Elizabethton, Tennessee

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Elizabethton is the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee. According to the most recent U.S. Decennial Census (2000), the municipal population was 13,372.^GR6. The most recent population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 Population Estimates) places the 2004 Elizabethton municipal population estimation at 13,993 residents.

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Northeast Tennessee Location 1.2 Water Resources 1.3 Holston Mountain Communication Towers 1.4 Connection With U.S. Interstate Highway System 2 Demographics 3 History 3.1 Native American Inhabitants 3.2 Colonial Settlement 3.3 American Revolution 3.4 U.S. Civil War 3.5 Death of a U.S. President 3.6 Early Railroad History 3.7 The City of Power - Early Hydrogeneration of Electricity 3.8 Rayon Mills 3.9 Tennessee Valley Authority 3.10 U.S. Bicentennial - Overmountain Victory Trail 4 Famous natives 5 References 6 Also See 7 External links 7.1 General 7.2 Historic 7.3 Educational 7.4 Other

[edit] Geography

[edit] Northeast Tennessee Location

Elizabethton is located in Northeast Tennessee at 36°20′11″N, 82°14′21″W 36.344548 N, 82.201481 W^[1]GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.3 km² (9.4 mi²). 23.7 km² (9.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (2.35%) is water.

The elevation at Elizabethton Municipal Airport is 1,593 feet (the highest point of elevation in Carter County is at Roan Mountain with an elevation of 6,285 feet) and the airport is located on the eastern side of the city along State Highway 91 Stoney Creek Exit.^[2][3]

Lynn Mountain reaches 2,380 feet ASL at the summit (36.350ºN, 82.191ºW) and is located immediately across the U.S. Highway 19-E from the downtown Elizabethton business district

Elizabethton also shares a contiguous western border with Johnson City, Tennessee.

[edit] Water Resources

The Watauga River flows past Elizabethton. Elizabethton lies on the south bank of the Watauga along either side of its principal tributary, the Doe River. The downtown business district is located approximately one-quarter mile upstream of the confluence of both the Doe River and the Watauga River. The Doe River flows underneath the historic covered bridge located within the downtown Elizabethton business district.

Two Tennessee Valley Authority reservoirs --- TVA Watauga Dam and TVA Wilbur Dam --- are located southeast of Elizabethton in Carter County on the Watauga River. The Appalachian Trail crosses over the Tennessee Valley Authority reservation in Carter County.^[4][5]

[edit] Holston Mountain Communication Towers

Elizabethton itself lies within a river valley basin mostly surrounded by mountain ridges and significant hills, such as Holston Mountain, the southern end of which lies just north of Elizabethton. Panhandle Road is located off State Highway 91 in Carter County and ascends Holston Mountain for three miles (5 km) from the eastern side and ends four miles (6.5 km) along the ridge southwest of Holston High Point. During periods of heavy snow and ice, the National Forest Service closes off Panhandle Road with an iron gate.

Located near the Cherokee National Forest boundary and to the left of Panhandle Road is a parking area and foot trail that leads down the slope to the Blue Hole Falls (approximately 45 feet high). The last three miles of Panhandle Road are filled with washouts, steep drop-offs, and no turnarounds. Vehicle travel on those last three miles is at the driver's risk.

Early broadcasters in the 1950s and 1960s quickly realized Holston Mountain would be a prime radio-television transmission location because it is the highest visible point that faces most of the major cities in Northeast Tennessee in the surrounding valley between Knoxville, Tennessee, to southwest of Roanoke, Virginia. As a result, the Holston Mountain ridge is the transmitter site for three television stations in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee Television Designated Market Area (DMA). The broadcasting antenna for WCYB-TV, Channel 5, Bristol, Virginia is on Rye Patch Knob, with the top of the antenna 341 feet (104 m) above ground, 2,431 feet (741 m) above the surrounding valley floor, and 4,533 feet (1381.6 m) above mean sea level. The single tower that antenna sits on, is the highest and tallest man-made structure on the mountain. The television towers for WJHL-TV, Channel 11, Johnson City, Tennessee, and WKPT-TV, Channel 19, Kingsport, Tennessee, are standing side by side in a common broadcasting antenna farm on the southwest slope of Holston High Point, one mile (1.5 km) southwest of Rye Patch Knob. The antenna for WJHL-TV stands 200 feet (61m) above ground, 2,319 feet (707m) above the surrounding valley floor, and 4,370 feet (1,332m) above mean sea level. The antenna for WKPT-TV next door stands 193 feet (58.8m) above ground, also 2,319 feet (707m) above the valley floor, and 4,366 feet (1,331m) above mean sea level. The stations' digital antennas are also on their respective towers.

Holston Mountain is also the transmitting site for three FM Class C radio stations: WTFM-FM 98.5, Kingsport, Tennessee; WXBQ-FM 96.9, Bristol, Virginia and WETS-FM 89.5, Johnson City, Tennessee. All three antennas and the backup antennas are located at the antenna farm on the southwest slope of Holston High Point. Also located on the ridge are the antenna for one FM Class C1 radio station, WHCB-FM 91.5, Bristol, Tennessee, located at Rye Patch Knob; one FM Class C2 antenna for radio station WCQR-FM 88.3, Kingsport, Tennessee, and one FM Class D antenna for radio station W214AP-FM 90.7, Johnson City, Tennessee, both transmitting from the antenna farm on the southwest slope of Holston High Point. Various U.S. federal, Tennessee state, Sullivan, Washington and Carter County governmental agencies, along with utility microwave relay stations, also transmit base-to-mobile communications from the Holston High Point antenna farm and Rye Patch Knob.Csneed 19:34, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

The Federal Aviation Administration also maintains a navigational beacon at the Holston Mountain summit.

[edit] Connection With U.S. Interstate Highway System

Interstate 26 Exit 24 then east to Elizabethton.

[edit] Demographics

As of the U.S. Decennial Census^GR2, there were 13,372 people, 5,454 households, and 3,512 families residing in the city. The population density was 563.6/km² (1,459.3/mi²). There were 5,964 housing units at an average density of 251.4/km² (650.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.30% White, 2.47% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.55% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.49% from other races, and 1.02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.18% of the population.

There were 5,454 households out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.6% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.82.

In the city the population was spread out with 20.5% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 21.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 82.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,909, and the median income for a family was $33,333. Males had a median income of $26,890 versus $20,190 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,578. About 15.2% of families and 19.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.8% of those under age 18 and 16.1% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] History

[edit] Native American Inhabitants

The area now known as Tennessee was first settled by Paleo-Indians nearly 11,000 years ago. The names of the cultural groups that inhabited the area between first settlement and the time of European contact are unknown, but several distinct cultural phases have been named by archaeologists, including Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian whose chiefdoms were the cultural predecessors of the Muscogee people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley prior to Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters.

When Spanish explorers first visited Tennessee, led by Hernando de Soto in 1539–43, it was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. Possibly because of European diseases devastating the Native tribes, which would have left a population vacuum, and also from expanding European settlement in the north, the Cherokee moved south from the area now called Virginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, the Chickasaw, and Choctaw. From 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from "emigration depots" in Eastern Tennessee, such as Fort Cass, to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way (Satz, Ronald. Tennessee's Indian Peoples. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1979. ISBN 0-87049-285-3).

[edit] Colonial Settlement

Carter County is named in honor of Landon Carter, Chairman of the Court as defined by the articles of the Watauga Petition and Speaker of the defunct Franklin Senate. Elizabethton is the county seat and is named for Landon's wife, Elizabeth MacLin Carter.

Landon Carter was the son of early Carter County settler, John Carter, and many of the fine architectural features that can be still viewed today at the historic Carter Mansion (frontier plantation home of John Carter; located on the Broad Street Extension on the eastern side of town above the banks of the Watauga River) --- particularly the landscape painting of a Virginia plantation once owned by King Carter that was discovered underneath ancient layers of paint covering the wall surface above the fireplace mantle --- suggest that John Carter may have possibly been an illegitimate son of the wealthy Virginia plantation owner Robert "King" Carter.^[6]

[edit] American Revolution

Elizabethton (at Sycamore Shoals) was also the site of the Transylvania Purchase. In March 1775, land speculator and North Carolina judge Richard Henderson met with more than 1,200 Cherokees at Sycamore Shoals, including Cherokee leaders such as Attacullaculla, Oconostota, and Dragging Canoe. In the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, also known as the Treaty of Watauga, Henderson purchased all the land lying between the Cumberland River, the Cumberland Mountains, and the Kentucky River, and situated south of the Ohio River. The land thus delineated, 20 million acres (81000 km?), encompassed an area half as large as the present state of Kentucky. Henderson's purchase was in violation of North Carolina and Virginia law, as well as the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited private purchase of American Indian land. Henderson may have believed that a recent British legal opinion (the Camden-Yorke opinion) had made such purchases legal.

Before the Sycamore Shoals treaty, Henderson had hired Daniel Boone, an experienced hunter who had explored Kentucky, to travel to the Cherokee towns and inform them of the upcoming negotiations. Afterwards, Boone was hired to blaze what became known as the Wilderness Road, which went through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Along with a party of about thirty workers, Boone marked a path to the Kentucky River, where he established Boonesborough (near present-day Lexington, Kentucky), which was intended to be the capital of Transylvania. Other settlements, notably Harrodsburg, were also established at this time. Many of these settlers had come to Kentucky on their own initiative, and did not recognize Transylvania's authority. A Daniel Boone Trail historical marker is found just outside the downtown Elizabethton business district.

Early during the American Revolutionary War, Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals was the attacked in 1776 by Dragging Canoe and his warring faction of Cherokee opposed to the Transylvania Purchase (also referred by settlers as the Chickamauga), and the surviving frontier fort on the banks of the Watauga River later served as a 1780 staging area for the Overmountain Men who were preparing to trek over the Appalachian Mountains, to both engage, and later defeat, the British Army forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain in North Carolina.

[edit] U.S. Civil War

On the recommendation of the Military Governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, Elizabethton native and U.S. naval officer Samuel Powhattan (S.P.) Carter was promoted to the brevet rank of brigadier general and assigned by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to engage U.S. cavalry troops based in Kentucky against Confederate held railroad lines and bridges in Northeast Tennessee during the Civil War.

The Veterans' Monument obelisk guarded by two short field cannon in downtown Elizabethton was originally dedicated in 1904 to both Union and Confederate veterans from Carter County.

[edit] Death of a U.S. President

U.S. President Andrew Johnson died from a stroke at his daughter's Lynn Valley home overlooking the Watauga River on July 31, 1875.

[edit] Early Railroad History

Elizabethton and Carter County was served by the legendary narrow gauge East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC) (also known as "Tweetsie Railroad") built in the 1880s.

[edit] The City of Power - Early Hydrogeneration of Electricity

Elizabethton was first serviced by relatively inexpensive hydroelectric power during the 1910s, leading to the popular "The City of Power" moniker. The Horseshoe section of the Watauga River (found within the Tennessee Valley Authority reservation behind the TVA Wilbur Dam) is the site of first hydroelectric dam constructed in Tennessee (beginning in 1909), going online with power production and distribution in 1912. The TVA Watauga Dam and Reservoir were completed three miles upstream in 1948.^[7][8]

[edit] Rayon Mills

Beginning during the late-1920s, German and Dutch business investors established two major rayon manufacturing plants (Bemberg and the North American Rayon Corporation) in Elizabethton along the banks of the Watauga River, producing rayon material for both U.S. domestic and export markets. Even today, you can find examples of the construction or major renovation of Elizabethton buildings located within the downtown area with can be easily dated from the Elizabethton rayon economic boom of the late 1920s.

During World War II. the U.S. government seized managerial control of these critical rayon plants in Elizabethton. At the later, post-war hiring apex of the Elizabethton rayon industry in 1949, over 6,100 employees were working at both of the rayon mills.

A specialized fiber utilized by NASA within the Space Shuttle program was manufactured at the Elizabethton plants during the 1980s, and after many years of a declining U.S. rayon market and increased foreign competition following GATT and NAFTA, the remaining rayon mill (owned by the North American Rayon Corporation) closed down during the late 1990s.

[edit] Tennessee Valley Authority

The 1928 Republican Presidential candidate Herbert C. Hoover made his only southern campaign stop at Elizabethton and delivered his nationally broadcasted October 6 election "stump speech" delivered before 50,000 people gathered at the base of Lynn Mountain in Harmon Field (now at the mini-park area beside the Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce building located on U.S. 321).^[9][10]

Ironically, it was the succession of Republican presidents in the White House at the time --- first President Coolidge in 1928, and then later followed by President Hoover later in 1931 --- choosing to veto federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress that would have created a federal government water power development agency. It was Democrat U.S. Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska who sponsored the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, legislation which was finally enacted during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and created the Tennessee Valley Authority. Later Norris was an important proponent of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

[edit] U.S. Bicentennial - Overmountain Victory Trail

The Wataugans is the official outdoor historical drama of the state of Tennessee. It is presented by the Watauga Historical Association and the Sycamore Shoals Historic Area in Elizabethton every July on the last three Thursday-Friday-Saturday weekends of the month. Employing a mixed cast of volunteer professional and amateur local actors and re-enactors engaged through an open casting call, The Wataugans depicts the early history of the area that is now Northeast Tennessee.

Hikers, military reenactors, and scouts have followed within segments of the famous overmountain victory trail, and in 1975 three Elizabethton boy scouts were among those who completed the first re-enactment of the overmountain march from Elizabethton to King's Mountain, North Carolina. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter --- recognizing the historical significance of the frontier patriots marching over the Appalachian mountains to fight the British Army at the Battle of King's Mountain --- signed federal law designating the historical overmountain route as the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, the first National Historic Trail established within the eastern United States.^[11][12][13]

[edit] Famous natives

• Admiral Samuel Powhattan (S.P.) Carter - (August 6, 1819-May 26, 1891). Only U.S. military officer to have held the rank of Army General and Navy Admiral. The May 28, 1891 Washington Post obituary for Carter presents a timeline that suggests that Carter may have also been a member of one of the earliest classes of midshipmen (1846) to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.
• Robert Love Taylor, Tennessee politician (July 31, 1850 - March 31, 1912)
• Alfred A. Taylor, Tennessee politician (August 6, 1848 - November 23, 1931)
• Jason Witten - National Football League tight end for the Dallas Cowboys.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer-tbl?city=Elizabethton&state=&zip=37643
2. ^ http://www.elizabethtonairport.com/ContentPages/Layout.htm
3. ^ http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/parks/RoanMtn/
4. ^ http://www.tva.gov/sites/watauga.htm
5. ^ http://www.tva.gov/sites/wilbur.htm
6. ^ http://www.state.tn.us/environment/tn_consv/archive/cartermansion.pdf
7. ^ http://www.tva.gov/sites/wilbur.htm
8. ^ http://www.tva.gov/sites/wilbur.htm
9. ^ http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,737385,00.html
10. ^ http://cass.etsu.edu/archives/afindaid/a354.html
11. ^ http://www.nps.gov/ovvi/
12. ^ http://www.ovta.org/
13. ^ http://tennessee.gov/environment/parks/parks/SycamoreShoals/index.php?activity=Historic%20Park

• "The Tennessee Conservationist Magazine: Unique TN History Preserved at the Carter Mansion." Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. June 10, 2003.
• "Reservoirs and Power Plants: Wilbur Reservoir." Tennessee Valley Authority web site.
• "Reservoirs and Power Plants: Watauga Reservoir." Tennessee Valley Authority web site.
• Elizabethton Municipal Airport - layout.
• Roan Mountain State Park - Tennessee State Parks.
• "Explore The Trail - Tennessee." Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
• "National Affairs; G. O. P., South." TIME. February 19, 1929.
• "Hoover Day Parade Tape: October 6, 1928." East Tennessee State University, Archives of Appalachia. Johnson City, Tennessee.

[edit] Also See

• Iron Mountains
• State of Franklin

[edit] External links

[edit] General

• City of Elizabethton official site
• Elizabethton at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)

[edit] Historic

• The Wataugans - The Official Outdoor Drama of the State of Tennessee
• Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail - National Park Service.
• Sycamore Shoals State Park - Tennessee Park Service.
• The Overmountain Victory Trail Association.
• Covered Bridge at Elizabethton - Tennessee Department of Transportation.
• "Robert "King" Carter of Corotoman (1663-1732)". Historic Christ Church. Lancaster County, Virginia.
• National Register of Historical Places - TENNESSEE (TN), Carter County.
• The Generals of the American Civil War - Pictures of Samuel Powhatan Carter

[edit] Educational

• Northeast State Technical Community College at Elizabethton.
• Elizabethton City Schools.
• Elizabethton High School.
• T.A. Dugger Junior High School.
• Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library.
• Cy Crumley ET&WNC Photo Collection

[edit] Other

• Photos of Elizabethton, Carter County, Tn. (excellent web site)
• TVA Reservoir Information (Watauga River Release Schedules).
• 10 Day Weather Forecast for Elizabethton, TN (37643) - weather.com
• Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association - Online Vistor's Guide
• Tri-Cities Regional Airport (commercial and cargo).
• Official Site of the Elizabethton Twins.
• Elizabethton Golf Course (municipal)
• The Elizabethton Star
• Carter County Rescue Squad / EMS

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 36.336527° -82.239038°
  • Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
  • Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA