Vonore, Tennessee
Encyclopedia
Vonore is a town in Blount
and Monroe counties in the U.S. state
of Tennessee
. The population was 1,162 as of the 2000 census.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the town has a total area of 11.9 square miles (30.7 km²), of which 8.7 square miles (22.5 km²) is land and 3.2 square miles (8.2 km²) (26.58%) is water.
of 2000, there were 1,162 people, 496 households, and 333 families residing in the town. The population density
was 133.6 people per square mile (51.6/km²). There were 571 housing units at an average density of 65.6 per square mile (25.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 95.52% White, 0.17% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.69% from other races
, and 3.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.58% of the population.
There were 496 households out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples
living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.7% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the town the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $34,653, and the median income for a family was $41,125. Males had a median income of $31,429 versus $25,956 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $19,613. About 6.1% of families and 10.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.6% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.
and the Tellico River
places it near the center of one of the richest archaeological regions in the southeastern United States. The Icehouse Bottom site, located near Fort Loudoun
, was occupied by Native Americans
as early as 7500 B.C., making it one of the earliest known semi-permanent habitation sites in Tennessee. Icehouse Bottom and nearby Rose Island
were occupied for extensive periods during the Woodland period
(c. 1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.). They were part of a vast trade network that stretched from Ohio to Florida. A substantial Mississippian period
(c. 1000-1600 A.D.) village was located at Toqua
, immediately south of Vonore. There is some evidence that Toqua's Mississippian village was the village of Tali, visited and recorded by the Hernando de Soto
expedition in 1540.
By the time Euro-American explorers arrived in the area in the 18th century, the Overhill Cherokee
had established several villages along the Little Tennessee. These villages included Tanasi
, the namesake for the state of Tennessee, and Chota
, the capital and most prominent Cherokee village in the 18th century. Mialoquo
, the home of the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe
, was located just north of the modern US-411 bridge. Tuskegee
was located just south of the future Fort Loudoun. It was the birthplace of Sequoyah
, creator of the written Cherokee syllabary
.
Fort Loudoun was an English colonial fort built in 1756 in hopes of obtaining Cherokee assistance in the French and Indian War
. The Tellico Blockhouse
, an American outpost located across the river from Fort Loudoun, was built in 1794 to help keep the peace between the Cherokee and the fast-encroaching American settlers.
In 1819, the Cherokee signed the Calhoun Treaty, relinquishing what is now Monroe County to the United States. The county itself was established shortly thereafter. In 1890, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad
laid tracks through Monroe County. A stopover known as Upton Station was established just beyond the railroad's Little Tennessee River crossing. Three years later, an area doctor named Walter Kennedy applied for a post office for Upton Station. When the postal service informed him that Upton Station had been taken, Kennedy chose the name "Vonore", a combination of the German word von (meaning "of") and the English word "ore", as Kennedy believed the town would become a mining town.
Most of the valley's archaeological sites were flooded in 1979 when the Tennessee Valley Authority
completed Tellico Dam
at the mouth of the Little Tennessee. Preservationists aided by Works Progress Administration
(WPA) funds had reconstructed Fort Loudoun in the 1930s. Additional reconstruction was undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s, including moving the fort out of range of water which the dam would raise. After archaeological excavators located the foundation of the Tellico Blockhouse in the 1970s, they placed posts and fill to give visitors an idea of its layout. Both are now part of Fort Loudoun State Park.
Blount County, Tennessee
Blount County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its population was 123,010 at the United States Census, 2010. The county seat is at Maryville, which is also the county's largest city....
and Monroe counties in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. The population was 1,162 as of the 2000 census.
Geography
Vonore is located at 35°35′58"N 84°13′22"W (35.599309, -84.222771).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 11.9 square miles (30.7 km²), of which 8.7 square miles (22.5 km²) is land and 3.2 square miles (8.2 km²) (26.58%) is water.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,162 people, 496 households, and 333 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 133.6 people per square mile (51.6/km²). There were 571 housing units at an average density of 65.6 per square mile (25.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 95.52% White, 0.17% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.69% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.58% of the population.
There were 496 households out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.7% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the town the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $34,653, and the median income for a family was $41,125. Males had a median income of $31,429 versus $25,956 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $19,613. About 6.1% of families and 10.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.6% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.
History
Vonore's location at the confluence of the Little Tennessee RiverLittle Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...
and the Tellico River
Tellico River
The Tellico River rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, but it flows mainly through Monroe County, Tennessee. It is a major tributary of the Little Tennessee River and the namesake of Tellico Reservoir, a reservoir created by Tellico Dam, which impounds the lower reaches of the...
places it near the center of one of the richest archaeological regions in the southeastern United States. The Icehouse Bottom site, located near Fort Loudoun
Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)
Fort Loudoun was a British colonial fort in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, near the towns of the Overhill Cherokee. The fort was reconstructed during the Great Depression and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.-History:...
, was occupied by Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
as early as 7500 B.C., making it one of the earliest known semi-permanent habitation sites in Tennessee. Icehouse Bottom and nearby Rose Island
Mialoquo
Mialoquo is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site saw significant periods of occupation during the Mississippian period and later as a Cherokee refugee village...
were occupied for extensive periods during the Woodland period
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
(c. 1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.). They were part of a vast trade network that stretched from Ohio to Florida. A substantial Mississippian period
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
(c. 1000-1600 A.D.) village was located at Toqua
Toqua (Tennessee)
Toqua is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. Along with the Overhill Cherokee village for which the site was named, Toqua was home to a substantial pre-Cherokee town that thrived during the Mississippian period...
, immediately south of Vonore. There is some evidence that Toqua's Mississippian village was the village of Tali, visited and recorded by the Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (explorer)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....
expedition in 1540.
By the time Euro-American explorers arrived in the area in the 18th century, the Overhill Cherokee
Overhill Cherokee
The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...
had established several villages along the Little Tennessee. These villages included Tanasi
Tanasi
Tanasi is a historic Overhill Cherokee village site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village is best known as the namesake for the state of Tennessee...
, the namesake for the state of Tennessee, and Chota
Chota (Cherokee town)
Chota is a historic Overhill Cherokee site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. For much of its history, Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns, serving as the de facto capital of the Cherokee people from the late 1740s until 1788...
, the capital and most prominent Cherokee village in the 18th century. Mialoquo
Mialoquo
Mialoquo is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site saw significant periods of occupation during the Mississippian period and later as a Cherokee refugee village...
, the home of the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe
Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...
, was located just north of the modern US-411 bridge. Tuskegee
Tuskegee, Tennessee
Tuskegee was an Overhill Cherokee village originally on the bank of the Little Tennessee River at the mouth of the Tellico River. Today the site lies under the artificial lake, Tellico Reservoir, created by Tellico Dam....
was located just south of the future Fort Loudoun. It was the birthplace of Sequoyah
Sequoyah
Sequoyah , named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible...
, creator of the written Cherokee syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
.
Fort Loudoun was an English colonial fort built in 1756 in hopes of obtaining Cherokee assistance in the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
. The Tellico Blockhouse
Tellico Blockhouse
The Tellico Blockhouse was an early American outpost located along the Little Tennessee River in Vonore, Monroe County, Tennessee. Completed in 1794, the blockhouse operated until 1807 with the purpose of keeping the peace between nearby Overhill Cherokee towns and early Euro-American settlers in...
, an American outpost located across the river from Fort Loudoun, was built in 1794 to help keep the peace between the Cherokee and the fast-encroaching American settlers.
In 1819, the Cherokee signed the Calhoun Treaty, relinquishing what is now Monroe County to the United States. The county itself was established shortly thereafter. In 1890, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad
Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad
Nicknamed "The Hiawasse Route" for a scenic portion of the railroad along the Hiawassee River, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railway was chartered in 1896 as a successor to the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad. Most of the AK&N's stock was purchased by the Louisville and Nashville...
laid tracks through Monroe County. A stopover known as Upton Station was established just beyond the railroad's Little Tennessee River crossing. Three years later, an area doctor named Walter Kennedy applied for a post office for Upton Station. When the postal service informed him that Upton Station had been taken, Kennedy chose the name "Vonore", a combination of the German word von (meaning "of") and the English word "ore", as Kennedy believed the town would become a mining town.
Most of the valley's archaeological sites were flooded in 1979 when the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
completed Tellico Dam
Tellico Dam
Tellico Dam is a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Loudon County, Tennessee on the Little Tennessee River just above the main stem of the Tennessee River. It impounds the Tellico Reservoir....
at the mouth of the Little Tennessee. Preservationists aided by Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA) funds had reconstructed Fort Loudoun in the 1930s. Additional reconstruction was undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s, including moving the fort out of range of water which the dam would raise. After archaeological excavators located the foundation of the Tellico Blockhouse in the 1970s, they placed posts and fill to give visitors an idea of its layout. Both are now part of Fort Loudoun State Park.
Schools
- Vonore Elementary School, public K-5 school in the Monroe County system
- Vonore Middle School, public 6-8 school in the Monroe County system
- Vonore High School consolidated with Madisonville High School in 1995 to form Sequoyah High School in MadisonvilleMadisonville, TennesseeMadisonville is a city in Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,939 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Monroe County and the location of Hiwassee College.-Geography:...
.