Grainger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,527. Its county seat is Rutledge. Grainger County is a part of both the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area and Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Blaine, formerly known as Blaine's Crossroads, is a city in Grainger County, Tennessee, United States, and a suburb of neighboring Knoxville. It is part of both the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,084 at the 2020 census.
Rutledge is a city in and the county seat of Grainger County, Tennessee. The city is part of both the Knoxville metropolitan area and the Morristown metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 1,321.
The Watauga River is a large stream of western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It is 78.5 miles (126.3 km) long with its headwaters in Linville Gap to the South Fork Holston River at Boone Lake.
The Wilderness Road was one of two principal routes used by colonial and early national era settlers to reach Kentucky from the East. Although this road goes through the Cumberland Gap into southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, the other is sometimes called the "Cumberland Road" because it started in Fort Cumberland in Maryland. Despite Kentucky Senator Henry Clay's advocacy of this route, early in the 19th century, the northern route was selected for the National Road, connecting near Washington, Pennsylvania into the Ohio Valley of northern Kentucky and Ohio.
Bean Station is a town in Grainger and Hawkins counties in the state of Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,967. It is part of the Kingsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and Morristown metropolitan statistical area. Established in 1776 as a frontier outpost by pioneer William Bean, it is considered one of the earliest permanently settled communities in Tennessee. It grew throughout the rest of the 18th and 19th centuries as an important stopover for early pioneers and settlers in the Appalachia region due to its strategic location at the crossroads of Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road and the Great Indian Warpath.
U.S. Route 11W (US 11W) is the western branch of US 11 from the twin cities of Bristol, Tennessee/Bristol, Virginia, where US 11 splits into US 11E and US 11W, to Knoxville, Tennessee, where the two highways rejoin. The highway serves the Appalachia region's Ridge-and-Valley section of East Tennessee, bounded by the Clinch Mountain ridge to the north and the Holston River to the south. US 11W from Bristol to Bean Station and Blaine to Knoxville are designated as part of the National Highway System.
U.S. Route 25E (US 25E) is the eastern branch of US 25 from Newport, Tennessee, where US 25 splits into US 25E and US 25W, to North Corbin, Kentucky, where the two highways rejoin. The highway, however, continues as US 25E for roughly two miles (3.2 km) until it joins Interstate 75 (I-75) in the Laurel County community of North Corbin at exit 29. The highway serves the Appalachia regions of Kentucky's Cumberland Plateau and the Ridge-and-Valley section of East Tennessee, including the urbanized areas of Corbin and Middlesboro in Kentucky and Morristown in Tennessee.
The Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River, usually shortened to Sycamore Shoals, is a rocky stretch of river rapids along the Watauga River in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Archeological excavations have found Native Americans lived near the shoals since prehistoric times, and Cherokees gathered there. As Europeans began settling the Trans-Appalachian frontier, the shoals proved strategic militarily, as well as shaped the economies of Tennessee and Kentucky. Today, the shoals are protected as a National Historic Landmark and are maintained as part of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.
Clinch Mountain is a mountain ridge in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Virginia, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains. From its southern terminus at Kitts Point, which lies at the intersection of Knox, Union and Grainger counties near Blaine, Tennessee, it runs in a generally east-northeasterly direction to Garden Mountain near Burke's Garden, Virginia. It separates the Clinch River basin to the north and the Holston River basin to the south.
A longhunter was an 18th-century explorer and hunter who made expeditions into the American frontier for as much as six months at a time.
Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area is a state park located in Elizabethton, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The park consists of 70 acres (28.3 ha) situated along the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River, a National Historic Landmark where a series of events critical to the establishment of the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, and the settlement of the Trans-Appalachian frontier in general, took place. Along with the historic shoals, the park includes a visitor center and museum, the reconstructed Fort Watauga, the Carter House and Sabine Hill . For over a thousand years before the arrival of European explorers, Sycamore Shoals and adjacent lands had been inhabited by Native Americans. The first permanent European settlers arrived in 1770, and established the Watauga Association—one of the first written constitutional governments west of the Appalachian Mountains—in 1772. Richard Henderson and Daniel Boone negotiated the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775, which saw the sale of millions of acres of Cherokee lands in Kentucky and Tennessee and led to the building of the Wilderness Road. During the American Revolution, Sycamore Shoals was both the site of Fort Watauga, where part of a Cherokee invasion was thwarted in 1776, and the mustering ground for the Overmountain Men in 1780.
Cherokee Lake, also known as Cherokee Reservoir, is an artificial reservoir in the U.S. state of Tennessee formed by the impoundment of the Holston River behind Cherokee Dam.
Joppa is an unincorporated community in rural central-western Grainger County, Tennessee, United States. It rests below Joppa Mountain, a subrange located near the southern terminus of the 150 mile (240 km) long Clinch Mountain ridge complex, offering views of five U.S. States and the Great Smoky Mountains. Joppa is part of the Morristown, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, and also a component of the Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville Combined Statistical Area.
Thorn Hill is an unincorporated community in rural northeastern Grainger County, Tennessee. It is part of the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area which consists of Grainger, Hamblen, and Jefferson counties.
Arcadia is an unincorporated community located in Sullivan County, Tennessee, just outside Kingsport's eastern city limits. Arcadia, originally known as the Reedy Creek Settlement, was one of the earliest settlements in present-day Tennessee. Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road ran through this community in 1775. Arcadia is listed in the National Register of Historic Places which includes the Thomas Fain Plantation. Thomas Fain named his plantation "Arcadia" to which the surrounding community became known. Arcadia is part of the Kingsport–Bristol (TN)–Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City–Kingsport–Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area – commonly known as the Tri-Cities region.
The Path Grant Deed is a document regarded as a first step toward the American westward migration across the Appalachian Mountains, resulting from negotiations at Sycamore Shoals in March 1775. The land acquired within the boundaries of the Path Grant allowed Daniel Boone to develop the Wilderness Road free from attack or claims by the Cherokee. The Path Grant was recorded on November 15, 1794, by the Hawkins County, Tennessee registrar in Deed Book #1, pages 147-151
State Route 32 is a state highway in East Tennessee. For most of its route, it is an unsigned companion route concurrent with U.S. Route 25E. The highway stretches 89 miles from the North Carolina state line to the Tennessee-Kentucky state line near the town of Cumberland Gap.
The East Tennessee Crossing Byway is a 83-mile (134 km) National Scenic Byway in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Established in 2009, it is one of the newest byways in the National Scenic Byway system. The scenic byway traverses mostly along an unsigned concurrency of U.S. Route 25E/State Route 32 (US 25E/SR 32) in East Tennessee.
Tate Springs was a historic world-class luxury resort complex located on U.S. Route 11W in Bean Station, Tennessee, United States. Known for its mineral spring water shipped internationally, it was considered to be one of the most popular resorts of its time in the Southern United States, and was visited by many wealthy and prominent families such as the Ford, Rockefeller, Firestone, Studebaker, and Mellon families.
