Prior to the settlement of the Europeans, Polk County was inhabited by the Cherokee, and before them, thousands of years of indigenous cultures.

The portion of Polk County north of the Hiwassee River was ceded by the Cherokee Nation to the US in the Calhoun Treaty of 1819.

[1] Polk County was created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly on November 23, 1839.

By the 1850s, a large mining operation was underway in southeastern Polk County; the area became known as the Copper Basin.

On November 29, 1864, a series of raids by Confederate bushwhacker John P. Gatewood in Polk County resulted in at least 16 deaths.

Nicknamed "Polkstock" due to its resemblance to 1969's Woodstock in Bethel, New York, the event was expected to attract approximately 500,000 people.

Locals strongly opposed it, especially members of the religious communities, who believed the festival would bring much of the perceived rock music culture.

[6] On May 27, 1983, a massive explosion at a secret illegal fireworks factory killed eleven workers.

[7] The Ocoee Whitewater Center was the site of the canoe slalom events for the 1996 Summer Olympics, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

For most of its history, the mines in the Copper Basin were the largest source of employment in Polk County.

[22] Before the reconstruction project was complete, a struggle ensued between TVA and the rafting companies over usage of the river, which culminated in a 1984 agreement with TVA to schedule periodic releases of water through the dam at certain times of the year to allow for whitewater rafting.

Today, tourism associated with rafting, kayaking, and canoeing the Hiwassee and Ocoee Rivers is the largest sector of Polk County's economy, drawing more than 250,000 people to the area annually.

[27] Like East Tennessee, Polk has always leaned Republican, though to a lesser extent than most counties in the region.

However, during the Great Depression and World War II, this changed drastically, with Polk County giving 92.7% of the vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 (it swung hard to the GOP between 1944 and 1948).

Today, Polk County is very conservative, giving nearly 80% of its popular vote to Donald Trump in 2016- although it did support Bill Clinton (D-AR) twice.

Polk County is served by Martin Campbell Field, a general aviation airport.