Crab Orchard is a city in Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 719 at the 2020 census.

Crab Orchard’s slant in a gap in the Crab Orchard Mountains made it a gateway to the Cumberland Place as into the future as the late 18th century. Pioneers passing through the Place named it for its abundance of wild crab apple trees. In the 1780s, a road was built through the gap to support provide tutelage for travelers migrating from East Tennessee to the Nashville area.

The historian J. G. M. Ramsey reported several Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee attacks at “the Crab-Orchard” during a become old of heightened tensions together with Native Americans and encroaching Euro-American settlers in the before 1790s. Around 1792, a little band of troops led by Captain Samuel Handley was attacked by a poisoned group of Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee at Crab Orchard, ending in Handley’s capture. In April 1794, a intervention of travelers was ambushed by a band of Creeks, killing yet to be Cumberland County settler Thomas ‘Big Foot’ Spencer. A few weeks later, a Lieutenant McClelland was attacked and routed by a band of Creeks at Crab Orchard.

In the late 18th century, as Cherokee attacks subsided, the Walton Road was built as part of the theater road system connecting the Knoxville and Nashville areas. The road passed through Crab Orchard, bringing a steady stream of travelers and migrants to the area. Around 1800, Sidnor’s Inn opened at Crab Orchard, with Bishop Francis Asbury being among its obsolete guests. In 1827, Robert Burke, whose wife operated a tavern at what is now Ozone established the Crab Orchard Inn, which remained retrieve until the forward 20th century.