THE SANDY BASIN
The Sandy Basin consists of about six hundred square miles, lying on the headwaters of the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River. It is on the Virginia side of Pine (Cumberland) Mountain, and covers
portions of Dickenson, Buchanan
and Wise Counties.The Sandy Basin takes its name from the fact that it is a vast plateau completely walled in by high mountains, forming a natural bowl or "basin." Some 180 million years ago the Russell Fork River began ripping a deep ravine through the northeast end of Pine Mountain on what is presently the Kentucky-Virginia stateline. This remarkable wonder of nature became known far and wide as "The Breaks." The "rim" of the Sandy Basin is broken only at the Breaks, where all of its waters gather and flow out of the Basin.
Before white men came into the Sandy Basin, the Native Americans knew it well. The rough hills and valleys supported an abundance of wildlife. They came into the Basin following buffalo and other wild game.
There were several old Indian camping grounds at Haysi, Sandlick, Nora, Clintwood, and other points in the Basin. People used to find arrowheads, broken pieces of flint, stone hatchets, pieces of pottery and other Indian relics at these sites. One man reportedly picked up over a bushel of arrowheads and stone spikes at one site on Lick Creek.
The first early explorer known to approach closely to Dickenson County and the Sandy Basin was Christopher Gist. He explored Eastern Kentucky. On April 1, 1751, he came through Pound Gap and into the Basin.
Another early hunter and explorer in the Basin was Daniel Boone. In the autumn of 1767 he and two others came northward from their homes on the Yadkin River in North Carolina and reached the headwaters of the West (later called Russell) Fork of the Big Sandy River, down which they trapped and hunted for about one hundred miles.
Making their way on foot, they entered the Basin. Boone came onto the headwaters of the Russell Fork River and camped at a salt lick where wild game was abundant. This salt lick was at Lick Creek. It was here, in 1767, that Boone reportedly carved his initials on a large beech tree. Continuing down
stream, Boone and his companions passed the place where McClure River dumps into the Russell Fork (Haysi), and the place where the waters of the Cranesnest and Pound Rivers also dump into the Russell Fork (Bartlick).
Just below Bartlick, the Russell Fork, enlarged by the waters of the other three rivers, changes in character from a placid mountain stream and becomes a churning, grinding rampage. The point where it smashes directly into the eastern base of Pine Mountain is the point where "The Breaks" begins. It is thought that Daniel Boone and his two companions were the first white men ever to see the Breaks Canyon.
Later, the colonists in Eastern Virginia and North Carolina heard of this "hunter's paradise" where land was cheap and game was plentiful. They soon began to migrate into the Basin following buffalo trails.
The dense forests of the Basin were marked by many well worn buffalo trails. The buffalo wore great trails through the forests in their quest for salt. The trails were so deeply worn into the earth by their hooves that the paths could still be seen for many years after the buffalo were gone from the area.
It was said that one such trail led out of Kentucky to a large salt lick in the vicinity of Sandlick. From there the trail led to the salt lick at Lick Creek, and crossed the head of Frying Pan to another lick. It then continued on to the town of Saltville where there were numerous salt deposits. It was told that a man named Billy Ferrell killed the last buffalo at the Sandlick.
There were so many buffalo in the area that the salt lick at Sandlick was first known as Buffalo Lick. But because of the sandy river banks and creek beds, Buffalo Lick eventually became Sandlick. The creek where the big salt lick was located eventually became known as Lick Creek.
The buffalo were not alone in their quest for salt. Early pioneers also enjoyed the taste of salt, and it was valued highly as a food preservative. They came from far and wide to get the salt at Sandlick. They would camp for days at the place. They dug holes into the earth around the lick, and dipped out the salty water with pots and buckets. The salt water was boiled by feeding hardwood logs into rock furnaces built underneath large kettles. After several hours, the fire burned down from a blaze leaving only glowing embers. The water then turned to steam and all that remained in the kettles was a yellowish colored salt, course in texture. It didn't taste very good, but it was salt.
During the Civil War (1861-1865), the salt works at Saltville was considered a strategic position by the South. Northern strategy was to destroy the salt works to deprive the South of a badly needed source of salt. Confederate troops built fortifications there and desperately tried to hold the salt works. This area was such a critical stronghold that Union President Abraham Lincoln was constantly kept informed of the situation there. The Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, appointed John C. Breckinridge as minister to Southwest Virginia in an attempt to keep control of the position. In 1864, at a time when the war was already going badly for the South, the forces to the North attacked and, for the most part, destroyed the salt works.
The great salt spring at Sandlick dried up during this time. The salt spring was located on James Colley's property. It was told that Colley drove a locust post into the rock from whence the salt water stream flowed to keep those who sympathized with the North from having access to it. It's a fact that the salt spring dried up, but whether by act of man or act of nature we will never know.
A history of our county would not be complete without some background information on the settling of Sandlick, which is where the majority of our ancestors settled when first coming into the Sandy Basin.
Richard "Dick" Colley was the first settler of Sandlick and Dickenson County in the early 1800's. Dick had grown up in Reeds Valley on the Clinch River.
A wealthy neighbor of Colley's, Andrew Heburn, had purchased several thousand acres of land in the midst of the Sandy Basin. He needed someone to stay on his land and protect it from people who were migrating into the Basin. Dick applied for, and was given, the job.
Young Colley, aided by other "long-hunters," constructed a three-sided cabin of poles at Sandlick in 1810. Here he stayed during most of the year, hunting the abundant wildlife in the area.
In 1810 the nearest settler to Sandlick lived on Dumps Creek, twenty miles away toward the south. About the same distance eastward a few others lived on the Levisa River. Some twenty-five miles away to the north a few people lived beyond the Breaks of the Sandy on Russell Fork River in Kentucky. And
toward
the west the closest inhabitants were at Pound, some thirty miles
away. Colley's cabin was very isolated.He returned often to the Clinch settlements to replenish his meager stores of meal, salt, powder and lead. On the north bank of the Clinch, one mile from the Colley home, lived John Counts and his large family of sons and daughters. Dick had grown up with them, and as he passed on his trips home, he fell in love with Crissa Counts, daughter of John Counts. Eventually they were married.
According to an excerpt from "Some Sandy Basin Characters" by Judge E. J. Sutherland, "Twenty-five miles of rough mountain paths lay between Reeds Valley and Sandlick. The buffalos had made a narrow trail and the hunters kept it open. Wild animals were thick and fierce. For a few years after his marriage, conditions were not such that he could take his young wife so far into the wilderness to make a home. He divided his time between caring for the Heburn land and staying with his family in Reeds Valley."
Then one Spring day in 1816 he took his wife and baby, Jim, across Sandy Ridge to his pole cabin on the banks of Russell Fork River. It was to be home the remainder of their lives.
In a few years several of his relatives from the Clinch settlements came over Sandy Ridge and joined them at Sandlick, such as his brother-in-law, Joseph Counts, and John Fuller, who married a first cousin of Colley's wife. Sandlick became the first settlement in what is now Dickenson County.
It is well documented in several accounts that Dick Colley was fearless, strong and hot-tempered. This often caused him to become involved in fights with neighbors. He developed a reputation during his younger days for fighting and he is still best known locally as "Fightin' Dick Colley."
It has been told that Dick had more fights with John Fuller than any other man - seven in all. These were said to be of the "fist and skull" type, wherein each man fought to prove his manhood. There was one occasion, however, in which Colley resorted to using a weapon. This time he had become so enraged by Fuller that he snatched his tomahawk from his belt and threw it at him, clipping a wisp of hair from Fuller's head and burying it in the tree behind him.
An interesting excerpt from an interview with Eunicy Colley on October 2, 1937 found in "Pioneer Recollections" by E. J. Sutherland states, "My grandfather was Fighting Dick Colley... He and John Fuller had a number of fights." One of them, "was over some liquor."
"Grandpa had got him a jug full and was taking it home, when he met John. He set it down on the edge of the road which was also the edge of a cliff, and after a little time, John knocked the jug over the cliff and broke it, either on purpose, or while trying to dance, and I forget which. Grandpa proceeded to thrash him for breaking his jug."
"After Grandpa Colley's fight with John Fuller over the breaking of the jug, John was so badly beaten that after going home, Grandpa became uneasy about John; so he sent a horse after John and it was said that it took John days and days to recover."
In another interview, this one with Noah Sutherland on January 27, 1927, Mr. Sutherland told that, "One day they met in the woods, and as usual got into a quarrel. John managed to get in the first blow which knocked Dick almost unconscious. While Dick lay on the ground John danced around him singing this song:
"Poor old Dick he died of late;
There he met the Devil with a club,
And drove him back to Beelzebub."
other ancestors worshipped there. This was the first church in
the area. It was an important place of religious activity and
early record keeping.