The history of Cherokee,
Etowah and DeKalb Counties began with the ethnohistoric accounts of the
ancestors of the Creeks and Cherokees first contacted by Spanish explorers
in the 16th century. Three Spanish expeditions may have penetrated
into the study are: Governor Don Hernando de Soto (1539-1541), Tristan
de Luna (1559-1561) and Juan Pardo (1566-1568). The reconstruction of De
Soto's route through Georgia and Alabama has long been debated and hypothetical
routes presented. Most scholars place De Soto's army in the Coosa River
Valley, at the juncture of the Little River and the Coosa River in Cherokee
County, Alabama. Spain's missions along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts vied
with France and England for colonial and commercial supremacy.
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