Key Settlers in the Big South Fork Region

The 125,000 acres that today make up the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area were once home to hundreds of hardy people who carved out a way of life — mostly by subsistence farming, though later through occupations such as logging and mining — in the rugged landscape surrounding the Big South Fork River. Some lived on the tabletop plateau lands outside the river gorge, but most lived in the gorge, along the Big South Fork or one of its major tributaries, where the soil was more fertile and suitable for growing.

The two largest river settlements were the No Business Creek community and the Station Camp community.

Richard Harve Slaven is believed to have been the first person to settle permanently on No Business Creek, sometime around the year 1800. Jonathan Blevins may have been the first person to settle permanently on Station Camp Creek, though that is disputed.

Dewey Slaven, the great-grandson of Richard Harve Slaven, died in 1960 and was the last person living at No Business Creek. It is not clear who the last person was to live on Station Camp Creek. The last person living in what is now the Big South Fork NRRA may have been Oscar Blevins, who lived near Bandy Creek.

Noteworthy settlers of the Big South Fork

• Armstead Blevins
• Jacob Blevins
• Jonathan Blevins
• Lora Blevins
• Oscar Blevins
• Jerome Boyatt
• Jonathan Burke
• William Riley Hatfield
• Ike King
• John Litton
• Francis Miller
• Maude Roysdon
• Dewey Slaven
• General Slaven
• Richard Harve Slaven
• Anderson Smith
• John Hawk Smith