New Johnsonville, TN

New Johnsonville is a Humphreys County city of 1,804 people at the 2020 census, on the east side of Kentucky Lake where the Tennessee River widens into a huge working and recreational landscape. The present city carries the name of older Johnsonville, a river-and-rail town built around a Union supply depot during the Civil War. TVA's damming of the river created Kentucky Lake in the 1940s, covering much of Old Johnsonville and leaving its forts, railroad bed, cemetery, and stories in the park north of town.

Johnsonville State Historic Park preserves the redoubts and depot site on 1,075 acres, with trails, fishing, birding, picnic areas, and a welcome center. The industrial side of New Johnsonville is equally visible: TVA's combustion turbine plant sits on 720 acres beside the lake, and the Chemours facility makes titanium dioxide pigments used in coatings and other products. U.S. 70 connects the city to Waverly and Camden, while the water points toward the lost town and the surviving park. New Johnsonville is one of those places where a lake map, a Civil War map, and an industrial map all sit on top of each other.