Backbone Rock Recreation Area is located along Beaverdam
Creek in northern Johnson County. Backbone Rock gets its name from a spur ridge
on Holston Mountain that abrubtly ends at a bend in Beaverdam Creek.
A tunnel was drilled through the rock in 1901 to allow
railroad access between Shady Valley and Damascus, VA. Motorists pass through
what is known as "The Shortest Tunnel in the World" as they travel
along TN 133. In the 1930s The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the
recreation area for day use, constructing two picnic shelters and hiking trails
that incorporated native stonework. The campground was added in the 1960s and
rehabilitated in the mid 1990s.