About Knoxville
Knoxville has been the social, commercial and cultural center of a unique region of the American South since 1791. First it was a fortified outpost, capital of the Southwest Territory and later of the state of Tennessee.
The city furnished the political and intellectual leadership for Unionist East Tennessee when the region struggled to remain loyal to the United States at the time of the Civil War. The contending armies made this strategic railroad center a battlefield during the sectional conflict.
After the Civil War, Knoxville boomed as its entrepreneurs exploited the mineral and forest resources of the surrounding mountains and its great merchants built a large wholesale trade in Southern Appalachia.
In the twentieth centry, the development of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the atomic complex at nearby Oak Ridge, together with the phenomenal growth of the University of Tennessee, have given the city a new dimension.
From "Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee" by the Knoxville History Committee of the East Tennessee Historical Society, edited by Lucile Deaderick.
Stats & Facts
2006 populations estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau:
City of Knoxville - 180,130
Knox County (including city) - 411-967
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) - 667,384
