Editing Sparta, Tennessee (section)

== History ==

Sparta was established in 1809 as a county seat for White County, which had been created in 1806. The city was named after the ancient Greek city-state [[Sparta]].<ref name=williams>Coral Williams, "[http://www.danielhaston.com/history/tn-history/white-county/legends-whiteco1.htm Legends and Stories of White County, Tennessee]."  Transcribed for web content by Dona Terry, 2002. Retrieved: January 6, 2008.</ref>  
[[Image:Sparta-tennessee-rockhouse2.jpg|thumb|left|The Sparta Rock House]]

Sparta nearly became the capital of the state of Tennessee, as, early in the history of Tennessee, the state legislature voted to choose a location for the permanent state capital. The final vote resulted in a near tie between Sparta and [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]. Sparta lost to Nashville by one vote.<ref name=williams />

Sparta grew quickly due to its location along the stage road between [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]] and Nashville. In the 1830s, brothers Barlow and Madison Fisk built the [[Sparta Rock House]], which served as an inn along the stage road. The Rock House, strategically situated in an area where the Cumberland Plateau gives way to the Calfkiller valley, was a common stopover for figures important to the early history of the state, including [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Sam Houston]].<ref>Tennessee Historical Commission marker 2D 35 on US-70 in Sparta, Tennessee. Information obtained: January 5, 2008.</ref> The building is now a state historic site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sparta is notable as a place where two renowned airmen lost their lives. [[Hawthorne C. Gray]], an aviation record holder, died in a balloon-basket mishap over Sparta in 1927, and [[Lansing Colton Holden Jr.]], a World War I flying ace, crashed his plane near Sparta in 1938.

Teenagers [[Disappearance of Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel|Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel]] went missing in Sparta in 2000, and were not discovered until February 2022 when scuba diver [[Jeremy Sides]] found Foster's vehicle in the [[Calfkiller River]].<ref name=":0">Peiser, Jaclyn. "Two teens went missing 21 years ago. A scuba-diving YouTuber solved the cold case." ''Washington Post'', December 10, 2021, p. NA. ''Gale General OneFile'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686196232/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e66d95f2. Accessed July 21, 2022.</ref>