Knoxville is encompassed by the wilderness of the Great Smoky, the Cumberland and the Blue Ridge mountains. Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the state of Tennessee.

One of Knoxville's nicknames is The Marble City. In the early 1900s, a number of quarries were active in the city, supplying Tennessee pink marble to much of the country. Noteworthy buildings such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. are constructed of Knoxville marble.

Another nickname Knoxville received was Underwear Capital of the World. In the 1930s, no fewer than twenty textile and clothing mills operated in Knoxville, and the industry was the city's largest employer. In the 1950s, the mills began to close, causing an overall population loss of ten percent by 1960.

History
In the 18th century, the Cherokee had become the predominant tribe in the East Tennessee region, although they were consistently battling with the Creeks and Shawnee. The Cherokee people called the Knoxville area kuwanda'talun'yi, which means "Mulberry Place."

The end of the French and Indian War and confusion brought about by the American Revolution led to a drastic increase in Euro-American settlement west of the Appalachians. By the 1780s, Euro-American settlers were already established in the Holston and French Broad valleys.

The post U.S. Civil War manufacturing boom brought thousands of immigrants to Knoxville. In 1900, the population of Knoxville grew from around 5,000 in 1860 to 32,637. West Knoxville was annexed in 1897, and over 5,000 new homes were built between 1895 and 1904.

Economy
Knoxville's economy is largely stimulated by the regional location of the main campus of the University of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other Department of Energy facilities in nearby Oak Ridge, the National Transportation Research Center, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.