A. Fort Bean Breastworks – fortifications used by soldiers to defend the fort during the Battle of Bean Station that resulted in a Confederate Victory.

B. William Bean’s Fort. William Bean was the first permanent settler in Tennessee at Boone’s Creek, Washington County.

C. Bean’s Gap and Veterans’ Overlook – dedicated to Grainger Co. veterans in 1991. This pass connected the Kentucky territory to the Great Wagon Trail via Cumberland Gap and Bean’s Gap. By 1835, it was named the Kentucky Road and was, for decades, the most traveled route between Georgia and Kentucky.

D. Southern branch of the Great Wagon Trail into western territory

E. Mineral Springs Hotel

F. Cherokee War Path

G. Old 25E/Kentucky Road – the road traveled by Daniel Boone & Davy Crockett to Cumberland Gap and Kentucky territory.

H. The Bean Station Tavern (location now under water at Cherokee Reservoir) –

• Guests included John Sevier, William Blount, Presidents Jackson, Polk, Johnson, and Lincoln, and many other notable persons. Abraham Lincoln’s mother is said to have been a waitress in the tavern; in fact, this note is recorded along with Lewis Hine’s photo of the tavern.

• Touted as the “finest tavern between Washington D.C. and New Orleans”.

• Situated at the intersection of the Great Wagon Trail/11W/Lee Highway and 25E/Kentucky Road and the Cherokee War Path and near the convergence of Ray Creek and German Creek.

• The Tavern was located in the midst of the Battle of Bean Station and was reportedly riddled with bullets.

• The tavern was disassembled in order to be reassembled at higher ground. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire. The commemorative plaque on the corner shown in the photo was put there by the Daughters of the Revolution.

Coffey is well known for his efforts to establish and share area history. He worked with the Bean Station Community Club to erect the historical marker at Veteran’s Overlook in Bean’s Gap and recently donated to the Grainger County Archives two books compiling data related to Grainger County history. He has an informal book of his own in progress, but as of now has no definite plans to publish. His goal is to get a better understanding of Grainger County history because it’s interesting to him. Coffey says he gathers a lot of information from the internet, which he claims to be an invaluable resource to modern researchers, yet says he’s found, “The best information comes from people that either were there or lived there.”

Coffey says Dr. T.J. Hill is one of the few people left in the area that went to school there and has provided him with a lot of great information and details you don’t get from the history books.

Albert Samsel, Jr. also helped him a lot with his research and understanding of Grainger County history. Samsel is in charge of the Bean Station Historical Society. “Both,” Coffey says, “lived within a mile of Bean Station Tavern in areas now under the lake. A lot was lost to the reservoir,” he said. “Even Senator John K. Shields’ homestead is under water, which is probably why they named Shields Creek after him.”

Coffey emphasized that he felt there needed to be more of a visual reminder of the area’s history, perhaps another marker or a series of markers in the location captured in Hines’ photo. “When people are reminded every time they drive by Cherokee Lake of what happened there, it will start to sink in. So many people either stopped at the tavern or passed through Bean Station along one of the two roads or even before, like Daniel Boone and William Bean, came along the old Indian paths. These, combined with the battles fought here, are major reasons why Bean Station is one of the most historical locations in the U.S.”

Many more of Lewis Hines’TVA photos may be browsed at the website for the University of Maryland’s database for the (NARA) National Archives & Records Administration:

narademo.umiacs.umd.edu/cgi-bin/isadg/viewrg.pl?rgid=142