Townsend, Tennessee
| Townsend, Tennessee | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Townsend at sunrise
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| Motto: Gateway to Cades Cove | |
 Location of Townsend, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates: 35°40′32″N 83°45′18″W / 35.67556°N 83.75500°WCoordinates: 35°40′32″N 83°45′18″W / 35.67556°N 83.75500°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Tennessee |
| County | Blount |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Incorporated | 1921 |
| Named for | Wilson B. Townsend |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.2 sq mi (5.6 km2) |
| • Land | 2.2 sq mi (5.6 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 1,070 ft (326 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 448 |
| • Density | 207/sq mi (79.9/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 37882 |
| Area code(s) | 865 |
| FIPS code | 47-74860 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1272813 |
| Website | www |
Townsend is a city in Blount County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The population was 244 at the 2000 census and 448 at the 2010 census. For thousands of years a site of Native American occupation by varying cultures, Townsend is one of three "gateways" to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It has several museums and attractions relating to the natural and human history of the Great Smokies.
Identifying as "The Peaceful Side of the Smokies," Townsend has the least traffic of the three main entrances to the national park. The park's other two entrances— one just south of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the other just north of Cherokee, North Carolina— are home to multiple commercial attractions that draw millions of tourists annually. Townsend is low-key, with a handful of inexpensive restaurants and motels and several businesses geared toward outdoor sports, and a world-renowned horse show.
Native Americans were the first inhabitants of Tuckaleechee Cove on the Little River; the oldest archaeological finds in the cove date to 2000 B.C. A number of pottery fragments and ax heads dating to the Woodland period have also been found. By 1200 A.D., Tuckaleechee's Native American inhabitants had built a fortified village near the cove's northern entrance.
The Cherokee arrived in the area around 1600, and built a series of small villages along Little River. The name "Tuckaleechee" is from the Cherokee Tikwalitsi, and its original meaning is unknown. A branch of the Great Indian Warpath forked at this site, with one branch heading west to the Overhill towns along the Little Tennessee River and another heading south to North Carolina. 19th-century anthropologist James Mooney recounted an attempted raid on the Cherokee villages in Tuckaleechee by the Shawano (Shawnee) in the mid-18th century. The raid was thwarted when a Cherokee conjurer named Deadwood Lighter envisioned the position of the Shawano ambush. The Cherokee surprised the raiders from the rear, killing many of them and chasing the rest back over the crest of the Smokies.
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