Johnson City

Johnson City is home to two great Colleges and Universities:
East Tennessee State University
Milligan College
Also founder and 1/3rd owner of:
Tri-cities Regional Airport.
Home of The Blue Plum Festival, a great city tradition one weekend each summer. This year over 60,000 attended.

In the 1850's Henry Johnson located a store along the proposed path of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway. Henry was smart and built a water tank for the trains, a post office, hotel for travelers and a rail depot. The town became called Johnson's Depot. In 1869 Johnson's Depot became incorporated as Johnson City. Henry became the first town mayor. As the city grew it became a major retail hub for the southwest, as three rail lines crossed the downtown area. These train lines brought many travelers as they all had mountain sight seeing tours. The city also became known as the Appalachain Crossroads as the rail lines served a three state area. For a brief time the city changed it's name to Haynesville. Johnson City grew quickly from 1870 to 1890 until the depression of 1893 stopped the city in it's tracks. Again during the 110 to 1030 era the city took another rapid expansion, due to the U.S. Veteran's Medical Center being built and the addition of a college. During the 1920's Johnson City's bootlegging activities gave the city the name “Little Chicago”. Al Capone ran a large smuggling operation in the area.