Athens is the county chair of McMinn County, Tennessee, United States and the principal city of the Athens Micropolitan Statistical Area has a population of 53,569. The city is located around equidistantly with the major cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga. The population was 14,084 at the 2020 census. The population of the zipcode Place is at 23,726

The Cherokee were booming in McMinn County at the grow old of the arrival of the first Euro-American explorers. The Athens Place was situated nearly halfway amongst the Overhill Cherokee villages of Great Tellico to the north in Monroe County and Great Hiwassee along the Hiwassee River to the south. In 1819, the Cherokee signed the Calhoun Treaty, selling the estate north of the Hiwassee (including all of modern McMinn County) to the United States. McMinn County was organized on November 13, 1819, at the home of John Walker in what is now Calhoun. The Native American village, Pumpkintown (a ruination of Potemkin town), was located upon a farm practically two miles east of present-day Athens. It is sometimes incorrectly identified as a forerunner of Athens. Athens was laid out and prearranged as the county seat in 1822. The name “Athens” may have been selected due to perceived topographical similarities to Athens, Greece.

By 1834, the population of Athens had grown to more than 500. Prominent in the future settlers included William Henry Cooke, who operated an iron forge close modern Etowah, and Samuel Clegg (or Cleage), a construction entrepreneur. Jesse Mayfield, whose descendants founded Mayfield Dairy Farms, arrived in the to come 1820s. The Hiwassee Railroad customary a charter in the mid-1830s to build a railroad connecting Knoxville, Tennessee, and Dalton, Georgia. The railroad began construction in 1837, although financial and authentic problems delayed its completion until 1851. In 1836, General John Wool arrived in Athens to put stirring to coordinate the Cherokee Removal. Although initially voluntary, the operation became a goaded removal in 1838 with many Cherokee refused to leave. The removal culminated in the goaded march west that became known as the Trail of Tears. Wool set occurring his headquarters at the Bridges Hotel, which was located across the street from the McMinn County Courthouse.

McMinn County was on bad terms during the American Civil War. The well-established railroad brought numerous pro-secessionist and anti-secessionist speakers to the county, including Andrew Johnson, Horace Maynard, John Bell, and William “Parson” Brownlow. In 1861, McMinn County voted against secession by a narrow 1,144-904 margin. The county sent 12 units to the Union army and 8 units to the Confederate army. General William Tecumseh Sherman was briefly headquartered at the Bridges Hotel in McMinn County even if preparing his “March to the Sea.”