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Tennessee State Route 33

highway in Tennessee

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ4077369 ↗
Source-derived summary

State Route 33 (SR 33) is a primary and secondary route in East Tennessee. It runs 176 miles (283 km), from the Georgia state line in Polk County, northeast to the Virginia state line north of Kyles Ford in Hancock County. South of Maryville, SR 33 is a "hidden" route that shares a concurrency with US 411.

The section of SR 33 between Knoxville and Tazewell, along with US 25E between Tazewell and Middlesboro, Kentucky, was an inspiration for the song The Ballad of Thunder Road. In the song, a moonshiner runs illegal whiskey from Kentucky to Knoxville on this route. Sections of the former SR 33 in Union County have signs marking "The Original Thunder Road".

Route description

Polk County

SR 33 begins in Polk County in Tennga at the Georgia state line concurrent with US 411 as its unsigned companion route. It begins as a primary highway. US 411/SR 33 go north and pass by the community of Conasauga and cross over the Conasauga River to enter Old Fort where they intersect SR 313. They continue north to Ocoee where they widen to four lanes and have an interchange with US 64/US 74/SR 40.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Tennessee State Route 33” as highway in Tennessee. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tennessee, State and Route.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 196-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Tennessee, State and Route providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tennessee State Route 33”, the useful work is to connect “highway in Tennessee” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4077369. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tennessee State Route 33”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tennessee State Route 33 primary sources, Tennessee State Route 33 archive and Tennessee research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tennessee State Route 33”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tennessee State Route 33” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.