Little Tennessee Land Trust Announces Two Riverfront Acquisitions

submitted by Jill Wiggins, Little Tennessee Land Trust (LTLT)

view of Cowee Mound, photo by Ralph Preston

This spring LTLT is celebrating two new riverfront acquisitions on the Little Tennessee. The newly acquired six-acre parcel at the confluence of Lakey Creek with the Little Tennessee River has a gravel "beach" where eight whooping cranes rested several years ago during their spring migration north. LTLT looks to this site to improve public access to the river, complementing two sites recently constructed farther downstream on NC Needmore Game Lands by the Wildlife Resources Commission.

Upstream at Pott's Branch across from the Cowee Mound, LTLT protected another floodplain subdivision lot between NC Hwy 28 and the Little Tennessee River. This acquisition, adjacent to nine floodplain RV lots LTLT purchased in February 2010, will provide an excellent place for the public to safely pull off of the highway and view the Mound. LTLT plans to construct an educational kiosk at the site in the coming months. The kiosk will have panels in both English and Cherokee and tell the history of the Mound and the Cowee settlement, one of the largest Cherokee towns during the 1700s.