The community is located at the northeastern tip of the Great Smoky Mountains and lies within the Cherokee National Forest.

[4] The community is situated in a narrow valley along the Pigeon River, which flows from its source high in the Blue Ridge Mountains down into the flatlands of Cocke County.

To the west, Foothills Parkway traverses Green Mountain, connecting the Pigeon Valley to Cosby, Tennessee.

Innovations such as the band saw and high demand for wood led lumber companies to seek out the dense forests of the Appalachian Mountains for timber.

In 1917, the Boice Hardwood Company erected a band mill at Hartford with plans to log the river's north bank all the way to Max Patch Mountain.

The bandsaw hummed, the cut-off saw screeched, and the drag-chain rumbled as it carried trash, cull lumber, and sawdust up the conveyor to the blazing furnace.

[8] As the mill prospered in the 1920s Hartford grew to include several frame houses, a general store, a post office, a school, and a movie theater.

Smith recalled a baptism held in Hartford in the dead of winter in 1925: At two o'clock that Sunday afternoon, Rev.

We spectators watched with steamy breath from the river banks as the newly converted believers were momentarily buried in the icy waters.

[10] With the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the timber market dried up, and Boice Hardwood was forced to close.

The debate reached a high point in 1988, when then-Senator Al Gore— who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination— intervened on behalf of Champion.

[14] In spite of Gore's apparent snub, pressure from environmental groups continued, and Champion began taking measures to drastically reduce dioxin emissions in the early 1990s.

[15] Along with being one of the few refueling stops along the 60-mile stretch of I-40 between Newport and Waynesville, North Carolina, Hartford has managed to take advantage of its position along a relatively rapid leg of the Pigeon River to attract whitewater rafting enthusiasts.