Rockwood is a city in Roane County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, Rockwood had a population of 5,444. It is included in the Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

Rockwood is located at (35.869147, -84.675176). The city is situated at the base of the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau, known locally as Walden Ridge. The boundary between the Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone runs along Rockwood's western boundary. The Watts Bar Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River provides much of Rockwood's southern boundary.

thumb|220px|left|Rockwood, viewed from Mt. Roosevelt (Walden Ridge)

Rockwood is situated around a series of roads which intersect U.S. Route 70 between its junction with State Route 29 in the northeast and State Route 27 to the southwest. In recent years, the town has expanded toward Interstate 40 to the northeast. Rockwood is a familiar site to travelers who frequent I-40 between Knoxville and Nashville, as dramatic views of Rockwood and the Tennessee Valley beyond line the interstate just before it peaks at the edge of the Cumberland Plateau.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.63%) is water.

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Rockwood had a population of 5,444, with 1,175 families residing in the city. The median age was 43.0 years. 21.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.5% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 88.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 82.1 males age 18 and over.

94.9% of residents lived in urban areas, while 5.1% lived in rural areas.

There were 2,304 households in Rockwood, of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 33.0% were married-couple households, 20.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 36.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 4,770 || 87.6%

|-

| Black or African American || 227 || 4.2%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 23 || 0.4%

|-

| Asian || 37 || 0.7%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 1 || 0.0%

|-

| Some other race || 58 || 1.1%

|-

| Two or more races || 328 || 6.0%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 132 || 2.4%

|}

2000 census

As of the census

Roane Iron Company

thumb|210px|right|The Roane Iron Company furnace site at the end of Rockwood Street; the small building on the left is all that remains of the once vast iron works

Union general John T. Wilder, who in the 1850s had managed a foundry in Indiana, noted the iron ore and coal deposits of the Cumberland Plateau region while operating in the area during the Civil War. After the war, Wilder and Ohio-born Knoxville Iron Company founder Hiram Sanborn Chamberlain purchased at what is now Rockwood, selecting the location due to the ore and coal resources at the base of Walden Ridge, the proximity to the Tennessee River, and an assumption that the encroaching railroads would descend the Plateau at nearby Emory Gap. Wilder and Chamberlain enlisted several other investors from Indiana and Ohio, and the Roane Iron Company was chartered on June 18, 1867. By late 1868, the company had constructed a blast furnace with a capacity of 15 tons per day between the ridge and the end of what is now Rockwood Street.

The company mined coal and iron ore along the ridge, which it transported by narrow-gauge rail to the furnace site. The coal was delivered to coking ovens, where it was converted into coke, and the coke was then used to generate the temperatures needed to convert the iron ore into pig iron. The pig iron was then shipped by river to rolling mills in Knoxville and Chattanooga, and was used primarily in railroad construction. In the early 1880s, Roane Iron purchased a rolling mill in Chattanooga and experimented with steel production, but the Walden Ridge ore proved to be too low-quality for such a process, and the company abandoned its steel venture in 1889.

Roane Iron's Rockwood furnace employed a mix of local labor (both caucasian and African-American) and immigrants (especially Welsh immigrants), and did not practice wage discrimination.

After Roane Iron's collapse in 1929, Rockwood struggled with unemployment. At the outbreak of World War II, however, the Tennessee Products Corporation reopened the iron works to produce ferromanganese for the wartime effort.

  • Christian H. Cooper (b. 1976), derivatives trader, Truman National Security Fellow and member of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • Nancy-Ann DeParle (b. 1956), Rhodes Scholar, American expert on health care issues and director of White House Office of Health Reform.
  • Michael Calvin McGee (1943–2002), academic
  • C. M. Newton (1930–2018), basketball player, coach and administrator, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame

References

  • Official City of Rockwood website
  • Municipal Technical Advisory Service entry for Rockwood — information on local government, elections, and link to charter
  • Rockwood, Tennessee — Roane County Heritage Commission website