Tryon is a town in Polk County, on the southwestern border of North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 1,562. Located in the escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, today the area is affluent and a center for outdoor pursuits, equestrian activity, and fine arts.
Tryon Peak and the Town of Tryon are named for William Tryon, Governor of North Carolina from 1765 to 1771. He was honored for his negotiation with the Cherokee for a treaty during a period of conflict following the French and Indian War.
History
Cherokee hunting ground
The area which Tryon now occupies was originally part of the Cherokee hunting grounds of Western North Carolina. Archaeological evidence dates indigenous peoples' occupation of the site to the end of the last ice age, more than 11,000 years ago. Successive cultures occupied the river valleys. Semi-permanent villages appeared in the area by about 8,000 B.C.
They later developed towns with a democratic political structure, developing religion, domesticated crops, pottery and skilled, powerful archery. The culture developed cultivated vegetables, and hunted and fished. Each historic Cherokee village had a peace chief, war chief, and priest.
Spanish discovery
Having landed near present-day Panama City, Florida on May 30, 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reputedly traveled up to the area of present-day Spartanburg, South Carolina and then north into western North Carolina. Traveling on horses, de Soto and 1,000 men arrived in North Carolina in mid-May, 1540. In search of gold, de Soto explored the area of Asheville area and met with the Cherokee in their village of Xuala, the area now known as Tryon. After a day or two, de Soto continued his journey with provisions provided by the Cherokee.
Luys Hernandez de Biedma, one of de Soto's officers, wrote of a group of Spanish men who made their way to Xuala on May 21, 1540:
The next day, they went to Xuala which is a town on a plain between some rivers; its chief was so well provisioned that he gave to the Christians however much they asked for: slaves, corn, little dogs [probably opossums]… and however much he had.
From there, de Soto went to Gauxuile (since developed as Asheville), which in Cherokee meant "The place where they race," named for the walk around the perimeter of the village.
Early English settlement, French and Indian War
In the earliest periods of settlement, the British traders and Cherokee enjoyed peaceful relations. Most of the British colonists settled in the coastal areas, where they had more contact with Algonquian-speaking peoples. A treaty signed in 1730 resulted in a greater influx of white traders and settlers to Cherokee territory. An early home, Seven Hearths, was built in 1740, and it is reputedly the oldest clapboard house in the county. It was moved to its present location in 1934. A log cabin that served as quarters for enslaved African Americans was also built about 1740. It was moved and rebuilt next to Seven Hearths in the 1930s.
The French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, primarily between England and France, ended the peace that had existed between the Cherokee and the English settlers. Both the French and the English recruited Native American allies to aid their militias. The French were allied with the Creek people (Muscogee), traditional competitors of the Cherokee. The French tried to make allies of the Cherokee as well, who had been affiliated with the British because of their trading history. The French encouraged the Shawnee to raid settlements of the English.
As conflict and tension increased, the British built defensive forts along the frontier, including the "Block House" near the future Tryon. Tensions with the Cherokee continued after Britain defeated France in the large war. The Cherokee were resisting repeated incursions into their territory by English colonists.
In 1767 William Tryon, governor of the North Carolina Colony from 1765 to 1771), traveled to the area and negotiated a peace treaty with the Cherokee. They established a boundary line between a location near Greenville, South Carolina, the highest point on White Oak Mountain (renamed Tryon Peak by the settlers). Settlers, though, did not commit to the boundary. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, some Cherokee hoped to expel the white settlers from their lands.