The Watauga post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Carter's Depot (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 314 in 19702020 census: 353152 years
Founding year: the first Watauga post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Watauga’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Some of the earliest European pioneers in Tennessee settled in the vicinity of Watauga in the mid-18th century. William Bean, traditionally recognized as Tennessee's first white settler, built his cabin at the mouth of Boone Creek, 7 miles (11 km) downstream from modern Watauga, in 1769. The Watauga Association, an early frontier government, operated out of nearby Elizabethton in the 1770s.
Passages that mention Watauga, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S. A.1903 · page 388Read the page →
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This part of Carter county now in the 8th and 13th Civil Districts, extends from a point on the Watauga river, two miles east of Elizabethton, to Watauga, formerly Carter's Depot, on the Southern Railroad. It is bounded on the west by the beautiful and historic Watauga river. There has never been a town or village within its boundary except Watauga, built up largely since the war.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S. A.1903 · page IO6Read the page →
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Gen. Carter dispatched Col. Watkini with detachments from the 2d Michigan, 9th Pennsylvania and 7th Ohio Cavalry, 180 in all, to Carter's Station (Depot) to burn the bridge across the Watauga river 10 miles west of Zollicoffer. This was the bridge that Dr. Jobe had saved from being burned on the night of November 8, 1861.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Watauga, 1857 to 1935
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
