The Legend of Swell Branch

The years following the American Civil War were particularly unjust to the people who called
Dixie home. Many families had lost their men folk to the horrors of a war most didn’t
understand. Few homesteads could adequately protect themselves from the horde of profiteers
sweeping south at the war’s end. Good folks and bad alike coming to look for a better life. All
hoping to reap the spoils of a defeated South. Some by legal means, sure, but many,
unfortunately, by any means it took. Taking and stealing became a way of life for their kind,
killing the least of their worries. Folks suffered greatly on their account. Buach Whelan (Boo-
ock) (Whay-lan) was too young to fight in the legal war, but he was a full-grown buck near
twenty years of age when the takers come to his part of the mountains. A big, strong lad of Irish
descent, raised in part by the Cherokee, he is trained by the elders to become the white warrior,
Lone Eagle. Living in the backwoods of the Southern Appalachian near a small town called
Swell Branch, he sees firsthand the horrors that invade his sacred mountain home. Respected
among all Cherokee and mountain folk alike, he is forced into the fight after his own farm is
taken, his family killed. The actions of these outlaws release the inner spirit of Buach Whelan. A
true warrior spirit none had ever known until he was forced to right the wrongs that came into his
own life. His fight grows to become a fight for all he knows and loves. A calling to see justice
done where there is no chance of justice for those so afflicted. He will protect him and his with
all that he is. Such becomes the way for Buach Whelan. Such becomes a life lived by the legend
of Swell Branch.