One of the oldest counties in Tennessee, Blount County was established in 1795.  Prior to English and Scots-Irish settlement and the establishment of a county, this mountainous area was home to Cherokee Indians.  Until recently, Blount County lagged behind the rest of the nation in income, educational attainment, healthcare access, and efficient transportation.  Like much of Southern Appalachia, this resulted in scattered and relatively poor farming settlements, which remained largely unchanged throughout most of the nineteenth century.  The county is composed of rolling farmland, small valleys, and major hardwood and conifer forests bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee.