80 Tantalizing Facts About Tennessee (2023 Dates!) - Fun World Facts (2023)

Tennessee is home to Graceland, the Smoky Mountains, and Jack Daniel's Whiskey, while Nashville and Memphis are two of the country's major musical centers.

Find out what else the Volunteer State is famous for with these fascinating and fun facts about Tennessee!

General facts about Tennessee

• Tennessee is located in the southeastern United States.

• Tennessee borders eight states:KentuckymiVirginiaNorte,North CarolinaIt is,Georgia,Alabama, miMississippisouth andArkansasmiMeasurementsnot west.

• The state has a total area of ​​42,143 mi² (109,247 km²), making it the 36th^ºlargest state that lies between Virginia and Kentucky in terms of area.

• Tennessee is about the same size asBecause.

• Tennessee is long and lean; some say it is cigar shaped. It is 440 miles (710 km) from east to west and only 112 miles (180 km) from north to south.

• In terms of population, Tennessee ranks 16th^ºin the country with a population of 7 million. he is in the middleMassachusettsand Indiana in number of inhabitants.

• NashvilleIt is the capital of Tennessee. With 715,000 inhabitants (Metro 2 million), it is the 21^callelargest city (or^ºlargest metropolitan area) in the country.

• Other major cities in Tennessee areMemphis(City 650,000 / City 1.3 million) andknoxville(urban 187,500 / metropolitan 868,000).

• The native Tennessees were the Chickasaw in the west and the Cherokee in the east.

• The state may have been named for the Native American word Yuchitana-see, which means "meeting place". Another theory is that it got its name from the Tennessee River, which got its name from the wordsavings, the name of a Cherokee town.

• The abbreviation for Tennessee is TN.

• The most common nickname for Tennessee is "The Volunteer State," dating back to the War of 1812, when thousands of people from across the state volunteered to fight. Another is "Big Bend State," which refers to another Native American name for the river.

• Therefore, the people of Tennessee are called Volunteers, Big Benders, or Tennessees.

• An old nickname for Tennessee was the state's "Hog and Hominy", referring to the production of pork and corn. Another was "The Mother of Southwestern Statesmen" for producing three US Presidents and several other politicians.

• State tourism slogans for Tennessee include "Tennessee: America at its Best," "The Stage Is Set for You," and "We're Playing Your Music," referring to the state's major music scene.

• The official state motto is "Agriculture and Commerce".

• The official state mammal is the raccoon.

• Milk is the official state drink (as in 20 other US states), while Tennessee's official state fruit is the tomato.

• The national flag shows a blue circle with three white stars on a red background. The stars represent the geographic divisions of Tennessee (East, Central, and West Tennessee). The flag also includes a navy blue bar to differentiate the flag when hanging.

• Tennessee is the only state in the country to have 9 official state songs and the only state to have an official rap bicentennial (200 years).

Random Interesting Facts About Tennessee

• The "Nashville Sound", a subgenre of country music, originated in the state in the 1950s. It was an attempt to revitalize the country after rock 'n' roll took over.

• Memphis also played an important role in blues, early rock 'n' roll, R&B, and soul, while Bristol (not to be confused withUnited Kingdom) is considered the birthplace of country music: some of the earliest country recordings by artists like Jimmy Rodgers were made there, and today it is home to theBirthplace of the Country Music Museum.

• Memphis, Tennessee is home toland of grace, Elvis Presley's former mansion. actually it's the 2^{North Dakota}after the White House, it is the most visited house in the country with 650,000 visitors a year. It's just 4 miles north of the Mississippi border and on Elvis Presley Boulevard.

• While Kentucky is the country's top whiskey producer, Tennessee, with its best-known brand, ranks second.jack daniels. The company produces more than 38 million gallons of whiskey a year, delivered in its unique square bottles. The main distillery is in Lynchburg.

• Tennessee has a national parkGreat Smoky Mountains National Park, which it shares almost equally with North Carolina. Since 1944, it has been the most visited national park in the United States, with 14 million visitors in 2021.

• The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is part of the Appalachian Mountains and covers 70 miles (110 km) of theAppalachian Trail.

• The national park is also the only one in the stateUNESCO World Heritage, with more than 3,500 species of plants and the largest variety of salamanders in the world, including the official state amphibian, the Tennessee Cave Salamander.

• Hay56 state parks in Tennessee, the largest of which is Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park, while one of the most popular and visited is Fall Creek Falls State Park.

• Hay30 National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee, including a historic steamboat, Mississippi cultural mounds, a tunnel dug by slaves, the Sun Records recording studio (Tanning salon), a nuclear research facility, and many other historic buildings and archaeological sites.

• Nashville significa "Athensof the South" for its commitment to higher education, though many think that's because the state capital is Greek Revival in style and has a tower instead of a dome like most.

• there is also aParthenon replicain Centennial Park, Nashville eone of the eiffel towerin Paris, Tennessee (not to be confused with Paris, France, of course).

• The largest underground lake in the country, called Eli lost more, is located in Sweetwater, Tennessee.

• Slightly more than half of Tennessee is covered in forests, including 15 state forests.

• Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the state at 2,025 m, while the Mississippi River on the Mississippi border is the lowest at 54 m.

• The hottest temperature ever recorded in Tennessee was 113 °F (45 °C) in Perryville on August 9, 1930, while the lowest temperature in December was −35 °F (−32 °F) in Mountain City. . 30 of 1917.

• Tennessee is prone to a number of natural disasters, including tornadoes, earthquakes, hail, ice storms, and extreme temperatures in summer and winter.

• A staple of amusement parks, cotton candy was invented by Tennessee native William Morrisson (ironically, he was a dentist) in the late 18th century. It was originally known as the "Fairy Floss" when it was introduced to the world at the St. Louis World's Fair. Louis in 1904.

• The first "combined" chocolate bar (meaning it contains several types of ingredients, not just chocolate) was made in Nashville in 1912. The so-called Goo-Goo Cluster is a chocolate bar containing marshmallow, caramel, and peanut nougat. and is considered the official candy of Nashville.

• Originally created as a whiskey mixer, Mountain Dew was invented in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1940.

• The country's first self-service grocery store, Piggly-Wiggly, was founded in Memphis in 1916.

• Tennessee has no income taxes, but it does have high state and local sales taxes.

• Tennessee ranks eighth^ºin the country in number of farms that cover 40% of the total area of ​​the state. The state ranks 7th^ºin cotton production and 4^ºin tobacco.

• Nissan assembly in Smyrna, Tennessee is one of the largest in North America with a production capacity of 640,000 cars per year.

• Major companies incorporated or headquartered in Tennessee include FedEx, Jack Daniel's Whiskey, Dollar General, Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams, Crown Laboratories, Cracker Barrel, and Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant.

• Dolly Parton, the singer-songwriter, hails from Sevierville, Tennessee. Dolly Parton Parkway, one of the city's main thoroughfares, is named after her.

• Other famous Tennessee musicians and bands include Aretha Franklin, Miley Cyrus, Tina Turner, Justin Timberlake, Chet Atkins, Carl Perkins, Isaac Hayes, Duane Allman, Lisa Marie Presley, Kenny Chesney, and the Kings of Leon.

• Memphis, Tennessee, was also the birthplace of actor Morgan Freeman.

• Three American presidents came from Tennessee: Andrew Jackson (7^º), James K. Polk (11^º) y Andrew Johnson (17^º).

• The first woman to be elected as a United States Senator was Hattie Caraway of Tennessee.

• Tennessee-born African-American sprinter Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics.

• Tennessee is home to many other great athletes, including Jamal Lewis, Donte Stallworth, Joshua Dobbs, Eric Berry, Jalen Hurd, Robert Meacham, Arian Foster, and Travis Henry.

• McKissack and McKissack in Nashville is the oldest African-American architectural firm in the country.

• Tennessee has its fair share of weird laws. For example, in Oneida, it is illegal for a woman to ask a man out.

• The sale of hollowwood in the state is also technically illegal.

• There is also a law against transporting a skunk across the Tennessee state line.

• It is illegal to shoot animals out of a car window unless it is a whale.

Historical facts about Tennessee

• During the age of the dinosaurs, giant mosasaurs and plesiosaurs swam in the seas that covered Tennessee.

• The first known inhabitants of the state were paleo-Native Americans, who arrived at the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago.

• Hernando de Soto was the first known European to arrive in the area in 1540.

• In 1673, Gabriel Arthur and James Needham of Great Britain explored the Tennessee River Valley.

• In 1714, Charles Charleville of France established a trading post at French Lick.

• In 1763, after the French and Indian War, the British took control of the area from the French.

• On June 1, 1796, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the sixteenth^ºwith Knoxville as its capital until it was moved to Murfreesboro in 1817.

• On September 21, 1807, Kingston became the state capital for one day while the state legislature discussed a treaty with the Cherokee Indian tribe.

• Nashville became home to the state's first public library in 1813.

• In 1834, free people of color in Tennessee were disenfranchised.

• The first state of the nation.pass an abstinence law(prohibition of alcohol consumption) was Tennessee in 1838.

• In 1843, the capital of Tennessee was moved to Nashville because it had better roads and water connections.

• On June 24, 1861, Tennessee became the eleventh^ºand last state to secede from the US at the start of the Civil War. It was also the first state to return after the end of the war.

• Tennessee was reestablished as a Union state in 1866.

• In 1909, the state banned the production of alcoholic beverages the following year.

• Between 1915 and 1930, racial segregation and the low standard of living continued to increase. This resulted in many Tennessee blacks participating in thegreat migration.

• On March 21, 1925, an anti-evolution law was passed in Tennessee, banning the theory of evolution.

• In the 1950s, the Nashville Sound style of country music was born.

• The anti-evolution law was abolished by the state parliament in 1967.

• On March 10, 1969, in Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray confessed to the murder of guilty Dr. Martin Luther King. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in a Nashville prison at age 70.

• On August 7, 2019, Cyntoia Brown was released from Tennessee Women's Prison after serving a wrongful sentence at age 16 for killing a man. Today she is a published author and motivational speaker.

• On July 13, 2020, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. The ban was quickly blocked by a federal judge in Nashville. WhileAbortions are still legal today, a new law in 2022 will allow anyone to sue the doctors who perform them, a major setback.