Given my love of beer, starting an East Tennessee expedition in the town that the temperance movement built seemed like an irony I couldn’t resist. The small town of Harriman, Tennessee, began as a utopian alcohol-free city, complete with orderly streets and picturesque Victorian houses.
Its location just off Interstate 40 made it an interesting stop to begin a journey along the Emory, Clinch and Little Tennessee rivers to explore some American history.
My riding companion, Jason Mitchell, happily agreed to accompany me for the first leg of the trip to Harriman and Watts Bar Lake. As we took a break in front of the supposedly haunted Old Harriman Hospital, sadly closed that day with no ghosts willing to brave the chilly parking lot, I pointed out the ornate Temperance Hall across the street, its rounded towers and arches giving it a castle-like appearance.
“Harriman is the town that temperance built. It’s a town that was laid out in perfect grids. The whole idea is they had a college there and didn’t want liquor,” said Julie Graham, executive director of the Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council. “A lot of these towns were set up for that purpose by second sons of noblemen who inherited nothing, so they’re going to come over here and create their own utopian society. It didn’t work very well because the land was rough and the weather was rougher, and they were depending on the railroad coming through and it didn’t.”
Graham’s organization operates the website easttnvacations.com, a great resource for planning motorcycle trips in the region. It was on her advice that I crafted today’s route to explore some of Tennessee’s frontier forts and small river towns that played a role in America’s 250-year history.
“Every one of our national scenic byways — we have five of them in this 16-county region, by the way, are tied to American history,” she said.
A roar echoed between the quaint buildings of Main Street in Harriman. A rider on a customized rat-bike Honda Shadow Ace spotted our bikes and made a quick turn into the haunted hospital parking lot for a chat with some fellow riders. I inquired about the haunted hospital behind us, but sadly he had no paranormal experiences to share.
“I like Harriman because they get a lot of free plays here at the Princess. It’s an old theater, the Princess Theater, and they’ve rebuilt it,” said Tobias Elliott of neighboring Rockwood as we admired one another’s bikes.
Indeed, the Princess Theater does make a more interesting sight to see in Harriman. It dates to 1926 and features a wonderful art deco exterior and neon lights. It serves as a showcase for concerts, movies, dance performances and community events and is home to the Harriman Heritage Museum, which holds a wide assortment of artifacts, photos and memorabilia.
the Princess Theater on Main Street in Harriman.
I always ask local motorcyclists about their favorite roads in their area. Elliott excitedly rattled off several roads with landmarks known only to locals, almost too quickly for me to remember.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been up around Camp Austin (Road). That is a very beautiful spot. It’s up toward Oakdale,” he said.
Studying a map on my phone, I found the road, which looked like a great route beginning at the Emory River and heading west. Unfortunately, it was in the opposite direction for today’s journey, so I wrote it down in my small notebook to save for another day.
Mitchell and I mounted up and headed for Watts Bar Lake. His Harley-Davidson Lowrider making a pleasing rumble as he pulled onto main street in front of the old Temperance Hall.
At the headwaters of the lake, the Clinch River begins to widen next to the town of Kingston. We chatted along the tranquil shoreline before my friend, having miles to go and promises to keep, headed in a different direction as the sun shimmered on the waters. I ventured south from Kingston on Route 58, a popular secondary road that connects Interstate 40 with Chattanooga. Just as I started to enjoy the scenic route, my next destination emerged, Fort Southwest Point.
A wooden stockade fence surrounds a tower sitting atop a hill overlooking the confluence of the Clinch and Little Tennessee rivers. It’s a recreation of the late 18-century fort built to accommodate the troops aiming to preserve peace between settlers and Native Americans.
“Fort Southwest Point is a late-1700s Federal Era fort built in 1797 and operating until 1811, when it was essentially abandoned when a treaty with the Cherokee moved the boundary farther south,” said Jack Sims, director for the city of Kingston Parks & Recreation for Fort Southwest Point. “They pretty much walked off and left this one here since there was no longer a need for it.”
The site becomes a state park this year as the city of Kingston hands over the historic site, which features the only Federal-era fort reconstructed on its original foundation. It also serves as an active archeological site, with graves dating back to 1000 A.D., long before European settlers arrived, Sims said.
“Fort Southwest Point at one point was the farthest fort west in the U.S. beyond the 13 colonies,” Graham said. “That’s really where the Lewis and Clark trail was supposed to begin.”
After exploring the fort and enjoying the exhibits, I remounted my Yamaha Tracer 9 GT and headed south on Route 58 again. After some necessary miles on an interstate this morning, cruising along a two-lane road as the sun warmed my face reminded me of how much I love long road trips on the bike through the countryside. I had to stop to admire a “See Rock City” barn, a vanishing sight these days but one I’ve cherished since childhood vacation trips across the Southern countryside.
“It is stunning,” Graham said of this region as I planned this trip. “If you go from there over toward Loudoun and Vonore, you’re going to get into the blockhouses at Fort Loudon. That fort was from the French and Indian Wars. You have one of the first trails there on the Unicoi Highway that comes down to Coker Creek, which is one of the first places gold was found.”
I leisurely roam Routes 59 and 72 toward Fort Loudoun. Soon the Tellico Reservoir comes into view. Here the Little Tennessee River widens thanks to the TVA. The Tellico Dam was the last dam built by the TVA. Its 12-year construction was delayed by environmental concerns over the famous snail darter, a small fish on the endangered list.
Near the junction of the Little Tennessee and Tellico rivers sits the 1,200-acre Fort Loudoun State Historic Park, one of the earliest British fortifications on the western frontier.
British forces first built the fort in 1756 during the French and Indian War, fearing French advances into the Southeast. Initially, the local Cherokee were allied with the British, but relations soon soured. A recreation of the fort sits higher on the hill above the TVA reservoir.
“Fort Loudoun had to be moved up and back a bit,” Sims said. “Fort Loudoun is actually a British fort, dates about 1730-1740, so it was before the Revolution War. The difference there is this fort here (Fort Southwest Point) was never attacked. Fort Southwest Point was on neutral ground and considered a place of peace. For the Cherokee, Fort Loudoun was an intrusion into Cherokee territory and was under siege for the first five-and-a-half years.”
Sims said the siege initially only consisted of the Cherokee riding by and shooting an arrow into the fort, which reminded me of taunting the rival high school during my misspent youth.
“But the last six months, it was out-and-out a full-blown siege,” Sims said. “The British couldn’t get out; the Cherokee couldn’t get in. They cut them off and starved them out eventually.”
From the old British fort, I turned south toward Athens, Tennessee, where I wanted to absorb a bit of 20th-century history at a small aviation museum at the McMinn County Airport.
Rolling into the small airstrip, I notice the object of this side trip sitting along the lonely taxiway. It’s a Globe Swift airplane.
The Globe/Temco Swift is a light, two-seat aircraft built following World War II and marking its 80th birthday this year. The plane still attracts an enthusiastic following among aviation buffs for its precise handling and light controls. About 1,500 planes were produced from 1946-51, and about half of them are still flying. Military versions of the Swift were tested by the Air Force and used as trainers in the early 1950s. One of the museum’s T-35 variants is an armed version used by and donated to the Swift Museum Foundation from the Saudi Arabian Air Force.
The museum features about eight examples on display. More planes are tucked away in hangers for restoration. A couple lined the taxiway of the small airport. The Swift Museum Foundation is also the main supplier of parts for the airplane, helping keep their brethren aloft.
“I like that it’s all antique. It’s like an old antique car except it’s flying in the air. The way it’s constructed, and that they’re still flying, the craftmanship, the workmanship, is nothing like the new planes out there,” said Paula Thomas, tour guide at the Swift Museum. “I like the design of them. The face of the plane, it reminds you of the ‘Cars’ movie. I think that’s kind of cute. It reminds you of a cartoon character.”
As I get back on the bike, I head into the setting sun toward Tellico Plains, my last stop of the day before finding some lodging and tackling the Cherohala Skyway the next morning. The town seems like the last outpost of civilization before venturing in the wilds of the skyway or farther south to Georgia. Known as “the little town with the big back yard,” Tellico Plains attracts riders for the wide variety of adventure trails and paved backroads connecting the skyway to the nearby Tail of the Dragon.
“Tellico Plains has just gone through the most amazing transformation,” Graham said. “It’s adorable. There’s a little brewery. There’s a really quality restaurant and right around the corner is a really cool pizza place. It isn’t just the Tellico Plains Bakery anymore.”
I relax for a bit and enjoy the shadows growing longer as dusk descends. I remember what Graham said to me earlier about this town.
“The world feels different. I hadn’t been down there in a year-and-a-half, and I was just blown away by what they had going on,” she said.
