Roane County, Tennessee

A short history

Roane County sits where the Tennessee, Clinch and Emory Rivers meet. In 1792 John Sevier established Fort Southwest Point at the junction of the Tennessee and Clinch to protect settlers moving west. In 1797 its mission changed to protecting Cherokee land from encroaching settlers, and the fort moved to the hill above the rivers; its restoration was completed and opened to the public in 1996. Return J. Meigs served as Indian agent at the fort, and a young Sam Houston clerked in a Kingston store before the War of 1812.

The county was established in 1801 and named for Archibald Roane, Tennessee’s second governor, with Kingston as its seat. Under the 1805 Tellico Treaty, Kingston was to become the state capital in return for Cherokee land — and it did, for a few hours on September 21, 1807, before the legislature returned to Knoxville. A monument in Kingston marks the “Capital for a Day.”

After the Civil War, Union Col. John Wilder and northern partners organized the Roane Iron Company and founded Rockwood in 1868. The East Tennessee Land Company founded Harriman in 1890 as a prohibition town — every deed barred alcohol — earning it the name “Utopia of Temperance.” Oliver Springs was a mineral-springs resort until its hotel burned in 1905. Today the county fronts TVA’s Watts Bar Lake, and part of Oak Ridge lies within it.

Towns & communities

• Kingston — county seat; Fort Southwest Point and the “Capital for a Day” monument
• Harriman — the 1890 temperance town
• Rockwood — Roane Iron’s 1868 company town
• Oliver Springs — old resort town on three county lines
• Oak Ridge — the west end of the Secret City

Our place stories in and near Roane County

• Oak Ridge — Manhattan Project history
• Windrock — Cumberland ridge country above Oliver Springs

Go deeper

• When Tennessee was North Carolina
• Tanasi: the town that named Tennessee — and the TVA waters

Neighboring counties: Anderson County · Morgan County · Loudon County · Meigs County · Knox County · All counties →

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