Cerro Gordo is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Hardin County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. Cerro Gordo is located on the east bank of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

, north of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. It is most notable as the May 1816 landing site of the Hardin Expedition. Cerro Gordo is Spanish for fat hill.

The Hardin Expedition

Twenty-six settlers, in two parties, struck out from

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

in late spring of 1816 bound for the general area which would eventually become

. The first party came by boat, landing in May at "the easteward curve" of the

. ic/ref> at Cerro Gordo. The second, and larger party, had traversed overland and suffered many delays. This second party was led by Joseph Hardin, Jr., son of Col. Joseph Hardin who had, before his death, accumulated several

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

s to the area as rewards for his

Revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

service. Joseph, Jr., as well as his brother, James Hardin (founder of the rival settlement of Hardinville, at modern-day Old Town, located on Hardin's Creek), executed land grants in the area. Both had fought alongside their father in the war and had been likewise rewarded with

land patent A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...

s."History of Tennessee: From the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Henderson, Chester, McNairy, Decatur, and Hardin Counties"; (Goodspeed Pub. Co.; 1886; Nashville, TN); Pgs. 829-841 Additional settlers from the initial expedition were dispatched almost immediately to establish a nearby community downriver at

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and high ...

References

Unincorporated communities in Hardin County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee Tennessee populated places on the Tennessee River {{HardinCountyTN-geo-stub