State Route 116 (SR 116) is a north–south state highway in the mountains of

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...

. The highway runs from its junction with SR 62 at its southern end between

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...

and

Coalfield A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological. A coalfield often groups the seams of ...

in Morgan County, to its northern end at Caryville, Tennessee in Campbell County.

Route description

From its southwestern terminus it heads northeast and passes through the town of Petros and past

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, last named Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex, (or, unofficially, ''Brushy'') is an entertainment venue in the community of Petros, Tennessee, Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee, owned by Chattanooga ...

. Continuing northeast into Anderson County (along a mountain pass known locally as Petros Mountain), the highway then passes through remote mountainous country known for its many former

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

villages, some of which were

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

s and are now essentially

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

s. Among them are the towns (or former towns) of Fork Mountain, Buffalo, Devonia (a/k/a Moore's Camp), Braytown, Rosedale, and Charley's Branch. The Devonia

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

which served this entire region was closed in 1975. Once the mines in these towns closed down with the resulting loss of population, the towns' schools were closed and remaining students were consolidated into the Rosedale school, which saw steadily falling enrollment and was closed in the 1990s. This section of SR 116 parallels the New River and the former line of the Tennessee Railroad. There are many abandoned underground coal mines,

coal tipple Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or ...

s, and

railroad yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

s and sidings along this section of SR 116. Despite the end of most

underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a la ...

and the demise of the towns along this portion of the highway, a great deal of

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

continues however. SR 116 briefly passes into Campbell County and then turns southeast back into Anderson County. From there it passes through the village of Stainville (more commonly known as Ligias Fork) and continues southeast through some remote, sparsely populated mountains (along a very long and steep mountain pass locally known as Graves Gap) to Laurel Grove. There it turns northeast again at the junction with Frost Bottom Road, since 1982 designated as SR 330. This section of the highway parallels

Walden Ridge Walden Ridge (or Walden's Ridge) is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running genera ...

to the immediate southeast, and a former spur of the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

(now closed), and passes through Briceville, Fraterville which was the site of a 1902 mine explosion, "The Wye" near the former mining camp of Beech Grove, and finally through a gap in Walden Ridge to enter

Rocky Top "Rocky Top" is an American country and bluegrass song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in 1967 and first recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that same year. The song, which is a city dweller's lamentation over the loss of a simpler ...

. Originally the northeastern terminus of SR 116 was in Rocky Top at the junction with US 25W. About 1982, SR 116 was extended northward to Caryville to incorporate the portion of the former US 25W between Rocky Top and Caryville superseded by

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

. This addition to Route 116 parallels the busy railroad lines of both the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

and Norfolk Southern, and I-75 immediately to the west as it passes through the community of Vasper. Petros, Briceville, Rocky Top, and Caryville are the only towns of any sizeable population today along Route 116.

History

The highway has had a high rate of accidents, including fatal accidents, attributed to conditions including narrow

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder m ...

s, numerous curves, unstable slopes, rockfall hazards, and absence of guardrails. In 2013, the

Tennessee Department of Transportation The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is the department of transportation for the State of Tennessee, with multimodal responsibilities in roadways, aviation, public transit, waterways, and railroads. It was established in 1915 as the ...

announced plans for $1.2 million in roadway improvements, including widening of shoulders and addition of guardrails, pavement markings and signs.

Junction list

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
The Complete Devil's Triangle aka Brushy Mountain Prison Run
- Motorcyclists' travelogue of Route 116
Devil's Triangle
- Motorcyclists' travelogue of Route 116 116 Transportation in Morgan County, Tennessee Transportation in Anderson County, Tennessee Transportation in Campbell County, Tennessee