A recent study by the Earl and Bubba Institute found that out of all Knoxvilles in the nation, the one in Tennessee ranks third best overall. Here are the rankings of all nine Knoxvilles:
- Knoxville, Iowa
- Knoxville, Georgia
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Knoxville, Arkansas
- Knoxville, Alabama
- Knoxville, Maryland
- Knoxville, Pennsylvania
- Knoxville, Illinois
- New Knoxville, Ohio
Earl Renfro, President of the Earl and Bubba Institute, said that the Knoxville, Iowa Chamber of Commerce website was really good, better than all the rest. Also, the Bessie Spaur Butterfly Gardens was the best tourist attraction of all the Knoxvilles. Finally, historically, the Knoxville in Iowa was the birthplace of Iowa’s state flag. All other Knoxvilles pale in historical comparison.
Bubba Sproles, CEO of the Earl and Bubba Institute, happens to be from Knoxville, Georgia, so it rated second. “Even though I’m from that one, nothing we got compares to the Iowa Knoxville’s Chamber of Commerce website,” he explained.
According to the team of researchers, the Knoxville in Tennessee is the one most people think of and comes up in most internet searches, making it a natural third. Having more victorian houses than any other Knoxville also helped boost its ranking. Traffic, air pollution, rampant construction, and random street closings and renamings kept it off the top of the list.
When ranking the other Knoxvilles, Sproles said, “We actually kinda ran out of funding by the time we got to number three. We don’t know a thing about the other six and just randomly ranked them. Heck, for all we know, the Knoxville in Illinois could actually be the fourth best.”
Their findings will not be published in the journal Nature or Discover Magazine.