Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023 - 24

1737 TRIBAL SETTLEMENT?
Twin Poplars
Legend has it that after a weeklong battle, the Catawba and
Cherokee tribes settled a territorial dispute and joined two
trees to commemorate the peace.
By TIM GREEN | Photos by MIKE KOENIG
long the headwaters of North
Carolina's Catawba River in
northern Caldwell County, you
could blink and miss the small
Warrior Gap community completely.
Not to mention two Siamese
poplar trees, locally referred to as
the Twin Poplars.
A
The tree pair, just off U.S. 321, are separated
by roughly 12 feet and rise 20 feet
above the earth before joining together,
uniting to form the unique wishboneshaped
archway.
As a child, I would hear about the
great battle that had taken place between
the Catawba and Cherokee tribes over
area hunting rights, and every spring
we would forage in area farmers' freshly
disked fields finding jars of arrowheads,
presumably from the feuding tribes.
Twin Poplars is the literal symbol of a
peace treaty entered upon by the Cherokee
and Catawba by grafting two poplar
trees together in the spring of 1737.
The Catawba lived in the southern
part of the county. They were generally a
friendly and peaceable tribe who hunted
the forests and fished along the banks of
the Catawba headwaters with the early
" pale faced " traders and trappers who
first visited in this wilderness.
The less-accepting Cherokees resented
the intrusion on what they considered
their hunting grounds, and the clash
over the matter brought serious strife
and conflict between them. Tradition
has it that a number of battles ensued.
A great many warriors met in combat
about four miles north of Lenoir at Warriors
Gap, so named from this historic
confrontation, wherein brave warriors
fought until death.
The battles were so furious that six
times the Cherokees were said to have
been driven back, each time rallying to
advance again. The battle raged for almost
a week until both sides were too
spent and exhausted to continue.
And after that week of bloody battles, a
conclusion was agreed upon by both sides
too tired and diminished to continue.
The few remaining warriors stayed
to bury some of the dead, and a pact
was made declaring that hereafter there
would be peace between the tribes. The
Cherokee would now resort to hunting
west of the Catawba and the Catawbas
east.
A mound of erected stones, surviving
today, marks the agreement. Alongside
the mound two young poplar trees were
grafted together, apparently by members
of the tribes, and with the legend
that if the trees suvived, then so would
the peace between the tribes. The trees,
which survived the ravages of Hurricane
Hugo in 1989, are now forest giants,
having remained united for more than
285 years.
The Caldwell Heritage Museum holds
some artifacts and writings by Caldwell
County historians about the battle.
24 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023

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