CUMBERLAND COUNTY

County Seat: Crossville

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt tried many new things. Cumberland County contains what is left of one of his bolder experiments – a rural  resettlement area known as the Cumberland Homesteads.

Built between 1932 and 1938, the homestead community consisted of homes, small farms, a factory, schools, an administration building, and other things that the community needed. Most of the structures still remain, but the homestead resettlement program was shut down in 1947. 

The government long since sold the land to private owners, and today there is a museum there called the Cumberland Homesteads Tower Museum. Along with Norris Dam in Anderson County, it is one of the best places to learn about the New Deal's impact on Tennessee.

For a virtual tour of it and the rest of the Cumberland Homesteads, click here.

Cumberland County was also the home of Edith May Wharton, known as the "Doctor Woman of the Cumberlands." 

Click here to read a column about this remarkable person.

Also, there is an excerpt from Dr. Wharton's autobiography in the Tennessee History for Kids Common Core reader Just as Free as I am. Click here to learn more about these booklets.

If you are riding through Cumberland County and want to see a great waterfall that is just off the highway, stop in at Ozone Falls, which is a short stroll from Highway 70.

And here's a view of the Cumberland County Courthouse.