Meigs County, Tennessee

A short history

Created in 1836 from Rhea County, Meigs County is named for Return Jonathan Meigs, a Revolutionary War colonel and Indian agent from 1801 until his death in 1823. The Tennessee River forms its western edge, and the lower Hiwassee River crosses the south of the county to meet it. Hiwassee Island, at the mouth of the Hiwassee, was the site of a large Mississippian-period town dating from the eleventh century A.D., with temple mounds around a plaza; Cherokees later lived there, and in 1809–10 a young Sam Houston lived with Oolootek (John Jolly), leader of the island’s Cherokee town. Today it is part of the Hiwassee Refuge, known for migrating sandhill cranes.

The Cherokees ceded land north of the Hiwassee in 1817 and 1819; the land south of the river stayed in the Cherokee Nation until 1836. In 1838, during the forced removal known as the Trail of Tears, thousands of Cherokee people crossed the Tennessee River here at Blythe Ferry. The memorial park at the old ferry site — long called Cherokee Removal Memorial Park — was dedicated in June 2026 as Cherokee Trail of Tears State Park, a site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

Decatur, named for naval hero Stephen Decatur, was laid out as the seat in 1836; its courthouse dates to 1905. No railroad ever crossed the county. TVA’s Chickamauga Lake (dam completed 1940) and Watts Bar Lake (dam completed 1942) flooded much of the best bottomland but gave Meigs about 225 miles of shoreline — hence the county’s nickname.

Towns & communities

• Decatur — county seat and only incorporated town; the 1905 courthouse
• Ten Mile — Watts Bar Lake cottage country in the north
• Birchwood area — Blythe Ferry and the Hiwassee confluence (Birchwood mailing address)
• Georgetown — southern edge near the Hiwassee
• Big Spring, Sewee & Goodfield — farm valleys between the ridges

Our place stories in and near Meigs County

• Norris Lake — another TVA lake story, up the Clinch

Go deeper

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

Neighboring counties: Roane County · Loudon County · All counties →

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