Editing Blount County, Tennessee (section)

==History==
What is today Blount County was for many thousands of years Indian territory, passed down to the [[Cherokee]] tribe that claimed the land upon the arrival of White settlers in the late 18th century. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1795, Blount County became the 10th county established in Tennessee, when the Territorial Legislature voted to split adjacent [[Knox County, Tennessee|Knox]] and [[Jefferson County, Tennessee|Jefferson]] Counties. The new county was named for the governor of the [[Southwest Territory]], [[William Blount]], and its county seat, [[Maryville, Tennessee|Maryville]], was named for his wife Mary Grainger Blount. This establishment, however, did little to settle the differences between White immigrants and Cherokee natives, which was, for the most part, not accomplished until an 1819 treaty.<ref name="About Blount County">[http://www.blounttn.org/about.htm About Blount County] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616061056/http://www.blounttn.org/about.htm |date=June 16, 2006 }} Blount County official website</ref>

Like a majority of East Tennessee counties, Blount County was opposed to secession on the eve of the Civil War. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Blount Countians voted against secession by a margin of 1,766 to 414.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, [https://books.google.com/books?id=g8xYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22The+detailed+vote+of+the+several+counties+was+as+follows%22&pg=PA199 East Tennessee and the Civil War] (R. Clarke Company, 1899), p. 199.</ref>  Residents of pro-Union Cades Cove and pro-Confederate [[Hazel Creek (Great Smoky Mountains)|Hazel Creek]] (on the other side of the mountains in North Carolina) regularly launched raids against one another during the war.<ref>Durwood Dunn, ''Cades Cove: The Life and Death of An Appalachian Community'' (University of Tennessee Press, 1988), pp. 134-136.</ref>

Throughout its history, the boundaries of Blount County have been altered numerous times, most notably in 1870, when a large swath of western Blount was split into Loudon and portions of other counties. Also, the establishment of the [[Great Smoky Mountains National Park]] in 1936, while not affecting the legal boundaries of Blount County, has significantly impacted the use of southeastern Blount County.<ref>Lansford, D., and D. Waterworth. "Blount County History," [http://www.tngenweb.org/blount/blouhist.htm TNGenWeb Project]</ref>

Blount County has been served by [[The Daily Times (Blount County, Tennessee)|''The Daily Times'']], currently published in Maryville, since 1883.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thedailytimes.com/site/about.html|title=About Us|website=The Daily Times|language=en|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref>

On July 2, 2015, a [[freight train]] carrying hazardous materials [[2015 Tennessee train derailment|derailed]]. About 5,000 residents were displaced from their homes within a two-mile (three-kilometer) radius.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://gma.yahoo.com/train-hauling-chemicals-catches-fire-tennessee-residents-evacuated-082819002--abc-news-topstories.html|title=Thousands Evacuated After Derailed Train Hauling Chemicals Catches Fire in Tennessee|access-date=March 9, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=July 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703061519/https://gma.yahoo.com/train-hauling-chemicals-catches-fire-tennessee-residents-evacuated-082819002--abc-news-topstories.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-train-derailment-5-000-residents-evacuated-maryville-n385576|title=Tennessee Train Derailment: 5,000 Residents Evacuated From Maryville|work=NBC News|access-date=March 9, 2018|language=en}}</ref><ref name="newsweek.com">{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/5000-evacuated-tennessee-after-train-derailment-releases-toxic-fumes-349375|title=5,000 Evacuated in Tennessee After Train Derailment Releases Toxic Fumes|date=July 2, 2015|work=Newsweek|access-date=March 9, 2018|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/us/tennessee-train-derailment-toxic-chemical-fire/ | work=CNN | title=Quick Links}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/tennessee-train-derailme_n_7711660.html|title=Train Carrying Toxic Substance Derails Near Knoxville, Tennessee; Thousands Evacuated|date=July 2, 2015|work=Huffington Post}}</ref>