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Jonestown

Ghost town · Cocke County, Tennessee

Paint Rock quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000)
Paint Rock quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Jonestown is a ghost town in Cocke County, Tennessee. It is one of 8 former communities in Cocke County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 34th among the 86 Tennessee counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Jonestown as a historical populated place on the Paint Rock topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 35.8834° N, 82.9707° W.

Key facts

USGS quadranglePaint Rock
Elevation1,609 ft
Nearest living townHot Springs, NC
Distance to it7.9 miles
GNIS feature ID1309119
Coordinates35.88343, -82.97070

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Jonestown today, aerial view
Paint Rock quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000)

Left: Paint Rock quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Jonestown is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Hot Springs, NC (population 494), about 7.9 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 1,609 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Jonestown?

Jonestown is in Cocke County, Tennessee, at 35.8834, -82.9707.

How many ghost towns are in Cocke County?

Cocke County, Tennessee has 8 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.