James White’s Fort, Knoxville (must see)

James White's Fort, or White's Fort for short, is an 18th-century pioneer settlement that gave start to Knoxville. The fort was built in 1786 by the city's founder James White who was born in 1747 in North Carolina and was a militia officer fighting in the American Revolutionary War. In 1783, he led an expedition into the upper Tennessee Valley, where he discovered the site of future Knoxville.

The fort itself began when James White was granted for his service 1,000 acres of land and built a two-story log cabin near what is now the corner of State Street and Clinch Avenue. The surrounding trees have been cut and replaced with gardens and farms. The cabin soon became the center of a cluster of fortified log structures known as White's Fort.

When William Blount, the governor of the Southwest Territory, moved the territorial capital to White's Fort in 1791, he renamed it Knoxville in honor of Henry Knox, the American Revolutionary War general and Washington's Secretary of War. That same year, James White sold the land and donated lots for a permanent city, Knoxville. He lived in the fort until 1793. White died on August 14, 1821, and was buried next to his wife in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery at 620 State Street in Knoxville.

The original cabin later became the kitchen of the Kennedy House, which was built in the 1830s. In 1906, when the Kennedy house was demolished for development, Isaiah Ford bought the log structure and moved it to Woodlawn Pike. It was purchased again in 1960 by the City Association of Women's Clubs; in 1968, the timbers were reconstructed as part of the fort. The fort still stands on a bluff near its original location. Seven log cabins and the stockade fence remain. The cabins display original pioneer artifacts and furnishings depicting the frontier lifestyle, making it one of the most visited historical sites in Knoxville.

The fort was opened to the public as a museum in 1970.