Fifty hand-picked married men with at least one child Tennessee Eastman employees worked feverishly to develop the world’s most powerful explosive – RDX. The result was the large-scale production at Holston Defense (see The Secret History of RDX Colin F. Baxter, University Press of Kentucky 2018)
There is also a detailed history of this plant and the other plant at Horse Creek
:
This is on Long Island.
Top left: Wolf Clan Central: Cherokee Seal Top right: Blue Clan
Left: Deer Clan
The central plaque:
(an arrow indicating north then a silhouette of Long Island)
Long Island of the Holston
Sacred Cherokee Ground
Relinquished by Treaty on Jan. 7, 1806.
3.6 acres returned to the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians by the
City of Kingsport on July 16, 1976
Richard Bevington. John A. Crowe
Mayor Principal Chief
Central Right: Bird Clan
Lower right: Paint Clan Central: Wild Potato Clan Right: Long Hair Clan
Wright’s Country Cuisine existed in Kingsport from around 1984 to the turn of the century. The owner, Calvin Wright, then moved to Knoxville. He passed in October, 2020.
This is from a 1946 telephone book. Note you can get war training here, plus fountain and lunch room service.
This is from a pamphlet for the Dobyns-Bennett Band. Check out the imports: Vauxhall (it’s misspelled), Opel, Renault (which we pronounced re-nalt, not re-no). Pretty good for ’64!
Brooks Circle? Yes, there was a Pal’s there and the Pot O’ Gold, owned, I believe, by Oakwood Market. There was an Upper Circle, too. It had, among other things, the Garb…er, Garden Basket store.
My buddy, He Who Finds Stuff Where I’ve Already Looked, dug this deck of cards up at an estate sale. The box is pretty worn and the cards have been played a lot, but it’s still in fairly good shape. Judging from the Joker design, the deck was made by Cartamundi, which had a presence in Kingsport from 1996 to 2007.
Four books and a pamphlet about Kingsport: (l to r) Kingsport: A Romance of Industry, by Howard Long. 1928 (Sevier Press); the Rotary Club 1937 green book of Kingsport with forward by J. Fred Johnson; the Rotary Club 1946 blue book of Kingsport with forward by C.P. Edwards, Jr.; the Rotary Club 1951 beige book of Kingsport with forward by William F. Freehoff, Jr.; and The Early Years on Bays Mountain, by Muriel Millar Clark Spoden. 1975 (privately printed). Except for the pamphlet on Bays Mountain history, these books are quite similar, most taking their lead from the Long book.
In my opinion, the best book about modern Kingsport’s history is Margaret Ripley Wolfe’s “Kingsport Tennessee A Planned American City” (1987, University of Kentucky Press), which I’ve commented on before.
Having never been particularly naughty on the water, I was surprised to learn that there is, indeed, a doughty police force on the lakes. Check ’em out
A cap and a pin from a yard sale (actually an estate sale, but these were out in the yard).
Cherokee Rod & Gun Club is very much alive to this date; I used to hear them banging away as I hiked up at Bays Mountain Park. The pin is 3/4″ enamel on a pin clasp.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 