Reelfoot Lake & Northwest Tennessee
Reelfoot Lake and the Night Riders, Island No. 10, Carl Perkins, Union City's museum and church, Kentucky Lake parks, Crockett's cabin and Patsy Cline's memorial.
The Chickasaw (Chikasha) hunted all of West Tennessee until the 1818 Jackson Purchase, and removal across the Mississippi came in 1837 and 1838. Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge and Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge sit on that ground, Discovery Park of America in Union City opens with a Native American timeline, and the Eva site, drowned by Kentucky Lake, holds Archaic camps thousands of years older still.
The 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes made Reelfoot Lake, and its state park tells how Night Riders killed in 1908 over who owned it, including the Black Walker family across the line in Kentucky. Island No. 10 and Tiptonville look toward the Mississippi, and Carl Perkins, whose caboose visitor center stands in town, grew up picking cotton beside Black field workers. In Union City, Mt. Zion CME Church was built by its Black congregation in 1896.
Farther east, land was drowned and then made over. Paris Landing State Park sits on the TVA lake of 1944, and Big Cypress Tree State Park keeps a river floodplain where the country's largest and oldest bald cypress stood until lightning struck it in 1976. The Davy Crockett Cabin in Rutherford and Patsy Cline's crash memorial near Camden carry a frontier story and a country song.
What to See in Reelfoot Lake & Northwest Tennessee
11 places across the region, grouped by what they are.
Natural Areas
Hikes & Trails
Historic Sites
Towns & Gateways
Scenic Drives through Reelfoot Lake & Northwest Tennessee
Reelfoot Lake & Northwest Tennessee rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.
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