Thorn Hill is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in rural northeastern Grainger County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It is part of the Morristown

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

which consists of Grainger, Hamblen, and

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

counties.

History

In 1901 in Thorn Hill, a four-year conflict between two families, known locally as "The Battle of Thorn Hill," began following the murder of a prominent resident. The feud fueled acts of violence such as assassinations of prominent citizens and racially-motivated murders against

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

in public places and businesses. In 1976, construction on the widening of US 25E into a four-lane

limited-access highway A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

from Thorn Hill across Clinch Mountain to Bean Station would begin, and it would complete construction in 1980. During the project,

Tennessee Department of Transportation The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is a multimodal agency with statewide responsibilities in roadways, aviation, public transit, waterways, and railroads. The mission of TDOT is to provide a safe and reliable transportation syste ...

officials faced multiple landslides impeding the project's process.

Geography

Thorn Hill is located in the central northeastern corner of Grainger County. It is situated adjacent to the intersection of U.S. Route 25E, and

Tennessee State Route 131 State Route 131 (SR 131) is a south-to-north highway in the U.S. state of Tennessee that is long. It is designated as a secondary route. Local names for the roads followed by portions of the route are Lovell Road, Ball Camp-Byington Road, Beaver ...

Clinch Mountain Clinch Mountain is a mountain ridge in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Virginia, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains. From its southern terminus at Kitts Point, which lies at the intersection of Knox, Union and G ...

and adjacent ridges in the

Clinch River The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Ki ...

Valley rise prominently to the south and north of Thorn Hill respectively.

Economy

From the early 1940s to the late 2000s, Thorn Hill was the location of the Imperial Black Marble Quarry, which mined

Tennessee marble Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been ...

. The black marble extracted from the mine was used in the

Tennessee State Capitol The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tenne ...

, Knox County Courthouse,

National Archives Building The National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, is the headquarters of the United States National Archives and Records Administration. It is located north of the National Mall at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.), Penns ...

, and the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...

. In 2007, the mine was purchased by the Tennessee Marble Company, with no immediate plans to reopen the facility. Thorn Hill is the also the site of the Clinch Valley Zinc Deposit, which is part of the larger Copper Ridge Zinc Mining District. The zinc deposit was first reported to be discovered around 1950 and

mining operations Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

began in 1977.

Education

Thorn Hill does not have a school located in the community. Students must attend school at either Washburn School (K-12), Bean Station Elementary School (K-6), Rutledge Middle School (7-8), or

Grainger High School Grainger High School (GHS) is a public high school in Rutledge, Tennessee, United States. It was established in 2008 and is part of the Grainger County Schools district. The school serves the communities of Rutledge, Bean Station, Blaine, and ...

(9-12), all of which are a part of the Grainger County Schools district serviced by the Grainger County Board of Education.

References

Unincorporated communities in Grainger County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee Mining communities in Tennessee {{GraingerCountyTN-geo-stub