The Knoxville History Project enjoys a special partnership with local author and historian Laura Still, the creative force behind Knoxville Walking Tours.
Laura Still, author, poet, and founder of Knoxville Walking Tours.
Laura offers quality, educational, and fun historical tours around Knoxville, and opens a window to the city’s varied past by leading you on a journey through the hard times and high times of a city growing through more than two centuries of history.
She was inspired to create Knoxville Walking Tours after discovering Jack Neely’s long-running “Secret History” column in Metropulse. After that alternative newspaper ended suddenly in 2013, Jack established the educational nonprofit Knoxville History Project and continues to serve as its founding executive director and chief historian.
Paul James, director of publishing and development for KHP, asked Laura a few questions about her tours.
How did you get involved in telling Knoxville’s stories?
I’m a native East Tennessean, and come from a family of storytellers, with poets, writers, and musicians on both sides. I was born and educated in upper East Tennessee, and when I moved to Knoxville in 1980, my plan was to return home after a couple of years, but that was 39 years ago. I fell in love with Knoxville, but really didn’t know much about its history until I started working downtown and reading Jack Neely’s “Secret History” column. In 2006, I worked briefly at Visit Knoxville where we would be frequently asked for a tour guide. No one else was offering regular tours, and historians like Jack simply didn’t have the time. But he encouraged me to start offering guided tours and it took off.
Did any particular Jack Neely stories help you get started?
I think the first one that really caught my imagination was about Adolf Ochs, and how his fear of a local ghost story, surrounding the First Presbyterian graveyard, caused him to stay working at Captain Rule’s newspaper, The Daily Journal, until daylight. (Ochs went on to have a highly successful newspaper career and ultimately became the owner and editor of the New York Times and made it into what it is today.) But I also love the story about the mysterious death of author and former Knoxvillian George Washington Harris, and how he was found dead on a train that had stopped off at the Southern Railway Station here in Knoxville. It was an incredible coincidence because he wasn’t living here at the time. It was later discovered that he had been poisoned.
Who or what else has inspired your tours over the years?
Almost all of our historic sites and organizations in Knoxville are run by nonprofits and depend on dedicated volunteers and donations to keep their doors open. I can’t even begin to name all of the people who have helped me along the way or describe how generous Knoxville historians and docents are with their time and knowledge. Contributions and hard work of ordinary people preserve and keep our history alive, and this inspired me to do my part. I believe sharing the stories of our past connects us and gives us a sense of belonging, of being part of that same story in the present. All of us are indebted to the people who came before us, and this inspires me, and I hope others, to work for a better future.
If someone is looking to try a walking tour for the first time, which one would you recommend?
One of the first pieces of advice Jack gave me was don’t try to tell the story of Knoxville on just one tour, because you can’t do it justice. That’s why I have so many tours, some of them built around a particular time period, like the Civil War Tour, and some around a subject, like the Musical History tour. So ,it depends on what you are interested in, but I tend to recommend the Early Years tour if you are a newcomer to the area, or a local who wants to hear the stories they didn’t teach you in school. If you love historical ghost stories, then our original Shadow Side Ghost Tour is a great place to start. The Civil War Tour and The Gunslingers are also popular tours.
What do Knoxville residents on your tours often find most surprising about Knoxville history?
People from all over the world are amazed by the extraordinary things that ordinary people have accomplished—or gotten away with—in Knoxville. Our stories are both unique and relatable, and I think people from Knoxville are always surprised that our history is so universal and eccentric at the same time. Knoxville has been a microcosm of U.S. history, but there’s always that East Tennessee twist hidden in it somewhere.
Are there any misconceptions that prevent people from taking a walking tour?
People often think that you walk the entire time, or that it’s strenuous. We spend more time telling stories than walking, and most tours are less than a mile, taken at a gentle pace. There are even places to sit down on most of them, so it’s really not hard. I really work to make the routes handicap-accessible, but sometimes we can’t avoid steps. But if I know in advance, I can adjust routes to accommodate.
Knoxville Walking Tours brings to life the stories of pioneers, soldiers, outlaws, and others who walked these streets before us. Find all tour descriptions and online booking KnoxvilleWalkingTours.com or their website or call 865-309-4522.
A portion of the proceeds from all downtown tours support the Knoxville History Project.
This article first appeared in the June 2024 issue of West Knoxville Lifestyle magazine.
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