Hurley Mountain Origin Stories

Many residents of Hurley grew up hearing stories about how the multiracial families known as the Eagle’s Nesters came to be living on Hurley Mountain. Though no date is typically given, the story alleges that Native people living in the area of waht is now Eagle's Nest Road offered safety to escaped enslaved people. Some whites, uncomfortable with the laws and mores of town, also joined the community.

Is this story true? Tracing the roots of rural, multi-racial communities is extremely difficult. Neither written nor oral records are easy to come by.

For this reason, our project focuses on the years after 1790. By then, deeds were recorded and survey maps were available. Census records present a clear picture of  enslaved people living in close proximity to what the census calls "free others." Free others were either Blacks, Natives or multi-racial individuals-- the census only differentiated whites from free non-whites or slaves. For instance, in 1795 at least one family, the Robinsons,  described in the census as "free others," owned and paid taxes on a parcel of land in Lapala. The Robinsons lived near familes enslaving Blacks.

By 1840, several extended families of Color own Hurley Mountain property and paid taxes. We know where each of them lived. By 1800, Eagle's Nest or Lapala would not have been a comfortable place to hide  "runaways"-- the woodlots were busy places where fenced animals grazed and homesteads dotted the hill roads.

It is well worth noting, however, that every individual from a family of Color from Lapala or Eagle's Nest to whom we talked referred to their multi-racial or mixed cultural heritage-- part Black, part Native and part white. 

In this section we offer what we have learned about who was living up these two particular mountain roads in the early 19th C.