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Little Known Facts about Tennessee
- The city of Kingston served as Tennessee's state capital for one day
(September 21, 1807) as a result of treaties negotiated with the Cherokee
Indians. The two-hour legislative session passed two resolutions and
adjourned back to Knoxville.
- Andrew Johnson held every elective office at the local, state, and federal
level, including President of the United States. He was elected alderman,
mayor, state representative, and state senator from Greeneville. He served
as governor and military governor of Tennessee and United States
congressman, senator, and vice president, becoming President of the United
States following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
- The thoroughbred sace horse "Iroquois', bred at Nashville's Belle
Meade Plantation, was the first American winner of the English Derby in
1881. Such modern thoroughbreds as Secretariat trace their bloodlines to
Iroquois.
- Actress-singer Polly Bergen, from Knoxville, is the first woman to serve
on the Board of Directors of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
- Tennessee won its nickname as The Volunteer State during the War of 1812
when volunteer soldiers from Tennessee displayed marked valor in the Battle
of New Orleans.
- The Copper Basin is so different from the surrounding area it has been
seen and is recognizable by American astronauts. The stark landscape was
caused by 19th-century mining practices.
- There were more National Guard soldiers deployed from the state for the
Gulf War effort than any other state.
- There are more horses per capita in Shelby County than any other county in
the United States.
- The only person in American history to be both an Admiral in the Navy and
a General in the Army was Samuel Powhatan Carter who was born in
Elizabethton.
- Greeneville has the only monument in the United States honoring both the
Union and Confederate armies. It is located on the lawn of the Green County
Courthouse.
- The city of Murfreesboro lies in the exact geographical center of the
state.
- Grinders Switch, entertainer Minnie Pearl's fictitious hometown, is now an
entertainment complex in her real hometown of Centerville.
- Conifer forests similar to those in Canada are found in the higher
elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
- Hattie Caraway (1878-1950) born in Bakersville became the first woman
United States Senator.
- Davy Crockett was not born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, as the song
says. He was born on the banks of Limestone Creek near Greeneville, where a
replica of the Crockett's log cabin stands today.
- The Tennessee Aquarium is the largest facility of its kind to focus on
fresh water habitat. It features 7,000 animals and 300 species of fish,
birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.
- The largest earthquake in American history, the New Madrid Earthquake
occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in northwestern Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake
located in Obion and Lake Counties was formed during this earthquake.
- Reputed "Turtle Capital of the World," Reelfoot Lake also
features thousands of sliders, stinkpots, mud and map turtles.
- Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously running live radio
program in the world. It has broadcast every Friday and Saturday night since
1925.
- The legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones, who was killed when his train
crashed on April 30, 1900, lived in Jackson.
- Oak Ridge was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. Today,
because of constant energy research, it is known as the Energy Capital of
the World.
- Tennessee has more than 3,800 documented caves.
- The Alex Haley boyhood home in Henning is the first state-owned historic
site devoted to African Americans in Tennessee.
- Bristol is known as the Birthplace of Country Music.
- The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park
in the United States. The park was named for the smoke-like bluish haze that
often envelops these fabled mountains.
- Elvis Presley's home called Graceland is located in Memphis. Graceland is
the second most visited house in the country.
- Knoxville was home to the 1982 World's Fair. Attendance was recorded at
11,127,786 visitors.
- Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union during the Civil War
and the first state to be readmitted after the war.
- The nation's oldest African-American architectural firm, McKissack and
McKissack, is located in Nashville.
- The nation's oldest African-American financial institution, Citizens
Savings Bank and Trust Company, is located in Nashville.
- Robert R. Church, Sr. of Memphis is purported to be the South's first
African-American millionaire.
- The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is at the Lorraine Motel where
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain in 1968. The museum preserves the
motel and tells the history of the American Civil Rights Movement.
- A replica of The Parthenon, the famous ancient Greek building in Athens,
Greece, stands in Nashville's Centennial Park.
- The "Guinness Book of World Records" lists the Lost Sea in
Sweetwater as the largest underground lake in the United States.
- The Cherokee silversmith, Sequoyah, was the only known man in the history
of the world to single-handedly develop an alphabet. His syllabus for the
Cherokee Nation resulted in the first written language for a Native American
people. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore tells his story and is
dedicated to the history and culture of Native Americans.
- The Watauga Association at Sycamore Shoals near Elizabethton drafted the
first constitution ever written by white men in America in 1772. It was
patterned after the constitution of the Iroquois League of Nations, a
federal system of government developed 200 years earlier for five eastern
Native American tribes.
- Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tennessee
war hero Alvin York in the 1941 hit movie, Sergeant York. World War I hero
Sgt. Alvin C. York was born in Pall Mall.
- When Tennessee became a state in 1796, the total population was 77,000.
- The capitol building was designed by noted architect William Strickland,
who died during its construction and is buried within its walls.
- Tennessee ranks number one among other states in the total number of
soldiers who fought in the War Between the States.
- Tennesseeans are sometimes referred to as Butternuts, a tag which was
first applied to Tennessee soldiers during the Civil War because of the tan
color of their uniforms.
- The Ocoee River in southeastern Tennessee is rated among the top white
water recreational rivers in the nation and was the site for the Olympic
white water canoe/kayak competition in the 1996 Olympics.
- The name "Tennessee" originated from the old Yuchi Indian word,
"Tana-see," meaning "The Meeting Place."
- Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville introduced to the world
the plaintive beauty and tradition of the Negro spiritual, which became the
basis for other genres of African-American music. It was because of their
successful tours to raise funds for the university during the 1870s that
Nashville first became known for its music.
- Tennessee ties with Missouri as the most neighborly state in the union. It
is bordered by 8 states.
- Dolly Parton is a native of Sevierville. A major highway, the Dolly Parton
Parkway, takes visitors traveling to the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park.
- The world's largest artificial skiing surface is located at the Ober
Gatlinburg Ski Resort in Gatlinburg. There a 5-acre artificial ski surface
permits skiing in any type of weather.
- Coca-Cola was first bottle in 1899 at a plant on Patten Parkway in
downtown Chattanooga after two local attorneys purchased the bottling rights
to the drink for $l.00.
- Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, lost a football game to Georgia
Tech on October 7, 1916 by a score of 222 to 0. The Georgia Tech coach was
George Heisman for whom the Heisman Trophy is named.
- Cotton made Memphis a major port on the Mississippi River. The Memphis
Cotton Exchange still handles approximately one-third of the entire American
cotton crop each year.
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