Although the Cherokee transferred possession of what is now Campbell County to the United States in 1805, the northern Elk Valley remained sparsely populated for most of the 19th century. A road connecting Campbell County with Kentucky passed through the area, and may have been used by a detachment of the Confederate Army of East Tennessee to invade Kentucky in 1862 during the U.S. Civil War. A village known as "Smithburgh" eventually developed in the vicinity of this road, but by 1878, Smithburgh consisted of little more than a post office and a half-dozen houses.