Yes, Johnson County, TN
Is Serious

We invite you to take a moment and learn that we have a great place to live and do business here in east Tennessee--- AND--- we are offering reward money and attractive incentives for bringing new jobs to our area.                                             

Today Johnson County has a population of 18,000 with 7,000 households. The workforce of 7,200 work in many service type jobs as well as at the larger manufacturers like NN Ball and Roller, Maymead Corp., Custom Crate and Pallet, Hanes Brand Inc., Phoenix Medical Devices, Final Touch Pictures and Frames, Rainbow Paper, and several Lumber processing Mills.

Mountain City, a town of 2,500 is the county seat and is served by a public water and sewer system. The school system consists of a high school, a junior high school, a vocational school, and 5 elementary schools with 2,300 students and 153 teachers.

The county is located in the northeast corner of Tennessee between Abingdon, VA, Boone, NC, and the tri-cities area of Bristol, Johnson City, and Elizabethton, TN. We are located in the center of 4 interstate roads, south of I-81, north of I-40, west of 1-77 and east of I-26. There are 299 square miles of pristine forest and mountain ranges overlooking Watauga Lake, rivers, streams and fertile valleys, and The Appalachian Trail.

 The County is served by a hospital, newspaper, library, police and sheriff’s department, and has a 4,500 foot paved airport. A city park provides ball fields, walking track, playground, war memorial, stage for music and plays, lake, skateboard course and cycling path.

The County’s climate is moderate with average temperatures in the 80s during the summer and 30s in the winter. Rainfall is more than adequate for green grass, fruit trees and bountiful crops. The elevation rises from valley floors at 1900 feet above sea level to mountaintops of 5,000 feet                                                          
For more information visit www.johnsoncountychamber.org or contact
Tom Anderson @423-727-8559.      

The History of Johnson County

Johnson County is nestled in the beautiful mountains of extreme northeastern Tennessee. It joins Virginia on the north and North Carolina on the east and south. For many years before white settlers arrived, Native American people including the Cherokee, the Creeks and the Yuchi used the area as a hunting and burial ground. Evidence of prehistoric Indians including the "mound builders" have been found. When the first English speaking settlers arrived in this area looking for a new or better life, it was still part of the colony of North Carolina which included land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi. These early settlers came in defiance of the English King's Proclamation Line that prohibited settlements west of the mountains because of the danger from the Indians and because the government could not provide adequate control, protection, and other government services. The first settlers here were mostly English but included many other groups including Scotch-Irish and Germans. The first settlement in what was to be Tennessee was at Trade. The first recorded settler of Johnson County was John Honeycutt whose home was on Roan Creek near Butler. Daniel Boone visited him in 1770 and James Robertson also visited Honeycutt on his way to the Watauga Settlement. Mr. Robertson is known as "The Father of Tennessee".

Johnson County was created from parts of Carter County in 1836; Carter County was formed in 1796 from Washington County. As a result, the early history of Johnson County is entwined with that of Washington and Carter counties. The Watauga Association, the first free and independent government on the American continent, was created at Sycamore Shoals near Elizabethton in 1772. Washington County was established in 1777. The short-lived State of Franklin (1784-88) was the first new state created after the original thirteen and included present Johnson County. John Sevier was elected Governor of the State of Franklin and later was elected the first Governor of Tennessee. When the US Constitution was ratified in 1789, North Carolina ceded its "overmountain" territory to the US government and the area became part of another government entity, the "Southwest Territory".

Johnson County has a rich heritage and wide range of historical and picturesque places of interest. In 1749 Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, lead a surveying party to three corners where Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia meet. Looking to the west he saw the rugged, beautiful mountainous terrain of what would one day be Johnson County and Tennessee and later noted, “This is as far in the wilderness as any white man will go.” Gentry’s Creek Falls, one of the area’s premier scenic places lay just down the slope from where he stood.

Just 20 years later Daniel Boone would blaze a trail west through the county as he traveled the stream named after his Roan Horse. Each year thousands of hikers follow the Appalachian Trail that winds it’s way up the Iron Mountain overlooking Butler, Doe Valley, Mountain City, and Shady Valley. Backbone Rock is a unique and beautiful place to stop, take pictures and picnic.
Then on the way to Watauga Lake there is the stream at Pandora where the infamous Tom Dooley was captured.

We invite you to look and read about these places and many others found in our “neck of the woods.”

Local Links about the area:

Mountain City Elementary - Learn About Johnson County