Estill Springs is part of the Winchester, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area and is located in Middle Tennessee.

The European-American town dates from circa 1840, when the Frank Estill family, which owned considerable property in the area, donated a right-of-way for railroad construction.

The combination of mineral waters, which were much in vogue as a health remedy at the time, and convenient rail access caused the settlement to develop as a small-scale spa town, which took its name from the springs.

Southern forces retreated through the town during the 1863 Tullahoma Campaign, named for the nearby community which served as Confederate headquarters.

The new highway connected the town to sources of employment in neighboring communities, and gave it a strategic position on the main artery between Nashville and Chattanooga.

The development of local lakes through dam construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority generated recreational business as well.

[6] During the time of Prohibition, Estill Springs was home to prominent local mobster and bootlegger Parker Jones.

Parker and his men also used Estill as their primary logistics hub to traffic the booze through Middle Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

[citation needed] The "Yellowhammer's Nest", the turn-of-the-century home of noted Tennessee author Will Allen Dromgoole, was destroyed by fire in 1972.