
On the spur of the moment, I decided to attend the Veterans Day program at the Tennessee Veterans Cemetery this year. Although I drive by the solemn rows of tombstones every day, I’d never ventured up the hill to the octagonal structure at the top. This year, in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, I felt moved to do so. I wanted to honor our veterans in a personal way. My dad, a Korean War veteran, went with me to the service hosted by the Tennessee Chapter of the State Guard Association of the United States. Neither of us knew what to expect.

Is there a piece of Knoxville history you’d like to know more about? Ask Chuck or tweet him.
To build the Panama Canal was to move heaven and earth: to bring 360 ft of elevation of the Cordillera Central, the continental divide, down to sea canal; to push through 48 miles of jungle and rivers; to overcome diseases medical science did not understand; and to replace the 27,500 men who died of these diseases to continue building all so a ship from New York could travel 6,000 miles to San Francisco, instead of 14,000. No wonder Theodore Roosevelt considered it the greatest feat of his presidency, and many more consider it the greatest engineering achievement of all time.

Let’s keep the giveaway train moving while it’s hot. Just like yesterday, the first person to correctly answer the Knoxville history question below will win a pair (2) of tickets to the Knoxville Twestival going down on September 10th at the Zoo. You must reply in the comments of this post and use your real e-mail address so we may contact you (if you win).
Congrats to Back2Pennyrile for submitting the correct answer. It was Charles McClung and Kingston Pike.
In 1792 a survey was commissioned for the purposes of constructing a highway from the Knoxville Courthouse to the western Knox County line. Who was commissioned to survey the route, and what was the highway eventually named?
All answers submitted on Facebook, Twitter, or other Knoxify-specific accounts will not be counted in the contest.

Our very own Nicole VanScoten tossed all kinds of Knoxville Twestival info your way last week. You going or not?
If you haven’t purchased your tickets we might just have the perfect gift for you and it’s not even Christmas, yet. The first person to correctly answer the Knoxville history question below will win a pair (2) of tickets to the Knoxville Twestival going down on September 10th at the Zoo. You must reply in the comments of this post and use your real e-mail address so we may contact you (if you win). Let ‘er rip!
Congrats to Tim who chimed in with the correct answer of Loveville. In case you’re curious, Loveville turned in to what we know today as Lovell. Thanks to everyone who played. We’ll have another chance to win tomorrow!
In the first half of the 1800’s, what was the first major village a traveler going west along Kingston Pike would encounter after leaving Knoxville?
Thanks and good luck to everyone.
All answers submitted on Facebook, Twitter, or other Knoxify-specific accounts will not be counted in the contest.

This is the second piece of a two-part series. Get caught up and read the first entry here.
The thrill of victory pulsed through the veins of the KPD officers on the train ride back to Knoxville from Jefferson City. With photographs, received days before by mail, and matching serial numbers from the bank notes in the suspect’s pockets with those missing from the Great Northern Robbery, they knew they had their man.

Hollywood, the Old West, the country of Bolivia, and most importantly Knoxville, TN. What ties them together here is a movie and a man and if you guessed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, then you’ve guessed the movie.
But if Paul Newman or Robert Redford come to mind, then guess again.

Skiers traveling up to Ober Gatlinburg via the resort’s aerial tramway probably never imagine that it was Knoxville, and not a ski resort, that was home to the very first version of that mode of transportation in the sky.
Yet in 1894, decades before Ober Gatlinburg was even a thought, the world’s first aerial cable car ferried Knoxvillians not just across, but high above the Tennessee River.

“How about a two-for-one apple kolacky with your Extra Value Meal?”
For good or for ill, this Eastern European version of a danish is not what you’ll likely find as a dessert option the next time you’re at McDonald’s. But if it hadn’t been for one particularly industrious Knoxvillian, it just might have been.

The 1982 World’s Fair gave us more to talk about than just cultural exchange, painting robots, and Petro’s. One day after the fair ended the largest Knoxville-based white-collar crime investigation in history hit the fan, throwing fair-leader Jake Butcher behind bars for banking fraud.
For six months Knoxville basked in the global spotlight, all while catching a new nickname from the New York Times, “a scruffy little city”. Perhaps the Times should have organized the event themselves seeing as how “scruffy” wasn’t the name-tag you wanted to adorn in the ‘80s.
So today is the big day, that’s right I’m 30. This is a big day for me as it is the deadline of several life goals. A little history, I grew up in Knoxville, went to Ole Miss, and moved to Denver, CO for 3 years, before coming back to my hometown to start my business with my father. I stumbled upon a few Knoxville blessings in my 30 years, below are 100 blessings of a 30 year old Knoxville Native, in no order. I could list more, but tried to keep it fun, not too sappy, and true to what we discuss on Knoxify.