Mountain City

The county seat of Johnson County and located near Knoxville, the small Tennessee town of Mountain City is often said to be the birthplace of country music thanks to the 1925 Fiddlers Convention that was a milestone in the development of Appalachian traditional music. This event is reenacted every year with a similar event at the nearby Laurel Bloomery making the area a must for those wishing to explore the musical culture of the region. The area’s natural attractions are also a major draw with the Cherokee National Forest and Great Smoky Mountains National Park both within range. The latter, with over 800 miles of hiking and biking trails and the largest old-growth woodlands in the eastern US, allows access to some of the most epic scenery in the whole Blue Ridge, and contains fauna ranging from bald eagles to salamanders.