Hometown Tennessee lore: Fun Facts About Knoxville
Think you really know Knoxville? It's a city with a giant golden orb that could blind low-flying aircraft, fried green tomatoes that you'll have to taste twice, and moonshine distilleries that are 100% legal now, y'all. Let's run through the facts, stats, and Vol-level obsessions that showcase what makes K-Town's orange-blooded heart tick.
Mike, Our Local Expert Guiding Your Move
Michael is a Tennessee native who has lived, worked, or worn out tires in all three divisions of the state, from Memphis to Nashville to Johnson City, plus plenty of small towns that never make postcards. He once moved from the far northeast corner of Tennessee to the far southwest for college, stayed twenty years, then somehow boomeranged right back to Appalachia. He knows the difference between mountain quiet and river loud, will defend Memphis BBQ like its a birthright, and can point you to everything from out of the way eateries to where locals actually hunt. We are not all barefoot moonshiners, but yes, some of us know where the real stuff is. At Snappy Scout Michael uses that deep statewide mileage to refine Tennessee moving guides so they're as real as a proper BBQ smoke ring, not some oven baked liquid smoke waste of calories.
Read moreWritten with local insight from Snappy Scout relocation experts
What Makes Knoxville Knoxville?
The weird, useful, and surprisingly relevant facts that shape everyday life here.
Common nicknames for Knoxville
Marble City, Scruffy City, K-Town, 865, Knox-Vegas, Queen City of the Mountains, and The Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.
Local Reality Check
People think it's all UT football. There's actually craft beer, great coffee, specialty restaurants, and plenty of artists between games.
You're most likely moving from
Atlanta (escaping traffic) or somewhere up North (chasing lower taxes).
Strangely large concentration of
Breweries per capita and people who own both hiking boots <strong>and</strong> orange blazers.
Music scene
Bluegrass roots with a growing indie scene, plus the Big Ears experimental festival.
You'll have to see it to believe it
The Sunsphere, a 1982 World's Fair relic that's basically a giant gold disco ball, and Neyland Stadium on UT campus, the 6th largest collge football stadium by capacity in the United States (largest crowd was 109,061 in 2004).
Unique Geography
Wedged between the Smokies and Cumberland Plateau where three rivers meet downtown.
Knoxville is home to
University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (where the atomic bomb was born).
Well known for its
Fanatical orange-clad football culture and being the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.
Fun history fact
Knoxville was Tennessee's first capital and hosted the 1982 World's Fair, with the theme, 'Energy Turns the World.'
Celebrity sightings
Quentin Tarantino, Peyton Manning, Dolly Parton, Cormac McCarthy, and of course, country music star Kenny Chesney.
Noteworthy Census stat
Median age is 33, younger than you'd expect for a Southern college town.
Most interesting sub-culture within Knoxville
Oak Ridge nuclear scientists who moonlight as Appalachian Trail weekend warriors.
Population
3rd largest city in TN and in the top 150 nationwide.
Knoxville is roughly the same geographic size as
Spokane, Washington.
A Local Event Worth Experiencing Once
I grew up going to Tennessee football games in Knoxville, and my favorite pastime was always the "Salute to the Hill" by UT's Pride of the Southland Marching Band. The band parades through campus, stopping below the large pedestrian bridge that crosses over Phillip Fulmer Way to begin their salute to the highest and oldest point of UT’s campus and home to the University’s signature building, Ayres Hall. Out of respect for this “hallowed hill in Tennessee,” the band faces the hill and plays UT fans' favorite fight songs before entering the stadium. It is college football tradition at its finest.
— Mike Stover
Tennessee Local Expert
Ready to See If Knoxville Fits You?
Compare cities, check the routes, or head back to the full Knoxville guide for the bigger picture.