🚗 Three Trails, One City: "Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways" by starting in Knoxville Knoxville is a destination in its own right, but it's also a trailhead to three of Tennessee’s most fascinating driving experiences. The Rocky Top Trail, White Lightning Trail, and Top Secret Trail all pass…
Read More
Imagine, if you can, a city that has, within a 25-minute drive on one side, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and its associated American Museum of Science and Energy. And equidistant on the opposite side, Dolly Parton’s extravagant and broadly popular theme park, Dollywood. And mountains all…
Read More
Knoxville may be a rarity in that it’s home to two historic houses that are associated with the ends of what were once passionate love affairs. One of them is the 1941 Lyons View mansion of Eugenia Williams. After an extensive six-year renovation by the Aslan Foundation, it will be open to the…
Read More
February may be Black History Month, but Black history is American history, and in Knoxville there’s plenty to go around for the whole year! This post highlights the Black history of this area along with attractions that have temporary and permanent exhibits, murals, statues, parks, and more. The…
Read More
It’s been 10 years since a vigorous group of young craftspeople and entrepreneurs—“makers”—began to style Knoxville “The Maker City,” about the same time that Etsy, the online marketplace, confirmed that claim as a national designation. And it’s true there’s a lot of making going on here…
Read More
Kingston Pike Postcard | Courtesy Knoxville History Project Sunday, January 17, is National Bootleggers' Day, believe it or not. Knoxville didn't start that holiday, which is just five years old now, but our city has quite a rich story in that regard. Knoxville and liquor go way back, of…
Read More
Knoxville isn’t used to the spotlight. For years, the city kept a low profile, happy to defer to its regional attractions, the Smoky Mountains and the…
Read More
Christmas seems ancient, doesn’t it? The Biblical story is literally ancient, and there seems to be something old fashioned about most of the ways we…
Read More
Travelers from the north are sometimes surprised that Knoxville, Tennessee, here in the Sun Belt, has an ice culture. But it’s not a novelty, or something new we’ve created to please northern tourists. The Holidays on Ice skating rink has been a feature on Market Square since the 1980s, albeit much…
Read More
Country music has never been more popular than it is now, thanks to several current figures who had their starts in or near Knoxville, from Dolly Parton to Kenny Chesney to Kelsea Ballerini. But the national country-music phenomenon has much deeper roots, with a dramatic story that unfolded in…
Read More
