Model was 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 Stewart County, Tennessee, United States. The community is one of several communities and towns in the general area that has become a part of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

History

The settlement was originally known as Pryor's Creek at its founding in the early half of the 19th century. A post office was established as Bass in July 1846, named after the area's first postmaster, Jethro Bass. It was renamed Great Western in 1854 after a furnace that was established that year, only to be fallen victim of the shut down of the furnace industry in the area due to a panic related to slave insurrection in late 1856. In the 1860s after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, the Cincinnati Copperage Company established the area as a real estate operation, or "model town," which is how the community got its final name in 1887. People who came to work for the furnaces in the area relocated to the area, many of whom became farmers, blacksmiths, or timber workers. The depletion of timber, along with the farming becoming less productive, has cause the town to lose population throughout much of the 1930s and 1940s, until 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 ...

acquired all the properties around the community to create the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in 1963. While most of the families in the areas relocated to other communities by 1964, one resident, Cleo Griffin, who served in the military during the

second world war World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and fought in the

Battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, was a series of four military assaults by the Allies of World War II, Allies against Nazi Germany, German forces in Kingdom of Italy, Italy during the Italian Campaign (World War ...

in 1944, was permitted to continue to live in his family home after countless negotiations. The Griffin house continued to be occupied until 1989, when he finally relocated to a nearby nursing home, where he remained until his 2000 death; his home is currently under preservation efforts. It and the Great Western Furnace were the only remaining landmarks still standing today.

Geography

Model was located at the coordinates 36.641754, −87.976829, which is about northwest of

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

along the Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway, known simply as The Trace. It was originally signed as

Tennessee State Route 49 State Route 49 (SR 49) is a state highway in Tennessee. The route forms a broad southern arc that passes through the rural Middle Tennessee towns of Dover, Erin, Charlotte, Ashland City, Pleasant View, and Springfield. Route description S ...

at the time of the town's existence. The byway connects with Dover to the southeast and the

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

state line about to the north.

Present-day points of interest

Near the original site of Model, there are two attractions operated by the Forest Service as part of the LBL: *1850s Homeplace Living History Farm *South Bison Prairie

References

{{Stewart County, Tennessee Ghost towns in Tennessee Geography of Stewart County, Tennessee 1846 establishments in Tennessee 1963 disestablishments in Tennessee