Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge

President Harry Truman established the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge in 1945 as a sanctuary for migratory birds, and it now covers more than 51,000 acres along Kentucky Lake and the Tennessee River. It is spread across several units rather than one place, and the Fish and Wildlife Service reports over 300 bird species. The visitor center in Springville has exhibits, an auditorium and a nature bookstore. Observation decks, an auto tour and a fishing pier fill in the rest, and the Big Sandy Peninsula has a Chickasaw Trail and a Mt. Zion Church stop. Hunting seasons close parts of the refuge, so check before you go.

Under Kentucky Lake are older stories. University of Tennessee archaeologists excavated the Eva site in Benton County in 1940, just before Kentucky Lake covered it. Native people used the riverbank camp for thousands of years during the Archaic period, between about 8000 and 1000 B.C. The dig found 180 burials, and a radiocarbon date near 5200 B.C. was then the earliest for any prehistoric culture in the state.

The Chickasaw (Chikasha) claimed this country as a hunting range and kept a few scattered homes here until the Jackson Purchase of 1818. The refuge is a good place to watch birds and then to think about how many lives the river has held.