Driving Around Mountain Town Bryson City, NC in 4k Video

Filmed on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, I drive around the village Bryson City, North Carolina to see what's happening.

Bryson City is a town in and the county seat of Swain County, North Carolina. The population was 1,558 as of the 2020 census.

Indigenous cultures of Native Americans have been living and hunting along the Tuckasegee River in the vicinity of what is now Bryson City for nearly 14,000 years.

The village of Kituwa, which the Cherokee believed to be their oldest village and "mother town", was located along the Tuckasegee River. The ancient mound and village site is now controlled again by the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and is preserved as a sacred site.

During the American Revolutionary War, many Cherokee allied with the British, hoping to expel European Americans from their territory. American soldiers burned and destroyed the town of Kituwa in 1776, but the Cherokee continued to hold annual ceremonial dances at the site throughout the 19th century.

Around 1818, a Cherokee chief known as Big Bear received a 640-acre reservation of land immediately west of the confluence of Deep Creek and the Tuckasegee River. Big Bear sold part of his reservation to Darling Belk in 1819 and another part to John B. Love in 1824. Throughout the 1830s, Belk's heirs and Love fought an extended legal battle over control of the former Big Bear land, with Love finally prevailing in 1840. The following year, Love sold part of the land to James and Diana Shuler. The Shulers, in turn, sold parts of their land to Colonel Thaddeus Bryson and merchant Alfred Cline. A small hamlet known as Bear Springs developed on what was once Big Bear's reservation.

With its population having increased, Swain County was formed from parts of Jackson and Macon counties in 1871, during the Reconstruction era. The new commissioners first met at Bear Springs. Lucy Ann Cline agreed to sell several lots of her land to form a county seat. Initially known as Charleston, the county seat was laid out in a T-shape, formed by what are now Main and Everett streets.

In 1889, the people of Charleston changed the city's name to "Bryson City" to acknowledge the role of Thaddeus Bryson in its development, and to eliminate confusion from sharing a name with Charleston, South Carolina.

The Western North Carolina Railroad laid tracks through Bryson City in 1884, greatly improving transportation to the previously isolated area. The Bryson City Bank opened in 1904.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was established in 1933 during the Great Depression, generates considerable revenue to for Swain County. Horace Kephart, an author and outdoors enthusiast who was based in Bryson City for several years, was a key early proponent for creation of the park. The park's main eastern entrance is located just a few miles east of Bryson City at Cherokee.

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,411 people residing in the town.

The racial makeup of the town was 90.93% White, 1.98% African American, 4.96% Native American, 0.35% Asian, 0.64% from other races, and 1.13% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.70% of the population.

The per capita income for the town was $14,446. About 14.8% of families and 19.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.4% of those under age 18 and 21.0% of those age 65 or over. #driving #travel #drivingtour