Carroll County is a county located in the western division of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,440.^[2] Its county seat is Huntingdon.^[3] The county was established by the Tennessee General Assembly on November 7, 1821,^[4] and was named for Governor William Carroll.^[5]

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Carroll County
County
Carroll County Courthouse in Huntingdon
Location within the U.S. state of Tennessee
Tennessee's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 35°59′N 88°27′W
Country	United States
State	Tennessee
Founded	November 7, 1821
Named for	William Carroll[1]
Seat	Huntingdon
Largest city	McKenzie
Area
• Total	600 sq mi (2,000 km2)
• Land	599 sq mi (1,550 km2)
• Water	0.8 sq mi (2 km2)  0.1%
Population  (2020)
• Total	28,440
• Density	48/sq mi (19/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	8th
Website	carrollcountytn.gov

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 600 square miles (1,600 km²), of which 599 square miles (1,550 km²) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²) (0.1%) is water.^[6]

The Carroll County Thousand Acre Recreational Lake serves as a large water territory in Carroll County, Tennessee. Many locals have called the lake their home for years.

In 2022, the county attempted to change the name, but after citizens of the county petitioning to keep the original name, they kept the Carrol County Thousand Acre Recreational Lake name the same.

The Carroll County Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles (4.6 mi; 7.4 km) northwest of the central business district of Huntingdon, Tennessee.^[15]

In the 21st century, Carroll County is overwhelmingly Republican. In general, the alignment of voters with the two major parties has shifted since the late 20th century, but Carroll County had a different history. Conservative whites in the upland and Deep South largely shifted away from the Democratic Party in the late 20th century to the Republican Party, but Carroll County had only briefly supported Democratic presidential candidates in the 20th century: 1912, when Southerner Woodrow Wilson was elected; from 1932 to 1948, for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman during the Depression and years of World War II and after, and Southerners Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Bill Clinton in 1992–1996.^[16]

But at the time of the American Civil War and for decades after, Carroll was the northernmost county in the Unionist Republican bloc, made up of Wayne, Henderson, Hardin and McNairy counties, within historically Democratic West Tennessee. The whites in this bloc were yeomen farmers who owned few slaves; most identified as Unionist. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Carroll County voted to remain in the Union by a margin of 1,349 to 967,^[17] whilst earlier on February 9, 1861, county voters voted against holding a secession convention by a margin of 1,495 to 678.^[18] Historians note that the enclave developed this way because, unlike in the fertile Delta, this region of the Highland Rim had soils that were shallow, humus-poor and easily erodible. Settlers who were poor could acquire land here, as the area could not support the plantations more typical of Middle and West Tennessee, which were dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans.^[19]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Carroll County, Tennessee