My family is uprooting from Concord, NC and moving to just outside Rogersville, TN. We bought enough land for my wife to do a small homestead and for me to set up a 300 yard range and a separate 75-100 yard range. No more range fees!

Talk to me about the best stuff in Hawkins County. BBQ, Class 3 ffl dealer, breweries, best local hikes. Mead, any meaderies? I'm largely a stay at my place kind of guy with the exception of hiking, but I need to know where to get all the good stuff to bring home.

BBQ, breweries, mead……….????

Picture 1985 and you have it.

In Hawkins county??????



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I worked in Hawkins County, didn’t live there…

Concur with the latest report.  You can buy alcohol in the liquor store, but no by-the-glass in restaurants that I visited.  It’s a rural, agrarian county.  Not a lot of trouble more than property crimes, and the occasional meth bust.  For Class III, I recommend Gunslinger’s gun shop in downtown Kingsport.  I’m unaware of any others.

No mead to be had.  You may want to try brewing your own.  The hills are full of taxed and untaxed clear liquor…keep your eyes and ears open, and you’ll find it.

LOTS of churches!!  Don’t be afraid to ask around for a good one.  The local grocery stores, barber shop, and such can steer you in a cardinal direction.  I haven’t heard of any snake-handling churches during my tenure in upper East TN, but I would assume there are some out there.  I know of two near Sevier County, where I reside.

Welcome to your Tennessee home!

OP, I’ve just got to ask, how did you find Hawkins county coming from basically Charlotte? Talk about a culture shock.

Also, I assume you visited Hawkins county prior to purchasing? What other areas did you consider?

ETA: I am also assuming you do not have school age kids? Retired or work from home?

I work in Hawkins Co. Everyone else has pretty much nailed it. I have a buddy who makes mead and is looking to open a meadery in Johnson City next year.

We decided to take advantage of the current housing market and sell our house near Charlotte for a buttload more than we paid. We've been looking for houses in the mountains, as that was were we wanted to end up eventually, and we thought "why wait." Our only real criteria was: In or very close to the mountains, has to have at least 500Mbps internet, has to have room and allow me to shoot on my own property, has to have room and allow us to have livestock, has to have a place for me to house my disabled mother.

We searched a lot in NC, but either the house went under contract before we could even make a move, or it didn't meet one of the requirements. (Do you know how many damn towns in NC have no internet to speak of right outside city limits? Oh, yeah Bostic. I'm looking at your 1Gbps having butts while the house I wanted was 2 miles outside of the area the ISP serviced.) We expanded our search to GA and TN. The house we wound up with is much easier to pick my daughter up from (She lives with her mom in Morganton, NC) and meets the rest of the criteria. (GA is also lite on internet.)

My stepson starts college this year, so he wasn't a factor. And honestly, my daughter is not in a great school anyway, so if she ever did come live with me it's a wash.

We did not visit, but we did do some research as far as availability of grocery shopping (Wal-Mart is 10 minutes away, Ingles is 40) and other stuff we use normally. We've since been to the area to visit the house and Rogersville. Works for me. There's WAY too many people in the Charlotte area, and we both work from home. I grew up on a farm in upstate NY, so rural is my default setting, and working from home allows me to live anywhere I damn well please. Which is now on the side of a mountain in Hawkins TN. The occasionally whinnying of a neighbors horse, a hawk screeching as it hunter, and some distant sheep were the only sounds we heard in our 3 hours at the house during inspection. Perfect. (Sorry neighbors, I will be the noisy one making occasional mag dumps on my range. Most of my stuff is suppressed though, so you'll only notice steel pings coming from the forest. )

That works, JC is pretty much the area it looks like we will be shopping in when the wife needs to go to Target or something. Funny thing is, I grew up near Johnson City NY and I've been to JC TN for work trips before. My home town was near the Triple Cities in NY (Binghamton, JC, Endicott) and now I am near the Tri-Cities in TN which includes another Johnson City.

Gunslinger's, got it.

I rarely eat out, so not a big deal. I use to be a bartender, and I find my own mixes superior to most places I have tried drinks at.

Yeah, we looked up crime. Looks like kind of a poor area with a bunch of property and meth crimes. Pretty similar to where I grew up. NOTHING AT ALL like where I live now. Murders, car theft, home invasions, you name it.

Don't know your opinion on the mask/vax/rona issue, but Gunslingers is hard-core mask.  Cover your 6 customs in JC is also a C3 Dealer. Gunrunners in Blountville is also, but I'm not sure if they are still open.

drop your Southern tier accent and you should be fine.

Hawkins County considers Memorial day a Yankee holiday, so keep that in mind with some of the people you will meet.

I get what you’re saying about Charlotte. That area has grown by leaps and bounds and now has all the problems associated with that.

There are a lot of counties in east TN as you describe them, close to the mountains, large enough to shoot on, etc. But it surprises me that Hawkins county is on your list, but hey, welcome aboard.

I understand about the internet speeds you need and you are correct, even areas with a larger population than Hawkins county have few if any options other than satellite.

FYI, now that you’re headed to Hawkins county, before you get there, look up the Melungeons. An interesting group of people and you will be in among them, you will definitely be able to tell them from the others. And do NOT get me wrong, this is in NO way a slur on them. I have known some and would they give you the shirt off their backs. It’s just an interesting side note to the area.

Hey we just moved to Morristown last month from near Greensboro.  I grew up not far from Binghamton in NEPA.  We're hoping to wait out the housing market for the next year or so before buying.

NEPA as well, just north of that shithole Scranton

Food City sells Spiedie sauce

I transferred to Hawkins County in September 1997. I'll probably die right here, at our camper near Pittman Center, or on the road between the 2. Try the Red Dog on Main for some decent beer and some good food. Just never, EVER say "back home we did......"

Nice!

When are you coming into town?

I was in there a couple of weeks ago and while they had signs everywhere stating you need to wear a mask, they didn't say anything to me or my son for not wearing one. Of course that can change daily..

Gunrunners is still open in Blountville, just call ahead before you go.  There is also M&M on road 113 going towards Morristown. They sold me my first can a few years back.

Not sure which side of Rogersville you are on, Hwy 70 North or 70 South. We've had a lot of out of state people move in on the Sneedville side. Some good, some not so much.....