History
Prior to 1950 the community called itself the Beaver Ridge community.
In the 1950's the community voted to officially change its name
from Beaver Ridge/Byington to Karns.
Some Karns High School History (copied from a 1914 Annual):
In order to fully appreciate the present, we must review and
study the past. Nothing is great or small without comparison,
thus are the educational advantages of our forefathers and those
at the present so very different.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century the first school
house at Beaver Ridge was erected on the north side of the creek,
just to the east of where the old brick church now stands. It
was a crude log structure about twenty by forty feet, having only
one window and one door. It was at first used as a Baptist Church
and school house combined. The teaching was not nearly so good
as it is now, but the pupils that attended this shcool went to
their work with their whole hearts, because they felt that they
were meeting not a burden but a privilege. This is why the old
log school house accomplished some things that are not being accomplished
by the modern steam-heated, electric-lighted and granite structure
of today.
The following families were some of those who attended school
in this building and ancestors of many of the prominent families
of Beaver Creek Valley today: Garrison, Trotter, Brown, Moore,
Rule, Callaway, Hendrix, Smith, Cox, Coward, and McBath.
In 1874 the log school house was abandoned and a one room frame
building was erected in the present site of Karns High School.
This building was used successively for sixteen years until it
was necessary to have a new building, which was a two room secondary
school. A few years later it became necessary for a third room
to be built. The school spirit continued to spread until the people
being still more interested in higher education for their boys
and girls began contemplating the erection of a high school. This
was in 1911. It seemed there were many obstacles to be overcome,
but the people were determined in their plans, and in 1913 the
high school building was erected, being named in honor of Prof.
T.C. Karns, the first Superintendent of Public Instruction of
Knox County. The Karns High School is located in the fertile valley
of Beaver Creek near Byington on the L.& N. R.R., and is twelve
miles northwest of Knoxville and has an enrollment of 75 in the
high school department, 160 in the grammar grades making a total
of 235 pupils in the school.
...
The school yell during that first year that Karns High School
existed was:
Boom-alach-a! Boom-a-lach-a!
Bow-wow-wow!
Chick-a-lach-a! Chick-a-lach-a!
Chow! Chow! Chow!
Boom-a-lach-a! Chick-a-lach-a!
Gold and Blue!
Karns! Karns!
Rip! Rah! Zoo!
My Research
Karns is a Community, not a city so the population is unclear
from my research.
Statistics & Facts (based on various web sites I
researched)
Population: approximately 1458. (as of 1990)
Families: 583. (as of 1990)
Land Area: 6.23 sq. kilometers.
Positioned 35.97 degrees north of the equator and 84.11 degrees
west of the prime meridian.
U.S. Census Bureau
Karns is located in Knox County of Knoxville, Tennessee. The
estimated population for Knox County for 2002 according to the
U.S. Census Bureau
was 389,327.
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