LNH Loudon County Magazine Summer 2026 by Adams MultiMedia East

COUNTY MAGAZINE

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Celebrating 250 Years In Perfect Harmony

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with its 42nd Annual Lawson Family Foundation Free Independence Day Concert on Saturday, July 4, at 8 p.m. on the Performance Lawn stage at World’s Fair Park. The free concert is part of the City of Knoxville’s Festival on the 4th and will be followed by fireworks launching from the Henley Bridge at approximately 9:45 p.m.

The concert will also mark the public debut of Knoxville poet, educator, and former City of Knoxville Poet Laureate Rhea Carmon as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s first Poet in-Residence. Carmon’s residency is a new collaboration that will explore the connections between poetry, storytelling, and music through performances, educational programs, and community events throughout the KSO’s 2026–27 season.

Led by Music Director Aram Demirjian, this year’s concert celebrates America’s semiquincentennial with patriotic favorites, American music, and appearances by East Tennessee community leaders and artists. Special guests include Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, radio and TV host Hallerin Hilton Hill, WBIR anchor John Becker, Metropolitan Opera bassbaritone David Crawford, East Tennessee mandolin virtuoso Wyatt Ellis and Carmon.

“Independence Day has always been one of Knoxville’s great community traditions, and this year carries special meaning as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary,” said Demirjian. “We’re honored to welcome an extraordinary group of guests who reflect the spirit, creativity, and civic leadership of East Tennessee. “We’re also thrilled to introduce Rhea Carmon as the KSO’s first Poetin-Residence. Her creativity and perspective will add a new dimension to our performances and help us create new experiences for audiences throughout the season.”

The evening’s program will feature patriotic favorites including The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Armed Forces Salute, and John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever. Audiences will also hear John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare, Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Variations on a Shaker Melody, Morton Gould’s American Salute, and selections featuring Crawford and Ellis.

As part of the concert’s celebration of America’s founding ideals, Kincannon, Jacobs, and Hill will join the orchestra for a special presentation incorporating excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. Carmon will be featured in Battle Hymn of the Republic, while Becker will serve as narrator for Lincoln Portrait and Armed Forces Salute.

“I grew up loving orchestra music and poetry, even though many people didn’t see those worlds as belonging together,” said Carmon. “To have the opportunity to bring them together through the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra is truly a dream come true. I’m honored to help create something that can touch lives in new ways.”

Crawford, whose distinguished career has included nearly 400 performances with the Metropolitan Opera, will be featured in several selections celebrating the American experience. Ellis, a Maryville native, Grand Ole Opry performer, and one of bluegrass music’s most exciting young artists, will perform several of his original compositions, bringing a distinctly East Tennessee voice to the concert’s celebration of American music and culture.

A Knoxville native and former Poet Laureate of the City of Knoxville, Carmon is an award-winning poet, educator, author, and spoken-word artist whose work has inspired audiences across the country through performances, workshops, and community engagement. Her residency is sponsored by Julia Caroline White.

The concert is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Picnic blankets, lawn chairs, food, and drinks are welcome. Pets, alcohol, personal tents, and tent canopies are not permitted. The performance will also be broadcast and streamed by WBIR, allowing audiences throughout East Tennessee to experience the concert and fireworks celebration. For more information, visit knoxvillesymphony.com.

MARYVILLE COLLEGE ARCHIVES EXPAND

DIGITIZATION WITH TENNESSEE AMERICA 250 GRANT

Maryville College is a recipient of a $12,195 grant for Tennessee America 250 initiatives from the Tennessee Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial. The grant award will be used for the purchase of a book scanner and hiring of a contract archivist to digitize and provide online public access to rare and unique archival material documenting early Tennessee history from the Maryville College Archives.

According to Maryville College Archivist Amy Lundell ’06, the collections to be digitized as part of the project “Voices of an Emerging State: Preserving Tennessee’s Early History for America” include the Rev. Robert Henderson’s letters to Col. Francis Ramsey of Ramsey House in Knoxville (1807-1820); rare early 19th century East Tennessee newspapers (1820s-1850s); locally authored, printed and bound sermons, tracts and proceedings (1813-1833) on religious topics, the War of 1812, Cherokee court cases, and manumission of slaves; and, if time permits, the Dorothy Horne and Oliver Hamby Ballad Collection of ballads collected in the Tennessee Valley in the 1930s and the scrapbook of Maryville College’s fifth president, Dr. Samuel Tyndale Wilson, which contains numerous newspaper articles and notes from the early to mid19th century. By digitizing and providing access to these archival collections via the Maryville College Digital Archives, members of the public will be able to learn more about Tennessee’s early religious history, publication history and folk music.

The State of Tennessee made available funding to be administered by the Tennessee State Museum, on behalf of the commission to support statewide America 250 activities. The second round of the Tennessee America 250 grant program was a highly competitive process. In total, the Commission received 365 applications, totaling $6,364,017 in requests. The Commission has made full or partial awards for 194 grants across the state, representing 73 counties, for a total of $2,267,058 awarded. A complete list of second-round Tennessee America 250 grantees, counties and amounts is posted at www.tn250.com.

The Tennessee America 250 Project Support Grants and Community Support Grants had maximum request amounts of $20,000 and $25,000, respectively. All projects funded in the second round must be completed by April 30, 2027.

“I am inspired by the excitement across the state to commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Ashley Howell, executive director of the Tennessee State Museum and chair of the Tennessee Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial. “This year will be filled with exhibitions, programs, festivals, and preservation of our local and state history. We hope that these projects inspire Tennesseans across the state to engage with the anniversary in 2026.”

“To be able to be involved with the celebration of our country’s 250th through this project is an exciting prospect,” Lundell said. “The heart of the mission of the Maryville College Archives is to preserve and provide access to the history of Maryville College. “I am thankful to the Tennessee America 250 grant program for choosing to fully fund our project of digitizing some of our earliest archival material,” she continued. “This grant allows us to purchase a much-needed book scanner and provide access to fascinating collections that we wouldn’t have been able to digitize for quite some time. Our project will allow us to share the ideas, beliefs, interests and daily life of the men and women of East Tennessee’s early years to all Tennesseans and the world beyond. The Tennessee America 250 Project Support Grants and Community Support Grants had maximum request amounts of $20,000 and $25,000, respectively. All projects funded in the second round must be completed by April 30, 2027.

PATRIOTISM TAKES ROOT AT LIBERTY TREE DEDICATION

Rainy weather didn’t dampen the spirit of patriotism at the Liberty Tree dedication ceremony presented by local chapters of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution at the Loudon County Courthouse Saturday. Chapter members, dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms, dedicated a maple tree on the courthouse lawn as a tribute to the original Liberty Tree that served as a gathering point for patriots in Boston during the years before the revolution.

The dedication ceremony was planned for the lawn of the courthouse but had to be relocated to the main courtroom inside due to weather. The tree is a living symbol of the spirit of patriotism that inspired the American Revolution, according to Joel Davenport Trustee and Past President of the Tennessee Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Davenport said he hopes the organization’s goal of planting hundreds of trees across the state and nation will inspire future generations of Americans. “It’s important to tell our children and grandchildren what this country is all about,” he said. City of Loudon Mayor Jeff Harris said the tree is a reminder that patriotism is an obligation we all share.

“A tree needs deep roots, constant care and sunlight. We must water the tree of liberty whenever we vote,” Harris said.

Loudon County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw said he’s amazed at what our country has grown into following the hard work and sacrifices of our founding fathers.

“It’s up to each one of us to appreciate what we have,” Bradshaw said. Tennessee has 44 of 95 counties named after patriots and also some cities, including Lenoir City, said melody Gentry, Regent for General William Lenoir Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. General Lenoir fought in the American Revolution, she said. Featured speaker State Senator and former Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally said symbols are an important part of ensuring that the passage of time does not obscure the memory of the past. Organizations such as the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution are helping to fight the collective amnesia about our history by reminding us of our heritage and shared history, he said.

Lloyd Donnelly, Veterans Committee Chair, Stephen Holston Chapter, TNSSAR, one of the organizers of the event presented a wreath honoring American veterans.

Loudon County Historian Darrell Tuck provided a more detailed history of the original Liberty Tree, a towering American Elm planted about 1646 near Boston Common. He said that following the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 angry colonists began holding meetings under the tree.

As the colonists moved closer to war the tree was sometimes the site of violent attacks on local tax collectors. The British cut the tree down in August of 1775, just a few months after the battle of Lexington and Concord sparked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Despite gentle rainfall, the ceremony moved outside for a demonstration by members of the TNSSAR of the manual of arms and execution of a salute using the black powder muskets carried by the reenactors.

A stone marker was unveiled near the small maple tree on the Cedar Street side of the courthouse lawn. Sherrell Greene of the TNSSAR led a prayer of dedication to conclude the ceremony.

FROM RIBS TO BRISKET AND BEYOND, AMERICAN BARBECUE IS A DELICIOUS PART OF US TRADITION

Warning: Reading this could make you hungry. That’s because we’re talking about barbecue — the “low and slow” cooking method that’s a hallmark of American culture.

Obviously, meat cooked over heat can be found in great-tasting forms all over the world - roasted, baked, grilled, all the ways. Many of them are regulars on the American plate. But there’s something about the way barbecue developed in the U.S., cuts of meat made falling-off-the-bone tender through hours of cooking over indirect heat or smoke at lower temperatures, often with a sauce used as a marinade or for basting or perhaps a mix of dry spices. See: Ribs. Brisket. Pork shoulder. (You’re hungry, aren’t you. Told you.) The roots of what’s become American barbecue go back before the U.S. officially even became a country, says Robert F. Moss, contributing barbecue editor for “Southern Living” magazine and author of “Barbecue, The History of American Institution.”

It’s a mix of influences, he says, starting between the indigenous peoples already here with their own cooking methods, the colonists who came from Europe with livestock new to the Americas and the enslaved Africans with their own cultures and traditions forcibly brought over and put to work. “A lot of visitors to the United States ... called out barbecue as being a particular American kind of thing,” Moss says. “From the very beginning, it was something distinctive to the Americas and something that Europeans recognized as being something different than the way they cooked meat.”

The development of what we think of as barbecue today had other influences over the centuries, like commercial refrigeration of the late 19th century and the subsequent popularity of the in-home version in the early decades of the 20th, which allowed people to buy and store cuts of meat in ways impossible in colonial times. Another hallmark of American barbecue culture is how regional it is, with different sauces and cooking techniques in North Carolina vs Memphis vs Texas vs Georgia. Moss says that developed in the early part of the 20th century.

A local cook might start a restaurant and teach barbecue to his employees, who then went out on their own. “You can literally map out these barbecue mentors who sort of spun out all these other cooks, and you can see how their style sort of was handed down from one generation to the next,” Moss says. “And that’s where you start seeing all the things we think of as the iconic.”

The Perfect Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted)

10 oz. standard marshmallows (or about 5-1/2 cups of mini marshmallows)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but highly recommended)

6 cups crispy rice cereal (like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies)

Sprinkles (Optional)

Instructions

Lightly coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or non-stick cooking spray

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Once melted, add the marshmallows. Stir continuously until the marshmallows are completely melted and the mixture is smooth, then remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the vanilla extract. Immediately add the crispy rice cereal. Stir and fold gently until the cereal is completely coated in the marshmallow mixture.

Transfer the warm mixture into your prepared pan. Using a buttered spatula, wax paper, or your hands lightly coated in cooking spray, press the mixture evenly and firmly into the pan. Let it cool completely for about 30 to 60 minutes before slicing into squares.