TNTennessee Fun Facts

Tennessee borders eight states, a total only Missouri matches. Drive it end to end and you cross two time zones, three grand divisions written into state law, and about 440 miles of country that changes from Mississippi Delta flatland to 6,000 foot peaks.

Facts most people get wrong

• Tennessee whiskey is not just bourbon with a local label. It meets every bourbon rule, then adds one more. State law passed in 2013 requires the Lincoln County Process, filtering the new spirit through sugar maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel.
• Jack Daniel's is made in a dry county. Lynchburg sits in Moore County, where alcohol sales are restricted. The distillery can sell commemorative bottles on site, but the county that makes the world's best known whiskey does not sell it over a bar.
• The Volunteer State nickname is not from the Revolution. It comes from the War of 1812, when Tennesseans turned out under Andrew Jackson, and it stuck in 1846 when the federal government asked the state for about 2,800 men for the war with Mexico and roughly 30,000 signed up.
• The Smokies are not smoky from fire or industry. The blue haze is natural, released by the forest itself as vegetation gives off volatile organic compounds. The Cherokee name for the range translates as place of blue smoke.
• Nashville's Parthenon is not a scale model. It is a full size replica of the Athens original, built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, later rebuilt in concrete, and it holds a statue of Athena standing nearly 42 feet tall.
• Nashville is not the only music town here. Memphis produced Sun Studio and Stax, and Bristol on the Virginia line is where country music was first recorded commercially.

Records and firsts

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park draws more than 12 million recreation visits a year, more than double any other national park in the system.
• On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the 19th Amendment. The vote turned on 24 year old Harry Burn, who switched sides after a letter from his mother told him to be a good boy.
• The 1927 Bristol Sessions, recorded by Ralph Peer, produced the first commercial records by the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and are widely treated as the start of the country music industry.
• Oak Ridge was built from scratch in 1942 for the Manhattan Project and grew to roughly 75,000 residents while appearing on no state map.
• Tennessee has more documented caves than any other state, over 10,000 of them, thanks to the limestone under the Cumberland Plateau and the Highland Rim.
• Three presidents came to the White House out of Tennessee: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson.

Geography that surprises

• Eight states touch Tennessee: Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.
• The state runs on two clocks. Knoxville and Chattanooga keep Eastern time while Nashville and Memphis keep Central, with the line falling near the Cumberland Plateau.
• Memphis is closer to Dallas, roughly 450 miles, than it is to Bristol at the far eastern tip, roughly 525 miles.
• The three stars on the state flag stand for the grand divisions of West, Middle and East Tennessee, which are defined in state law and used for court districts.
• The highest point, at 6,643 feet, is the tallest peak on the entire Appalachian Trail. In 2024 it was officially renamed Kuwohi, restoring the Cherokee name for Clingmans Dome.

Where the name comes from

The name traces to Tanasi, a Cherokee town on the Little Tennessee River recorded by traders in the early 1700s. What the word actually meant in Cherokee is not known, and honest sources say so rather than guess.

Spelling drifted through Tanasqui, Tanasi and Tennessee in colonial records before the modern form settled. When the territory south of the Ohio River became the 16th state in 1796, it took the river town's name for the whole thing.

State basics

Bordering states

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