Sunbright, TN

Sunbright is a Morgan County city on the Cumberland Plateau, where the 2020 census counted 519 residents. The city sits about 25 miles west of the Walden Ridge escarpment, among the low mountains and hills along the Cumberland Mountains’ western fringe. The Big South Fork watershed meets the Emory River watershed atop Pilot Mountain, giving the area a highland divide beyond the city streets.

The settlement began as Pine Top, then became Stapleton after the Staples family established the first post office. When the railroad reached the area in 1879, the Stapleton depot was named Sunbright, and that name gradually spread to the whole town. An oil field discovered in the hills west of Sunbright in 1916 brought wells, shipping, and a short-lived boom; fifteen wells were operating in the area by 1927. Sunbright incorporated in 1990, and Tennier Industries remains part of the Morgan County economy. The city’s story runs from post office to railroad to oil, with the plateau always in the background.