Nantahala Gorge

… ne Graham and SW Swain Counties, a canyon of the Nantahala River with such depth and such sheer sides that the Cherokee Indians named it "Land of the Middle Sun," believing that only the noonday sun could penetrate its depths. One of the several Cherokee legends is that the gorge was the haunt of the Uktena (keen-eyed), a huge horned serpent. The bright gem blazing from between its horns was called ulstitlu (it is on his head) and meant death to the family of any Indian who beheld it. However, when detached it became the ulunsuti (transparent), the great talisman that revealed the future to the possessor. When a wary hunter encased himself in leather, surprised the monster, killed it, and tore the great jewel from its head, the snake writhed from one side of the gorge to the other, shutting out the radiance of the sun and causing the perpetual twilight. The great jewel was said to be the rutile quartz, so rare that there was only one specimen among the Eastern Cherokee in 1890. In the gorge, on the left bank of the river, are caves claimed by some to have been occupied by a race that preceded the Cherokee.