The November Travel Book
USA by Lonely Planet
Tennessee
Most states have one official state song. Tennessee has seven. Here, the folk music of the Scots-Irish mountain-dwellers in the east combines with the bluesy rhythms of the African Americans in the western Mississippi bottomlands to give birth to the modern country music that makes Nashville famous. These three geographic regions, represented by the three stars on the Tennessee flag, have their own unique beauty: the heather-coloured peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains descend into lush green valleys in the central plateau around Nashville and then onto the hot, sultry lowlands near Memphis.
In Tennessee, you can hike shady mountain trails in the morning, and by evening be stomping your feet in a Nashville honky-tonk or walking the streets of Memphis with Elvis' ghost.
From country churches where snake handlers still speak in tongues to modern cities where record execs wear their sunglasses even at night, Tennesseans are a zesty lot.
History
Spanish settlers first explored Tennessee in 1539 and French traders were plying the rivers by the 17th century. Virginian pioneers soon established their own settlement and fought the British in the American Revolution. Taking their name from the Cherokee town of Tanasi, Tennessee joined the United States as the 16th state in 1796.
Under the administration of President Martin Van Buren, about 16,000 natives were displaced from their homes in the mid-1800s and marched west along the Trail of Tears', to the Indian Territory of Arkansas.
Tennessee was the last Southern state to secede during the Civil War, and many important battles were fought here. Immediately following the war, six Confederate veterans from the town of Pulaski formed the infamous Ku Klux Klan to disenfranchise and terrorize the newly free blacks.
Tennessee Facts:
- Nickname: Volunteer State
- Population: Six million
- Area: 41,217 sq miles
- Capital City: Nashville (pop 569,891)
- Birthplace of: Frontiersman Davy Crockett (1786-1836), guitarist Chet Atkins (1924-2001), soul diva Aretha Franklin (b 1942), singer Dolly Parton (b 1946) and former vice president Al Gore (b 1948).
- Home of: Graceland, Grand Ole Opry, Jack Daniels Distillery
- Famous for: Tennessee Waltz', country music, Tennessee walking horses
- Odd law: In Tennessee, it's illegal to fire a gun at any wild game other than whales from a moving vehicle.
Reproduced with permission from USA 5th Edition/ Jeff Campbell © 2008 Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd.
USA by Lonely Planet is published by Lonely Planet (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through lonelyplanet.co.uk and all good booksellers.
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