Richland

The two Richlands nearly caused a wreck, or so the railroad feared. By 1887 there were two towns of that name in Tennessee, and L&N officials worried that a telegraph mix-up could send a train the wrong way, while postal customers complained that their mail was misdirected. The railroad and postal authorities decided to rename the Sumner County station, which became Portland. The town had begun in 1859 as a depot on land belonging to Thomas Buntin, and Portland is now called the strawberry capital of Tennessee.

What the plaque says

Richland On October 31, 1859, Richland Station was opened 318 feet east of here by Thomas Buntin on land later deeded by his heirs to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Five months later, a post office was established, and Buntin, already the station's agent, became the first postmaster. The town grew along the railroad. From May 1861 to February 1862, Camp Trousdale, a Confederate training camp named for Governor William Trousdale, was located in the vicinity. On April 10, 1888, Richland Station's name was changed to Portland, to avoid confusion with Richland in Grainger County. Portland has been home to conservationist James L. Bailey, authors, Opie Read, Rebecca Caudill, writer-humorist Elmer Hinton, and scientist-inventor Dr. Samuel Collins. In 1915, Sumner County High School became the first four-year public high school in the county. Since 1941, Portland has held the annual Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 17 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.

More markers nearby

• Zollicoffer's Headquarters — 0.6 mi
• Bishop William McKendree — 1.4 mi
• Parker's Chapel "Old Taylor Field" — 2.1 mi
• Fountain Head — 2.2 mi