Tennessee Historic Sites

• Battlefields and Military Parks

More Civil War battles were fought in Tennessee than in any other state besides Virginia. You can see those battlegrounds at the National Park Service-designated Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park near the Tennessee-Georgia border (706-866-9241, <www.nps.gov/chch>), Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover (931-232-5706, <www.nps.gov/ fodo>), Shiloh National Military Park in Shiloh (731-689-5696, <www.nps.gov/ shil>) and Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro (615-893 9501, <www.nps.gov/ stri>).

<www.bellemeadeplantation.com>

During the Battle of Nashville, Union and Confederate soldiers skirmished in the front yard of this 1853 mansion. Tour the house and the surrounding historical buildings.

<www.countrymusichalloffame.com>

Get the scoop on country music’s roots. The museum’s permanent exhibit, Sing Me Back Home, retraces the genre’s 19th-century origins through photos and musical artifacts.

<tn.gov/environment/parks/DavyCrockettSHP>

See a replica of the cabin where Crockett was born, a museum devoted to the King of the Wild Frontier and more.

<www.east-tennessee-history.org>

This fantastic research facility hosts the Knox County Archives, Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection and the new East Tennessee Historical Society Museum.

<www.nps.gov/grsm>

Inside this beautiful park, you can visit the Mountain Farm Museum, a collection of 1800s farm buildings; the 1886 Mingus Mill; and the picturesque Cataloochee Valley.

<www.thehermitage.com>

President Andrew Jackson’s historic home became a museum in 1889. Tour the grounds and be sure to explore the current exhibits.

<www.civilrightsmuseum.org>

Located at the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the museum chronicles the civil rights movement and its legacy.

<www.tnmuseum.org>

Explore Tennessee history from its beginnings 15,000 years ago up to the early 1900s at this expansive museum.

<www.tvrail.com>

Take a ride on the Southeast’s largest historical railroad, and check out old rail cars parked outside TVRM’s re-created 1910 depot.

Visitor Information

• Tennessee Department of Tourist Development

<www.tnvacation.com>

 

 

From the June 2005 Family Tree Magazine