Hilham, TN

Hilham is an unincorporated Overton County community arranged around the junction of Tennessee 136 and 85. It is one of those places where the road map carries the origin story: Dartmouth graduate Moses Fisk established Hilham in 1797 and laid out roads radiating north, south, east, and west because he believed he had found the geographic center of the United States. The community is part of a rural ZIP code area whose 2000 population was under 2,000, so there is no separate census count for Hilham.

Fisk also established a Female Academy in 1806, an early school that made Hilham more than a crossroads on paper. Today Route 136 continues through the community toward Standing Stone State Park and its lake, cabins, and forested recreation areas, while Route 85 carries east-west traffic across Overton County. Hilham's present shape is still a crossroads: homes and services spread along two state routes, with the county's older settlement history and the park road providing the main orientation.