New book on history of Sycamore Shoals will be released this week

ELIZABETHTON — The year 2026 is a year of reflection and celebration about our nation's past. It is also the center point of a remarkable decade in Northeast Tennessee's past, when events of national importance took place in the region, one right after another. Just in time for the anniversaries, a new book by Jennifer Bauer is being released this week. It is Sycamore Shoals of there Watauga, published by The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia Press of Charleston, S.C. Bauer certainly has the background and knowledge to tell this story. She knows the history deeply not only from her study but her association with many people who have shared their love of the epic story. Bauer has also chosen to live her life in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee by choice rather than by the accident of birth. A native of Baltimore County, Md., Bauer came to the region after she graduated from high school to attend East Tennessee State University. There, she majored in biology, earning a bachelor's degree in 1980 and a master's degree in education in 1986. After graduation, she became a ranger at Roan Mountain State Park. After two decades at that park, she was promoted to park manager of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, where her understanding of the region's history would expand under the influence of local historians and lovers of the unique history of Sycamore Shoals. The timing of her book was perfect in more ways than just the 250th anniversary. It was also a good time in Bauer's life. She had just retired from the Tennessee State Parks and she had the time and freedom to devote her energies to the writing. It turned out to be a bit too much solitude. As she began her effort, Hurricane Helene devastated the region, being especially destructive in her home community of Roan Mountain. Fortunately, her family was spared much of the destruction. After the emergency was over and the immediate needs were met, Bauer began writing as those around her were busy with rebuilding. Her knowledge of her subject was collected from her lifetime spent working in the region and getting to know its people and the events that formed the communities. This is not her first work of history. She previously wrote Roan Mountain, a Passage of Time. In that book, she tells the story of the many famous people who have been attracted to Roan Mountain including John Muir, Asa Gray, Andre Michaux, and General John T. Wilder, who built the Cloudland Hotel atop the mountain. Bauer's first Book also came as a result of her work at Roan Mountain, but it was not a book she had planned to write. The book, A Naturalist Teaching Manual was published in 1986 by Prentice Hall. It was written after an editor had read an article she published and contacted her, suggesting she write the book. All of these life experiences have come together in her telling of the tumultuous decade on America's first frontier in the 1770's and 1780. Those experiences include daily interaction with park employees like Chad Bogart and Leslie Brockley; members of many other historical organizations of the region such as the Overmountain Victory Trail Association, the Tipton Haynes State Historic Site and the Rocky Mount State Historic Site. She was also inspired by those keepers of the local history who are the Friends of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, the Washington County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia and the Sabine Hill Social Society. Bauer was also influenced by historians who came before her, such as the research project done for the creation of the state historic park by Pollyanna Creekmore and Muriel Spoden. The influence includes the many history works about the region written by Samuel Cole Williams and by Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West. Although her book is written on the 250th anniversary of the events she writes about, Bauer is mindful of the Indigenous people who lived on the land many centuries earlier. She said the Cherokee settlements and hunting grounds in the 18th century covered approximately 40,000 square miles. Bauer's work as park manager helped in this part of the book as well, as Sycamore Shoals held Cherokee Heritage Days during the years she oversaw the park. The chapters continue with each one covering an event which had an impact on the young nation, before and after the Declaration of Independence. These include the settling of major river valleys of the Holston, Nolichucky and the Watauga; the Watauga Association; the Transylvania Purchase; the Cherokee siege in the same month as the Declaration of Independence; the muster of the Overmountain Men; and the Battle of King's Mountain. In addition to connecting the events that took place at Sycamore Shoals to the national revolutionary movement, Bauer illustrates the book with both the classic paintings of the events and photographs of re-enactors at Sycamore Shoals observances and events. Bauer ends the book with a discussion that only a few are as qualified to tell. It is a discussion of Sycamore Shoals today, and the many efforts to preserve and tell both the story of Sycamore Shoals but also surrounding remnants of that era, like the historic houses of Carter Mansion and Sabine Hill. Both the houses came under the care of Bauer during her time as manager of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park. Bauer said one of the reasons for writing the book was because "the park needed a book about Sycamore Shoals". As manager, she was responsible for the book store at the park and well knew there was something needed that brought all the historical events together that had touched the people living on the frontier in the 18th century. She also knew it was needed for the people living in the area in the 21st century. Appropriately, this week, they will be able to purchase the story Bauer has brought together at the bookstore in the park she once managed.