Wits End, currently owned by John & Laurie Moeller, sits on the site of the former community of Conasauga. While all that remains today to the naked eye are the remnants of a subsistence farm, including a barn, a chimney and what's left of an old farm house (yes the old white house in the meadow just 100 yards from the driveway), this spot was at two different times the hub of community life. At times it also served as a resting and resupply point for weary east west travelers before the advent of the automobile. In addition, before the white settlers moved into these mountains, Wit's End was the site of a Cherokee Indian settlement named Conasauga.
It's hard to imagine that in this tight mountain valley that an entire community could have existed. However, from the middle 1800s to the early 1900s this mountain valley had a post office, general store, church, saw mill, and a boarding house for weary travelers.
The property sits at the confluence of three streams and the verdant mountain valleys that each stream drains. Here, in a relatively broad valley, the streams join to form Conasauga Creek. What made Conasauga significant was the fact that it was located near the 1/2 way point along the only east-west route between the civilized communities of the great valley to the west and the mountain towns to the east through the infamously rugged Cohutta mountains.
The name, Conasauga, has long ago been removed from maps, but the farm and immediately surrounding area has a rich history. The valley was originally a Cherokee settlement. The derivation of the name, Conasauga, is not clear, but it could mean "grass" or "grassy". It's possible that the name could go back to even earlier times when the Creek Indians occupied these parts.