Nashville’s first European settlers arrived on a cold Christmas Eve in 1779. As members of the Robertson Party stood on the bluff where downtown is today and looked out over the Cumberland River (originally called the Warioto by the Native Americans) into what is today East Nashville it was frozen hard enough to walk across. The settlers decided to stake their claim after a small exploratory party of nine led by James Robertson the previous spring had visited what was then known as French Lick and later as Nashville. Exploring the area, the long hunters saw a great mineral lick that attracted buffalo, bears, wild turkeys, white-tail deer, beaver, raccoon, foxes, elk, wolves, panthers, mink and otters in abundance. Already established in residence was a Frenchman named Timothy Demonbreun. He had lived off and on in the area for 15 years and trapped and traded with the many Native American tribes who came to the area to hunt. None of the tribes lived permanently in Middle Tennessee but visited it annually to hunt and trade. The legend among the tribes is that this area was “a Dark and Bloody ground”. Since it was where the territory of the Shawnee, Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw met and overlapped—those tribes all considered it a “no-man’s land” that was only visited to hunt, trade, and make war. Demonbreun profitably traded with them all. However, when he first settled in the area and before he had a permanent house—he often took refuge in a cave on a bluff above the river. He accessed it via a rope ladder that hung down and in times of danger he would climb up the ladder into the cave and pull the rope ladder up after him. Legend has always stated that the first person of European descent born west of the Appalachians was Demonbreun’s son, William, who was born in that same cave.