About 4 miles west on the Forked Deer River, Henry Rutherford, a North Carolina surveyor, chose a spot in 1785 as the point of origin for his surveys of the Western District. To identify the key corner, he carved his initials and surveyor's mark on a leaning sycamore tree there. He returned in 1819 and established a settlement also called Key Corner. He died in 1847 and is buried in the family burial plot east of that point.