Knox County, Tennessee

A short history

In 1786 James White built a fort a few miles below the point where the French Broad and Holston Rivers meet to form the Tennessee. In 1791 territorial governor William Blount chose White’s Fort as the capital of the Territory South of the River Ohio and named it Knoxville, for Secretary of War Henry Knox. Knox County, also named for Knox, was created on June 11, 1792 — one of only eight counties created under territorial government. Parts of it were later carved off to form Blount (1795), Anderson and Roane (1801), and Union (1850) counties.

Knoxville was Tennessee’s capital from statehood in 1796 until 1812 — except for one day in 1807, when the legislature met in Kingston — and again briefly in 1817–18. John Sevier, a Knox County resident, was governor for most of those years. Blount Mansion (1792), Governor Blount’s home, is the county’s only National Historic Landmark. Tennessee’s first newspaper, the Knoxville Gazette, began here in 1791, and the University of Tennessee grew out of Blount College, founded in 1794.

Two railroads met in Knoxville in 1855, which made the city a prize in the Civil War; the Union victory at Fort Sanders in 1863 kept it in Federal hands. In 1933 the new Tennessee Valley Authority made Knoxville its headquarters, and Knoxvillians led by Col. David Chapman were central to the campaign that created Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The city hosted the 1982 World’s Fair.

Towns & communities

• Knoxville — county seat; Market Square, the Old City and the riverfront
• Farragut — the county’s fast-growing west end, named for Admiral David Farragut, born in Knox County
• Powell & Halls — north Knox communities on the way to Norris
• Concord — old lakeside village on Fort Loudoun Lake
• Corryton & Mascot — farm and quarry country in the east

Our place stories in and near Knox County

• Townsend — about 45 minutes south — the quiet-side base camp
• Look Rock — sunrise tower on the Foothills Parkway
• Norris Lake — TVA’s first dam, north of the county line

Go deeper

• When Tennessee was North Carolina
• The Lost State of Franklin (1784–1789)

Neighboring counties: Blount County · Sevier County · Anderson County · Loudon County · Roane County · All counties →

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