Elizabethton, Tennessee
Elizabethton (/əˈlɪzəbɛθtən/[7]) is a city in, and the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee, United States.[8] Elizabethton is the historical site of the first independent American government (known as the Watauga Association, created in 1772) located west of both the Eastern Continental Divide and the original Thirteen Colonies.
Elizabethton
The city is also the historical site of the Transylvania Purchase (1775), a major muster site during the American Revolutionary War for both the Battle of Musgrove Mill (1780) and the Battle of Kings Mountain (1780). It was within the secessionist North Carolina "State of Franklin" territory (1784–1788).
The population of Elizabethton was enumerated at 14,176 during the 2010 census.[9]
Geography[edit]
Northeast Tennessee location[edit]
Elizabethton is located within the "Tri-Cities" area (encompassed by Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport) of northeast Tennessee.[10][11]
Time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): UTC-5 (Eastern Time).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.9 square miles (25.6 km2), of which 9.7 square miles (25.2 km2) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km2), or 1.62%, is water.[9]
The elevation at Elizabethton Municipal Airport is 1,593 feet (486 m) ASL (the highest point of elevation in Carter County is at Roan Mountain with an elevation of 6,285 feet (1,916 m) ASL), and the airport is located on the eastern side of the city along State Highway 91 Stoney Creek Exit.[12][13] Elizabethton is also connected to larger commercial, shuttle, and cargo flights out of Tri-Cities Regional Airport northwest of Johnson City.
Lynn Mountain reaches 2,060 feet (630 m) ASL at the summit (36.350°N, 82.191°W) and is located directly across the U.S. Highway 19E from the downtown Elizabethton business district.
Elizabethton is bordered on the west by Johnson City.
Connection with Interstate Highway System[edit]
The closest Interstate Highway is I-26 in Johnson City. To reach Elizabethton, drivers take Exit 24 and head east 8 miles (13 km) on U.S. Route 321 and Tennessee State Route 67.
History[edit]
Native American inhabitants[edit]
The area that is now 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. Chiefdoms of the Mississippian culture preceded the historic Muscogee (also known as Creek) people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley. They were pushed out of eastern Tennessee by Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters and lower areas in the eastern part of what became the state.
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 migrated south through the mountains from the area that is now Virginia. They occupied a homeland incorporating also western North and South Carolina, northeastern Georgia and Alabama.
As European-American settlers expanded through the Province of Carolina, they came into armed conflict and forcibly displaced native populations over time to the south and west. The rising states kept up the pressure against Native Americans, as they were eager for their lands. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, and the United States military enforced the removal of nearly all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee. The latter were the last holdouts but, from 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokee were forced to walk overland from "emigration depots" in Alabama and Eastern Tennessee, such as Fort Cass, to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. (They were transported by boat across the Mississippi River.) This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way.[23]
Education[edit]
Colleges[edit]
Satellite campuses of Northeast State Community College and Tennessee College of Applied Technology are located in the eastern part of the city.
Milligan University and Emmanuel Christian Seminary are located in the southwestern part of the city.
K–12[edit]
Public schools in Elizabethton are operated by Elizabethton City Schools.
Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area is located in the city and consists of three separate areas; the main and Sabine Hill portions on the west side of the city and Elizabethton in the east side of the city.
The City of Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department manages:
Tweetsie Trail[edit]
The Tweetsie Trail is a rails-to-trails project traversing former ET&WNC railroad right-of-way between Johnson City and Elizabethton that provides opportunities for walking, hiking, running, biking, and eBiking over a relatively minor grades, including a mostly natural setting found between the bridges over Buffalo Creek in western Elizabethton and the Legion Street trailhead in Johnson City.
The cost of constructing the newly resurfaced, 10-mile compacted crushed stone gravel Tweetsie Trail rails-to-trails project was financed with private and local government contributions.
Section I between Johnson City and Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton was completed in the summer of 2014 and opened on August 30 with the inaugural Tweetsie Trail Trek.
Section II of the trail begins at Sycamore Shoals State Park, proceeds to downtown Elizabethton and continues to the end of the line, near the Betsytowne Shopping Center. Section II opened during August 2015, making a total length of 10 miles. The Carter County Commission has discussed plans to further extend the trail into Roan Mountain, Tennessee, which is scheduled for completion in 2025.[47]
Sports[edit]
Several Minor League Baseball teams have been based in Elizabethton. Professional baseball was first played in the city by the Elizabethton Betsy Red Sox in the Appalachian League in 1937.[48] They remained in the league through 1942 and won the Appalachian League championship in 1939 and 1941.[48][49][50] Subsequent entries in the league were the Elizabethton Betsy Cubs (1945–1948), Elizabethton Betsy Local (1949–1950), Elizabethton Phils (1951), and Elizabethton Twins (1974–2020).[48] The Twins won the league championship 12 times, more than any other team in the circuit's history.[51] In conjunction with a contraction of Minor League Baseball beginning with the 2021 season, the Appalachian League was reorganized as a collegiate summer baseball league, and the Twins were replaced by the Elizabethton River Riders, a new franchise in the revamped league designed for rising college freshman and sophomores.[52][53]