Editing Grainger County, Tennessee (section)

==History==
[[File:East Tennessee Crossing - The Lakes of the Crossing from Clinch Mountain - NARA - 7718101.jpg|thumb|View of [[Cherokee Lake]] from Bean's Gap atop [[Clinch Mountain]], the site of which longhunters would cross along the [[Wilderness Road]] into present-day Grainger County.<ref name="family"/>]]

===Early years===
In 1775, pioneers [[Daniel Boone]] and [[William Bean]] had first observed the [[Holston River]] valley in Grainger County after crossing the gap at [[Clinch Mountain]] during a [[longhunter|long hunting]] excursion.<ref name="family">{{cite web |last1=Coffey |first1=Ken |title=The First Family of Tennessee |url=http://graingertnhistory.com/story_2/#more-5 |website=Grainger County Historic Society |publisher=Thomas Daugherty |access-date=August 20, 2020 |date=October 19, 2012 |archive-date=August 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811133037/http://graingertnhistory.com/story_2/#more-5 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After fighting in the [[American Revolutionary War]] one year later, Bean was awarded {{convert|3000|acre|km2}} in the area he previously surveyed for settlement during his excursion with Boone.<ref name="family"/> Bean would later construct a four-room cabin at this site, which served as his family's home, and as an inn for prospective settlers, [[fur trade]]rs, and longhunters.<ref name="barksdale">{{cite book |last1=Barksdale |first1=Kevin |title=The Lost State of Franklin: America's First Secession |date=July 11, 2014 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813150093 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJUfBgAAQBAJ&dq=Bean+Station&pg=PA19 |access-date=December 3, 2020 |language=en |format=E-book}}</ref>

Grainger County would be established into a county from [[Knox County, Tennessee|Knox]] and [[Hawkins County, Tennessee|Hawkins]] counties by the [[North Carolina]] state legislature on April 22, 1796,<ref name="soil-nrcs"/> the year Tennessee became the sixteenth state of the United States.<ref name="tehc">Kevin Collins, "[http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=565 Grainger County]," ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''. Retrieved: October 20, 2013</ref>  It is named for Mary Grainger Blount,<ref name="origin">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n140 141]}}</ref> the wife of [[William Blount]], making it the only county in Tennessee named for a woman.<ref name="origin"/>  In 1801, [[Rutledge, Tennessee|Rutledge]] was selected as the county seat.<ref name="soil-nrcs"/>  Anderson, Claiborne, Campbell, Hamblen, Hancock, Scott and Union counties were formed from portions of the original Grainger County following its reduction in land size between 1801 and 1870.<ref name="archivespage">{{Cite web|url=http://www.graingerarchives.org|title=Grainger County Archives|website=www.graingerarchives.org|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref>

===Civil War===
Like its surrounding East Tennessee counties, Grainger County was generally opposed to secession from the Union. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, sparsely populated Grainger County voters rejected secession by 1,756 to 495.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, [https://archive.org/details/easttennesseean00tempgoog/page/n227 <!-- pg=199 quote="The detailed vote of the several counties was as follows". --> East Tennessee and the Civil War] (R. Clarke Company, 1899), p. 199.</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], a state of near-[[guerrilla warfare]] brought economic, political, and social chaos to Grainger County, notably during the [[Knoxville campaign]]. Two arguments occurred within the county during the Civil War, with the first as a skirmish in Blaine around Christmas of 1862. In the year ahead, the [[Battle of Bean's Station]] pitted the forces of [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] General [[James Longstreet]] against a [[Union Army|Union forces]] under General [[James M. Shackelford|James Shackelford]] in a planned [[Military deception|surprise attack]] that failed for Confederate forces through the critically poor decision-making of Longstreet's staff.<ref name="Collins">{{Cite web|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/grainger-county/|title=Grainger County|last=Collins|first=Kevin|date=October 8, 2017|website=TennesseeEncyclopedia.net|publisher=Tennessee Historical Society|access-date=March 13, 2020}}</ref> While the Battle of Bean's Station proved victorious for Longstreet in the end, he later failed to capture Knoxville westward through Blaine, and went into hiding in [[Russellville, Tennessee|Russellville]] in nearby [[Hamblen County, Tennessee|Hamblen County]].<ref name="hartley">{{cite book |last1=Hartley |first1=William |editor1-last=Heidler |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Heidler |editor2-first=Jeanne |title=Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History |date=2002 |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=9780393047585 |chapter=Knoxville Campaign}}</ref>

===1900s to present day===
In the post-Civil War era, a businessman named Samuel Tate constructed a large [[Victorian architecture|Victorian-style]] luxury hotel just west of Bean Station that became the main focus of a resort known as [[Tate Springs]]. Around the late 1870s, the hotel was purchased by Captain Thomas Tomlinson, who would transform the property into a vast resort that advertised the supposed healing powers of its [[mineral spring]]’s water.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Phillips|first1=Bud|date=July 18, 2010|title=Tate Springs was once a popular health resort|work=Bristol Herald Courier|url=https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/tate-springs-was-once-a-popular-health-resort/article_ec32f446-f7aa-51bd-b932-c94a101fc6ca.html|access-date=July 2, 2020}}</ref> During its heyday, the resort complex included over three-dozen buildings, a {{convert|100|acre|ha|adj=on}} park, and an 18-hole golf course.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spring Histories |url=https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/tnresorts/spring_histories.htm |website=Tennessee State Library and Archives |access-date=July 2, 2020}}</ref> The resort had attracted some of the wealthiest people in America during this time. The resort declined during the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], and the hotel and most of its outbuildings have since been demolished after a major fire damaged the main hotel structure. The [[Tate Springs Springhouse]] still stands just off U.S. Route 11W near Bean Station Elementary School.

In 1901, in the northern area of the county near Thorn Hill, a four-year conflict between two families, known locally as "The Battle of Thorn Hill," began following the murder of a prominent resident.<ref name="thornhillbattle">{{cite web |title="The Battle of Thorn Hill" |url=https://grainger.tngenealogy.net/the-battle-of-thorn-hill |website=Grainger County Genealogy & History |date=May 12, 2011 |publisher=TNGenWeb Project |access-date=December 14, 2020}}</ref> The feud fueled acts of violence such as assassinations of prominent citizens and racially-motivated murders against [[African Americans]] in public places and businesses.<ref name="thornhillbattle"/>

During the early and mid 20th century, [[moonshining]] became popular and spread throughout many communities in the county.<ref name="chamberhistory">{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.graingerchamber.com/pages/history.html |website=Grainger County Chamber of Commerce |access-date=December 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060204224145/http://www.graingerchamber.com/pages/history.html |archive-date=February 4, 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

After the creation of the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] in the 1930s, many Grainger County residents had to be [[Population transfer|relocated]] for the construction of both [[Cherokee Dam|Cherokee]] and [[Norris Dam|Norris]] Dam in the southern and northern parts of the county. Bean Station experienced most of this loss, as the original site the town now resides in the [[Cherokee Lake]] basin.<ref name="Collins"/> Of the 875 families relocated for the Cherokee Project, 434 or 49.6% were from Grainger County.<ref name="Tennessee Valley Authority 1946 32 249">{{Cite book|last=Tennessee Valley Authority|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlbVAAAAMAAJ|title=The Cherokee Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Cherokee Project|publisher=United States Government Printing Office|year=1946|location=Washington D.C.|pages=32, 249|via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Thornhillstore.jpg|thumb|General store in [[Thorn Hill, Tennessee|Thorn Hill]] circa 1940s]]

In 1946, Grainger County suffered the loss of its third courthouse in Rutledge to a massive fire. However, most records, including those dating back to the county's establishment in 1796 were safe inside steel fireproof safes.<ref name="courtfire">{{cite web |title=Grainger Court House Burns, Old Records Believed Safe |url=https://grainger.tngenealogy.net/grainger-county-courthouse-fire-in-1946 |website=Grainger County Genealogy & History |publisher=[[Knoxville News Sentinel]] |access-date=December 14, 2020 |date=January 17, 1946 }}</ref>

In the 1970s through the 1980s, plans for a 75-mile-long hiking trail system known as the Trail of the Lonesome Pine were proposed to run along the ridgeline of Clinch Mountain from the Tennessee-Virginia state line in Hancock County to its terminus in the city of Blaine in Grainger County. The plans were met with [[NIMBY|extreme opposition from unwilling property owners]], particularly those from Grainger County, as the project would be nearly complete in the Hawkins and Hancock portions of the trail system. With the unwillingness from Grainger County property owners, the trail system would be abandoned all-together in 1981 despite the completion of construction outside of Grainger County.<ref name="brooks">{{cite news |last1=Brooks |first1=David |title=Opposition may doom Clinch Mountain trail |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77576906/opposition-may-doom-clinch-mountain/ |access-date=May 12, 2021 |work=[[Kingsport Times-News]] |via=Newspapers.com |date=September 30, 1984}}</ref>

On May 13, 1972, 14 people were killed in a [[1972 Bean Station, Tennessee bus crash|head-on collision]] between a [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound]] double-decker bus and a tractor-trailer hauling carpet on [[U.S. Route 11W]] in the Bean Station area of the county, making it the deadliest automobile accident of its time in Tennessee. This infamous crash, along with several other fatal crashes along the narrow two-lane stretch of U.S. Route 11W in Grainger County, gave it the nickname "Bloody Highway 11W."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lakin|first=Matt|url=http://archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/blood-on-the-asphalt-11w-wreck-left-14-people-dead-ep-360225916-356724551.html/|title=Blood on the asphalt: 11W wreck left 14 people dead|date=August 26, 2012|work=Knoxville News Sentinel|access-date=October 21, 2017}}</ref>

On July 4, 2012, Grainger County received national attention when 10-year-old Noah Winstead and his friend, 11-year old Nate Lynam, were [[Electrocution|electrocuted]] due to frayed wiring being in contact with the water the boys were swimming near a [[Cherokee Lake]] marina in the German Creek area of the county.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lakin|first=Matt|date=July 5, 2012|title=Frayed wiring scrutinized in fatal electrocution at Grainger County marina|work=[[Knoxville News Sentinel]]|url=http://archive.knoxnews.com/news/state/frayed-wiring-scrutinized-in-fatal-electrocution-at-grainger-county-marina-ep-360433072-356877431.html/|access-date=July 31, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Schriffen|first=John|date=July 5, 2012|title=Fourth Child Dies After Missouri, Tennessee Lake Electrocutions|work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/fourth-child-dies-missouri-tennessee-lake-electrocutions/story?id=16714407|access-date=July 30, 2020}}</ref> In the aftermath of the tragedy, Tennessee legislators passed the Noah and Nate Act, which required marinas to be routinely inspected safety hazards such as faulty wiring and dangerous equipment operations.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Todd|first=Jen|date=March 9, 2015|title=Noah Dean and Nate Act elevates marina safety|work=[[The Tennessean]]|url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2015/03/09/noah-dean-nate-act-elevates-marina-safety/24662665/|access-date=July 30, 2020}}</ref>

On [[2018 Southeastern Provisions raid|April 5, 2018]], Southeastern Provisions, a cattle slaughterhouse in the county,<ref name="knoxnewsiceraidsgraingercountrymeatpackingplant">{{cite news|last1=Dorman|first1=Travis|last2=Satterfield|first2=Jamie|title=ICE raids Grainger County meatpacking plant amid charges owners avoided $2.5M in payroll taxes|url=https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/04/05/ice-raids-meatpacking-plant-grainger-county/490673002/|access-date=April 7, 2018|work=Knox News|date=April 5, 2018}}</ref><ref name="abcnewsimmigrationraid">{{cite news|last1=Burke|first1=Sheila|title=Immigration raid takes 97 into custody at Tennessee plant|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/immigration-raid-takes-97-custody-tennessee-plant-54296421|access-date=April 7, 2018|work=ABC News|date=April 6, 2018}}</ref> was raided by [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]] (ICE); 11 workers were arrested and 86 more were detained, all of whom were suspected of [[Illegal immigration to the United States|residing in the United States unlawfully]].<ref name="knoxnewsiceraidsgraingercountrymeatpackingplant"/> At the time, the raid was reportedly the largest workplace raid in United States history.<ref name="abcnewsimmigrationraid"/> In September 2018, the owner of the meatpacking facility was found guilty of multiple state and federal crimes, including [[tax evasion]], [[wire fraud]], contamination of local water supply, employing undocumented immigrants not authorized to work in the US, and other numerous workplace violations.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lakin|first=Matt|date=September 12, 2018|title=Bean Station ICE raid: Slaughterhouse owner pleads guilty to hiring undocumented workers|url=https://amp.knoxnews.com/amp/12600450020th|work=Knoxville News-Sentinel|location=Knoxville, Tennessee|access-date=July 28, 2019}}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/2018-grainger-county-ice-raid-subject-of-netflix-documentary/|title=2018 Grainger County ICE raid subject of Netflix documentary|date=December 19, 2019|website=WATE 6 On Your Side|language=en-US|access-date=December 22, 2019}}</ref>