio-station-bryson-city-swain-county/76260524/ |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=The Asheville Citizen Times |language=en-US}}</ref>