28 Facts About East Tennessee

East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law.

East Tennessee is often considered the birthplace of country music, due largely to the 1927 Victor recording sessions in Bristol, and throughout the 20th and 21st centuries has produced a steady stream of musicians of national and international fame.

Unlike the geographic designations of regions of most U S states, the term East Tennessee has legal as well as socioeconomic and cultural meaning.

The entirety of East Tennessee is both geographically and culturally part of Appalachia, and is usually considered part of the Upland South.

East Tennessee is located within three major geological divisions of the Appalachian Mountains; the Blue Ridge Mountains on the border with North Carolina in the east, the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the center, and the Cumberland Plateau in the west, part of which is in Middle Tennessee.

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East Tennessee is the second most populous and most densely populated of the three Grand Divisions.

Demographically, East Tennessee is one of the regions in the United States with one of the highest concentrations of people who identify as White or European American.

Major cities of East Tennessee are Knoxville, which is near the geographic center of the region; Chattanooga, which is in southeastern Tennessee at the Georgia border; and the "Tri-Cities" of Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport, located in the extreme northeasternmost part of the state.

Also designated by the OMB in East Tennessee are the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette, Chattanooga-Cleveland-Athens and Tri-Cities combined statistical areas.

East Tennessee includes all of the state's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd congressional districts, and part of the 4th district.

East Tennessee was home to one of the nation's first abolitionist movements, which arose in the early 19th century.

American Civil War sentiments of East Tennessee Tennesseans were among the most complex of any region in the nation.

In June 1861, the Unionist East Tennessee Convention met in Greeneville, where it drafted a petition to the Tennessee General Assembly demanding that East Tennessee be allowed to form a separate Union-aligned state split off from the rest of Tennessee, similar to West Virginia.

TVA sought to build a series of dams across the Tennessee River watershed to control flooding, bring cheap electricity to East Tennessee, and connect Knoxville and Chattanooga to the nation's inland waterways by creating a continuously navigable channel along the entirety of the Tennessee River.

East Tennessee culture has been represented in many hit songs, television shows and movies.

Folk hero Daniel Boone, who helped explore East Tennessee, was honored in the soundtrack for the television series Daniel Boone, which ran from 1964 until 1970.

Variety of goods are manufactured in East Tennessee, including chemicals, foods and drinks, automotive components, and electronics.

East Tennessee is a top location where boats are manufactured, with companies such as Sea Ray, MasterCraft, and Malibu Boats, operating facilities in the region.

Major companies and businesses headquartered in East Tennessee include Pilot Flying J, the Baptist Hospital system, Regal Cinemas in Knoxville, and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, U S Xpress, Covenant Transport, and Unum in Chattanooga.

Ridge-and-Valley region of East Tennessee is home to several of the largest deposits of zinc in the United States, including the Mossy Creek and Clinch Valley Zinc Deposits of Jefferson and Grainger-Hancock counties respectively.

East Tennessee is home to several scenic roadways including the Foothills Parkway, the East Tennessee Crossing Byway, the Norris Freeway, Cumberland National Scenic Byway, the Tail of the Dragon, the Cherohala Skyway, and the Ocoee Scenic Byway.

The Cherokee National Forest was established during the same period and preserves most of the Blue Ridge Mountains in East Tennessee that are not part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Reservoirs created in the aftermath of the TVA's hydroelectric projects in the upper East Tennessee region, including Cherokee, Douglas, Fort Loudoun, and Norris provide recreational opportunities on and along the shores via water sports, boating, fishing, and "second-home" development.

The East Tennessee Aquarium coincided with the revitalization of Chattanooga's riverfront, which helped to bolster the downtown districts.

Major airports in East Tennessee include McGhee Tyson Airport in Alcoa outside of Knoxville, Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, and Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville.

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Norfolk Southern Railway operates rail lines in East Tennessee, include multiple tracks that intersect in Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Politically, East Tennessee has historically been a massive outlier in Tennessee and the South.

East Tennessee Tennesseans revered the likes of John Sevier and Davy Crockett, and were drawn to the political philosophies of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.