Last updated: October 11, 2022
Place
Flat Rock Outcrop
NPS Photo
This large, exposed rock was a favorite location for Carl Sandburg to bring a chair and orange crate for an outdoors study. He enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness of this location to edit his work. Exposed rocks like this are located throughout the area and have a long history of use going back to the first peoples to settle the area we know today as Flat Rock.
This area’s dynamic and ecologically abundant landscape supplied generations of Native Americans a place to develop extensive cultural traditions related to kinship, religion, trade, art, and diverse use of abundant natural resources. Over millennia, these traditions evolved, adapting to environmental and social changes.Take a moment to pause here and reflect on the legacy of this land! These mountains are clothed in a lush hardwood forest teeming with birds, wildlife and an abundance of native berries, nuts, fruit, and flowers.
Long ago, native peoples such as Cherokee, Cheraw, and Catawba thrived on this rich abundance.While villages were in outlying areas, these large “flat rocks” near the border of North and South Carolina, were noted as places for traders, pioneers, and settlers to barter goods with the native people. With increased European expansion, the Indian Removal Act of 1838 forced native people to leave their homelands and their ancestral lands were confiscated.
This removal was devastating, and many thousands perished on what is tragically remembered as the Trail of Tears. Today descendants of these early Cherokee people embrace their rich ancestry and culture and call these mountains home again in Cherokee, NC. Learn more about the Trail of Tears.
This area’s dynamic and ecologically abundant landscape supplied generations of Native Americans a place to develop extensive cultural traditions related to kinship, religion, trade, art, and diverse use of abundant natural resources. Over millennia, these traditions evolved, adapting to environmental and social changes.Take a moment to pause here and reflect on the legacy of this land! These mountains are clothed in a lush hardwood forest teeming with birds, wildlife and an abundance of native berries, nuts, fruit, and flowers.
Long ago, native peoples such as Cherokee, Cheraw, and Catawba thrived on this rich abundance.While villages were in outlying areas, these large “flat rocks” near the border of North and South Carolina, were noted as places for traders, pioneers, and settlers to barter goods with the native people. With increased European expansion, the Indian Removal Act of 1838 forced native people to leave their homelands and their ancestral lands were confiscated.
This removal was devastating, and many thousands perished on what is tragically remembered as the Trail of Tears. Today descendants of these early Cherokee people embrace their rich ancestry and culture and call these mountains home again in Cherokee, NC. Learn more about the Trail of Tears.