Butler is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Johnson County in the northeastern corner of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. It is located along the northern shore of

Watauga Lake Watauga Lake, located east of Elizabethton, Tennessee, is the local name of the Watauga Reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) with the 1948 completion of the TVA Watauga Dam. According to lake expert Holly C Ward, Watauga La ...

. Butler is served by a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, assigned ZIP Code 37640.

Demographics

Butler first appeared in the 1910 U.S. census as a town of nearly 500 people. It would not appear in the 1950 census following the inundation of the town by the

in 1948. The community would later be made a CDP in the 2020 census, with a recording of 297 people.

History

The town was originally located on

Roan Creek Roan Creek is a tributary of the Watauga River that rises near the border between the U.S. states of Tennessee and North Carolina. Its source is located along the slopes of Snake Mountain near Trade in Johnson County, Tennessee. From its source ...

Places of Johnson County TN
, Johnson County TNGenWeb at its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the

Watauga River The Watauga River () is a large stream of western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It is long with its headwaters in Linville Gap to the South Fork Holston River at Boone Lake. Course The Watauga River rises from a spring located south to ...

. Settlement began in 1768. For many years the community was called Smith's Mill for the

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

that Ezekial “Zeke” Smith built on the bank of Roan Creek in 1820.Book description
for ''Old Butler (TN) (Images of America)'', by Michael and Lanette Depew, Amazon.com After the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, it was renamed in honor of Colonel Roderick R. Butler of Johnson County, who then represented the area in the

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

and had been a commander in the 13th Tennessee Cavalry in the Union Army.Butler, Tennessee: Colonel Roderick Random Butler's Namesake
WataugaLakeMagazine.com, September 2007 Aenon Seminary, a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, was established in Butler in 1871. It later became Holly Spring College, offering education up to a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, and enrolling as many as 200 students.Herman Tester (2006
Butler: Old, New and Carderview
In 1906 it was purchased by the Watauga Baptist Association, which renamed it Watauga Academy. It operated under that name until 1948, when the town was inundated by the formation of Watauga Lake. Butler was the birthplace of

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

men B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee and Robert R. Butler of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

(grandson of the town's namesake).

Inundation and relocation

The original town of Butler was subject to frequent flooding, experiencing major floods in 1867, 1886, 1901, 1902, 1916, 1924, and 1940. The

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

(TVA) began the construction of the

Watauga Dam Watauga Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part of efforts to control ...

in 1942 which created the Watauga Lake. The construction was delayed because of the ongoing World War II, but was finished in 1948 when the water steadily began rising and the town slowly became submerged under the lake. Butler was the only

incorporated town An incorporated town is a town that is a municipal corporation. Canada Incorporated towns are a form of local government in Canada, which is a responsibility of provincial rather than federal government. United States An incorporated town o ...

inundated by a TVA reservoir.Immersed Remains: Towns Submerged In America
, ''The Lay of the Land'', volume 28, Spring 2005, Center for Land Use Interpretation In 1948, before the reservoir was filled, the town, which at the time had a population of about 600 and included more than 125 homes and 50 businesses, was relocated to higher ground. The relocation project required construction of of roads and highways, three bridges, and of utility lines, as well as relocation of 1,281

grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

s. The town's new site is located on

Tennessee State Route 67 State Route 67 (SR 67) is a state-maintained highway in northeastern Tennessee, including a four-lane divided highway segments in both Washington County and Carter County, and part of a significant two-lane segment passing over the Butler Br ...

at . The original town is now known as "Old Butler." Old Butler, called “the town that wouldn’t drown,” is commemorated in a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

in Butler and by "Old Butler Days" which is an annual festival held each year in August right in the heart of the town. In 1983, a drawdown of the lake exposed the remains of Old Butler for a brief time, allowing former residents to visit the site.Butler Project Collection 1983-84

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. It was historically part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee under the Tennessee Board of Regents, but since 2016, ...

Archives of Appalachia

References

External links

Butler MuseumButler Project Collection Archives of Appalachia https://archives.etsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/29
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Johnson County, Tennessee Former municipalities in Tennessee Submerged places in the United States 1768 establishments in the British Empire Populated places inundated by the Tennessee Valley Authority

Demographics

History

Inundation and relocation

References

Further reading

External links