Tharpe 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 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 United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The community was 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 community was originally known as Iron Mountain, named for the furnace of that name that went in operation in 1854 due to the discovery of local iron ore deposits. Fifty years prior, the first settlers in the area along Barrett Creek consisted of two families named Gatlin and Scarborough. Iron Mountain Furnace was in operation until sometime in 1855, when it closed; it would be purchased by the Ledbetter & Bostick Company five years later, and would operate it until the late 1860s, shortly 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 ...

, when the Cincinnati Copperage Company purchased it, along with several other furnaces in the Stewart County area. During the Civil War, financial hardships were endured by many households in the area due to some of the men having joined the 50th Tennessee Regiment in order to defend

Fort Donelson Fort Donelson was a fortress built early in 1862 by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River, which led to the heart of Tennessee, and thereby the Confederacy. The fort was named after Confederate general Da ...

during the February 1862 battle in which the Union won. The Iron Mountain

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 ...

was established on July 25, 1856. The name of the post office and the town was changed to Tharpe on March 22, 1886; it was named for local businessman Hannible Allentharpe (or Ham Tharpe, for short), who would start a business in the community. That business led the community to also host a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, a school, a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

, a doctor's clinic (that building is still standing), and by 1915, would also be accompanied by a

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 ...

, a few

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop and a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

prizing factory. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the population of the company began to decline due to many people needing to find work. The community's post office ended operations in 1942. Any residents that remain afterwards eventually relocated no later than 1970, as 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 ...

purchased the land in the area to create the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

Geography

Tharpe was located 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. ...

around the intersection of Tharpe Road (LBL Forest Roads 221 and 384) and the Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway, the latter of which 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 ...

(SR 49) 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. The town site was located near the present-day location of the Brandon Spring Group Center.

References

External links

A Slice of Life from Tharpe
- Four Rivers Explorer, February 27, 2023. {{Stewart County, Tennessee Ghost towns in Tennessee Geography of Stewart County, Tennessee