| Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail | |
|---|---|
 Roan Mountain, the trail's highest point. | |
 | |
| Length | 214 mi (344 km) |
| Location | SoutheastUnited States |
| Designation | National Historic Trail (1980) NC State Trail (2019) |
| Trailheads | Elizabethton, Tennessee Kings Mountain National Military Park |
| Use | Hiking, Motor Route, Historical Reenactment |
| Highest point | Roan Mountain |
| Lowest point | Watauga River |
| Months | late September to mid October |
| Sights | Blue Ridge Mountains Doe River Fort Watauga |
| Hazards | river crossing weather partial motor route |
| Website | Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail |
TheOvermountain Victory National Historic Trail (OVHT) is part of theU.S.National Trails System, andN.C.State Trail System.[1] It recognizes theRevolutionary WarOvermountain Men,Patriots from what is nowEast Tennessee who crossed theUnaka Mountains and then fought in theBattle of Kings Mountain inSouth Carolina.
The OVHT follows the route fromAbingdon, Virginia at the Abingdon Muster Grounds,[2] fording theWatauga River atSycamore Shoals through present dayElizabethton, Tennessee, crossing theDoe River twice near bothHampton, Tennessee andRoan Mountain, Tennessee, and ascending over the steepUnaka Mountains ofTennessee andNorth Carolina, on through South Carolina to the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain now withinKings Mountain National Military Park. The trail network consists of a 330-mile (530 km) corridor, including a 70-mile (110 km) branch fromElkin, North Carolina, that joins the main route atMorganton, North Carolina. InRutherford County, North Carolina, the trail follows the approximate location of Rock Road through theGilbert Town Historic District.[3]
Fifty-seven miles (92 km) of OVHT are officially developed for public use, and development continues on the remaining sections. The official sections of the trail were established through agreements with current landowners and often have overlapping designations. All officially certified segments are identified through the use of signs displaying the trail logo (an Overmountain man in profile on a brown and white triangle) or a white triangular blaze.
A parallel Commemorative Motor Route travels along state highways and, in some stretches, actually travels over the old historic roadway.
The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail is a cooperative effort of theNational Park Service, theU.S. Forest Service, theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Overmountain Victory Trail Association, theN.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, local governments, local citizens' associations, local historical societies and the states ofVirginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, andSouth Carolina.
In anticipation of both the upcomingAmerican Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the 1980 bicentennial of theBattle of King's Mountain, many citizens in the five states along the original routes—which includedGeorgia—reenacted and hiked along the segments of theAppalachian mountain trails and highways closely following the path of the actual 1780 march to the battle site located near present-dayKings Mountain, North Carolina, on the North Carolina-South Carolina border.
Hikers, military reenactors, and scouts have long followed the segments of the famous overmountain victory trail, and in 1975 three Elizabethtonboy scouts were among those who completed the first re-enactment of the overmountain march (approximately 214 miles in one direction) from Elizabethton to King's Mountain and were met at a ceremony by U.S. Vice PresidentNelson Rockefeller at the Kings Mountain National Military Park nearBlacksburg, South Carolina.
Many of these same OVT hikers, reenactors, and area citizens later sought federal recognition of the overmountain march to the Battle of King's Mountain as being analogous to the spontaneous response of the patriotMinutemen atLexington and Concord during theAmerican Revolutionary War.
OVT supporters worked with representatives of other American trails to create what became known as theNational Trails System and later carried scrolls petitioningCongress for national designation of the OVT route. The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail was officially designated as a national historic trail during September 1980 by federal legislation authorized by the U.S. Congress, and later in 1980, PresidentJimmy Carter—recognizing the historical significance of the frontier patriots marching over the Appalachian Mountains to defeat theLoyalist army at the Battle of King's Mountain—signed federal law designating the historical overmountain route as the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, the firstNational Historic Trail in the eastern United States, exactly 200 years after the event it commemorates.[4][5]
In June 2019, theNorth Carolina General Assembly passed legislation which added the OVT's route within NC to theState Trail System. The enabling legislation directed theNorth Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation (NCDPR) to coordinate with the National Park Service on development of the trail within the state, and it gave NCDPR the authority to purchase or accept donations of land for the trail.[1]
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