Terchová was founded about 1580 on a klčovisko — ground grubbed clear of forest by hand — at a place recorded as “Za Kralovou luku na Rownej Hore”. It belonged to the Strečno–Gbeľany estate, and it was settled the way the whole upper Váh was settled in that century: lords let shepherds and woodcutters onto steep land that would never take a plough, in exchange for rent they would otherwise never have collected. The name appears in writing in 1598 as “Králowa alias Tyerchowa”, and the same record counts a mill and nineteen houses. That is a fact about a document rather than about people — families were living on those clearings before any clerk wrote them down.Terchová vznikla okolo roku 1580 na klčovisku — na pôde vyklčovanej z lesa holými rukami — na mieste zapísanom ako „Za Kralovou luku na Rownej Hore“. Patrila panstvu Strečno – Gbeľany a osídlili ju tak, ako sa v tom storočí osídľovalo celé horné Považie: páni pustili pastierov a drevorubačov na strminy, kde by pluh nikdy nezabral, výmenou za rentu, ktorú by inak nikdy nedostali. Meno obce sa v listinách objavuje v roku 1598 ako „Králowa alias Tyerchowa“ a ten istý zápis počíta mlyn a devätnásť domov. To je však údaj o listine, nie o ľuďoch — rodiny na tých klčoviskách žili skôr, než ich niekto zapísal.
