Tuskegee (Cherokee town)

[3] Historians generally believe that the Cherokee town of Tuskegee (also spelled Toskegee) developed here following the construction of Fort Loudoun (1756–1757) by the British colony of South Carolina.

[3] Similarly, early correspondence of Fort Loudoun's garrison does not mention Tuskegee and typically uses Tomotley, a Cherokee town located further upriver to the south, as a reference point.

[4] In response to a Cherokee attack against the Watauga settlements in the summer of 1776, Colonel William Christian led an invasion force to the Little Tennessee Valley in October of that year.

Subsequent travelers to the area, including those visiting the ruins of Fort Loudoun from the American Tellico Blockhouse in the 1790s, make no mention of the town.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, dedicated to the Cherokee scholar, stands along Highway 360, opposite Fort Loudoun State Park.

[6] The Tennessee Division of Archaeology conducted excavations at the Tuskegee site (40MR4, 40MR24 and 40MR64) in the summer of 1976 in anticipation of the completion of Tellico Dam.

[3] Researchers determined that three of the twelve structures discovered during the excavations were Cherokee and appeared to correspond to the three houses just south of Fort Loudoun, as indicated on Timberlake's map.

These included several thousand pottery sherds (primarily of the "Overhill Plain" variety), nails, musket balls, tools and jewelry.