Friday, May 10, 2013

Guntersville, Tennessee

Saturday, May 4, (Cont'd)

We caught up with the storm in Guntersville, Tennessee.


It was named for John Gunter, who was the great grandfather of Will Rogers.
Gunter owned a salt mine, and in order to get more land, he agreed to marry the daughter of the chief of a Cherokee tribe and to give salt to the tribe .(I‘m not making this up.) This is where Will Rogers' Indian blood came from, to which he often referred.  

Guntersville is on the Tennessee River, and Lake Guntersville, formed by Guntersville Dam.  It is a 69,000 acre lake.  And is it ever beautiful.  There are so many pretty homes, with boathouses, and wooded areas.   Its supposed to be one of the top three bass fishing lakes in the U.S.




And its other claim to fame is that it is the last place Ricky Nelson ever performed.  It was at PJ’s Alley in Guntersville  on December 31, 1985.   His private plane took off shortly after the concert and crashed near DeKalb, Texas.   If you are of a certain age, you know where you were that night when you heard the news.

We are headed past here and trying to get to Scottsboro, Alabama, before stopping for the night.  

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