Green River Preserve: Battle at the Headwaters
Sandy Schenck, and his wife, Missy, permanently protected more than 2,600 acres of their Green River Preserve (GRP), a summer camp in southwest Henderson County, with a conservation easement held by Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy in 2006.
The Preserve is more than worthy of permanent conservation. But the Schencks protected GRP for more than its abundant natural resources. For them, it was also about preserving the history so deeply ingrained in its mountains, the heritage that lingers in its hollows, and the past generations that haunt the valley.
“We’re protecting the land but we’re losing the stories,” Schenck admitted. So for nearly two decades, it has been his mission to preserve the past at GRP by collecting its timeless lore. He enthusiastically shares these tales with the children who attend his camp.
The Green River Valley is steeped in heritage bestowed by both Native Americans and European settlers. One of the valley’s most fascinating stories involves a conflict between them. And while it is not a happy tale, it is one that should remind us that this land was cherished by many — enough to fight for it with tragic results.
The story involves one of the last Cherokee encampments in the Green River Valley. The tale was personified in Robert Morgan’s fictional anthology, “The Mountain’s Won’t Remember Us.” His story, Headwaters, is a harrowing first-hand account of a young white boy’s role in the struggle against the valley’s few remaining Native Americans.
To best convey its history, I will reference both Schenck’s and Morgan’s stories. While Morgan’s version is a work of fiction, its basis was a very real event. It was Clyde Morgan, Robert’s father, who first told Schenck the story.
According to Schenck, the event took place between 1812 and 1815. It was a period when white settlers were steadily moving into the valley. Many Native Americans had left upon the settlers’ arrival, but several remained.
Today, we can only speculate on the reasons that newly arrived white residents decided they no longer wished to co-exist with remaining natives of the valley. What we do know is that one day they decided to act and a group of men convened in the lower valley near where the Cedar Springs Church stands today. “The idea was to scare the Cherokee out of the valley. It wasn’t to kill them,” explained Schenck.
Morgan’s story details the party traveling up the valley at night. Their intent was to surprise the Cherokee at their camp at the very head of the river. About halfway they stopped at a large boulder. There, they prayed for safety and guidance. The rock, which still stands adjacent to Green River Road, is known as “Prayer Rock” among locals today.
The settlers’ militia finally reached what Morgan refers to as “Old Fields”. At the time, the field was full of corn farmed by the Native Americans and it hosted a Cherokee lodge.
“The word was passed down from rifleman to rifleman to shoot into the lodge,” Schenck said. A bloody battle ensued.
Morgan’s description of the skirmish is haunting. “In the still of the morning it sounded like a thousand cannons started firing as the echoes bounced off the mountains and rattled around,” he wrote. While fictionalized, the imagery in his story cannot be far from what the participants actually experienced during the battle.
While evidence of Europeans settlers in the Green River Valley is now more visible, Native Americans left an equally lasting presence on the land. The field where the battle took place still exists in the center of Green River Preserve’s base camp.
“To this day, there are artifacts all over the ground,” Schenck said. “This field was used for thousands of years. We have found spear points on the site dated to 7000 BC. That means there have been 9,000 years of human occupation right here at the camp.”
While the struggle at GRP two centuries ago was tragic, Scheck continues to tell its story so that the presence of the Native American people among the headwaters of the Green River will never be forgotten. Schenck is achieving his goal: He has saved more than the land.
Author Peter Barr is the landowner information associate for Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. CMLC has protected more than 21,000 acres in Henderson, Transylvania and surrounding counties.