Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Niota, TN

Niota is an incorporated city in McMinn County, Tennessee, situated on U.S. Route 11 between Sweetwater and Athens.

The community was settled in the 1850s and was originally called Mouse Creek; it was renamed Niota in 1897 so it would not be confused with the Mossy Creek railroad stop, now Jefferson City.

The name Niota derives from 'Nee-o-tah,' a fictional Native American chief in a dime novel.

Niota was incorporated in 1911.

The Niota Depot, built in 1854 for the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, is the oldest standing railroad depot in Tennessee and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The depot remained in railroad use until July 4, 1972, when the Southern Railway deeded it to the city, and Niota preserved the building and used it as its City Hall.

Niota is the hometown of Harry T. Burn, the Tennessee legislator whose vote in 1920 secured ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and the letter his mother, Febb Burn, sent him before the vote became a famous part of the suffrage story.

In 1988, Niota voters elected the 'Golden Girls of Niota,' an all-female city government led by 78-year-old Mayor Effie Lones, making Niota's one of the first all-female city councils in the United States.

The 2020 census counted 772 people in Niota, up from 719 in 2010, living in 345 households and 255 families, with 366 housing units and a median age of 43.3 years.

Niota covers about 2.3 square miles, and State Route 309 connects the city to Interstate 75.