Knoxville

Knoxville, city in eastern Tennessee and seat of Knox County. The city is located on the Tennessee River, in a broad valley that lies between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland Mountains.

Knoxville is the commercial center of an area in which limestone, marble, livestock, and zinc are produced. Manufactures include motor-vehicle supplies, prefabricated houses, boats, clothing, computer peripherals, electrical equipment, plastics, and processed food. Knoxville is the headquarters of several high-technology companies, as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority, a major employer that produces electricity for Tennessee and portions of seven other states. The nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and other natural attractions make tourism an important sector of the city’s economy. The city is served by the McGhee Tyson Airport, and is intersected by three major interstate highways.

Knoxville is home to the main campus of the University of Tennessee (1794), Knoxville College (1875), Johnson Bible College (1893), and several junior colleges. The city’s museums include the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Museum of East Tennessee History, and the University of Tennessee’s Frank H. McClung Museum; the Children’s Museum is in nearby Oak Ridge. The Knoxville Zoological Gardens and the East Tennessee Discovery Center/Akima Planetarium are among the city’s other attractions. Among Knoxville’s historic buildings are the house (1792) of William Blount, territorial governor; the fortified house of Captain James White, the first settler; and the home of John Sevier, first governor of the state of Tennessee. Annual events include the spring Dogwood Arts Festival and Artfest.

The first house on the site that is now Knoxville was built by James White in 1786, five years before the Cherokee people, by means of a treaty, gave up all rights to land in the area. The community was plotted in 1792 at the urging of William Blount, the governor of the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio. Blount made James White’s fort the capital of the territory, and named it in honor of General Henry Knox, the first U.S. secretary of war. Knoxville quickly grew as a supply point for westward travel. The city was the first capital (1796-1812, 1817-1818) of the state of Tennessee. It incorporated in 1815.

The city’s allegiances were divided during the American Civil War; Confederate domination ended in 1863 when Union troops, under General Ambrose Burnside, repelled a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Knoxville quickly rebuilt and established itself as an important commercial center in the South, and in the early 1900s its city limits were expanded. Knoxville’s economy was bolstered by the establishment in the 1930s of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provided abundant and inexpensive hydroelectric power for industry and homes. In the 1940s the creation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility, also improved the economy. In 1982 Knoxville was the site of a world’s fair that featured exhibits on the production and use of energy. The 1980s saw the growth of numerous industrial plants in Knoxville.

Knoxville covers a land area of 240 sq km (93 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 271 m (890 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 79.7 percent of the population, blacks 16.2 percent, Asians 1.5 percent, and Native Americans 0.3 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders represent less than 0.1 percent of the population. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 1.6 percent of the people. Population 175,045 (1980); 165,121 (1990); 173,890 (2000); 180,130 (2005 estimate).