National Register of Historic Places

Cowee Mound and Village Site

Wests Mill, Macon County, North Carolina
Listed
January 18, 1973
Type
Site
Period
Pre Contact
Ref No.
73002238

About this property

Too-Cowee (sometimes Cowee) (also Stecoah), was an important historic Cherokee town located near the Little Tennessee River north of present-day Franklin, North Carolina. It also had a prehistoric platform mound and earlier village built by ancestral peoples. As their expression of public architecture, the Cherokee built a townhouse on top of the mound. It was the place for their community gatherings in their highly decentralized society. The name translates to "pig fat" in English. British traders and colonists referred to Cowee as one of the Cherokee Middle Towns along this river; they defined geographic groupings based in relation to their coastal settlements, such as Charlestown, South Carolina. The "Cowee Mound and Village Site", now within present-day Macon County, North Carolina, has been listed since 1973 on the National Register of Historic Places as an archeological site. Since 2006 it has been owned by the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in North Carolina, which shares some conservation easements with the state.

Location

Wests Mill, Macon County, North Carolina

Categories

HISTORIC - ABORIGINALHISTORIC - NON-ABORIGINAL
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Overview
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The Land
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Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back millions of years.
LiDAR Terrain
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Conflict & War
The battles, raids and skirmishes fought near here, across every era of American conflict.
The Civil War
The Civil War on this ground, 1861 to 1865: who held it, and the battles, camps and regiments nearby.
The Soldiers
The men who marched from here in the Civil War, named and traced where the record allows.
Native Heritage
The Native nations who held this land, mapped across time from before European contact to today.
Settlement
Who claimed and held this ground, from Indigenous homelands through the colonial powers to the United States.
The Community
How the town grew, who came, and what kind of place it became, traced through the census record.
Rivers & Rail
The rivers, canals and railroads that connected this place between 1830 and 1911.
Notable People
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Historical Maps
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Finds & Access
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Literature
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Spotlight
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Points of Interest
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Timeline
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Questions about this property

When was Cowee Mound and Village Site listed on the National Register?

Cowee Mound and Village Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 18, 1973.

What type of historic resource is Cowee Mound and Village Site?

Cowee Mound and Village Site is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Cowee Mound and Village Site?

The period of significance for Cowee Mound and Village Site is recorded as the pre_contact era.

Can I research the history near Cowee Mound and Village Site?

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