Visitors come from miles around to hike (and sometimes get lost) in the Slickrock area, which is considered to be one of the more remote sections of Graham County.
Most probably have no idea that it was once inhabited by a number of families. If they looked close enough, they would see the signs of a logging railroad and old home sites.
Slickrock was inhabited by the Cherokee, who also used the area as a hideout during the Removal of 1838 and also used a trail that served as a major trade route from Tennessee. This trail would later be improved to a wagon road, when whites began coming into Slickrock in the mid to late 1800s.
A few white hunters and trappers were probably in Slickrock earlier than that. History shows that the Cherokee were in Slickrock as early as the 1700’s.
Records indicate that at least 25 or more different families lived in Slickrock at one time or another and having names common to Graham County today: Farr, Williams, Kirkland, Patton, Nichols, Millsaps, Brewer, Gunter, Debty, Stratton, Blair, Ditmore, Cline, Brown, and Lovin.
John Farr lived at Farr Gap, where there was a small log schoolhouse measuring 12 feet by 12 feet. Two of John’s brothers moved to the Nichols Cove section of Slickrock, built a log cabin and cleared 12 acres of land.
John Dotson also lived at Nichols Cove where his twin daughters are buried. He had a grist mill there and another mill at the Debty Fields.
William Williams lived in Slickrock, and Reverend Oliver Perry Williams taught pupils at the schoolhouse in Farr Gap. The Kirkland Bushwhackers led by John “Bushwhacking” Kirkland used Slickrock as one of their hideouts.
Sam Blair and Henry Ditmore lived on Little Slickrock Creek. John Debty lived at the Debty Fields. The Debty's were considered to be excellent hunters, made whiskey, got in fights and often had trouble with the law.
Most of the people who lived in Slickrock did not actually own the property but leased it from landowners, most often whatever lumber company owned it at the time.
Today, Slickrock is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Area.
Marshall McClung is a columnist for The Graham Star.