Knoxville Travel Guide — Best Time, Things to Do & Where to Stay

Why Knoxville

Knoxville is a prominent city located along the Tennessee River within the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. Serving as the seat of Knox County, it stands as the third-most-populous city in Tennessee, recording 190,740 residents in the 2020 census and anchoring a metropolitan region of nearly 958,000 people. Positioned as a cultural center for the surrounding Appalachian region, Knoxville is widely known as a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The area was inhabited by indigenous cultures for centuries, including Woodland and Mississippian peoples, and later became part of the homeland of the Cherokee. Euro-American settlement began in 1786 when James White constructed White's Fort. Formally surveyed in 1790, the town was named after Secretary of War Henry Knox and served as the capital of the Southwest Territory before becoming the original capital of Tennessee.

Geographic isolation initially hindered development, but the arrival of the railroad in 1855 transformed Knoxville into a thriving trade hub. During the American Civil War, the city experienced deep political division; while the surrounding region held strong anti-secession sentiments, Knoxville itself voted to secede. Occupied alternately by Confederate and Union forces, the city was extensively fortified, culminating in the 1863 Knoxville campaign and the Battle of Fort Sanders, which secured Union control over East Tennessee.

Following the Civil War, industrial investments and migrant labor drove rapid economic expansion. Knoxville grew into a major manufacturing and wholesaling center, prominent for textiles, iron goods, and pink marble production. Though the economy stagnated in the 1920s and collapsed during the Great Depression, hosting the 1982 World's Fair catalyzed a modern turnaround that has driven ongoing urban growth, particularly in the downtown district.

Today, Knoxville is home to the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, which originated as Blount College in 1794. The city also hosts the corporate headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority and several prominent businesses, alongside the East Tennessee courthouse for the Tennessee Supreme Court.