The Unicoi Turnpike

The Old Unicoi Turnpike was the first vehicular route linking East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and North Georgia with the head of navigation on the Savannah River system. Beginning on the Tugalo River east of Toccoa, it ran through this area, then through Unicoi Gap and by way of Murphy, N.C., to Nine Mile Creek near Maryville, Tenn. In 1813, the Cherokees gave permission for a company of Indians and white men to open the way as a toll road, and Tennessee and Georgia granted charters to the enterprise. Before it was established as a road, the trace formed part of a trading path from Augusta to the Cherokees in East Tennessee.

Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia · United States