Corryton is an unincorporated community in northeastern Knox County

Knox County, Tennessee

Knox County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its 2007 population was estimated at 423,874 by the United States Census Bureau. Its county seat is Knoxville, as it has been since the creation of the county. The county is at the geographical center of the Great Valley of East Tennessee...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, about 15 miles north of Knoxville

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

. The United States Geographic Names System classifies Corryton as a populated place

Populated place

A populated place is a place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population referenced with geographic coordinates...

. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

 Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Corryton is situated near two mountains, House Mountain (the highest point in Knox County) and Clinch Mountain

Clinch Mountain

Clinch Mountain is a mountain ridge in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Virginia, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains...

. It includes a grade school, a public library, community center, and several churches including Little Flat Creek Baptist Church (founded in 1797, making it the first Baptist church organized in Knox County), Corryton Church (formerly Corryton Baptist) and Rutherford Memorial United Methodist.

Gibbs High School

Gibbs High School (Corryton, Tennessee)

Gibbs High School is a public high school located in Corryton, Tennessee located at 7628 Tazewell Pike. The school was founded in 1913 in a two story brick building built on 12 acres which burned down in 1937. The second building burned down 13 years later in 1950. The third and current school...

 in Corryton has several famous alumni, including country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

ians Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney

Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...

, Con Hunley

Con Hunley

Conard Logan "Con" Hunley is a country music singer.Hunley was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. After graduating from Central High School in Knoxville, Hunley began playing with local bands, maturing musically and gaining his first fans. Hunley joined the Air Force in 1965 and spent most of his...

, Phil Leadbetter

Phil Leadbetter

Phil Leadbetter is one of the leading players of the resonator guitar.In 1994, Phil received a Grammy Nomination for "Best Bluegrass Album" at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards for his work with J. D. Crowe and the New South on the album "Flashback". In 2005 he was voted International Bluegrass Music...

, and Ashley Monroe

Ashley Monroe

Ashley Monroe is an American country music singer-songwriter. She has released two solo singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The singles "Satisfied" and "I Don't Want To" reached #43 and #37, respectively...

.

On April 25, 1983, Thomas Knauff

Thomas Knauff

Thomas L. Knauff is an American author, glider pilot, flight instructor, Federal Aviation Administration Designated Pilot Examiner, and a member of the U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame. He was an early pioneer of ridge soaring in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in the 1960s, ultimately setting five...

 set an FAI

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...

 world record

World record

A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...

 flying a glider

Glider (sailplane)

A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...

 on an out-and-return course of 1646.68 km (1,023.2 mi), releasing from tow over Williamsport Regional Airport

Williamsport Regional Airport

Williamsport Regional Airport is a public towered airport located east of the central business district of Williamsport, a city in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, USA...

 in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, flying south along the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from southeastern New York through northwestern New...

 to take a turn-point photograph of the Little Flat Creek Church in Corryton, then returning for a landing after a 10 hour flight. The photographs were published in National Geographic magazine. This world record stood until 2003 when it was broken in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, but still stands as a U.S. national record.