Coker Creek, Monroe County, TN

COKER CREEK

Monroe County, TN

COKER CREEK, Tennessee is one of those places that is seldom heard about outside the local area. Today it is a small, scattered rural community with about 130 residents and – at least in 2002 – an operating post office. However, it hasn’t always been this quiet. Located in the Unicoi Mountains of southeastern Tennessee, the area attracted numerous Scottish and Irish settlers beginning in the years before the American Revolution. Rich farming land, bountiful forests and open land drew them to an area inhabited by the Cherokee. These new settlers built log cabins and brought their culture with them to the mountains of eastern Tennessee. Despite the beauty of the region, it was a tough go for life. The new settlers and the Cherokee battled often, and fiercely, but in the end the white settlers prevailed. English, German and other nationalities joined them and soon the Coker Creek area teemed with both the new settlers and the Cherokee. One of the settlers, a John Coker married a young Cherokee woman. By the late 1820s gold was mined in the region, and it is said that this was the second American gold rush, after the 1799-early 1800s rush to the Reed Mine area of western North Carolina, a full year before the 1828 rush to Georgia.

It is said that the gold was discovered by the Cherokee, and that a soldier saw a small nugget on a Cherokee lady’s necklace. He inquired as to where it came from and she said from a creek at Coqua. The word quickly spread and the Cherokee lands were quickly overrun by fortune-seeking whites. The Cherokee complained to the federal government about their land being usurped, and a decade later, they were removed from the southeastern mountains and forced to relocate to what is now Oklahoma. The mines at Coker Creek continued to produce their yellow treasure until the outbreak of the Civil War. Some 1000 miners vacated the grounds, and they remained quiet until around 1870.

The area still produces gold, and the Gold Prospectors Association of America even has a private claim there. The tiny town of Coker Creek has about 10% of the population it had at the height of the gold rush. The gold is still there, the beautiful mountain scenery is still there, and the quaint little town of Coker Creek is still alive and kicking, although in a totally different mode than it was 150 years ago. It is along SH 68, on the west side on the Unicoi Mountains, a couple miles west of the North Carolina border, and a short distance north of the Georgia line in extreme southeastern Tennessee. The creek runs off to the south of the present community, and the old cemetery sits on a hill overlooking the creek and the townlet. An old CCC camp and a tollhouse are also located in the vicinity.

As always, please abide by any sign postings and respect the rights of the building and land owners.

This was our Ghost Town of the Month for January 2011.

LOCATION:

· POST OFFICE

· Latitude: 35.2578549 / 35° 15’ 28” N

· Longitude: -84.2915879 / 84° 17’ 30” W

· CEMETERY

· Latitude: 35.2589661 / 35° 15’ 32” N

· Longitude: -84.2876988 / 84° 17’ 16” W

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