The Long Hunters

By Emory L. Hamilton

Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia, Publication 5 - March, 1970
Historical Society of Southwest Virginia

The Long Hunter was peculiar to Southwest Virginia only, and nowhere else on any frontier did such hunts ever originate. True, there were hunters and groups of hunters on all frontiers in pioneer days, but they were never organized and publicized as the long hunts which originated on the Virginia frontier. Most, if not all of the long hunts originated on the Holston in the vicinity of present day Chilhowie, but were made up of hunters who lived on both the Clinch and Holston rivers. The idea of [t]his manuscript is to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that these long hunters were native to the area and were land owners, or residents along the waters of these two rivers.

Perhaps no group in history, who contributed so much to the knowledge of the topography of our country, have been so nearly completely by-passed by historians as have the long hunters of the late colonial days. In almost every instance when the pioneer settler moved toward the extreme frontier, he had long since been preceded by the long hunter. When the first settlers were arriving at Wolf Hills (Abingdon) and Cassell's Woods in 1768 and 1769, the long hunters had long ago bypassed these points and were then hunting far away in the Ohio and Cumberland.

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