Western North Carolina's
Area Attractions

By the mid 1700's, European settlers had come into  the Catawba Valley.  In 1763, the British made a treaty with the Cherokee Nation agreeing that Europeans would not settle west of the Blue Ridge Mountains; nonetheless, in the early to mid 1770's several settler families -- among them the brothers John, Samuel, William and George Davidson -- took up land in what is now McDowell County, including the present site of Old Fort.  The summer of 1776 saw an increase in Cherokee violence against settlers, and, as a result, a small fort was constructed on land acquired by the Davidsons at the headwaters of the Catawba River.  Built by North Carolina militia soldiers, it was called Davidson’s Fort and was continually garrisoned by militia troops for the protection of North Carolina’s far-western settlements.  Davidson’s Fort was the final departure point for some 2700 militia troops led by General Griffith Rutherford as they began a campaign into Cherokee territory in the fall of 1776.