US East Coast 2018: Of Buried Pasts & Hidden Treasure

We were privileged to visit the Sautee Nacoochee Cabin. This was an original slave cabin that belonged to one of the two slave-owning families in the region - the Williams family (the other being the Richards family). It was a fascinating place to be; given how the role of slavery is entrenched in American history; especially here in the south, which had quite a significant part of its economic system premised on slavery.

It was also interesting to learn from our docent about the process of memory making and keeping alive some of the oral history accounts from the local landowners and former slaves - not everyone wanted to remember the past due to the haunting memories this entailed for some.

One interesting story is that following the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, Mr Williams, who was the owner of the slaves in the cabin, stood on a small stone wall nearby and read out the notice to the slaves, in the process freeing them. And after the end of the Civil War, many of Williams' former slaves eventually stayed on, becoming hired labourers for the family.

A significant historical marker in the area is the Nacoochee Indian mound found near the site. The Cherokee Indians lived life around the mound and used it as a meeting place; with a sacred fire burning throughout the year.

Sautee Nacoochee's name combines two place names of Muscogee origin. While Sautee means "Raccoon People", Nacoochee means "bear".

We couldn't leave the Sautee area without stopping by the Old Sautee Store, which is a fully operational general store. This historic landmark is almost 150 years ago, and dates back to 1872. The store served the local community with general goods and was even the post office for the valley up until the 1940s.

With the day coming to an end, we headed to Outpost Gold and Gem Panning, a mining site, where we proceeded to search for gems, adopting a sifting technique used by gem prospectors. The boys were thrilled to unearth buried treasures in their buckets, which included stones such as blue quartz and amethysts; and even an emerald. We then learnt how to identify gems and about the entire process of cutting and setting them; truly a job for the skilled professional...

As the sun ended its reign in the sky, we took one last walk around the lovely town of Helen. It was our last day there, and all of us were feeling rather sad, knowing we would miss this lovely and charming place very much!

The Previous Page - Deep Calls to Deep: the Chattahoochee National Forest Waterfalls. Read here.
Next - No Bridge Too High: The Tallulah Gorge State Park. Read here.

From the Beginning - Start reading the record pages of our US East Coast Travel Adventure here.

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