Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville was founded in 1786, which makes it Tennessee's third-largest city, behind Memphis and Nashville. Knoxville is also the county seat of Knox County, and is the largest city in East Tennessee. The federal government's 2000 Census reported that Knoxville's total population was 173,890. Estimates indicate growth of roughly 10,000 citizens since 2000. The Knoxville Metropolitan Area has a population of 655,400, and is part of a greater 9-county area of 1,029,155 residents.

Knoxville Today

Modern Knoxville began its growth to the city in which we live today with the 1982 World's Fair, which attracted a near-record for U.S. World's Fairs: 11 million visitors with its "Energy Turns the World" theme, which came from Knoxville's technology corridor between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Headquarters. Today Knoxville is the jewel of Southern scientific research and technology transfer, its Innovation Valley producing world-class research and business opportunities on a regular basis.

At the same time that Innovation Valley was growing into its own, Downtown Knoxville was being revitalized as a center for business, Appalachian culture, and Urban living. Notable events include the opening of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Knoxville Convention Center, redevelopment of Market Square, renovation of the historic Tennessee and Bijou Theatres, a new visitors center, Regal Cinemas' Downtown Riviera 8, and many new and redeveloped condominiums and storefronts.

Knoxville-Area Geography

The City of Knoxville is a total area of 98.1 square miles, of which 5.4 square miles is water. The French Broad River, which flows from Asheville, NC, joins the Holston River to form the Tennessee River - the major river running through Downtown Knoxville. The Tennessee is a major tributary of the Intercoastal Waterway, connecting Knoxville via water to both the East and West Coasts of the United States, and it connects Knoxville to the Gulf Coast through the Mississippi River.

Knoxville is surrounded by the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley area, which consists of a series of long, narrow ridges that run the length of East Tennessee. Bays Mountain, which runs along the Knox and Blount county line to the south of Downtown, and Beaver Ridge, which passes through North Knoxville, are the two largest of these features within Knoxville. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park — part of the Appalachian Mountains— is located roughly 20 miles south of Knoxville. View our directions to the Smoky Mountains.

In addition to Knoxville's central location geographically and on major waterways, it is at the intersection of three major U.S. Interstates: Interstate 40 to the Atlantic Coast of North Carolina on the East, and the Pacific Coast of California to the West; Interstate 81 from the Canadian border in New York to Knoxville, and Interstate 75 from Florida to the Canadian border in Michigan. These roads and waterways make Knoxville a major thouroughfare for corporations wishing to ship goods to the major population centers of the Eastern United States. Knoxville's National airport is McGhee Tyson Airport, and rail freight is offered by Knoxville entrepreneur Pete Clausen's Gulf and Ohio Railways, CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Knoxville Climate and Weather

New York Times columnist Allison Glock says of Knoxville that it has an "intrinsically lazy, soulful feel. The geography is soft, green and rolling. The climate is gentle, breezy and bright." Scientifically put, Knoxville falls in the humid subtropical climate zone (Koppen climate classification Cfa), although it is not quite as hot as areas to the south and west due to the higher elevations. Summers are hot and very humid, with July highs averaging 88°F (31°C) and lows averaging 69°F (20°C). According to former local meteorologist Brittany Tarr, triple digit temperatures in Knoxville are fairly rare, however. Winters are generally cool with snow not an uncommon occurrence, with January averaging a high of 46°F (8°C) and a low of 29°F (-2°C), although low temperaures in the teens and single digits are an annual occurrence. The record high for Knoxville is 105°F (41°C), while the record low is -24°F (-31°C). Annual rainfall averages 48.2 inches (1,225 mm), and average winter snowfall in 9.9 inches (25 cm). In short, we have four distinct seasons, none of them too severe, none of them so mild that you can't tell if you're experiencing winter or spring, summer or fall.

Knoxville Government

Knoxville takes its government seriously, and has attracted both praise and boos from the peanut gallery. From legendary moments such as former Knoxville Mayor Cas Walker punching out a city council member to recent Knox-county referenda wherein the people of Knoxville took back the government for the people, we are a people who pay attention and care about what happens in our government.

Knoxville is governed by a mayor and nine-member City Council. It uses the strong-mayor form of the mayor-council system. There are three council members who are elected at-large and six council members that represent individual districts. The City Council meets every other Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building. As of 2008, the current mayor is Bill Haslam, who defeated Madeline Rogero in the 2003 election. The previous mayor of sixteen years, Victor Ashe, was named United States Ambassador to Poland in June 2004. Ashe was term-limited and could not serve another term.

Knoxville's Economy

Knoxville's economy is largely fueled by the regional location of the main campus of the University of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other Department of Energy facilities in nearby Oak Ridge, the National Transportation Research Center, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These make Knoxville the heart of the high-tech Tennessee Valley Corridor, which extends from Blacksburg, Virginia to Huntsville, Alabama.

Because of its central location in the eastern half of the United States and proximity to two major Interstate highways, many warehousing and distribution companies operate in and around Knoxville. The Old City is home to most of Knoxville's historic warehouses and factories.

In April 2008, Forbes Magazine named Knoxville among the Top 10 Metropolitan Hotspots in the United States (view other Knoxville top national rankings.)

Major Employers headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee include:

• AC Entertainment, (entertainment management/co-producers of the Bonnaroo Music Festival)
• Bush Brothers and Company (food manufacturer)
• Clayton Homes (mobile and pre-fab homes)
• EdFinancial Services (Higher education loans and financing)
• Goody's Family Clothing (retail stores)
• Jewelry Television, television network
• Petro's Chili & Chips (restaurants)
• Pilot Corporation (oil and gas)
• Pilot Travel Centers (Truck fuel and convenience stations and restaurants)
• Regal Entertainment Group (Movie Theatres and indoor advertising)
• Scripps Networks (HGTV, Food Network, Etc.)
• Sea Ray (pleasure boats)
• Tennessee Valley Authority (a government corporation)
• University of Tennessee
• Weigel's

Knoxville Arts and Entertainment

Knoxville's arts, entertainment and cultural attractions are both rich in Appalachian heritage and full of modern flare, and have regularly been offered National acclaim. Knoxville is a social city, with many large regional festivals throughout the year. Its contributions to Americana music genres such as folk, bluegrass and country music are numerous: from Flatt & Scruggs and Homer & Jethro to the Everly Brothers and Hank Williams, who spent the last night of his life there. Award-winning publicly-funded radio station, WDVX, broadcasts the Blue Plate Special, a daily lunchtime concert of bluegrass music, old-time music and more from the Knoxville Visitor's Center on Gay Street and from the Bijou Theatre on Fridays, as well as streaming its music programming to the world over the Internet.

Beyond Americana music genres, Knoxville music also boasts the Knoxville Opera Company, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, a thriving jazz and blues scene, and in its May 2003 "20 Most Rock & Roll towns in the U.S." feature, Blender Magazine ranked Knoxville the 17th best music scene in the United States. In the ’90s, noted alternative-music critic Ann Powers, author of Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, referred to Knoxville as "Austin without the hype". We agree, and there's a lot to be said for a rockin' town that doesn't have to shout how cool they are from the mountain top!

Knoxville, Tennessee also hosts several arts festivals each year, including the two-week-long Dogwood Arts Festival in April, which features local artists, crafts fairs, local food and live music. Also in April is the Rossini Festival, which celebrates opera and Italian culture. June's Kuumba (meaning creativity in Swahili) Festival commemorates the region's African American heritage and showcases visual arts, folk arts, dance, games, music, storytelling, theater, and food. Autumn on the Square showcases national and local artists in outdoor concert series at historic Market Square, which has been revitalized with specialty shops and residences. Every Labor Day brings Boomsday, the largest Labor Day fireworks display in the United States, to the banks of the Tennessee River between the University of Tennessee football stadium and downtown, and summertime in Knoxville brings Sundown in the City, with national music acts such as They Might Be Giants, Junior Brown, Southern Culture on the Skids, and many others.