Loudon County, Tennessee

A short history

Loudon County was established on June 2, 1870, from parts of Roane, Monroe and Blount Counties; its courthouse in the town of Loudon was ready by 1872. Settlers reached the north bank of the Tennessee near today’s Loudon bridge in 1790. The town began as Blair’s Ferry, was laid out in 1850 and renamed Loudon in 1858. Land south of the river was Cherokee territory until the Hiwassee District opened around 1819–20.

Lenoir City grew on the land of Gen. William Lenoir, a Kings Mountain veteran; his son’s plantation and mills flourished from 1810, and the Lenoir City Company later developed the town, incorporated in 1907. Philadelphia was founded in 1821, Greenback grew with the railroad, and the river town of Morgantown (1813) faded and was later covered by Tellico Lake. The Loudon railroad bridge was the only East Tennessee rail crossing of the Tennessee River, so both armies watched it closely; after the Battle of Knoxville, Confederates burned it and sank three locomotives and forty-eight cars.

TVA completed Fort Loudoun Dam in 1943 and Tellico Dam in 1979. Tellico generates no power itself; a short canal sends its water to Fort Loudoun’s generators and lets barges reach the Little Tennessee without a lock. Tellico Lake covered the Overhill Cherokee town sites upriver in Monroe County — including Tanasi, the town that named Tennessee.

Towns & communities

• Loudon — county seat, the old Blair’s Ferry
• Lenoir City — Lenoir family land; Fort Loudoun Dam
• Greenback — railroad-era farm town
• Philadelphia — founded 1821
• Tellico Village — lake community on Tellico Lake

Our place stories in and near Loudon County

• Townsend — the Smokies, an hour east

Go deeper

• Tanasi: the town that named Tennessee — and the TVA waters
• How the World Was Made — a Cherokee account

Neighboring counties: Knox County · Blount County · Roane County · Meigs County · All counties →

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