The Greek revival courthouse built in 1907 and stands as a symbol of strength to the community. Bryson City was officially formed in 1881 and incorporated in 1887. The county seat of Swain County is Bryson City, a small mountain town that began its roots in 1809 with the coming of the first white settlers, and a remote town that grew to prominence when the railroad arrived in 1884. Today Swain County is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the Blue Ridge, Smoky Mountains region. Their resistance to leave eventually led to the securing of the Cherokee Reservation or more properly referred to as Qualla (Native American) Boundary. Many of the Cherokee people hid out deep in the mountains and joined other Cherokee who lived in the remote corner of what is now Swain County. This act lead to the infamous “Trail of Tears,” where thousands of Cherokee were rounded up and forced to the Oklahoma Territory where many died along the way. That all changed in the early 1830’s when and abundance of gold was discovered in the Blue Ridge Mountains causing President Jackson to make a decree for the removal and possession of all properties of the Cherokee. A Cherokee named Sequoyah found it essential to create a written language for their people to preserve the future of their society believing education was the key to their long-term success with the new arrivals. Due to trading goods with the Europeans in exchange for the Cherokee fur commodities, most Cherokee choose to assimilate the new European arrivals, these material goods and influence toward prospers lifestyles encouraged many of the people. They often lived in harmony through trade and treaty with the new settlers and its government though they did fight alongside the British against the new Americans. The Cherokee also known as the Principle People at the time of the their contact with white settlers, were a considerably accomplished native people of Northern America with over 200 Cherokee towns throughout the central southeast. It wasn’t until 1809 that the first white settlements started appearing in what is now as the Swain County region, a land the Cherokee had possessed for several hundred years. Over two hundred years had passed since De Soto’s expedition when two naturalists William Bartram and Andre’ Michaux and his son bravely ventured into the deep mountains on separate expeditions in order to investigate the plants and animals of the southwestern Blue Ridge Province. To the earliest colonial settlers, the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains were nearly impenetrable, yet brave and adventurous souls wandered deep into the mountain’s interior, mostly as hunters and fur traders. In the mid-1500s Hernando De Soto’s quest for gold brought his Spanish army to the Blue Ridge Mountains, no significant amounts of gold were found and no settlements were ever established. Amongst tall mountains and deep forests are tales never to be forgotten and a remote town with aspiration of becoming a city. This rugged and once obscure country is the symbol of endurance and survival. Below the central southeastern face of the Great Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina is a county steeped in beauty and early American history.
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