Tell City traces its 150+ year old roots to a meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio in November 1856.

The society's purpose was to obtain affordable homesteads for mechanics, shopkeepers, factory workers, and small farmers in a location where all could live in harmony.

The Society decided to purchase a tract of land three miles (5 km) square to be surveyed as a city plot.

The group was sent out to purchase the land and told to keep in mind they should find a healthful climate, fertile soil, good water, ample timber, as well as a location near a navigable river and a railroad, if possible.

Initially called Helvetia, it was soon renamed Tell City, a name easier to pronounce and remember for English-speaking people.

They are named for great persons of the military, arts, letters and science: DeKalb, Watt, Winkelried, Steuben, Payne, Herrman, Reubens, Lafayette, Schiller, Tell, Fulton, Jefferson, Mozart, Franklin, Humboldt, Pestalozzi, Washington, Blum and Gutenberg.

After the success of the Centennial, the Tell City Historical Society decided they would sponsor a festival in 1959 to determine if the community would support it as an annual event.

On March 17, 1960, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed Electra turboprop airliner flying from Chicago to Miami lost a wing due to aerodynamic flutter and crashed in southern Indiana near Tell City.

A monument with the names of the victims and the date of the tragedy marks the grave.

[9] As of the census[13] of 2010, there were 7,272 people, 3,224 households, and 1,971 families residing in the city.

34.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

33.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.