Long Island (Tennessee)
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Long Island is an island in the Holston River in eastern Tennessee. Originally held by the Cherokees, the island played an important role in the early history of the region.
There are only a handful of houses on the island now. About half of Long Island now contains a park administered by the City of Kingsport. The other half of the island is the site of a waste treatment plant owned by Tennessee Eastman Chemical Company.
The Long Island of the Holston River, today mostly within the corporate boundaries of Kingsport, was an important site for the Cherokee, colonial pioneers, and early settlers. Early settlements at the site were used as a staging ground for people taking 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 from the surrounding countryside were loaded onto barges for the journey downriver to the Tennessee River at Knoxville. The young town lost its charter after a downturn its in fortunes precipitated by the Civil War. The name "Tennessee" originated from the old Yuchi Indian word, "Tana-see," meaning "The Meeting Place," which refers to The Long Island of the Holston River.
[edit] References and further reading
- Ezzell, Patricia Bernard. "Long Island". Tennessee Encyclopedia online.
- Long, Howard. Kingsport: A Romance of Industry. Overmountain Press (October 1993)
- Moore, J.S. Understanding Apples. Outskirts Press (October 2006)
- Spoden, Muriel M.C. Kingsport Heritage: The Early Years, 1700 to 1900. Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press, 1991
- Spoden, Muriel Millar Clark . The Long Island of the Holston: Sacred island of the Cherokee nation
- Williams, "Fort Robinson on the Holston," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, no.4 (1932)
- Williams, Samuel C. Dawn of Tennessee Valley and Tennessee History (Johnson City, 1937)
- Williams, Tennessee During the Revolutionary War (Nashville, 1944)
- Wolfe, Margaret Ripley. Kingsport Tennessee: A Planned American City. University Press of Kentucky (November 1987)
