Smithville, Tennessee

Smithville is a city in DeKalb County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 5,004 at the 2020 census, up from 3,994 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of DeKalb County. Smithville is home to the Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree, which it has hosted annually since 1972.

Geography

Smithville is located in central DeKalb County at 35°57′26″N 85°49′15″W (35.957191, -85.820756). U.S. Route 70 passes through the town as Broad Street, leading east 21 miles (34 km) to Sparta and northwest 36 miles (58 km) to Lebanon. Tennessee State Route 56 (Congress Boulevard) crosses US 70 a few blocks southeast of the center of town and leads north 13 miles (21 km) to Interstate 40 at Silver Point and 19 miles (31 km) south to McMinnville. Cookeville is 28 miles (45 km) to the northeast, Murfreesboro is 40 miles (64 km) to the west-southwest, and Nashville is 66 miles (106 km) to the west-northwest.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.9 square miles (15.3 km2), all land.

Arts & culture

Smithville is referred to by a local-boy Marine talking to a girl and pointing to labels on a map during a dance hall scene, 17 minutes into the 1949 World War II John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima, where it is mentioned, apart from everybody in his family being related to much of Tennessee, as being famous for "corn tobacco" and "more fertilizer than any other place in the world".

Notable people

Bob Allen — Major League Baseball pitcher

John Anderson — country music singer

Dan Evins — Founder of Cracker Barrel

James Edgar Evins — Tennessee state senator, mayor of Smithville for 16 years

Joe L. Evins — U.S. representative

Alan Jackson — country music singer; former resident

Greg Tubbs — Major League Baseball Player, Cincinnati Reds, 1993

Lonnie Mack — pioneering blues-rock guitar soloist lived close by for many years and died here

Aaron Tippin — country music singer

Dottie West —American country music singer and songwriter