RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Tennessee >> Smith County >> DifficultIndex...

Welcome to Difficult ...

Difficult is located in Smith County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Difficult, you might consider that their post office opened in 1866.

From the 2010 Census (the most recent Census number we have), Difficult had a population of 14,538 people.<2> (see below for details).

Difficult is 530 feet [162 m] above sea level.<3>.

Time Zone: Difficult lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Note: If you leave Difficult and travel east, you will leave Central Time and cross into the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT).

Area Codes for Difficult: 615 & 629<4>

Communities near Difficult ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Difficult.

  • Columbus Hill
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Columbus Hill is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus Hill
    • Estimated population in 2014: 36,071 people
  • Hartsville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Temperance Hall
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Lafayette
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Lafayette
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lafayette is located in Putnam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lafayette
    • Estimated population in 2014: 4,962 people
  • Centerville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Carthage
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Pekin ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Pekin is located in Putnam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pekin
    • Estimated population in 2014: 2,114 people
  • Bluff Creek
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Bluff Creek is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluff Creek
    • Estimated population in 2014: 1,734 people
  • South Carthage
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • South Carthage is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Carthage
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,406 people

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Difficult. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Difficult.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Difficult. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Difficult.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Difficult. See our Newspapers Page for Difficult.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Difficult ...

Looking for more information about Difficult? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Difficult, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Difficult.

Adding Difficult to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Difficult in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Difficult was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<6>

From that list, the Difficult post office opened in 1866. The Difficult post office closed in 1957.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Difficult.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Tennessee's counties, including Smith, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. For more detail, please visit our Census Page for Difficult.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Difficult - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 615 code has been Overlayed with the 629 area code. New phone numbers in the Difficult area will be assigned with one of these codes: 615 or 629. As a result, placing a call in the Difficult area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<5>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<6>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/