Hilham, Tennessee

Hilham is an unincorporated community in Overton County, Tennessee. The community is situated around the junction of Tennessee State Route 136 (which runs north-to-south) and Tennessee State Route 85 (which runs east-to-west). Although not a census-designated place, Hilham is part of a Zip Code Tabulation Area (38568) that covers most of rural northwest Overton County and part of northeast Jackson County. As of the 2000 census, the population of this entire area was less than 2000.[2]

Hilham
Unincorporated community
SR 85 (Hilham Highway) in Hilham
Hilham
Location within the state of Tennessee
Hilham
Hilham (the United States)
Coordinates: 36°24′51″N 85°26′30″W
CountryUnited States
StateTennessee
CountyOverton
Founded1797
Named forCombination of "hill" and "hamlet"[1]
Elevation
1,093 ft (333 m)
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes
38568
Area code(s)931
GNIS feature ID1287776

Hilham was established in 1797 by Dartmouth graduate Moses Fisk (1759-1840), who believed the site was the geographic center of the United States (at the time, the Mississippi River was still the nation's western boundary). Fisk platted Hilham so that roads radiated out from the center of the community to the north, south, east and west, believing that Hilham would eventually be the ultimate crossroads of the new nation. In 1806, Fisk established one of the first female academies in the southeast at Hilham.[3][4]

The 11,000-acre (45 km2) Standing Stone State Park and Forest is located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Hilham along State Route 136.

References
  1. Larry Miller, Tennessee Place Names (Indiana University Press, 2001), p. 100.
  2. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, "Zip Code Tabulation Area 38568 Fact Sheet." Retrieved: 17 July 2008.
  3. Michael Birdwell, "Overton County." The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 14 April 2016.
  4. Michael Birdwell, "Moses Fisk: Dreamer or Visionary? Archived 2008-01-21 at the Wayback Machine" Upper Cumberland Business Journal. Retrieved: 5 November 2008.
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