Fort Southwest Point State Historic Park

Federal soldiers built Fort Southwest Point in 1797 on a high knoll above the mouth of the Clinch River, where it meets the Tennessee. They came to control boundary disputes between settlers and the Cherokee, who still claimed most of East Tennessee, and the fort stood inside Cherokee territory. An earlier militia blockhouse had stood half a mile upriver on the main road between the Knoxville and Nashville areas. The garrison included the Fourth Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Butler, other infantry, artillery and a troop of dragoons.

In 1801 Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, newly appointed Cherokee agent, made the fort his headquarters, and until 1807 it was a place where the United States dealt with the Cherokee Nation over land and boundaries. In 1807 the agency moved deeper into Cherokee territory to the Hiwassee Garrison, and the fort lost most of its purpose. Troops used it as a supply depot for goods moving overland and then by river until about 1811.

The city of Kingston owned the site, and Tennessee State Parks dedicated it in July 2026 as the state's 66th state park. Archaeologists have dug there for several seasons, and the reconstructed buildings stand on the original foundations. A museum in the visitor center shows what was found, and a walking path follows Watts Bar Lake, with a view on clear days toward Frozen Head and the Cumberland Mountains. The fort has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.