William Bean, traditionally recognized as Tennessee's first white settler, built his cabin along Boone's Creek near Johnson City in 1769.

[9] In the 1780s, Colonel John Tipton (1730–1813) established a farm (now the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site) just outside what is now Johnson City.

Both rail systems featured excursion trips through scenic portions of the Blue Ridge Mountains and were engineering marvels of railway construction.

[13] During the American Civil War, before it was formally incorporated in 1869, the name of the town was briefly changed to "Haynesville" in honor of Confederate Senator Landon Carter Haynes.

However, the national depression of 1893, which caused many railway failures (including the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad or "3-Cs", a predecessor of the Clinchfield) and resulting financial panic, halted Johnson City's boom town momentum.

Construction on this 450-acre (1.8 km2) campus, which was designed to serve disabled Civil War veterans, was completed in 1903 at a cost of $3 million.

The East Tennessee State Normal School was authorized in 1911 and the new college campus directly across from the National Soldiers Home.

[19] The Fountain Square area in downtown featured a host of local and traveling street entertainers including Blind Lemon Jefferson.

[20] Stories persist that the town was one of several distribution centers for Chicago gang boss Al Capone during Prohibition.

Capone had a well-organized distribution network within the southern United States for alcohol smuggling; it shipped his products from the mountain distillers to northern cities.

Capone was, according to local lore, a part-time resident of Montrose Court, a luxury apartment complex now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Title Six, Section 106 of the city's municipal code, the so-called "Barney Fife" ordinance, empowers the city's police force to draft into involuntary service as many of the town's citizens as necessary to aid police in making arrests and in preventing or quelling any riot, unlawful assembly or breach of peace.

The Watauga River arm of Boone Lake, a Tennessee Valley Authority reservoir, is partly within the city limits.

[citation needed] Johnson City has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with warm summers and cool winters.

Johnson City is an economic hub largely fueled by East Tennessee State University and the medical "Med-Tech" corridor,[14] anchored by the Johnson City Medical Center and Niswonger Children's Hospital, Franklin Woods Community Hospital, ETSU's Gatton College of Pharmacy, and ETSU's Quillen College of Medicine.

[35] As a regional hub for a four-state area, Johnson City is home to a large variety of retail businesses, from well-known national chains to local boutiques and galleries.

Northeast State Community College has renovated a building in downtown Johnson City for use as a new satellite teaching site.

[51] Johnson City serves as a regional medical center for northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, along with parts of western North Carolina and southeastern Kentucky.

[53] James H. and Cecile C. Quillen Rehabilitation Hospital serves patients who have suffered debilitating trauma, including stroke and brain-spine injuries.