Panther Springs

The spring's volume still draws visitors. A road built in 1792 to join the Abingdon and Knoxville stage routes brought settlers such as William Chaney, Thomas Daggett, Richard Thomas and John Crockett, and by 1800 Panther Springs, like Russellville, Whitesburg and Springvale, was an established community, with a store, a church and an academy alongside several homes. Hamblen County itself came much later, formed in 1870 from parts of Jefferson, Grainger and Hawkins counties. The site is now part of Panther Creek State Park, which covers about two thousand acres.

What the plaque says

Panther Springs ½ mile along the Old Stage Road, a thriving pioneer community grew up around the enormous spring at which one Col. Bradley killed a panther. Panther Springs Academy was here. Tate's Store, also the post office, was the meeting place for the commissioners who created Hamblen County. In the spring are remains of an Indian mill.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rogersville Historic District — 26 mi
  Tennessee's first newspaper was printed in this Hawkins County seat in 1791, and Swift Memorial College, founded in 1883, educated Black students after the state's 1901 law forced Maryville College to expel them.

More markers nearby

• Morristown College — 5.0 mi
• Morris Cemetery — 5.0 mi
• David Crockett and Polly Finley — 5.7 mi
• Battle of Mossy Creek — 7.1 mi