Elizabethton (Tennessee)

Elizabethton is a city of 13,5000 people (2019) in Eastern Tennessee. Elizabethton is the historical site of the first independent American government (in 1772) west of the Eastern Continental Divide and of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Understand
Elizabethton has to be one of those places that holds a special place in the discussion of American expansion. It was in this general area that restless European colonists inching westward from the Thirteen Colonies slowly pushed the native Cherokee and other Native American tribes out to form the Republic of Watauga. Then a land speculator named Richard Henderson carved out a deal known as the Transylvania Transaction with the Cherokee at Sycamore Shoals/Fort Watauga here and added half of present day Kentucky to the United States' domain, a development that Daniel Boone opened up to settlement through creation of the Wilderness Road via the Cumberland Gap. Besides this, another scout named James Robertson advanced westward to establish Fort Nashborough, the antecedent to Nashville. Thus, one might say that the inklings of future Tennessee and Kentucky arose from here in the late 18th century, sometimes by negotiation with the Native Americans, other times by connivery or force.

Other interesting events happened in Elizabethton too. Militias formed here and march over to fight in the Battle of Kings Mountain in the American Revolutionary War. Moreover, there was a time shortly thereafter when an autonomous state called the State of Franklin popped up seeking governance under Spanish rule, with proponents like later Tennessee governor John Sevier fighting to the teeth, but this quieted down and Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796.

Elizabethton was named for two original founders' daughters, both named Elizabeth, and it remained within the Union's power by and large during the Civil War, even though it was part of the Confederacy. Later it would become a center of railroad and also hydropower commerce with damming of the Watauga River, a feature which would lead it to be termed "The City of Power."

All these poignant moments in the chapters of American history led to the development of the official outdoor historical drama of the state of Tennessee in Elizabethton called Liberty: The Saga of Sycamore Shoals.

Get in
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.