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ABOUT TENNESSEE
TENNESSEE is a fun-filled vacation destination from the Great Smoky Mountains in the East, to the rolling horse country and city scapes of Middle Tennessee, to the world capital of country music in Nashville and the blues on Beale Street and Graceland in Memphis .... all amid rolling hills, mountain streams, river cities, world renowned attractions and shopping in malls to outlet stores to antiques.
The home in BRISTOL where Tennessee Ernie Ford was born is garnished with mementos.
The West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in BROWNSVILLE looks at America's past “Through The Eyes Of Cotton”; it also houses the West Tennessee Music Museum.
CHATTANOOGA, the capital of the Southeast Tennessee region, is a thriving mid-sized city rich with history, culture and a variety of outdoor activities; The Battles for Chattanooga Electric Map & Museum recreates the battles that sealed the fate of the Confederacy; the Tennessee Civil War Museum tells the story of the Federal and Southern soldiers who fought in the Western Theater. Visitors can ride the world’s steepest passenger railway on Lookout Mountain Incline Railway in Chattanooga. Some 1,120 feet below the surface of Lookout Mountain is Ruby Falls, a spectacular 145ft. natural waterfall; other attractions are Rock City, Tennessee Wildlife Center, the world’s largest freshwater Aquarium, and the vacation complex Chattanooga Choo Choo; the Dragon Dreams Museum has thousands of porcelain and other dragons.
The Cherokee Scenic Loop Tour guides visitors along CLEVELAND’s scenic and historic attractions; for Ocoee region history there is the Museum Center at Five Points.
At the heart of Plantation Country, COLUMBIA is said to be the “Antebellum Homes Capital of Tennessee”.
At CROSSVILLE, located in the Upper Cumberland region, Cumberland Mountain State Park is America’s largest forested plateau.
General Grant won his first major victory at Fort Donelson National Battlefield, DOVER. Attractions in the Land between the Lakes National Recreation Area include a living history farm, nature center and planetarium and wildlife viewing.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park sits at GATLINBURG’s doorstep, offering 800 square miles of flora, fauna and outdoor activity; other attractions include the Guinness World of Records Museum, the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum, Ripley’s Haunted Adventure and the high-tech simulator Ripley’s Moving Theater; visitors can ride the aerial tramway to winter sports and entertainment at the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort & Amusement Park.
The Alex Haley House Museum, HENNING, is the restored boyhood home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
The historic 1890s home of America’s most legendary railroad man is now the Casey Jones Home & Railroad Museum in JACKSON.
From the huge KENTUCKY LAKE to Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee is loaded with vacation spots for all water lovers.
Among the historic buildings in KNOXVILLE is Blount Mansion, birthplace of Tennessee statehood in 1796; other attractions are the East Tennessee Historical Society Museum, the East Tennessee Discovery Center, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and Knoxville Zoological Gardens.
David Crockett Cabin & Museum and the David Crockett State Park are in LAWRENCEBURG.
Visitors can observe every step of the sour-mash whiskey-making art in LYNCHBURG at the Jack Daniel Distillery, the nation’s oldest registered distillery.
The proximity of the Mississippi River and the Delta long ago made MEMPHIS a musical melting pot. Beale Street Historic District, the "Home of the Blues," is an entertainment district with many of the old honky-tonks, bars, and pawnshops turned into new restaurants, nightspots, theaters, and shops; attractions include the W.C. Handy Home Museum where The “Father of the Blues” wrote some of his most famous songs, B.B. King's Blues Club and the Center for Southern Folklore which is dedicated to Southern traditions and culture; The Sun Studio launched the careers of Elvis, BB King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and others. Visitors can rock ‘n’ roll their way through Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Southern Mansion, and at the Memphis Rock'n'Soul Museum. Memphis was originally a cotton market and briefly a slave market.; it is the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and home of the National Civil Rights Museum; further attractions include the Mud Island River Park, which gives visitors a taste of life on the Mississippi River, Libertyland, and a family amusement park, and Putt-Putt Family Park.
Cannonsburgh Village in MURFREESBORO is a reconstructed Southern pioneer village.
NASHVILLE, the state capital of Tennessee, is also the country music capital of the world expressed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum; the Grand Ole Opry Museum pays tribute to Hall of Fame members and the Opry and its stars; the Music Valley Wax Museum has more than 50 lifelike wax figures of country music's greatest stars, dressed in their original outfits. Opry Mills is a shopping and entertainment destination while Opryland Hotel is also an entertainment and retail experience; other attractions include Belle Meade Plantation, Cheekwood-Tennessee Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, and Tennessee State Museum which has a large section on prehistoric Indians and Civil War objects. The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson, is at Old Hickory about 10 miles east of downtown Nashville.
Visitors can brush up on the region’s history in NORRIS at the Museum of Appalachia with more than 35 authentic buildings and over 250,000 artifacts.
Close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, PIGEON FORGE’s main attraction is Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park.
Visitors can walk SAVANNAH's Historic Home District. The Tennessee River Museum is a tribute to the river.
Nearby, Shiloh National Military Park in SHILOH preserves the scene of the first major battle in the Western theater of the Civil War and the Shiloh Civil War Relics & Museum.
There are special lighting effects and stereophonic presentation in the Forbidden Caverns, SEVIERVILLE. T
he southern portion of the Cherokee National Forest, with its thousands of acres of forested mountains and rivers, forms the heart of the TENNESSEE OVERHILL.
The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum was built by the Cherokee on the banks of Tellico Lake, VONORE, to honor the man who invented their written language.
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