Sevierville Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains

Today, Sevierville is a vital part of the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. But that hasn't always been the case. The community was established in the late 1700s and named in honor of Revolutionary War hero and eventual Tennessee governor John Sevier. In fact, many veterans of that war were given land grants and set up homesteads near the east and west forks of the Little Pigeon River.

Sevierville thrived for the next 150 years as a small but self-sufficient mountain community, largely unaffected by outside influences, with the exception of times of war. However, with the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1930s, the growth of the tourism industry in Gatlinburg and the arrival of the Interstate system in the 1950s, the rest of the world began to discover Sevierville.

For years, it was little more than a gas stop on the journey from the Interstate to Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, but in recent decades, it has found life as a tourist destination in its own right, thanks to a wealth of attractions, restaurants, shops and unique annual events. Today, however, Sevierville is unique when compared to its neighboring towns. Whereas those communities function almost exclusively as tourist towns, Sevierville still embodies much of the character and charm of the typical small American town. In fact, one of its nicknames is "Your Hometown In The Smokies." That has made Sevierville just as attractive to folks looking to make a permanent home in the area as it is to out-of-town visitors.