Wartburg

History

In 1805, the Cherokee ceded what is now Morgan County to the United States by signing the Third Treaty of Tellico. The first settlers arrived in the area shortly thereafter. Wartburg was founded in the mid-1840s by Georg Friedrich Gerding (later anglicized as George Frederick), a land speculator who bought up large tracts of land in what is now Morgan County and organized the East Tennessee Colonization Company with plans to establish a series of German colonies in the Cumberland region. : Born in Germany in 1800, he became a successful businessman after moving to New York. He was decorated by Belgium King Leopold I for establishing the first ship line between Antwerp and New York. He was U.S. Consul to Baden-Baden 1845-47. Acquiring 300,000 acres of land, he established the East Tennessee Land Colonization Co. for Swiss, German, and French immigrants. In 1844, he founded Wartburg, and gave land for the town square, a church, and a cemetery. He died in 1884. German and Swiss immigrants, seeking to escape poor economic conditions in their home counties, arrived at the site by traveling from New Orleans up the Mississippi and Cumberland rivers to Nashville, and then by ox cart to the Cumberland Plateau. The first of these settlers arrived in the area in 1845, and new groups of immigrants would continue trickling in until 1855. The new settlement, which had already been platted by East Tennessee Colonization Company agent Friedrich Guenther, was named after Wartburg Castle in Germany. : “The city was named after the German Wartburg, where Martin Luther translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament into German.” The first six streets were initially named for European cities, but the names were changed within a few years to Rose, Church, Maidenland…

Geography

Wartburg is situated amidst the Crab Orchard Mountains, a sub-range of the Cumberland Mountains, near the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau. Bird Mountain dominates the area east of Wartburg, rising from its base at the edge of the city and stretching for some to its summit at Frozen Head State Park. The Emory River, its source near the summit of Bird, flows westwardly along the mountain's northern base, passing just north of Wartburg, and turning south before dropping off the plateau and emptying into the Watts Bar Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River. The Obed River flows eastwardly from Cumberland County through a scenic gorge before emptying into the Emory just west of Wartburg. Wartburg is situated around the junction of U.S. Route 27, which connects the city to Kentucky to the north and Harriman and Interstate 40 to the south, and State Route 62, which connects Wartburg to Oak Ridge to the east and the rural areas of Morgan County and Fentress County to the west. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Central Elementary
  Elementary · Wartburg · 553 students · 18.4:1 ratio
• Oakdale School
  Other · Oakdale · 454 students · 15.1:1 ratio
• Central High School
  High · Wartburg · 376 students · 18.8:1 ratio
• Central Middle School
  Middle · Wartburg · 256 students · 18.3:1 ratio
• Petros Joyner Elementary
  Elementary · Oliver Springs · 179 students · 13.8:1 ratio
• Morgan County Career and Technical Center
  High · Wartburg · 44 students · 4.4:1 ratio