Category: Tennessee

East Tennessee includes the Appalachian Plateau and The Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, and the Blue Ridge Region. The Appalachian Plateau derives its name from its flat-topped mountains, like Look-out Mountain, from the...

From a historical viewpoint, Elizabethton is one of the most fascinating small towns in Tennessee. Originally called the Watauga Settlement at Sycamore Shoals, it was the first permanent settlement outside of the original...

In the first half of the nineteenth century, traveling through the mountainous regions of East Tennessee was fraught with danger. Pioneers had to contend with unpredictable weather, hostile Indians, and seemingly impassable...

Roan Mountain is awash in history. For many years, the little town was a whistle stop on the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. The narrow gauge railway carried passengers from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Boone,...

Hundreds of legends have been generated by unusual geological formations. A good case in point is New England’s Great Stone Face. Lovers’ Leaps can be found throughout the entire country. In a remote part of Johnson County, a...

Old, abandoned houses are the most ideal settings for ghost stories. A close second, however, is bizarre-looking houses with odd inhabitants. Such is the case of the Old Stone House in Alcoa, Tennessee. The Old Stone House was...

The Reverend Frederick A. Ross built Rotherford Mansion on Netherland Inn Road in 1818. Reverend Ross doted on his beautiful daughter, Rowena, sending her to the finest schools in the North. She was a charming girl who was...

In the Southeastern United States, the term “Wampus Cat” is applied to any large, cat-like creature with a loud, shrill cry. In East Tennessee, however, the word pre-dates the arrival of white men in the state. It is usually...

When the Bristol, Tennessee, Public School System was organized in 1888, school administrators were forced to use older buildings as schools. The District rented out the Baptist Academy on Anderson as the girls’ school....

The Baker-Peters Jazz Club was built in 1840 by Dr. James Harvey Baker in the center of a large farm in West Knox County. No one really knows which side Dr. Baker allied himself with during the Civil War. Some people believe...

The Greenbrier Restaurant is one of Gatlinburg’s most popular eateries. The main log structure of the restaurant was built in 1939. At this time, it was known as the Greenbrier Restaurant. The owner, Mr. Blanche Moffett, served...

The creation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was predicted by John Hendrix (1865-1917) forty years before the founding of the city. In 1942, Major General Leslie Groves chose the rural site as the location for developing materials for...