At the recent “Where We Live” speaker series at Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center, I spoke about why historic districts and historic preservation are important. Even I was surprised at how powerfully the themes resonated with an audience that included people like me who were natives of the region, and the majority, who were drawn here from other places. The Cowee School legacy is a great example of how honoring the past can connect us all and inspire a commitment to the future.
Built in 1943 on the site of an old Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Cowee School is a key resource to the Cowee-West’s Mill Historic District. The district is named for one of the most important Middle Cherokee town sites, Cowee (from ani-kawi-yi, meaning Place of the Deer Clan) and for West’s Mill, a grist mill fronting Cowee Creek near the intersection of highway 28 West’s Mill Road. It’s comprised of 369 acres and 67 contributing resources, including manmade structures spanning 10 centuries and archaeological evidence of occupation some 14,000 years ago. It’s a story of place from periods prior to the American Revolution, through white settlement, the Trail of Tears, and African American history through the mid-20th century.
Like many of the people I grew up with, my family can trace its roots in the region back to the 18th century. But I’m not sure I grasped how deeply a heritage can be embedded in individuals and in communities until my great-grandmother passed away. After her death and the division of our family farm among the heirs, I stood with my great uncle, leaning on a fence overlooking the land. I’d always known him as a John Wayne-type. But he had tears in his eyes when he said any profit from the sale of the property’s parts “will be gone in a few months; but the land, the land and what it means, you’ll never get it back.”
That experience changed my life. It taught me the importance of connection to a place. Since 2010, I’ve been working to put the family farm back together, going into debt for the next generation in order to preserve what I can of the story it tells.
The successful preservation of the Cowee-West’s Mill District represents the impact at a regional scale of what I hope for the family farm. Cowee holds the memories of the height of Cherokee civilization, the tragedy of the destruction of Cherokee towns – of removal, and of families intermingling despite all the forces that separated them. West’s Mill tells us of settlement and early commerce, and of the largest slave and freedmen population west of the Balsams.
In modern times the district is a story of newcomers, natives, Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists, and hunters working together to protect and preserve structures and landscapes that tell our story, that make us who we are.
When you touch a place, it means something to you. When it means something to you, you are more likely to value and protect it. Preserving Cowee’s story has provided for generations into the future a chance to touch the rich and complex history that inspires – and cautions – us. We should value that opportunity.
