“Pleasant Gardens” was built in the early 1800s, close to the site where Brown’s Purchase was negotiated with the Cherokee. The house still stands today. (Photo courtesy the Carson House library.)
To explore this chapter of McDowell history, we join historian Anne Swann in one of the log cabins at the Mountain Gateway Museum to hear the tale of a wrestling match that laid the foundation for the development of the county. Anne also talks about how Hunting John McDowell came to play a huge role in the opening of the American West to European expansion.
