In the year of 1761 - Wallen's Station Camp Established. "The long hunters went out together in large parties, built a station camp, then fanned out in twos and threes to range and hunt over large areas. The first known station camp established in Powell's Valley was that of Elisha Wallen in 1761. It is thought his party consisted of eighteen or nineteen men, but since no list has been preserved, only the names of a very few are known certainly to have been in the party.
Wallen's station camp, set up at the mouth of Wallen's Creek, was probably like other station camps, built of poles, sometimes only eight by ten feet, covered with puncheons or bark, walls on three side, the front open, along which a fire was built for warmth. Upright poles were set up often arked pole was driven into the ground, with a cross pole on which the bark or puncheons were laid, sloping toward the back in order to drain melting snow or rain away from the fire. This type of shelter was known as "half-faced" camps. Other times an extra large rock was used for the backwall of such a camp shelter.
Some of Wallen's party are said to have seen the eleven-year-old carving of the name of Powell and so named the Valley, river and mountain. Ambrose Powell had been a member of Dr. Thomas lker's exploring party of 1750." - Emory Hamilton.
"In Wallen's party of 1761, some were known to hunt as far away as the Cumberland River in western Tennessee. Among those known to have been in this party, besides Wallen, there was his father-in-law Jack Blevins, his brother-in-law, William Blevins, Charles Cox, William Newman, William Pittman, Henry Scaggs, Uriah Stone, Michael Stoner, James Harrod and William Carr.
"Two other long hunters of Powell Valley were William Crabtree and James Aldridge, both of whom were probably in Wallen's hunting part of 1761. Of these two, John Redd, says 'I have seen them both frequently, but know nothing of interest connected with their long hunts. More of an Indian scout and hunter than a farmer,William Crabtree was a real backwoodsman, tall, slender and with lightly red hair.
"The Crabtrees lived on the Holston, a numerous family,with many of the same name, therefore it is hard to distinguish which William was the long hunter, but it is believed he was the William who was a son of William and Hannah (Whittaker) Crabtree wh e residence was at the Big Lick near Saltville. If so, he was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, circa 1748. His first wife was Hannah Lyon, sister to the long hunter, Humberson Lyon. After her death he was married in 1777 to Katherine Starnes and s died in Tazewell County in 1818. The father of William Crabtree, whose name was also William, lived near the Salt Works (now Saltville) where he died in 1777.
"At this time, William Pittman was in his early twenties, six feet tall and of fine appearance. There were several Pittmans and more than one named William. [Va. Mag. History. 1893] Va. Magazine History & Biography, Vol. 7, page 249. The above quote could easily mislead folks who are not familiar with both Tennessee history and geography. First, the Cumberland River does not even flow into modern West Tennessee. The western part of its loop exits Tennessee into Kentucky near Dover, Tennessee about 10 east of West Tennessee. What is now called middle Tennessee was once considered the western part of Tennessee and was referred to as the "Western District." I do not know of any evidence that Wallen's party even got into Middle Tennessee. I believe the part of the Cumberland River that Wallen's party reached in 1761 was part in what is now southern Kentucky. At its closest point, this part of the Cumberland River is only about 30 miles from the Cumberland Gap.The French had been in Middle Tennessee by the early 1700s and had set up a trading post at French Lick, now Nashville. These traders had arrived strictly by river routes in the early 1700s, but were driven out by an Indian attack, off the top of my head around 1712. The earliest Colonial explorers reaching Middle Tennessee by any overland route, to my knowledge, that can be documented were James Smith, Joshua Horton (Houghton), Uriah Stone, William Baker and a Negro slave teenager named Jamie in the latter part of June 1766. See, for example, Justice Samuel Cole Williams' book "Dawn of Tennessee Valley and Tennessee History," The Watauga Press, 1937,(reprinted Blue & Gray Press, 1972), p. 323.There are persistent statements by some later day historians that Henry Skeggs reached what is now Middle Tennessee as early as 1765. However, close scrutiny of their sources shows a chain of misinterpretations which are simply quoted by succeeding historians. Henry Skeggs was in this area in 1775 to "survey" land for Judge Richard Henderson after his purchase of all the land between the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers from the from the Cherokee earlier that same year at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River. This sale was later invalidated by the Federal Government.
