Benton, TN

Benton was founded in 1840 as the county seat of Polk County, a year after the county itself was organized. The town grew at the meeting point of county government and the rivers around it: Benton sits just southeast of the confluence of the Ocoee and Hiwassee, with the Unicoi Mountains rising to the east. U.S. 411 runs through town, while Tennessee 314 leads toward Parksville, Cherokee National Forest, and the Ocoee Dam area. The Polk County Courthouse and county offices keep Benton's original county-seat role visible.

The landscape around town has its own working map. The Cherokee National Forest's Ocoee/Hiwassee Ranger District is based near Benton, and the two rivers lead the road south and east into mountain country. The ranger district puts a federal forest office alongside the town's county-government role on the edge of the river country. Benton is a county-seat town whose identity comes from the courthouse, the river junction, and the roads that connect Polk County to the forest.