Local History Posts
Thank You for Your Service: A Salute to Knoxville’s Veterans
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,[…] Read More »
Dempster-Dumpster: From Knoxville to the Panama Canal
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;[…] Read More »
Giveaway: 2 More Twestival Tickets, Knoxville Highway Trivia
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[…] Read More »
Giveaway: 2 Twestival Ticket’s if You Know Your Knoxville History
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[…] Read More »
Kid Curry Takes On the Knoxville Police Department, Part 2
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[…] Read More »
Kid Curry Takes On the Knoxville Police Department, Part 1
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.
How Knoxvillians Used to Cross the Tennessee River
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[…] Read More »
Birthplace of McDonald’s Apple Pie: Magnolia Avenue
“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.
20 Images of the 1982 World’s Fair and Some White-collar Crime
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[…] Read More »
100 Knoxville Blessings
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[…] Read More »
