Jamestown, the county seat of Russell County. Jamestown is located on U.S. 127. The town, first called Jacksonville, in honor of President Andrew Jackson, was incorporated on December 23, 1827. When the local Anti-Jacksonian Party came into power in 1826, the community was renamed Jamestown to honor James Wooldridge, donor of the one hundred acre town site.

 Three Russell County courthouses were built between 1826 and 1978. During the Civil War, Jamestown was the site of two recorded skirmishes; one on Christmas Day, 1861, and the second on June 2, 1863. Lake Cumberland, completed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1952, is of great economic importance to Jamestown for the recreational fishing and boating along its 1,317 miles of shoreline in the region.

Wolf Creek Dam is located in Russell County on the Cumberland River. Wolf Creek Dam, located in Russell County forming Lake Cumberland, was not only built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), but is also owned and operated by them. The Wolf Creek generation schedule included on TVA's automated lake information line as a courtesy to the public.