![]() ![]() For far too many, when love is lost, it’s better to seek oblivion than to carry on. It’s a leap of faith, and if done with a pure heart, there is no turning back. You have to mean it, and be willing to hold onto that trust even in the face of loss. You’re putting the ultimate trust into another person, despite all the odds. My own guess is that for as long as there have been lovers, love has been seen as a leap. It’s possible that there is an element of truth to this story, for there are two nearly lost towns in the valley below which bear the names Sautee and Nacoochee, whose histories stretch back farther than the Tennessee theme park. Her family couldn’t reach her in time, and the last word she spoke before leaping to her doom was “Sautee.” While they were celebrating their deed, Nacoochee slipped unnoticed to the edge of the cliff. The Cherokees sent out a raiding party which captured Sautee and hauled him to the ledge atop Lookout Mountain and threw him off to his death. ![]() Their two tribes were at war, and the two lovers were found out. Lover’s leap atop Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga is no exception. A Chickasaw warrior named Sautee loved a beautiful Cherokee maiden named Nacoochee. Even the native Americans it seems had a gothic heart. The legend is eerily similar across the country, usually involving native Americans, star crossed love, and either a leap to join a lover who has been lost to death or other circumstances, or a leap together to avoid separation. Nobody knows where, or even if there was a place where this legend springs from, a single source that inspired the memory that named the rest. In fact, they are spread out not only across this country, but others as well. She consented, and arm-in-arm they walked to the cliff, where they clasped hands and leaped off together.Mark Twain wrote in the nineteenth century that there were fifty locations along the Mississippi River that claimed the title of lover’s leap. ‘Then let us leap off the cliff yonder together and end our trouble,’ said he. “The daughter loved her Indian parent dearly, and amid her wailing declared she could die with Jack but could not live with him, now that he had killed her father. The latter threw a stone at the Chief and unfortunately killed him. He was very angry and attacked Jack with a club. The old Chief was watching, however and when he missed them he went in pursuit, overtaking them back of the cliff. “Sauntering among the trees and talking of the harshness of the parent, the lovers finally agreed to make for the fort and get married, and soon they slipped out of sight of the old home. “All day Jack protested, but the old chief was obdurate, and finally the lover seemed to acquiesce and asked for a few moments talk with the maid, which was granted. The Chief, however, had changed his mind at the instigation of the officer of the fort, and declined to give his daughter to young Chadwick. Returning, he brought his brother with him. The Chief agreed, the silver mine was shown him, and the young man went home to prepare for the wedding. “Returning to the home of his love, he told the chief what he had found, and proposed to show him the mine if he would give him his daughter. Stopping at a spring to drink he turned over a stone and uncovered a glistening ledge of rock, which he found to be rich silver ore. Disheartened but still determined, Jack left for his home. But the chief wanted her to marry an officer at the fort and told Jack he was too poor. Jack fell in love with the daughter and it was reciprocated. “The chief had sided with the whites against the protest of his tribe, and they forsook him. ![]() In one of his excursions he came across an Indian chief, who lived in the break in Will’s Mountain a mile or two up the creek with his white wife and daughter, the latter just blooming into womanhood. He was a great hunter and feared nothing. “Jack Chadwick lived in the wild country near Negro mountain with his mother and little brother Jesse. ![]()
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