From Murphy, take Highway 64 East. Turn right on Settawig Road. Follow Settawig road to the end in Brasstown and turn right. Take the next left and the Folk Art School will be on your left.

Private Property, Restrooms, Wheelchair Access

Museum of the Cherokee Indian 589 Tsali Blvd. :: PO Box 1599 :: Cherokee, NC 28719 :: 828.497.3481 :: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Settawig

Sites Near Murphy

Rivercane Walk at the John C. Campbell Folk School

The John C. Campbell Folk School at Brasstown, North Carolina is located near the mouth of Little Brasstown Creek, in the heart of the old Cherokee community of Aquohee (English translation: Big Place). The school, founded by Olive Dame Campbell in 1925, offers a wide variety of programs in folk arts and traditional music and dance aimed to foster appreciation for the traditional cultures of Appalachia while promoting personal development. As part of its campus enhancement, the school is developing a 1.5 mile walkway on its property along Little Brasstown Creek; this Rivercane Walk is interspersed with trail side exhibits that relate the natural and cultural history of the lower Brasstown Creek Valley and the surrounding area. One theme of the trail relates to the rivercane that lines the creek's margin. Cane, which figured prominently in traditional Cherokee architecture and is still used for traditional crafts such as basketry and blowgun manufacture, signifies the health of stream side environments in the southern mountains, and the folk school's efforts to restore and rejuvenate Little Brasstown Creek are symbolized by return and spread of the canebrakes.

Exhibit panels along the Rivercane Walk present an annotated map of the 19th century Cherokee cultural landscape in the lower Brasstown Creek Valley and discuss the Aquohee community and the lifeways of its Cherokee inhabitants on the eve of the 1838 military removal. Featured topics are the Aquohee District, a Cherokee administrative area centered at a local townhouse; Situwakee, the Aquohee District judge and Removal era leader who lived nearby on Settawig Road, and the Unicoi Turnpike, which ran along Settawig Road and crossed Brasstown Creek just north of the folk school property. Panels also discuss Peter Oganaya's Baptist church at Aquohee (now Brasstown), where troops gathered to arrest the congregation for removal. One panel discusses local petroglyph sites, where images engraved in stream side boulders depict spirals, crosses, hands, four-legged animals and water monsters, icons carved by local inhabitants hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Contact: John C. Campbell Folk School, One Folk School Road, Brasstown, North Carolina 28902
Phone:(828) 837-2775


John C. Campbell Folk School was established in 1925 as an higher education institution that allowed young people of the region to gain and education while learning and preserving the arts and local trades of the Appalachian region. Today, the folk school offers weekly workshops on every craft subject imaginable, such as black smithing, jewelry making, mountain music, cooking and gardening. The school is open to visitors and houses a craft shop featuring work of more than 300 artisans, including woodcarving, ironwork, weaving, woodturning, pottery, furniture, glasswork, painting, basketry and enameling. 1.800.365.5724. Hours: Monday-Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: On Settawig Road off U.S. 64 in Brasstown seven miles east of Murphy