80 Fun Facts About Tennessee

Tennessee joined the Union on June 1, 1796. Which number state was it?

It was the first state carved out of federal territory rather than one of the original colonies. Kentucky, admitted four years earlier, was still part of Virginia's claim.

Tennessee earned its Volunteer State nickname for the men who signed up to fight in which conflict?

The reputation was cemented again in 1846, when a call for 2,800 volunteers for the Mexican War drew about 30,000.

The state's name comes from Tanasi, a town belonging to which Native American nation?

The spelling settled on 'Tennessee' after Governor James Glen of South Carolina used it in official correspondence in the 1750s.

How many other states border Tennessee, a total it ties with Missouri for the most?

Clockwise from the north: Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.

What do the trio of white stars on Tennessee's flag represent?

Designer LeRoy Reeves added the narrow blue bar at the fly end so the flag would not 'show too much crimson when hanging limp.'

In July 1866 Tennessee became the first former Confederate state to do what?

Six days later its elected members were readmitted to Congress, sparing the state the military Reconstruction imposed on the rest of the South.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in December 1865 in which small Tennessee town?

Six Confederate veterans started it as a social club; within two years it had become a violent paramilitary group across the South.

Which Founding Father declined to back a breakaway East Tennessee state, being 'too little acquainted' with it?

The would-be 14th state got seven votes in Congress in 1785, short of the two-thirds required, and collapsed by 1789.

Whose note made Tennessee legislator Harry Burn switch to 'yes' on the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920?

Febb Burn's letter told him to 'be a good boy' and vote for suffrage. Supporters wore yellow roses, opponents red, so the fight is remembered as the War of the Roses.

The 1925 Scopes 'Monkey Trial' over the teaching of evolution was held in which Tennessee town?

Town boosters engineered the case to put the place on the map, and it worked: hundreds of reporters and a live radio hookup descended on a town of 1,800.

John Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution and fined how much?

The verdict was later overturned on a technicality: the judge, not the jury, had set the fine. William Jennings Bryan died five days after the trial ended.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in May 1933 as part of which president's New Deal program?

TVA built 20 hydroelectric dams between 1933 and 1951 and remains the largest public utility in the country.

Which state did George W. Norris, namesake of TVA's first project Norris Dam, represent in the Senate?

Norris had fought for a decade to keep the federal Muscle Shoals dam out of private hands before FDR embraced the idea.

In December 2008 an earthen dike failed at TVA's Kingston plant, releasing 1.1 billion gallons of what?

It was the largest industrial spill in US history by volume, covering 300 acres and swamping homes along the Emory River.

Oak Ridge was built from scratch in 1942 for what purpose?

The 'Secret City' did not appear on maps, yet by 1945 it was the fifth-largest city in the state.

Oak Ridge grew from empty woods to roughly what population by 1945?

Most residents had no idea what they were building; the town had 17 cafeterias and consumed more electricity than New York City.

Which element, number 117, was named in 2016 for the state home to Oak Ridge National Laboratory?

It is only the second element named after a US state; californium came first in 1950.

The Grand Ole Opry began in November 1925 as a barn dance on which Nashville radio station?

The call letters stood for the slogan of the station's owner, National Life and Accident Insurance: 'We Shield Millions.'

George D. Hay coined the Opry's name in 1927 by contrasting it with the preceding program. What music was that?

Hay's line was: 'For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present The Grand Ole Opry.'

What distinction does the Grand Ole Opry, on the air since 1925, hold in American media?

Its first performer was 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson, who reportedly complained an hour was not long enough to warm up.

When the Opry left the Ryman in 1974, what was cut from the old stage and inlaid into the new Opry House stage?

Performers still stand on that circle, so every Opry debut technically happens on the same boards Hank Williams played.

The Ryman Auditorium, later home of the Opry, was built in 1892 by a riverboat captain as what?

Thomas Ryman built the Union Gospel Tabernacle after being converted at a tent revival; the pews are still the seating today.

Nashville's full-scale replica of the Parthenon was originally built for which 1897 event?

The temporary plaster original proved so popular it was rebuilt in concrete between 1920 and 1931.

Roughly how tall is the gilded statue of Athena inside Nashville's Parthenon?

Sculptor Alan LeQuire finished her in 1990; she was covered in more than eight pounds of gold leaf in 2002.

Nashville was chartered in 1784 and named for Francis Nash. Who was he?

Nash was mortally wounded at Germantown in 1777; the settlement had started five years earlier as Fort Nashborough.

In 1963 Nashville merged its city government with which county?

The move made Nashville the largest city in the state by land area overnight.

The 1960 downtown Nashville sit-in campaign targeted what?

It ran from February to May and made the city the first major Southern city to desegregate its counters.

Legend says hot chicken was born when a woman spiked Thornton Prince's chicken with pepper as revenge for what?

The revenge backfired: he loved it, and by the mid-1930s the Prince brothers had opened the BBQ Chicken Shack, ancestor of today's Prince's.

Nashville hot chicken is traditionally served on top of what?

The heat comes from a paste of lard and cayenne, roughly three parts to one, brushed on after frying. KFC took a version national in 2016.

What is ironic about Moore County, home of the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg?

Visitors can buy commemorative bottles at the distillery under a special exemption, but no bar in the county can pour a Jack and Coke.

Jack Daniel's is dripped through ten-foot stacks of charcoal made from which wood before barrelling?

This 'Lincoln County Process' is what legally separates Tennessee whiskey from bourbon.

Which enslaved distiller, recognized by the brand in 2016, taught Jack Daniel his craft?

Brown-Forman formally recognized Nathan 'Nearest' Green as its first master distiller in 2016; the Uncle Nearest whiskey brand, launched in 2017, honors him.

Jack Daniel's fatal 1911 blood poisoning reportedly began with an injury he got by kicking what?

He supposedly could not remember the combination one early morning and lost his temper; the toe became infected.

Which snack, paired with RC Cola as the 'working man's lunch', has been made in Chattanooga since 1917?

The name comes from a Kentucky coal miner who told a salesman he wanted a graham-cracker-and-marshmallow snack 'as big as the moon.'

Which snack-cake brand is made by McKee Foods of Collegedale, Tennessee?

The brand is named after the founders' granddaughter, whose four-year-old portrait still appears on the box.

Immediately before reopening as Dollywood in 1986, the Pigeon Forge park was called what?

The park has changed names four times since starting as a small railroad attraction in 1961; it now draws nearly three million guests a season.

Dolly Parton's father paid the doctor who delivered her in 1946 with what?

She later said she was 'the girl who came out of the mountains with a suitcase full of songs' and has written more than 3,000 of them.

What 1996 scientific first was named as a tribute to Dolly Parton?

The Roslin Institute scientists chose the name because the clone was grown from a mammary cell.

Graceland is the second most-visited home in the United States. Which residence is first?

Elvis bought the mansion in March 1957 for $102,500; it has been open to the public since 1982 and gets around 600,000 visitors a year.

From which small town did Elvis Presley move to Memphis at 13?

The family arrived in November 1948; he graduated from Humes High School, where he had once received a C in music.

Which 1951 Sam Phillips recording is often called the first rock and roll record?

Ike Turner played piano on it, and its distorted guitar sound came from an amplifier damaged on the drive to the session.

Who joined Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins in the 1956 'Million Dollar Quartet' session at Sun Studio?

A local newspaper photographer captured the jam; the photo and tapes later became a Broadway musical.

What did the initials in B.B. King's stage name, from his Memphis radio DJ nickname, stand for?

Beale Street was declared the 'Home of the Blues' by an act of Congress in 1977, six decades after W.C. Handy's 'Beale Street Blues.'

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of which building?

He was in town supporting striking sanitation workers; the site is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

Piggly Wiggly, opened by Clarence Saunders in Memphis in September 1916, was the first what?

Before Saunders, shoppers handed a list to a clerk; he patented the idea of letting them roam the aisles with a basket and pay at a checkout.

Where did the Holiday Inn name come from when Kemmons Wilson opened the first in Memphis in 1952?

Wilson's architect scribbled the movie title on the plans as a joke, and it stuck.

The Peabody hotel's famous duck march dates to 1933. How did the tradition start?

A bellhop and former circus trainer named Edward Pembroke taught them to march in 1940 and served as Duckmaster for 50 years.

Since 2015 the 321-foot Memphis Pyramid, once home of the Grizzlies, has housed what?

It contains a hotel, a bowling alley and the tallest freestanding elevator in America, which runs to an observation deck at the apex.

Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee's only large natural lake, was created by what?

Witnesses swore the Mississippi ran backwards for hours; the lake is now known for bald cypress and nesting bald eagles.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles Tennessee's border with which state?

It drew more than 11 million visitors in 2025 and is home to an estimated 1,900 black bears.

What is the elevation of Kuwohi, formerly Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee?

The state's lowest point is 178 feet, on the Mississippi at the state line in Memphis.

Tennessee has more documented caves than any other state. Roughly how many?

It is also ranked the most biodiverse inland state, thanks largely to its rivers and cave systems.

Ruby Falls, found inside Lookout Mountain by Leo Lambert while drilling in 1928, is named after whom?

The falls sit about 1,120 feet below the summit and are reached by elevator; the water is now pumped to keep them flowing year-round.

The Lost Sea near Sweetwater, found by a 13-year-old in 1905, is America's largest what?

Divers have mapped water-filled rooms beyond the 4.5-acre visible surface without finding the end of it.

Rock City on Lookout Mountain claims that from Lover's Leap you can see how many states?

Its 'See Rock City' slogan was painted on more than 900 barn roofs in 19 states by one man, Clark Byers, between 1935 and 1969.

In 1775 Daniel Boone widened the trail through the Cumberland Gap into what became known as what?

Between 200,000 and 300,000 settlers passed through the gap before 1810; a tunnel finally bypassed it in 1996.

Which city was Tennessee's first capital and later hosted the 1982 World's Fair?

The fair drew eleven million visitors; the city was named for Henry Knox, Washington's Secretary of War.

Which bandleader's 1941 hit made Chattanooga famous around the world?

'Chattanooga Choo Choo' earned the first ever gold record, awarded for 1.2 million sales in 1942.

Chattanooga's nickname 'Gig City' refers to what?

The city-owned utility EPB rolled out gigabit fiber in 2010, years ahead of most of the country.

Which twin city on the Virginia line hosted the 1927 sessions called the 'big bang' of country music?

Producer Ralph Peer recorded the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers there within days of each other; the city's State Street runs right along the state border.

Bonnaroo is held every June on a 700-acre farm outside which small Tennessee town?

The name is Creole slang for 'a really good time', borrowed from a Dr. John album; the 2021 edition was cancelled when Hurricane Ida flooded the fields.

Before adopting the Titans name in 1999, the franchise spent two Tennessee seasons as what?

Bud Adams' team won the first two AFL championships in Houston in 1960 and 1961 before moving north in 1997.

The Titans' only Super Bowl appearance ended one yard short of a tying touchdown against which team?

Kevin Dyson was tackled at the one as time expired in Super Bowl XXXIV, two weeks after the same team's 'Music City Miracle' win.

The Nashville Predators took their name from a fossil found under downtown in 1971. What animal was it?

The partial Smilodon skeleton turned up while digging the foundations of a bank tower.

Predators fans borrowed Detroit's octopus tradition but throw what onto the ice instead?

The first one landed in October 2003; the team's 2017 run to the Stanley Cup Final made 'Smashville' famous for it.

The Memphis Grizzlies moved to Tennessee in 2001 from which city?

They are still the only major-league basketball team in the state, and their deepest playoff run ended in the 2013 Western Conference Finals.

Smokey, the live mascot of the Tennessee Volunteers, is what breed of dog?

Neyland Stadium holds 101,915 and has recorded more home wins than any other venue in college football.

Where did the University of Tennessee's famous orange come from?

The checkerboard end zones came later, debuting in 1964, and the 'Vol Navy' of about 200 boats docks on the river before home games.

At which Games did Wilma Rudolph become the first American woman to win three golds at one Olympics?

She ran for the Tennessee State Tigerbelles under coach Ed Temple, and the European press dubbed her 'The Black Gazelle.'

Alvin York, one of the most decorated soldiers of World War I, had originally sought what status?

His draft board turned him down; in the Argonne in October 1918 he led the capture of more than 120 Germans.

Who won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Alvin York in 1941?

York insisted on approval of the star and used his earnings from the film to fund a school for mountain children.

Davy Crockett was the only Tennessee congressman to vote against which law?

After losing his seat in 1835 he told voters they could go to hell and he would go to Texas; he died at the Alamo the next March.

The Hermitage, ten miles east of Nashville, was the plantation home of which president?

He is buried in the garden beside his wife Rachel; more than 100 enslaved people lived on the estate by 1840.

Which Tennessean served nearly twelve years as Secretary of State and won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping create the UN?

Hull served under FDR for longer than any Secretary of State before or since and was called the 'Father of the United Nations.'

Which Oscar-winning actress was born in Memphis?

She won for Misery in 1991; fellow Memphians include Morgan Freeman and Aretha Franklin.

Which technically-a-fruit vegetable became Tennessee's official state fruit in 2003?

The state also has an official wild animal and, since 2024, an official state food: hot slaw.

Which animal has been Tennessee's official state wild animal since 1971?

The state bird is the mockingbird, the tree the tulip poplar, and the horse, naturally, the Tennessee Walking Horse.

Roughly how many died when the steamboat Sultana exploded near Memphis in April 1865?

It happened three weeks after Appomattox and two weeks after Lincoln's assassination, so the news was almost buried.

Which April 1862 battle in southwestern Tennessee was, at the time, the bloodiest of the Civil War?

Tennessee saw more engagements than any state except Virginia and, remarkably, supplied more Union troops than any other Confederate state.

Which 1818 land deal with the Chickasaw added all of West Tennessee to the United States?

Andrew Jackson and Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby negotiated the sale of the land between the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers.