Buford Hayse Pusser

Pusser ran against a sheriff who was working with the moonshine ring along the Mississippi line. He was an upstart constable, elected in 1962 by more than a hundred votes, and in 1964 he entered the sheriff's race as a Republican in a staunchly Democratic county; the incumbent's death in a car wreck assured his election. That November he was stabbed seven times and left to die, survived, and raided forty-two stills his first year. He later targeted prostitution rings and gambling houses and, in 1972, signed with Bing Crosby Productions to film his story.

What the plaque says

Buford Hayse Pusser On December 12, 1937, Buford Hayse Pusser was born in Finger, Tennessee. In 1962 he became Adamsville's chief of police. He was elected sheriff of McNairy County in 1964. Soon his courageous fight against crime exposed him to much danger and many personal injuries. A movie and a book based on Sheriff Pusser's experiences made him a nationally known hero. He died in an automobile accident here on August 21, 1974.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shiloh National Military Park — 8.6 mi
  The April 6-7, 1862 battlefield above Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, with the Hornets' Nest, Bloody Pond, a national cemetery and no entrance fee.
• Shiloh Indian Mounds — 8.7 mi
  A National Historic Landmark on the Tennessee River bluff: the remains of a palisaded Mississippian-era town with seven mounds and the visible rings of its house sites, inside Shiloh National Military Park.
• Tennessee River Museum — 12 mi
  A small museum in Savannah's 1939 post office with the Shiloh effigy pipe, a Trail of Tears river-crossing exhibit, a gunport replica from the USS Cairo and the largest petrified wood in the state.
• Pickwick Landing State Park — 17 mi
  A state park beside TVA's Pickwick Landing Dam, a few miles north of the Mississippi and Alabama lines, with a lodge, marina, golf course, aviary and the lake the 1938 dam made.

More markers nearby

• The Hurst Nation — 8.4 mi
• The Trail of Tears, Cherokee Removal 1838 — 8.8 mi
• Cherry Mansion — 12 mi
• C.S.A. Rifle Pit — 18 mi