Recreation

Associated with the Progressive era and City Beautiful Movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the development of the Memphis Park and Parkway System laid the foundation for municipal park systems across Tennessee. The Memphis system also represented…

The Meriwether Lewis National Monument, located along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Lewis County, was designated in 1925 by the federal government to mark the grave of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809), a Virginian who was one of the coleaders of the…

Located along U.S. Highway 70 in Dickson County, Montgomery Bell State Park is approximately thirty miles west of Nashville. This 3,782-acre recreational area bears the name of the wealthy industrialist who established the first major iron furnace west of the…

Located along the banks of the Tennessee River in Perry County, Mousetail Landing State Park is one of the state's most recent parks, dedicated in 1986. The park's 1,249 acres offer hiking, fishing, boating, camping, and outdoor recreational facilities. The…

Covering 12,096 acres, Natchez Trace State Park is located approximately five miles east of Wildersville. In combination with the Natchez Trace State Forest, which includes nearly 36,000 acres in Henderson, Carroll, and Benton Counties, the two sites comprise West Tennessee's…

Created in the mid-1930s as a demonstration recreational project of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the National Park Service, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the 4,000-acre Norris Dam State Park contains two distinct areas. The east side has rustic…

Established by Congress in 1976, the Obed Wild and Scenic River protects parts of four different streams--the Obed River, Emory River, Clear Creek, and Daddy's Creek--and is approximately forty-five miles in length. The park contains almost 3,500 acres of federally…

Ozone Falls is a breathtaking 110-foot waterfall on the Cumberland Plateau near the village of Ozone in Cumberland County. The gorge of the falls features beautiful stands of hemlock, yellow birch, basswood, and magnolia trees. Recognized for many years as…

Six miles west of Morristown in Hamblen County is the Panther Creek State Park. This 1,435-acre park features the recreational resources of Cherokee Lake, the reservoir created when the Tennessee Valley Authority built Cherokee Dam and dammed the Holston River…

The Paris Landing State Resort Park is located along the western shore of Kentucky Lake (the dammed Tennessee River) in Henry County. Containing 841 acres, the park is a major recreational center for northwest Tennessee. Paris Landing was once a…

The Michigan-based Stearnes Coal and Lumber Company acquired forested land in Pickett and Fentress Counties in 1910 and used the land until 1933, when the company deeded the property to the State of Tennessee. On December 13, 1933, Tennessee Governor…

Pickwick Landing State Resort Park, located along Pickwick Lake (the dammed Tennessee River) in southern Hardin County, began as a demonstration park constructed and administered by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Construction at Pickwick Dam, the third completed TVA dam,…

Pocket Wilderness Areas are part of a conservation program involving a corporate-state partnership. Beginning in 1970, the Hiwassee Land Company of the Bowater Southern Paper Corporation developed in Tennessee four pocket wilderness areas, defined as "a pocket of land set…

The thirty-four-acre site of Port Royal in Montgomery County preserves one of Middle Tennessee's earliest settlement areas. The first permanent settlers arrived in 1784, and the first meeting of the Tennessee County Court, North Carolina, was held nearby in 1788.…

Since early statehood, Tennessee has maintained a reputation for producing esteemed purebred horses of various breeds and racing traditions. During the nineteenth century, Tennessee dominated thoroughbred racing in the United States. The pedigreed thoroughbred stallions were crossed on local pacing…

Uniquely located in sprawling Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, Radnor Lake State Natural Area is an 1,100-acre park designed to include only foot trails for passive recreation and educational purposes. In the midst of Nashville's fast-paced development, this site remains an island…

This three-hundred-acre state park on an eighteen-thousand-acre lake is located in the northwest corner of Tennessee. The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 probably enlarged a series of oxbow lakes that had existed here long before. Permanent settlement was slow to…

Located near the Tennessee-North Carolina border in Carter County, Roan Mountain State Park is a 2,006-acre park that preserves Roan Mountain, a 6,285-foot peak renowned for its annual blooming of wildflowers, especially its lush 600-acre carpet of crimson catawba rhododendrons.…

Located in Warren County, Rock Island State Park was established in 1969, but its historical significance dates to the region's early settlement. A small village called Rock Island, located upstream from the park's boundaries, was the county's first permanent settlement…

The area along the Kentucky-Tennessee border including Clay County, Tennessee, and Monroe County, Kentucky, maintains a remarkable marble-playing tradition focused on a game known locally as "rolley hole," "three holes," or simply "marbles." In this region, rolley hole is played…