Alexander Wilson

The two warblers Wilson named here are visitors in passing. The Tennessee warbler breeds in eastern North America and winters from southern Central America to northern South America; its Latin species name, peregrina, means wanderer. The Nashville warbler nests across the northern and western United States and southern Canada, and winters in southern California, Texas, Mexico and northern Central America. Wilson described both in 1811, the Tennessee warbler from a specimen collected in Tennessee, where it may appear during migration.

What the plaque says

Alexander Wilson In the spring of 1810, Alexander Wilson, noted author, naturalist, and known as the "Father of American Ornithology", visited this area while on a horseback trip over the Natchez Trace to the Mississippi River. While here he lodged with the pioneer, Isaac Walton. In this area he recorded his observations of parakeets (now extinct in this area) and two new species of birds which he named the Tennessee Warbler and the Nashville Warbler.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 11 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 13 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Fisk University and Jubilee Hall — 13 mi
  The 1866 school for freed people whose Jubilee Singers paid for Jubilee Hall, a National Historic Landmark, and whose students helped start Nashville's sit-ins.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 13 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Mansker's Station — 1.6 mi
• Goodlettsville Cumberland Presbyterian Church — 1.7 mi
• Robert Cartwright — 2.0 mi
• First Long Hunters — 2.1 mi