Blount County, Tennessee

Blount County is a county in Tennessee, United States, in the Knoxville metropolitan area along the western edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. It had a population of 135,280 at the 2020 census and covers 567 square miles (1,470 km2), of which 559 square miles are land, centred near 35°41′N 83°56′W.

Maryville is the county seat, and its postal code is 37801. The county has five incorporated cities, one town, and several unincorporated communities. It sits in the Eastern time zone.

Towns & Villages in Blount County

Blount County has five incorporated cities, one town, and a wide scatter of unincorporated communities and subdivisions along the Little River and the foot of the Smokies. Type legend: City = incorporated city, Town = incorporated town, CDP = census-designated place, Unincorp. = unincorporated community or subdivision with no separate government.

Alcoa is a separately incorporated city, not a neighborhood of Maryville, though the two share a border and a common school system name (Alcoa City Schools serves Alcoa only; Maryville City Schools serves Maryville only). Seymour, in the county’s northeast corner, straddles the Blount–Sevier line and is usually associated with Sevier County’s tourist strip, though most of its footprint is in Blount.

ZIP Codes

• 37801, 37803, 37804 — Maryville (37802 is a Maryville PO Box-only ZIP)
• 37701 — Alcoa
• 37777 — Louisville
• 37737 — Friendsville
• 37853 — Rockford
• 37882 — Townsend (also serves Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park entrance)
• 37886 — Walland (also serves Chilhowee, Montvale Springs)
• 37878 — Tallassee

Small unincorporated places such as Disco, Happy Valley, and Old Glory have no ZIP of their own and use a neighboring town’s code.

Geography

Blount County spans the transition from the ridge-and-valley floor of East Tennessee to the high peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains, which form its southeastern border. The Little River drains the county’s mountain half and passes through Townsend and Maryville before joining the Tennessee River near Knoxville; Chilhowee Lake and Tuckaleechee Cove sit in the county’s mountainous southern section, and Cades Cove, a broad valley now fully inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was a farming settlement into the 20th century.

Blount County borders Knox County to the north, Sevier County to the east, Monroe County to the southwest, and Loudon County to the west; its southeastern edge follows the crest of the Smokies against Swain and Graham counties, North Carolina.

Demographics

Blount County had 135,280 residents at the 2020 census, making it one of Tennessee’s larger suburban counties. Maryville, with 31,907 residents, and Alcoa, with 10,978, are its two largest communities and together hold roughly a third of the county’s population. Median household income runs above the Tennessee median of $67,631, reflecting the county’s manufacturing base and its role as a Knoxville commuter suburb. Population density is about 242 people per square mile of land.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing anchors the county’s economy: Denso Manufacturing Tennessee, an auto-parts maker, is the county’s largest private employer with roughly 3,000 workers at its Maryville plant, and Alcoa’s namesake aluminum industry still has a presence near the city that bears its name. Maryville College, founded in 1819, and a Pellissippi State Community College satellite campus add higher-education jobs, and tourism tied to Great Smoky Mountains National Park drives seasonal business in Townsend, often called the “peaceful side of the Smokies” as a quieter alternative to Gatlinburg. The county hosts an annual Foothills Fall Festival in downtown Maryville each October.

History

Blount County was organized on July 11, 1795, the tenth county formed in Tennessee, carved from parts of Knox and Jefferson counties by the territorial legislature. It is named for William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, the federal territory that became Tennessee the following year. Cades Cove was settled by white farming families in the early 1800s and remained an isolated mountain community until the National Park Service acquired it in the 1930s for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, displacing the last residents and preserving the cove’s historic cabins, churches, and mills as an open-air museum. Alcoa grew up in the 1910s as a company town for the Aluminum Company of America and stayed a separate municipality from Maryville even as the two built into each other.

Getting There

Interstate 140 (the Pellissippi Parkway) connects the county to Knoxville, and US Routes 129, 321, 411, and 441 cross the county, with US 321 carrying most of the traffic toward Gatlinburg and the national park.

• Knoxville — 17 miles north
• Gatlinburg — 20 miles east
• Sevierville — 15 miles northeast
• Chattanooga — 95 miles south

McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS), in neighboring Alcoa, is the county’s own commercial airport and the main airport for the whole Knoxville region.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Blount County, Tennessee?
It sits in East Tennessee, just south of Knoxville, and extends south to the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains on the North Carolina line.

What is the population of Blount County?
135,280 at the 2020 census.

How big is Blount County?
567 square miles (1,470 km2), including 559 square miles of land.

What is the county seat of Blount County?
Maryville, which is also the county’s largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Blount County?
Five incorporated cities (Maryville, Alcoa, Rockford, Townsend, Friendsville) and one incorporated town (Louisville), plus unincorporated communities such as Walland, Tallassee, and Cades Cove.

What ZIP codes are in Blount County?
Maryville uses 37801, 37803, and 37804; other towns use 37701 (Alcoa), 37777 (Louisville), 37737 (Friendsville), 37853 (Rockford), 37882 (Townsend), 37886 (Walland), and 37878 (Tallassee).

Is Cades Cove in Blount County?
Yes. The historic farming valley of Cades Cove, now part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, lies in Blount County’s mountainous southern section.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Tennessee.