Settled by A.J. Hall in 1852, Canoe grew as a railroad stop and saw wartime occupation by Confederate troops during the War Between the States, followed by a March 27, 1865 encampment of Union forces. Expansion came in the 1870s through the A.M. Lowery sawmill, and stores including those of the Farrar, Lowrey, Stanton, and Watson families prospered from the 1890s into the 1950s. Schools served local children, the L&N Railroad provided passenger service from 1890 into the 1960s, and the mineral springs became a social center whose water was bottled and shipped in the early 1900s. During the Great Depression, the WPA employed residents, local sons fought in WWII from 1941 to 1945, and by the mid-1960s many businesses had closed as larger commercial centers drew away Canoe’s residents.