Furs to Factories Heritage Area:
Exploring the Industrial Revolution in the Tennessee Overhill

This part of the southern Appalachians, with its early trade paths and vibrant Cherokee centers saw drastic changes as towns created by copper mining companies, railroads, and textile mills sprang up practically overnight, many becoming boom towns filled with young people who streamed in from nearby farms and places all over the world to create a diverse landscape and culture. This story can be discovered by visiting museums and historic sites along the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Trail found in Furs to Factories Heritage Area: Exploring the Industrial Revolution in the Tennessee Overhill.

The entire Tennessee Overhill region has often been called a "museum without walls, showcasing the rich history of the three-county area. The book, From Furs to Factories, tells the story of the industrialization of the region and also serves as in interpretive guidebook to the area. An abbreviated version is available in a free brochure.

Today’s explorers will wind along Overhill highways through a landscape of places that do not necessarily fall within a chronological order. Instead, these places serve as a record of change over time, each place acting as an exhibit, a layer or one chapter that is woven into the larger story. Since many of the Overhill towns began as company towns, suggested stops throughout the area often highlight specific occupations and industries-fur trading, copper mining, textiles, logging, railroading, dam building, farming, cottage industries and tourism. Along the way, travelers will discover museums, historic sites, rivers, valleys and places that speak of a time of great change.

• Furs and Hides: Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, Fort Loudoun.
• Agriculture: Mayfield Dairy Visitors Center, McMinn County Living Heritage Museum, and Historic District of Reliance.
• Gold Panning: Coker Creek.
• Copper: Ducktown Basin Museum.
• Textiles: Englewood Textile Museum, McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.
• Cottage Weaving Industries: Coker Creek Crafts Gallery, Coker Creek Village, Englewood Textile Museum, McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.
• Railroads: L&N Depot Museum, Sweetwater Heritage Museum, Niota Depot.
• Logging: Tellico Ranger Station, L&N Depot Museum.
• Rivers and Dams: Ocoee Scenic ByWay, Ocoee Whitewater Center, Sugarloaf Mountain Park.