At Warwoman Dell, the CCC built the covered structures that are still in use, along with Trout runs, spring houses, and other features. Warwoman’s name is derived from the Cherokee woman Nanyehi or Nancy Ward, born circa 1738 in the Cherokee capital town of Chota in now southeastern Tennessee. Her mother was the sister of Atakullakullah, the Cherokee Chief who William Bartram would encounter on his journey out of the Nantahala Mountains. Nanyehi was awarded the title of Ghigau or Beloved Woman by the Cherokee for her role in the 1755 Battle of Taliwa against the Muskogee Indians. Ward picked up the gun dropped by her slain husband in the battle and led the Cherokee to victory, securing the north Georgia region for the Cherokee people. As Beloved Woman, she became the only female voting member of the Cherokee General Council. She later married the Irish trader, Bryant Ward, and took the name Nancy. Bryant Ward was already married to a woman in South Carolina however, and he left Nancy after a short period and returned to his other family. Ward went on to perform many important roles with the Cherokee, including negotiating a peace agreement, the Treaty of Hopewell, with American Revolutionaries following the Revolutionary War.
Another theory for the place name of Warwoman is that it is named for Nancy Morgan Hart, famous for her exploits against Loyalists in northeast Georgia during the Revolutionary War. Hart had settled with her family in Georgia’s upper Broad River valley during the early 1770’s. Among the many of accounts of her interesting life is one in which she killed two Loyalist soldiers who showed up at her home demanding food and beverage. She offered them food and beverage and asked the group that they place their guns against the wall. She slowly removed them out the window to her husband as they continued to drink before killing two of them with their own weapons. The remainder of the group were hanged outside by her husband.
Evidence of the failed 19th century Blue Ridge Railroad is also evident at the Dell. Construction had begun prior to the Civil War, with numerous investors and schemes which continued after the war. Had the railroad been completed Rabun County would have been a major connection between Charleston, Knoxville, and other southern cities with the result being that the surrounding landscape would likely have been much less rural and remote.
This section also crosses the historically accepted route and ancient trade path upon which Bartram travelled by horseback, though the previously mentioned route proposed by cartographer Lamar Marshall is more likely. Bartram is believed to have crossed the Chattooga at Earl’s Ford, then proceeded up Warwoman Creek from Earl’s on an old trade path to Martin’s Creek Falls, crossing over the Blue Ridge mountains at Courthouse Gap. Hikers can pass by or take the side trail to the Pinnacle, where Bartram has historically been believed to be when describing a new species of magnolia - Mountain Magnolia, or Magnolia fraseri, as it was later to be described by the French botanist Andre Michaux. This species, with its large lobed leaves and smooth grey bark, was however later named Magnolia Fraseri by French Botanist Andre Michaux, who explored the area in the 1780’s and had learned of the species from Bartram. Michaux named the species after a patron, the Scottish botanist John Fraser.
From here it has been generally accepted that Bartram crossed Courthouse Gap on an ancient trail and proceeded down to the destroyed and abandoned Cherokee Village of Stekoe, near modern day Clayton. On this section of his journey, he describes hundreds of acres of strawberries, and expansive green lawns, the remains of Cherokee agriculture. In Stekoe, he describes stone piles in the old village, which he assumed were the interned remains of Cherokee warriors, killed in the earlier Creek wars. He also described the mound of the village that was later razed for the modern-day town of Clayton. Stekoe was known as The Dividings, as numerous ancient trade paths intersected at this location. One was the path northward to Cowee, and another was to the northwest through the Hiwassee River valley and on to the Overhill Towns, Bartram’s ultimate destination, which was near modern day Loudon, Tennessee. However, he was to meet a guide to lead him to the Overhill Towns in the Cherokee village of Cowee, who never showed, leading to his solo journey into the Nantahala mountains along yet another ancient route.