Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
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The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (OVHT) is part of the U.S. National Trails System. The OVHT follows the Revolutionary War route of Patriot militia men from Abingdon, Virginia, through present day Elizabethton and Roan Mountain, Tennessee, and over the Appalachian Mountains ridge line of Tennessee and North Carolina to the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain now within Kings Mountain National Military Park. The trail consists of a 330-mile coridor, including a 70-mile branch from Elkin, North Carolina, that joins the main route at Morganton, North Carolina.
Fifty-seven miles of OVHT are officially developed for public use, and development continues on the remaining sections. The official sections of the trail were established through agreements with current landowners and often have overlapping designations. All officially certified segments are identified through the use of signs displaying the trail logo (an Overmountain man in profile on a brown and white triangle) or a white triangular blaze.
A parallel Commemorative Motor Route travels along state highways and, in some stretches, actually travels over the old historic roadway.
The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail is a cooperative effort of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Overmountain Victory Trail Association, local governments, local citizens' associations, local historical societies and the states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
[edit] History
While in 1975 anticipating the upcoming American Revolutionary War Bicentennial, citizens in the five states along the original routes--which included Georgia--reenacted and hiked along segments of trails and highways closely following the actual 1780 march across the Appalachian Mountains to the battle site located near present day Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Many of these participants resolved to seek national recognition of this act analogous to the spontaneous response of the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord.
In the following years, they carried scrolls petitioning Congress for national designation of the route. Since no such designation existed, they worked with representatives of other American trails to create what became known as the National Trails System.
The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail was officially designated as a national historic trail during September 1980 by federal legislation authorized by the U.S. Congress and later signed into federal law by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
