Mills Darden

Accounts of Mills Darden's size disagree. Older tales put him at 8 feet 6 inches and 800 pounds, while a modern reference gives 7 feet 6 inches, over a thousand pounds and about six feet across the shoulders, with a resting blood pressure said to average 237 over 138. Born near Rich Square, North Carolina, in 1799, he married twice, had seven children with Mary and four with Tameria, and died on January 23, 1857. A local development authority later restored his grave and his wife's.

What the plaque says

Mills Darden Born in North Carolina in 1799, Darden settled in Henderson County about 1830. He was an innkeeper and farmer, and physically one of the heaviest men ever to live in the world. At the time of his death, Darden weighed in excess of 1,000 pounds. He and his first wife are buried 1.7 miles north.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natchez Trace State Park — 13 mi
  A New Deal state park built on worn-out West Tennessee farmland, where the Fairfield Gullies show what erosion did and kudzu was planted to stop it.
• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 13 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.

More markers nearby

• Freed-Hardeman College — 14 mi
• Parker's Crossroads — 15 mi
• The Battle of Salem Cemetery — 16 mi
• Adam Huntsman — 16 mi