Sevier County, Tennessee

A short history

Sevier County has what the Tennessee Encyclopedia calls three birthdays: it was organized in 1785 under the State of Franklin, again in 1794 under the Southwest Territory, and a third time in 1796 under the new State of Tennessee. The county and its seat, Sevierville, are named for John Sevier — Franklin’s governor and Tennessee’s first. The 1785 Dumplin Treaty, signed at Major Hugh Henry’s Station, opened land south of the French Broad River to settlement, and the first Franklin-era court met at Samuel Newell’s Station on Boyds Creek in March 1785.

Sevierville grew from the Forks of Little Pigeon settlement and became the county seat in 1795; its courthouse, known for its tower, dates to 1896. Pigeon Forge began as the Fanshiers community; Isaac Love established a bloomery forge there in 1817, and the Pigeon Forge post office opened in 1841. Gatlinburg was White Oak Flats, settled around 1806 by the Richard Reagan and Martha Ogle families; the name comes from the post office in Radford Gatlin’s store in 1856. Pittman Center grew from a Methodist settlement school and health center founded in 1921.

Logging dominated the high country from about 1900 to 1930. The national park, and in the 1950s U.S. 441 through the valley, turned the county toward tourism. Sevier County’s share of the Smokies includes Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia notes Dollywood in Pigeon Forge as the largest amusement park in the state.

Towns & communities

• Sevierville — county seat; the 1896 courthouse tower
• Pigeon Forge — named for its 1817 forge; Dollywood and the Old Mill
• Gatlinburg — the old White Oak Flats, at the park’s main Tennessee entrance
• Pittman Center — quiet side of the county near Greenbrier
• Wears Valley — back road between Pigeon Forge and Townsend
• Kodak & Seymour — north and west gateways

Our place stories in and near Sevier County

• Gatlinburg — the honest first-timer take
• Dollywood — a planner for the park in Pigeon Forge
• Townsend — next door in Blount, via Wears Valley

Go deeper

• The Lost State of Franklin (1784–1789)
• When Tennessee was North Carolina
• How the World Was Made — a Cherokee account

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

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