Kingsport can be found in the northeastern part of the state of Tennessee and a city in Sullivan County and is in the Holston River that is near the Virginia border and in the northeast part of Knoxville. The area where the present-day Kingsport was settled when the entrepreneur William King founded a boatyard along the river in the 1700s. The zone used to be a part of the short-lived State of Franklin during the 1780s. In 1864, a minor battle took place in the site during the American Civil War. Kingsport began to develop in 1910 after the railroad around 1910 brought the industry and commerce to the region, and the land was then purchased for a new town in 1916 by the Massachusetts city planner John Nolen.