 The Watauga Association, an early frontier government, operated out of nearby Elizabethton in the 1770s.When the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad (ET&V) was built in the 1850s, a railroad stop known as Carter's Depot, or Carter's Station, was established at what is now Watauga, where a trestle had been erected to carry the tracks across the Watauga River.Carter's Depot consisted of a water tank, several storage buildings, a telegraph office, and a post office.