was an important
stagecoach stop for travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kingsport was developed after the
Revolutionary War, at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Holston River. In 1787 it was known as "Salt Lick" for an ancient
mineral lick. It was first settled along the banks of the South Fork, about a mile from the
confluence. The
Long Island of the Holston River is near the confluence, which is mostly within the present-day corporate boundaries of Kingsport. The island was an important site for the
Cherokee, colonial pioneers and early settlers, and specifically mentioned in the 1770
Treaty of Lochaber. Early settlements at the site were used as a staging ground for other pioneers who were traveling overland on the
Wilderness Road leading to
Kentucky through the
Cumberland Gap. First chartered in 1822, Kingsport became an important shipping port on the Holston River. Goods originating for many miles around from the surrounding countryside were loaded onto barges for the journey downriver to the
Tennessee River at
Knoxville. In the Battle of Kingsport (December 13, 1864) during the
Civil War, a force of 300
Confederates under Colonel Richard Morgan stopped a larger
Union force for nearly two days. An army of over 5,500 troops under command of Major General
George Stoneman had left Knoxville to raid Confederate targets in Virginia: the salt works at
Saltville, the lead works at
Wytheville, and the iron works in
Marion. While Col. Morgan's small band held off a main Union force under Major General Cullem Gillem on the opposite side the Holston River, Union Col. Samuel Patton took a force of cavalry to a ford in the river north and came down behind the Confederates. Out-numbered, out-flanked, and demoralized by the bitter winter weather, Col. Morgan surrendered. The Confederates suffered 18 dead, and 84
prisoners of war were sent to a Union prison in Knoxville. The city lost its charter after a downturn in its fortunes precipitated by the Civil War. On September 12, 1916, Kingsport residents demanded the death of circus elephant
Mary (an
Asian elephant that performed in the Sparks World-famous Shows Circus). She had killed city hotel worker Walter Eldridge, who was hired by the circus the day before as an assistant elephant trainer. Eldridge was attacked and killed by the elephant while he was leading her to a pond. The elephant was impounded by the local sheriff. Leaders of several nearby towns threatened to prevent the circus from performing if it included the elephant. The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, reluctantly decided that the only way to quickly resolve the situation was to hold a public execution. On the following day, she was transported by rail to
Erwin, Tennessee, where a crowd of over 2,500 people assembled in the
Clinchfield Railroad yard to watch her hang from a railroad crane. Re-chartered in 1917, Kingsport was an early example of a "garden city". Part of it was designed by city planner and landscape architect
John Nolen of
Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was nicknamed as the
"Model City" from this plan, which organized the town into areas for commerce, churches, housing and industry. Most of the land on the river was devoted to industry. Most of the Long Island is now occupied by
Eastman Chemical Company, which is headquartered in Kingsport. As part of this plan, Kingsport built some of the earliest
traffic circles (roundabouts) in the United States. Into the 1950s, two important
public works projects were constructed: the
Boone Dam and the
Fort Patrick Henry Dam,
hydroelectric dams built along the
South Fork Holston River. Kingsport was among the first municipalities to adopt a
city manager form of government, to professionalize operations of city departments. It developed its school system based on a model promoted by
Columbia University.
Pal's Sudden Service, a regional fast-food restaurant chain, opened its first location in 1956 and is headquartered in Kingsport. In 2001,
Pal's Sudden Service, won the
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, becoming the first restaurant company to receive the award. ==Geography==