Tennessee is a state of the United States of America and is one
of the southern states. The name Tennessee comes from Tanasi,
the name of a Native American settlement on the Little Tennessee
River. One of Tennessee's nicknames is Volunteer State. It dates
from the time of the British-American War, in which numerous
citizens of Tennessee fought as volunteers for their country.
Tennessee is famous for the blues, the birth of rock 'n'
roll (Memphis), country music (Nashville), and whiskey (Jack
Daniel's and George Dickel).
Each region has a distinct musical heritage: blues in the west,
country-west in the middle, and bluegrass in the east.
West
Tennessee borders the Mississippi River and forms the northern limit of
cultural influence in the Lower Mississippi Delta region.
Central
Tennessee, with Nashville and its backdrop of rolling hills, is the
state's most prosperous region.
East Tennessee, with the cities of
Chattanooga and Knoxville, is mountainous and reflects Appalachian
influence.
1 Memphis – largest city in the state of Tennessee
2
Nashville—Capital
3 Knoxville
4 Chattanooga
5 Clarksville
6
Johnson City
Fort Donelson National Battlefield cover are of two Confederate forts Donelson and Heiman that stand overlooking Cumberland river.
Shiloh National Military Park is a former battle site where Union forces fought with the Confederate army on April 6– April 7, 1862.
Casey Jones Village, in Jackson.
Ruby Falls, 1720 South
Scenic Highway Chattanooga, TN 37409. Email:
info1@rubyfalls.com. Price: The tourist attraction "Ruby Falls"
is located in Lookout Mountain near Rock City and Chattanooga
While there are fewer and fewer places to taste truly authentic
"Southern" food outside of a private family's table, the state still has
some truly great local cuisine. Local specialties include Nashville hot
chicken and Memphis-style barbecue, including the famous rib tips.
In Memphis, it would be a crime to miss the rendezvous where the
President and Vice President of the United States gather.
Tennessee whiskey meets the legal requirements for bourbon whiskey, with the additional requirements that it be filtered through maple charcoal after distillation and before aging, and that it be manufactured in the state.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a World Heritage Biosphere
Reserve that attracts millions of visitors from the region and around
the world each year. Covering nearly 1,000 square miles (over 2,000
km2), the park is home to temperate rainforests and some of the rarest
and most unique plants in North America. The park suffers from high
levels of air pollution due to the surrounding cities of Knoxville and
Sevierville and the Tennessee Valley Authority's numerous coal-fired
power plants.
Traffic congestion within the park's Cades Cove
"loop" is quite severe, as many people stop to admire the expansive
valley views and the many deer and bears that roam freely through the
area. If you do plan to go, try to car pool if you can.
Depending
on where you visit, there are plenty of things to do in Tennessee,
including white-water rafting on the Ocoee River, sightseeing in
Gatlinburg, and touring Music City in Nashville. For an outdoor
adventure, rafting on the Ocoee River, the former site of the Olympics,
is a must. You can have an all-day adventure down the Ocoee River and
experience the fun of the outdoors.
Bad Weather
Flooding
During the spring months, the state is
often heavily affected by storms that bring the potential for major
flooding. These floods are never minor, are often widespread, and can
last for days or weeks; in May 2010, the state experienced a "once in a
thousand year flood," resulting in numerous deaths and over $2 billion
in property damage throughout the state.
Anyone traveling to the
region during this season should consider planning ahead. Before
embarking on a trip, obtain information about weather phenomena in the
region. If a flood warning is in effect for the area you plan to travel,
or if there is a threat of flooding, consider postponing your travel
plans or taking an alternate route to your final destination. Areas
devastated by flooding are not safe for non-essential travel and should
be avoided.
Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
Although not near an
official "tornado zone," the state (especially in the central and
western regions) experiences very severe thunderstorms during the spring
and summer months. While these thunderstorms often have the potential to
produce small tornadoes, they are not without the potential to produce
large tornadoes: in April 2009, the city of Murfreesboro was hit by an
intense EF-4 tornado that killed two people and caused $40 million in
property damage.
For this reason, travelers in the area during
this time of year should be aware of changing weather conditions.
For more information on this subject, see our Tornado Safety page.
Racial Discrimination
In terms of race relations, racism is not
as prevalent in this state. If you feel you might be targeted by
racists, it is wise to avoid poor neighborhoods. Young Tennesseans are
generally more progressive and tolerant than their seniors.
Tennessee, like nearly all Southern states, is conservative, but a
bit more progressive than, say, Mississippi.
As in nearly all
Southern states, old-fashioned rules of etiquette and courtesy are
followed. Failure to follow such nuances can be painfully conspicuous.
The term Tenesí was used for the first time in an expedition
commanded by Captain Juan Pardo, a Spanish explorer, when he and his men
passed through an indigenous town called "Tanasqui" in 1567 while
traveling inland from present-day South Carolina. . Europeans later
found a Cherokee village called Tanasi (or Tanase) in present-day Monroe
County. The town was situated along the river of the same name (now
known as the Little Tennessee River).
The meaning and origin of
the name are uncertain. It has been suggested that it would be a
Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi/Creek word. It has also been
said to mean 'meeting place' and 'winding river'.
The modern
English term Tennessee is attributed to James Glen, the governor of
South Carolina, who used this name in his official correspondence around
1750. In 1788, North Carolina called Tennessee County the third county
established in what is now It would be the center of the State of
Tennessee. The term Tennessee was eventually adopted at a constitutional
convention convened in 1796 to create a new state.
12,000 years ago, Paleo-Native Americans settled in what is now
Tennessee. In addition to projectile tips, the skeleton of a Williamson
County mastodon was found with incised marks typical of this earliest
period.
The Archaic Period (c.8000-1000 BC) is the Icehouse
Bottom archaeological site south of Fort Loudoun in Monroe County,
dating to around 7500 BC. Other sites from this period, but much
younger, include Rose Island, just a few miles downriver from Icehouse
Bottom, and the Eva site in Benton County. It is attributed to the Big
Sandy culture and was between 2000 and 1000, possibly 500 BC.
The
Pinson Mounds in Madison County and Old Stone Fort in Coffee County have
been excavated from the Woodland Period (1000 BC-1000 AD), both of which
date from the first half of the 1st millennium AD . The Pinson Mounds
are among the largest mounds of the Middle Woodland Period in the
southeastern United States. This structure includes at least 12 mounds.
The Old Stone Fort site is an extensive ceremonial site with a
complicated access route. At the time, it was on a peninsula that was
almost inaccessible.
Dating from the Mississippi culture era
(circa 1000-1600) are villages along most of the state's rivers,
including Chucalissa near Memphis, Mound Bottom in Cheatham County, the
Shiloh Mounds in Hardin County, and the Toqua site in Monroe County.
Excavations at the McMahan Mound Site in Sevier County - where a mound
73 m wide from about 1200 to 1500 was found - and at Townsend in Blount
County - where archaeologists unearthed a village palisade from about
1200 - specified this Picture from these mound builders in Tennessee.
From 1539 to 1543, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto traversed the
area east of the Mississippi River. It is disputed which tribes the
archaeological remains of the 16th and 17th centuries belong to. In the
18th century, only the Cherokee lived permanently in Tennessee. Although
the Chickasaw controlled the western part of what is now the state,
there is no evidence that they did anything there other than hunt. The
Shawnee and Creek briefly occupied some areas, but archaeological
evidence is virtually non-existent.
Early settlement by European
colonists pushed most of the native people south and west, particularly
the Muskogee and Yuchi tribes. Until the founding of the state, the area
was under the administration of North Carolina and was known as the
Southwest Territory. The Southwest Territory was considered lawless for
a very long time due to the failure of the North Carolina government to
establish adequate governance.
From 1785 to 1788 the first
attempt was made to found a federal state in the USA. The state of
Franklin was founded in what is now East Tennessee. After five years of
feuding with the North Carolina government and frequent Indian raids,
the Greeneville government collapsed and the area returned to North
Carolina control. On June 1, 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state to
join the United States by an incorporation approved by the Senate. From
1838 to 1839, the remaining approximately 17,000 Cherokee were deported
to western Arkansas. This forced march, which killed about 4,000
Indians, is known as the Trail of Tears.
On June 8, 1861, after a
referendum that was successful at the second attempt, Tennessee was the
last of the southern states to leave the Union and joined the
Confederate States of America on July 2. In certain areas there was a
clear majority of opponents of secession who, after the referendum at a
meeting in Greeneville, decided that East Tennessee should remain in the
United States, without being able to prevail against Nashville. Several
battles took place on Tennessee soil during the war, such as the Battle
of Chattanooga, the Battle of Nashville, and the Battle of Franklin.
After the American Civil War, the state adopted a new constitution
abolishing slavery on February 22, 1865, and ratified the 14th Amendment
to the US Constitution on July 18, 1866. Tennessee was the first of the
breakaway states to rejoin the United States (July 24, 1866).
Tennessee experienced a tremendous economic boom in the 20th century. In
particular, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory made Tennessee an
important industrial location in the USA. In the 1960s and 1970s, the
state was a focus of the civil rights movement fighting against racial
segregation that was prevalent at the time. From the point of view of
the fighters for equal rights, Tennessee was one of the most backward
states. In 1967 Tennessee was forced by the Supreme Court to become one
of the last states in the United States to lift the ban on
intermarriage. In 1975, the United States Supreme Court illegaled a
Tennessee law that mandated that intelligent design pseudoscience and
the theory of evolution be given equal amounts of time in biology
classes in Tennessee state schools.
Tennessee is bounded on the north by the states of Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. This makes Tennessee (together with Missouri, which also borders eight states) the US state with the largest number of neighboring states. The Tennessee River flows through the state.
Most of the state has a humid subtropical climate, with the exception
of some of the higher elevations in the Appalachians, which are
characterized as having a temperate mountain climate or a humid
continental climate due to cooler temperatures. The Gulf of Mexico is
the dominant factor in Tennessee's climate, as with southerly winds it
is responsible for most of the state's annual precipitation. In general,
the state has hot summers and mild, cool winters with generous rainfall
throughout the year. On average, the state sees 50 inches (130 cm) of
annual precipitation. Snowfall ranges from 5 inches (13 cm) in western
Tennessee to more than 16 inches (41 cm) in the highest mountains in
eastern Tennessee.
Summer in the state is generally hot and
humid, with most of the territory averaging a high of around 90 °F (32
°C) during the summer months. Winters are usually mild, although the
increase in cold is more noticeable at higher elevations. In general,
for areas outside of the highest mountains, average minimum temperatures
hover around freezing for most of the state. The highest temperature
recorded is 113 °F (45 °C) in Perryville on August 9, 1930, while the
lowest temperature recorded is -32 °F (-36 °C) in the mountains on
December 30, 1930. 1917.
While the state is located far enough
from the coast to avoid any direct impact from a hurricane, the state's
location makes it likely to be affected by the remnants of tropical
cyclones that weaken the land and can cause significant rainfall, such
as Tropical Storm Chris of 1982. The average number of thunderstorms per
year is 50, some of which can be especially severe, with heavy hail and
damaging winds. Tornadoes can be quite common, especially in central and
western Tennessee, where they sometimes cause fatalities. Winter storms
are an occasional problem, although ice storms are more likely. Fog is
quite common throughout the country, especially in much of the Great
Smoky Mountains.
Tennessee was the center of the black civil rights movement in the
1960s, which culminated in the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King
in Memphis. Tennessee's political landscape changed earlier than in
other southern states. The Tennessee Valley Authority made earlier
industrialization and thus a more modern social order possible than, for
example, in Mississippi or Alabama. The conservative democrats of the
southern states already lost their position of power here during the
time of the civil rights movement. The establishment of the Republicans
began with the presidential election in 1952. Since then, the Democrats
have only won in 1964, 1976 and with Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Al
Gore's home state, which today is significantly influenced by the Bible
Belt, is considered to be predominantly conservative. It can therefore
now be referred to as the Red State. Tennessee has eleven electors in
the Electoral College. In 1980 there were ten.
The state is
represented in the US Senate by two Republicans, Marsha Blackburn and
Bill Hagerty. The Tennessee delegation to the House of Representatives
at the 117th Congress consists of seven Republicans and two Democrats.
Republican Bill Lee has been governor since January 2019, replacing
fellow party member Bill Haslam.
Already in 2001, marijuana cultivation had displaced tobacco in
Tennessee's economy.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic
Analysis, in 2003 Tennessee's GDP reached $199,786,000,000, representing
1.8% of the national total.
In 2003 the per capita income reached
$28,641, ranking as the 36th state according to per capita income.
Tennessee ranks at 91% of the national median income per capita.
The state sales tax reaches 7%, while counties add 2.25%, for a total of
9.25%. Some cities add other taxes. Tennessee has one of the lowest
sales taxes in the United States.
Beale Street in Memphis is considered by many to be the birthplace of
blues music, with musicians like W-C Handy beginning their career
playing in clubs in the area in early 1909. In 1995, Mexican-American
singer Selena recorded one of his songs for her latest English album,
called I Could Fall in Love, on Franklin.
Memphis was also the
birthplace of Sun Records, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny
Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Miley Cyrus and
Charlie Rich began their careers and where rock and roll took shape in
the early 1900s. 1950s.
The 1927 recording sessions in Bristol
marked the beginning of country music, and the rise of the Grand Ole
Opry, which in the 1930s helped make Nashville the center of the country
music recording industry.
Most Tennesseans speak in the dialect of the Southern United States.
This dialect changes slightly as it travels across the region, and is
especially noticeable in rural areas.
Generally speaking,
Southerners speak more slowly and politely than Northerners. Visitors,
especially those from large cities visiting Tennessee's small mountain
towns, will need to get used to the different pace of speech. Speaking
quickly and bluntly can be perceived as inconsiderate and may elicit a
negative response. Some Tennesseans, especially those who live in rural
or mountainous areas, may be difficult to understand if they are not
accustomed to the colloquialisms, smoothness, and speaking accents of
the southern and Appalachian regions of the United States.
Tennessee has three major league sports teams. The Nashville
Tennessee Titans have played in the National Football League since 1997,
winning a conference championship in 1999 but losing in Super Bowl
XXXIV. Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies have played in the National
Basketball Association since 2001, reaching the conference finals in
2012/13. Finally, the Nashville Predators have played in the National
Hockey League since 1998, and in 2016/2017 they also achieved a
conference championship to play for the Stanley Cup.
The
Tennessee Volunteers are a college sports team in the Southeastern
Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, based in
Knoxville. In American football they have achieved 13 conference
championships and 25 bowls, highlighting four Sugar Bowls, three Cotton
Bowls, one Orange Bowl and one Fiesta Bowl. Meanwhile, in men's
basketball they have won four conference championships.
The ovals
at Bristol Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Nashville
Speedway USA have hosted NASCAR and IndyCar Series races. Meanwhile, the
Memphis Open has been held since 1958 as part of the PGA Tour. The
Memphis Tournament is a tennis tournament on the ATP Tour since 1976 and
the WTA Tour since 2002.