Yucca Valley

In Alabama this plant is called the Yucca plant. It is also called Spanish Bayonet (Yucca Smalliana),  and you may have even heard it called Beargrass. You can see the abundant creamy white flowers 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter blooming from May to June. It also the namesake for the Valley in which we live.

The yucca plant was the inspiration for the naming of Yucca Valley, AL on the south side of the Tennessee River near the present town of Stevenson. Yucca Valley is a 7-8 miles long and a mile wide at its widest point. It runs parallel to the Tennessee River and along the base of Sand Mountain. ending at a TVA lake called Raccoon Creek.

The valley was first settled by the Chickamauga band of the Cherokee Indians during the latter part of the seventeen hundreds. This valley made up part of what is called "Crow Town" by the Cherokees. The Indians in the valley were hostile to the American settlers coming into the area. The power of the Chickamauga's was broken by the Sevier and Campbell expeditions in 1782. At that time the population of the valley was about 1,000 warriors. My ancestor, Doublehead, continued to fight the white encroachment until the 1800's. We will more on Doublehead in a later blog.

The McCoy's moved to Yucca Valley in 1830 and intermarried with the Cherokees. We don't know exactly when the name, "Yucca", became accepted, but we have letters with the postmark of Yucca, AL in 1851. The last post office in Yucca Valley was closed in November 1944 and moved to Fabius, AL. We later received our mail from the Stevenson, AL post office.