Wears Valley, Tennessee
Wears Valley is an unincorporated community in Sevier County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. As of 2000, the population of Wears Valley was 6,486.
Wears Valley is situated in a valley known as Wear Cove, which runs parallel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Like other park border communities, the history and economy of the valley are intertwined with that of the Smokies.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 6,486 people, 2,585 households, and 1,955 families residing in Wears Valley. The racial makeup of this area was 97.7% White, 0.4% Native American, 0.5% Asian, and 0.5% African American. Hispanics and Latinos comprise 1.8% of the population.
Of the 2,585 households, 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.6% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.4% were non-families. 20.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.89.
77.8% of the population was 18 years of age or older with 12.3% being 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.2 years. The population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female.
The median income for a household in the area was $34,479, and the median income for a family was $39,901. The per capita income for the city was $17,422. About 9.1% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the poverty line.
Geography
Wears Valley is located at 35°42′50″N 83°39′11″W / 35.71389°N 83.65306°WInvalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function (35.7139, -83.6531).[1] The community covers most of Wear Cove, with the national park boundary comprising the town's entire southern border and the Blount-Sevier County line providing its western border.
Wear Cove is a type of valley known as a "limestone window," created when erosion weathers through the older Precambrian sandstone and exposes the younger Paleozoic limestone beneath. The northern rim of the Smokies is dotted with limestone coves, the most well-known of which are Cades Cove and Tuckaleechee Cove. Limestone coves contain very fertile soil which lured early settlers.
Wear Cove is hemmed in by Cove Mountain to the southeast, Roundtop Mountain to the southwest, Davis Mountain to the northwest, and Hatcher Mountain to the northeast. Numerous hollows cut into the ridges throughout the cove, including Happy Hollow, Smith Hollow, and Little Cove.
U.S. Route 321 is the valley's main road, connecting Townsend in the west with Pigeon Forge in east, where it merges with U.S. Route 441. This section of 321 is known as "Wears Valley Road." Lyon Springs Road connects Wears Valley Road with Little River Road inside the national park, crossing the gap between Cove Mountain and Roundtop and emerging at the Metcalfe Bottoms campground.
History
Wears Valley is named after Samuel Wear (1753-1817), a Revolutionary War veteran who erected a fort near the entrance to the valley in what is now Pigeon Forge. The original name of the valley was "Crowson Cove," after its first settler, Aaron Crowson (1773-1849). While no one is sure why its name changed, the valley was using its current name by 1900.[1]
Crowson arrived in Wears Valley from North Carolina in 1792 along with his friend, Peter Percefield. This was a period of elevated strife between the Cherokee and the fast-encroaching Euro-American settlers. Wear's Fort was attacked in 1793, with Wear leading a punitive attack on the Cherokee village of Tallassee shortly thereafter. In May of 1794, Percefield was killed in a Cherokee attack. Crowson rode to Wear's Fort to get help, but the Cherokee had fled by the time he returned. Percefeld was buried on a hill in the eastern half of the cove in what is now Crowson Cemetery. Later that year, Crowson received a land grant for this plot of land.[2]
Along with Crowson, other early settlers in Wears Valley included Henry Haggard (1744-1813), whose land adjoined Crowson's, Peter Brickey (1769-1856), whose log house still stands in Smith Hollow (between Wears Valley and Townsend) and is now a National Historic Landmark, and John Ogle (1788-1841), a War of 1812 veteran and son of the first settlers in Gatlinburg.
References
External links
- Sevier County, Tennessee - Official website
- Crowson's Cove Plat Maps Project - A genealogical project dedicated to mapping the original settlement layout of Wears Valley
- Headrick Chapel Preservation Site