The Slickrock section of Graham County has made the news in The Graham Star numerous times over the years, with articles about lost and/or injured hikers or old logging stories.
But there was a time when this remote, rugged section of mountain land made news in the U.S. Supreme Court.
North Carolina and Tennessee were once engaged in a long, drawn-out court battle about where the state line should run through Slickrock. Tennessee claimed that the surveyors – who ran the original line – visited a moonshiner’s cabin, got drunk and got lost at Stratton Meadows. Tennessee said that had cost the state to lose a lot of land – but that North Carolina did give them Jeffrey’s Hell.
Tennessee further stated if you doubted that the surveyors were lost, then just look on a map at how crooked the state line is between western North Carolina and east Tennessee.
North Carolina claimed the state line should run the top of the mountain range in that area northeast of the Tennessee River and follow the main ridge top southwest of the river to a point west of the mouth of Slickrock Creek to the top of Big Fodderstack Mountain, and then follow the main ridge to the junction of Big Fodderstack Mountain Lead and Hangover Mountain Lead, and continue southwest.
Tennessee did not agree, saying that North Carolina did not indicate how much of the state line they held in dispute when they filed the original claim. Tennessee claimed the state line should run the main ridge continuously, which the state claimed it had agreed to in an 1789 survey and the line marked in 1821. This would have had the state line running the top of Hangover Mountain and Stratton Bald and Tennessee would have taken a large tract of land that is today part of Graham County.
North Carolina appointed commissioners in 1796 to settle the dispute, as did Tennessee. This was done again in 1819 by North Carolina and once again by Tennessee in 1820. The commissioners from the two states met in 1821 and it seemed that the dispute was settled.
Nothing more happened until 1836, when Tennessee began laying out townships and called for Slickrock Creek to be the boundary between the two states. North Carolina disputed this and in 1853, made land grants on property that Tennessee said was in its state.
It was evident that the two states were never going to come to an agreement themselves.
The case of North Carolina vs. Tennessee reached the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1914. The Court appointed three commissioners to survey and establish the line between the two states. The court affirmed their work in October 1915.
The cost of the survey was $6,857.94, to be divided evenly between the two states. As of 1929, Tennessee had not paid its share.
The territory that is now Tennessee is land that North Carolina ceded to the United States in 1789.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.