During the early part of the 18th century, the area around what is now Monroe County was known as part of the traditional homelands of the
Overhill Cherokee, a western subset of the
Cherokee Nation. They had established towns and villages extending through much of the mountainous areas of western Virginia, the Carolinas, southeastern Tennessee, and portions of northeastern Georgia and Alabama. English colonists and European Americans tended to refer to these areas by geography: Lower Towns, along the upper
Savannah River in South Carolina; Middle Towns in
Western North Carolina west of the
French Broad River; and the
Overhill Towns, located generally along the west side of the
Appalachian Mountains in present-day Tennessee, along the lower
Little Tennessee River and upper
Tennessee River; south into northeastern
Georgia. Later, the Cherokee expanded into western Georgia and what developed as Alabama. The Overhill Towns had developed along the Little Tennessee and
Tellico Rivers throughout present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. These included
Chota,
Tanasi (the name source of "Tennessee"), and
Great Tellico, which at various times were each considered the Cherokee principal town or "mother town". Also in this area were
Citico,
Toqua,
Tomotley,
Mialoquo,
Chilhowee, and
Tallassee. Archaeological excavations at the Citico site suggest the area was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. Artifacts uncovered from the
Icehouse Bottom site near Vonore date to as early as 7500 BC, during the
Archaic period. Later prehistoric occupants were from indigenous cultures, such as the
Woodland era and
Southern Appalachia Mississippian culture that preceded the rise of the historic
Cherokee people. The latter group is believed to have migrated south from the
Great Lakes area around 1000 CE or later. They spoke an
Iroquoian language, and most other Iroquoian tribes have historically occupied areas around the Great Lakes, including the powerful Five Nations of the Iroquois League, or
Haudenosaunee, then based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania. The
Tuscarora people of the Carolinas also spoke an Iroquoian language, and are believed to have come south. Following the disasters of the
Yamasee War in the early 1700s, they decided to leave and migrated north, declaring the tribal migration complete in 1722 and settling near the
Oneida people in western New York. In 1756, during the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War), the British established
Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River near its confluence with the Tellico River, as part of an agreement with the Cherokee to gain support of their warriors. After relations soured between the British and Cherokee in 1760, when South Carolina authorities killed several Cherokee chiefs held prisoner in the colony, the Cherokee laid siege to Fort Loudoun. They killed two dozen of its garrison after their surrender in August 1760, and took many survivors captive for ransom. The British retaliated, attacking the Cherokee Lower Towns and Middle Towns in the Carolinas. Monroe County was established in 1819 after the signing of the Calhoun Treaty, in which the Cherokee ceded to the United States claims to lands stretching from the Little Tennessee River south to the
Hiwassee River. The county was named for
James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States. In the early 20th century, the Babcock Lumber Company conducted extensive logging operations in the Tellico Plains area. During the same period, the
Aluminum Company of America began building a string of dams along the Little Tennessee, among them Calderwood,
Santeetlah, and
Cheoah, to harness water power for its aluminum-smelting operations in nearby
Alcoa. After a construction program for flood control and generating hydroelectric power beginning in the 1930s, the
Tennessee Valley Authority planned construction in the 1960s of its last major project:
Tellico Dam, completed in 1979. It was intended for flood control, the generation of hydroelectric power, and recreation related to creation of the manmade, large Tellico Reservoir. This water body flooded the lower 33 miles of the Little Tennessee River. Although the project had been opposed by many residents in the county, where several communities had to be abandoned and landowners relocated before the flooding, others supported the project. In the environmental analysis, the project was found to threaten an
endangered species. The
snail darter controversy delayed completion of the dam for some time. ==Geography==