Sparta is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of White County,

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 ...

, United States. The population was 5,001 in 2020.U.S. Census website
United States Census Bureau. Accessed: March 14, 2016. The

Calfkiller River The Calfkiller River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 stream in the east-central portion of Middle Tennessee in the United States. It is a tributary of ...

flows through the city. Seven sites in Sparta are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Sparta was established in 1809 as a county seat for White County, which had been created in 1806. The city was named after the ancient Greek city-state

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

.Coral Williams,
Legends and Stories of White County, Tennessee
" Transcribed for web content by Dona Terry, 2002. Retrieved: January 6, 2008. Sparta nearly became the capital of the state of Tennessee, as, early in the history of Tennessee, the state legislature voted to choose a location for the permanent state capital. The final vote resulted in a near tie between Sparta and

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. Sparta lost to Nashville by one vote. Sparta grew quickly due to its location along the stage road between

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

and Nashville. In the 1830s, brothers Barlow and Madison Fisk built the Sparta Rock House, which served as an inn along the stage road. The Rock House, strategically situated in an area where the Cumberland Plateau gives way to the Calfkiller valley, was a common stopover for figures important to the early history of the state, including

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

and

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...

. The building is now a state historic site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sparta is notable as a place where two renowned airmen lost their lives. Hawthorne C. Gray, an aviation record holder, died in a balloon-basket mishap over Sparta in 1927, and Lansing Colton Holden Jr., a World War I flying ace, crashed his plane near Sparta in 1938. Teenagers Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel went missing in Sparta in 2000, and were not discovered until February 2022 when scuba diver

Jeremy Sides Jeremy Beau Sides (born October 2, 1979), aka "Nug" from the YouTube channel Exploring with Nug, is an American scuba diver and civilian crime investigator who investigates missing person cases and missing items. In 2021, he found the bodies of ...

found Foster's vehicle in the

.Peiser, Jaclyn. "Two teens went missing 21 years ago. A scuba-diving YouTuber solved the cold case." ''Washington Post'', December 10, 2021, p. NA. ''Gale General OneFile'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686196232/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e66d95f2. Accessed July 21, 2022.

Geography

Sparta is located at (35.932335, -85.469837), approximately fifteen miles south of Cookeville. The city is situated on the

Highland Rim The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee, North Alabama, and Kentucky which surrounds the Central Basin. The Central Basin is a geological dome which has subsequently fractured and eroded to produce a basin. The Highland R ...

, near the western base of the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...

. The

traverses Sparta north-to-south en route to its confluence with the

Caney Fork The Caney Fork River is a river that flows through central Tennessee in the United States, draining a substantial portion of the southwestern Cumberland Plateau and southeastern Highland Rim regions. It is a major tributary of the Cumberland Rive ...

several miles to the south. Sparta is traditionally concentrated around its courthouse square along

U.S. Route 70 U.S. Route 70 or U.S. Highway 70 (US 70) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from eastern North Carolina to east-central Arizona. It is a major east–west highway of the Southeastern, Southern and Southwestern United States ...

(signed locally as Bockman Way), which connects Sparta with Crossville to the east and Smithville to the west. State Route 111, which traverses the western part of Sparta, connects the city with Cookeville to the north and Spencer to the south. A modern commercial area has developed around the intersection of US 70 and SR 111. State Route 84 winds its away up the Calfkiller Valley, connecting Sparta with

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

atop the Plateau to the northeast.

U.S. Route 70S U.S. Route 70S (US 70S) is an alternative to U.S. Route 70 in Tennessee, U.S. Route 70 between the western part of Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville and Sparta, Tennessee, Sparta in Tennessee. It runs concurrent (road), concurrent with US 70 for s ...

connects Sparta with McMinnville to the southwest. The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport is north of Sparta. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all land.

Climate

Sparta's climate is humid subtropical (''Cfa'') under the

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

system, with mild winters and hot, humid summers. Under the Trewartha system, it is a borderline humid subtropical (''Cf'') and oceanic (''Do'') climate, supported by the fact that subtropical plants like

Southern Magnolia ''Magnolia grandiflora'', commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the Southeastern United States, from Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas. Reaching in height, it is a ...

and the occasional

Needle Palm ''Rhapidophyllum hystrix'', the needle palm, is a palm native to coastal margins of the subtropical eastern Gulf and south Atlantic states of the United States. Populations can be found from coastal southeast South Carolina, southward to Florida ...

can reach their full potential here but struggle much further north.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 5,001 people, 1,697 households, and 1,035 families residing in the city.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 4,599 people, 1,952 households, and 1,270 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 2,192 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 91.82%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 5.28%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.20% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.13%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.67% from other races, and 1.24% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.15% of the population. Oldham-Theater-Sparta-tn1

There were 1,952 households, out of which 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 17.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.9% were non-families. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.81. In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.8% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 22.9% from 45 to 64, and 22.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $23,775, and the median income for a family was $33,060. Males had a median income of $26,970 versus $20,295 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $15,340. About 16.2% of families and 21.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 30.3% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Foster V. Brown, U.S. Congressman *

David Culley David Wayne Culley (born September 17, 1955) is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Culley has 45 years of coaching experience in both collegiate and ...

, NFL coach * John D. Defrees, newspaperman and politician * George Gibbs Dibrell, Civil War general (Confederate) and U.S. Congressman *

Lester Flatt Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 – May 11, 1979) was an American bluegrass (music), bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt's career spanned ...

, bluegrass musician in the ''

Foggy Mountain Boys Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Scr ...

'' * John C. Floyd, U.S. Congressman * Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel, Missing teenagers * Erasmus Lee Gardenhire, politician and judge who served in the

Confederate States Congress The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly/legislature of the Confederate States of America that existed from February 1861 to April/June 1865, during the American Civil War. Its actions were, ...

and

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

; lived his adult life in Sparta *

Kellie Harper Kellie Jolly Harper (born May 3, 1977) is the current head coach for the Missouri Tigers women's basketball team. She previously served as head coach of Western Carolina, NC State, Missouri State, and Tennessee. Playing career Born Kellie J ...

, Head coach of

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

women's basketball; former player and head coach of

Tennessee Lady Vols The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Colleg ...

basketball; grew up in Sparta * Benny Martin, bluegrass musician who invented the eight string fiddle * Ethan Roberts, Major League Baseball pitcher * Tom Rogers, Major League Baseball pitcher *

Charles Edward Snodgrass Charles Edward Snodgrass (December 28, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 4th congressional district of Tennessee. Biography Snodgrass was born on December 28, ...

, U.S. Congressman; uncle of Henry C. Snodgrass * Henry C. Snodgrass, U.S. Congressman *

Lefty Stewart Walter Cleveland "Lefty" Stewart (September 23, 1900 – September 26, 1974) was a professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of ten seasons in Major League Baseball between 1921 and 1935. He played for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Bro ...

, Major League Baseball pitcher *

James W. Throckmorton James Webb Throckmorton (February 1, 1825April 21, 1894) was an American politician who served as the 12th governor of Texas from 1866 to 1867 during the early days of Reconstruction. He was a United States Congressman from Texas from 1875 to 1 ...

, 12th Governor of Texas and U.S. Congressman * Michelle Violette, Tennessee Tech graduate *

Earl Webb William Earl Webb (September 17, 1897 – May 23, 1965) was an American professional baseball right fielder in Major League Baseball, playing from 1925 to 1933. He played for five teams, including the Boston Red Sox for three years. He batted lef ...

, Major League Baseball outfielder

References

External links

City of Sparta - Official Website

Sparta - White County Chamber of Commerce

White County High School

White County Sheriff's Office

Sparta Expositor Official Site

White County Elections Office
{{authority control Cities in Tennessee Cities in White County, Tennessee County seats in Tennessee Populated places established in 1809 1809 establishments in Tennessee