Editing Tellico Plains, Tennessee (section)

==History==
The area along the [[Tellico River]] was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. The historic [[Muscogee (Creek)|Muscogee]] settled here, before moving further south. In the late 18th century, the [[Cherokee]] settled in this area, displaced from the east and north by European colonial encroachment.

A [[United States Government Fur Trade Factory System|United States fur trade factory]] was situated here between 1795 and 1807.<ref>Wesley, Edgar Bruce (1935). Guarding the frontier. The University of Minnesota Press, p. 35.</ref>

Tellico Plains occupies the former site of the Cherokee town of [[Great Tellico]], which was one of the more important towns of the [[Overhill Cherokee]] during the late 18th century and before [[Indian Removal]] of the 1830s. Two important Native American trails met at Great Tellico, the [[Trading Path]] and the [[Seneca Trail|Warrior Path]], which connected farflung communities.<ref>Duncan, Barbara R. and Riggs, Brett H. ''Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook,'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, p. 242</ref>

[[Image:View of town - NARA - 280602.jpg|left|thumb|Tellico Plains in 1938]]
European Americans moved into the area and developed the land for agriculture, chiefly subsistence farming. During the 1840s, [[Elisha Johnson]], a former [[List of mayors of Rochester, New York|mayor of Rochester, New York]], purchased a [[plantations in the American South|plantation]] here and built the Tellico River Mansion on his property. With his brother [[Ebenezer Johnson|Ebenezer]], the former [[List of mayors of Buffalo, New York|mayor of Buffalo, New York]], he purchased the [[Tellico Iron and Manufacturing Company]].

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the Confederacy commandeered the iron works for production of munitions. [[William Tecumseh Sherman|General William Sherman's]] [[Union Army]] soldiers destroyed the Tellico Iron Works. Sherman pardoned Elisha Johnson for his part in supplying the Confederates because of Johnson's northern birth and sympathies. Johnson returned to the North, settling in [[Ithaca, New York]], where he died in 1866.<ref>[http://www.telliquah.com/mansion.htm "A History of the Mansion on Tellico River"], ''The Tellico Plains Mountain Press'', accessed September 14, 2011</ref>

The nearby Coker Creek was the site of a minor gold rush during the late 1800s. The small crossroads town of Coker Creek has a gold-panning tourist attraction. Visitors can rent pans and receive professional instructions from the proprietor of the souvenir shop. Visitors can also explore the old gold mines in the surrounding hills, although the mines are in a state of disrepair. Commercial gold mining continues on at least one private plot located slightly to the southwest of the tourist attraction.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tellico Plains became the base of operations for the [[Babcock Lumber Company]], which ran logging operations throughout the Tellico River basin. When it finished clearcutting, it sold its land to the [[US Forest Service]]. It has worked for decades to restore the woods.<ref name="history" />

Tellico Plains was incorporated in 1911.<ref name="history">[http://www.tellico-plains.com/history.html History of Tellico Plains, Tennessee]. Retrieved: October 30, 2011.</ref>  Its first mayor was Columbus Jenkins, father of a noted attorney, [[Ray Jenkins]].<ref>Ray H. Jenkins, ''The Terror of Tellico Plains'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1979), p. 9.</ref>

Tellico Plains is home to the [[Charles Hall Museum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.charleshallmuseum.com/ |title=Charles Hall Museum |publisher=Charles Hall Museum |date= |accessdate=April 16, 2014}}</ref>  The town is also the eastern terminus of the [[Trans America Trail]],<ref>{{cite web|author=Sam Correro |url=http://www.transamtrail.com/ |title=Transamerica Trail |publisher=Transamtrail.com |date= |accessdate=April 16, 2014}}</ref> a popular OHV route to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean.