All Non-Digital Titles

One of the last residents of the Smoky Mountain town frozen in time tells of life in a community that few have seen.

The remote Smoky Mountain community of Cades Cove still lives in the memory of J.C. McCaulley, one of the few remaining former residents, who offers an exclusive glimpse into a childhood in the Cove. His stories, compiled by his wife Margaret, are a testament to a way of life long abandoned - a life before automobiles, television and perhaps too much exposure to the outside world; a life of hard work and caring for your neighbors. Join the McCaulleys in their quest to preserve the beauty, tranquility and traditions of this pristine community, and dare to dream of a way of life that encouraged independence, integrity and the courage to overcome adversity.

Thanks to Attorney and business owner Bill Patton, you won't miss a thing when you visit downtown Memphis, Tennessee with this guide.

Need a practical, useful guide to downtown Memphis's historic streets, buildings and neighborhoods? Look no further than A Guide to Historic Downtown Memphis. From Beale Street to the Bluffs, this guidebook covers all the essentials that no explorer of the River City should be without. Each chapter provides a map for a different section of downtown Memphis, guiding readers on a journey to the historic reaches of this modern city. The destinations may vary from classic theatres to barbeque joints, from churches to saloons, but the road always leads to another fascinating Memphis discovery. Perfect for out-of-town visitors or Memphians who need a helpful guide to showcase the attractions that make their hometown one of a kind.

Get ready to experience the Music City with this guide of one of the most culturally and historically rich cities in the Southeast.

Whether you're a local or a tourist, this guide will come in handy. Enjoy 11 walking and driving tours around Tennessee's historical capital of Nashville. Explore the legendary Music Row and the famous Ryman Auditorium. Discover fascincating facts about Nashville's past - from the battlefields to the universities. Carefully researched and exceptionally written by accomplished historian James Hoobler, who is senior curator of art and architecture at the Tennessee State Museum and former executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, this book offers extraordinary insight into Nashville's heritage. It is a wonderful companion, both for visitors and for Nashville residents who want to see their hometown in a new light.

Author Tony Kail traces Memphis's colorful Hoodoo heritage from the arrival of Africans in Shelby County to the growth of conjure culture in juke joints and Spiritual Churches.

Widely known for its musical influence, Beale Street was also once a hub for Hoodoo culture. Many blues icons, such as Big Memphis Ma Rainey and Sonny Boy Williamson, dabbled in the mysterious tradition. Its popularity in some African American communities throughout the past two centuries fueled racial tension - practitioners faced social stigma and blame for anything from natural disasters to violent crimes. However, necessity sometimes outweighed prejudice, and even those with the highest social status turned to Hoodoo for prosperity, love or retribution.

Learn and discover how African-Americans have held a prominent place in the history of Chattanooga dating back to the 16th century.

Did you know that Chattanooga is the hometown of the first African-American appointed to lead counsel on a Supreme Court case? The home of the nation's oldest student, who learned to read at age 116? The home of the African-American blacksmith who put shackles on the "Andrew's Raiders" after the Great Locomotive Chase? The site of one of the first integrated police departments in the South? Author Rita Lorraine Hubbard chronicles the ways African-Americans have shaped Chattanooga, and presents inspirational achievements that have gone largely unheralded over the years - and so much more!

Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Honoree

Lambda Literary Award Finalist-Gay Memoir/Biography

From an exhilarating new voice, a breathtaking memoir about gay desire, Blackness, and growing up.

Darius Stewart spent his childhood in the Lonsdale projects of Knoxville, where he grew up navigating school, friendship, and his own family life in a context that often felt perilous. As we learn about his life in Tennessee—and eventually in Texas and Iowa, where he studies to become a poet—he details the obstacles to his most crucial desires: hiding his earliest attraction to boys in his neighborhood, predatory stalkers, doomed affairs, his struggles with alcohol addiction, and his eventual diagnosis with HIV. Through a mix of straightforward memoir, brilliantly surreal reveries, and moments of startling imagery and insight, Stewart’s explorations of love, illness, chemical dependency, desire, family, joy, shame, loneliness, and beauty coalesce into a wrenching, musical whole.

A lyrical narrative reminiscent of Saeed Jones’s How We Fight for Our Lives and Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Be Not Afraid of My Body stands as a compelling testament to growing up Black and gay in America, and to the drive in all of us to collect the fragments of our own experience and transform them into a story that does justice to all the multitudes we contain.

A fascinating look into the beginnings of one of Tennessee's oldest counties, Blount.

Blount County is the 10th county formed in the state of Tennessee. It was carved out of Knox County in 1795 and named for William Blount, the governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio. Maryville is the county seat and was named for Blount's wife, Mary Grainger Blount. The abundance of natural resources that once drew hardy settlers now attracts tourists from all over the world, especially to Cades Cove, a pioneer settlement in the Blount County section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Blount County has been home to the legendary Sam Houston; U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, who also served as Tennessee's governor; and Bessie Harvey, a world-renowned folk artist.

Local Historian G. Wayne Dowdy tells the tales of Memphis's triumphs and tragedies through the civil rights movement and beyond like only a true Memphian can.

First purchased in the early 1800s from natives to serve as a vital port for the emerging American river trade, the city flourished until the tumultuous years of the Civil War brought chaos and uncertainty. Despite its compelling story, no concise history of this home of soulful music and unmistakable flavor has been available to modern readers until now. Thankfully, archivist G. Wayne Dowdy has filled this gap with a history of Memphis that is as vibrant and welcoming as the city itself.

Images of America: Bristol celebrates the history of the town known as ""A Good Place to Live.""

Joseph A. Anderson bought land on the Virginia-Tennessee border from his father-in-law, Rev. James King, and founded Bristol in 1852. Just four years later, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad came to Bristol, and the town became a major trading center of the Appalachian region. During the Civil War, Bristol was a vital railway link between the North and the South, and it later became known as the birthplace of country music. Readers are sure to enjoy viewing over 200 vintage photographs of the train station, the Carter Family, the King family, Virginia Intermont College, and King College, as well as homes and people from all walks of life. The S. E. Massengill drug manufacturing company shown on the cover is among the highlighted industries.

This pictorial history of Natchez Trace illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped the area's cultural and natural history.

The Natchez Trace is one of the oldest trails in North America. In 1801, President Jefferson ordered the Army to build a road along the trail to provide a route for moving troops and delivering mail. Jefferson dispatched soldiers down the road in 1803 to protect the Louisiana Purchase, and Andrew Jackson and his troops followed it to battle the British in the War of 1812. As an 1800-era link between Nashville, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi, the road served as a pathway for settling much of what we now know as the South. Twentieth-century writers such as Eudora Welty later embellished its lore of heroes, bandits, and spies, inspiring Southern leaders to revive the Natchez Trace.

This isolated Tennessee valley has been home for generations of early settlers and Native Americans alike, today welcoming millions of tourists annually as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Though the land has existed for millenia, the village known as Cades Cove came into existence in 1821, when William "Fighting Billy" Tipton was granted 1,280 acres of fine fertile land in the first recorded legal land title to Cades Cove following the Calhoun Treaty of 1819. At its peak in 1900, the census showed that there were 125 families living in the cove and over 700 individuals. The Cades Cove people were self-sufficient and had many conveniences that others did not. Some residents made their own water system, and there were blacksmiths, coffin makers, farmers, storekeepers, postmasters, and many more occupations - there was no need to go out of their beloved cove for anything. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, with a good deal of opposition from the Cades Cove residents, the area was incorporated into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Camp Forrest was a training, induction, and combatant prisoner-of-war (POW) facility located on the outskirts of Tullahoma, Tennessee.

It was a self-sustaining city where over 70,000 soldiers were stationed and approximately 12,000 civilians were employed throughout World War II. In 1942, the camp transitioned to an enemy alien internment camp and was one of the first civilian internment camps in the United States. By the middle of 1943, it had transitioned into a POW camp and housed primarily German and Italian prisoners. After the war ended, the base was decommissioned and dismantled in 1946. In 1951, the area was recommissioned and expanded into the US Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Complex. Few remains of this important World War II facility exist today; however, the images within provide a glimpse into the effects and realities of a global war on American soil.

Camp Forrest and Its Legacy is a pictorial history of the individuals and organizations that made this installation Tennessee’s fifth-largest city in World War II.

As an induction, training, and enemy combatant detention facility in Tullahoma, Camp Forrest trained over 70,000 soldiers, employed more than 12,000 civilians, and detained 800 civilian internees and 65,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. At the end of the war, the base was decommissioned and dismantled. Where only foundations and chimneys now stand guard, its legacy perseveres. The over 150,000 people who passed through its gates left an impression still felt.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor continues to research Camp Forrest’s past and present global impact. She founded the Camp Forrest Foundation, which strives to preserve military history. She welcomes individuals to contact her with stories, comments, photographs, and artifacts. The images included in this title were obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration and numerous private collections.

This pictorial history of Carson-Newman College illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped this institution's legacy.

Carson-Newman College, a private, Christian liberal arts college, is located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, approximately 25 miles east of Knoxville. In the early 1840s, a number of Baptist leaders desired to offer better-prepared ministers to area congregations. Afforded the use of a local Baptist church building, Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary opened to students in the fall of 1851. In 1880, the school was named Carson College and for several years existed alongside Newman College, a separate facility for the education of women. In 1889, the two colleges united as one of the first coeducational Baptist institutions. As Carson-Newman College celebrates 160 years of rich history steeped in the ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness, it continues to prepare students academically and spiritually to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Chattanooga Radio and Televisionprovides an informative entertaining look at Chattanooga's broadcast history through the images and stories of its participants.

To those born and raised in Chattanooga, certain names bring a smile to their faces: Miss Marcia, Bob Brandy, Mort Lloyd, Dr. Shock, and, of course, Luther.

These are among the icons of Chattanooga broadcasting. They are the faces and voices that awakened Chattanoogans each morning, delivered the news, or made them laugh. Ever since two high school pals put the city's first radio station on the air in 1925, Chattanooga has been blessed with an abundance of memorable personalities. Some passed through on their way to national fame, while others have made Chattanooga their home for more than half a century.

Author David Carroll, a Chattanooga radio and television personality since 1975, utilizes his friendships with hundreds of local radio and television personalities to bring their stories to life.

Long before Glenn Miller made the world-famous ""Chattanooga Choo Choo"" an American icon, Chattanooga was already a bustling railroad community.

By the beginning of the 20th century, passenger trains overwhelmed Chattanooga's two railroad depots and a larger station was needed. The solution was Terminal Station, which rivaled most Southern depots in size, expense, and aesthetic beauty. Providing transportation to cities throughout the country, the terminal made its mark as the gateway for rail from the agricultural south to the industrial north. Following its closure, the terminal was reopened as a renowned hotel and entertainment complex in 1973, becoming one of Chattanooga's many exciting attractions. Images of Rail: Chattanooga's Terminal Station follows the history of this depot in both stories and photographs.

Clarence Saunders' vision for a better shopping experience for day-to-day needs has made Piggly Wiggly a staple of southern living for over 100 years.

The grocery business began as a complicated service industry. Random pricing, inconsistent quantities and prescriptive salesmen made grocery shopping burdensome. It took one brash Memphian with uncommon vision and unbridled ambition to change everything. Clarence Saunders worked his way out of poverty and obscurity to found Piggly Wiggly in 1916. With an unprecedented approach, he virtually invented the concept of the modern self-service grocery store. Stores flourished, franchises spread and Saunders made millions. Yet just as the final bricks of Pink Palace--his garish marble mansion--were being laid, Saunders went bankrupt, and he was forced to sell Piggly Wiggly. A variety of new ventures helped Saunders out of bankruptcy, but he never duplicated his prior success. Memphis historian Mike Freeman tracks the remarkable life of this retail visionary.

Bound by the majestic Smoky Mountains and its lush, rolling foothills, East Tennessee was forged by the pioneering spirits of the region's Cherokee tribes and the white settlers who arrived in the early nineteenth century.

Named for famous Revolutionary War hero Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, the town grew from a humble traveler's rest called Taylor's Place into a bustling community full of diversity and opportunity, attracting people of all races and creeds over the years. This visual history, with over 200 black-and-white photographs and postcards, explores the Cleveland of yesteryear, a time when Ocoee Street and Central Avenue echoed with the sounds of horse and wagon and the first automobile made its noisy debut on the town's unpaved main streets. Cleveland transports readers into the past and allows them a unique opportunity to rediscover the city's early landscape, some of the notable residences, such as the Craigmiles House, and a few of the principal industries that guided the town through the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Most important to Cleveland's success and identity are its people and their achievements. This volume records the prominent businesses, religious institutions, and educational facilities, such as Centenary College, Bob Jones College, and Lee College, that the citizens of Cleveland worked hard to provide for their children, neighbors, and future generations.

This pictorial history of Columbia State Community College was published in conjunction with the college's 40th anniversary. The authors were careful to select a variety of images that depict the evolution of the Columbia campus, as well as its centers and sites, and provide readers with an enjoyable volume.

Join authors Darlene Hooker Sawyer and Dr. Jane Howles Hooker as they recount the rich history of Cordova, Tennessee through vintage images.

The simple lifestyle once shared by many families on rural farmlands in Cordova is but a dream of yesteryear, as those days are long gone. Early settlers spread into the adjacent communities of Sanga, Bethany, Pisgah, Lenow, and Morning Sun, and children from these areas went to the original brick Cordova School. Families held social gatherings at the school and local churches. At one time, 92 percent of the fresh flowers sold in Memphis were grown in Cordova; thus the town's motto: ""Farms, Flowers, Fellowship."" Though it was eventually annexed by the City of Memphis, many historic homes and buildings still remain in the old town area in the heart of Cordova.

Join author and Professor Lisa Whillock Ellis as she details the rich history of Dandridge, Tennessee through vintage images.

Dandridge, Tennessee, the second-oldest town in the state, was founded in 1783 by a group of Scotch-Irish settlers. It was 13 years before Tennessee became the 16th state. The town began as a small frontier settlement along the banks of the French Broad River in the short-lived state of Franklin. In 1793, Dandridge became the county seat for the newly formed Jefferson County. The county was named for then U.S. secretary of state Thomas Jefferson. Dandridge is the only town in the United States named for first lady Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. Davy Crockett married his first wife near Dandridge, and the courthouse still has his marriage bond in its archives. Over the years, it has played host to presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. During the Civil War, the Battle of Dandridge was fought there in winter 1864. In 1942, the town was saved when the Tennessee Valley Authority built a dike to protect it from the waters of Douglas Lake.

Trace the history of DeKalb County, from happenings during the Civil War to its rich natural beauty and landmarks.

DeKalb County has a vast and interesting history spanning from Confederate general John Hunt Morgan's raids on the North during the Civil War to the building of Center Hill Dam, which formed a beautiful lake that brings thousands of tourists to the county each year. The lake, encompassing 18,220 acres, displaced thousands of the earliest settlers' descendants along the Caney Fork River. The state legislature established DeKalb County from parts of surrounding counties in 1837. The county was named after Revolutionary War general Johann DeKalb, while the county seat of Smithville was named after state senator Samuel Granville Smith; neither man was from the county.

Kingsport, the ""Model City,"" was the first American city in the 20th century that was privately financed and professionally planned.

Kingsport's location on the Clinchfield Railroad played a significant role in the development of the city, but it was the early visionaries and leaders who embraced the city's potential and transformed it. Chartered in 1917, it's credited as being the first city in Tennessee to adopt the radical notion of hiring a city manager, and that more than anything is the secret of its success. City planner John Nolen, on expanding existing city blueprints, created a unique physical design and layout with areas zoned specifically for industrial, commercial, and spiritual development. Downtown Kingsport, anchored by the iconic Church Circle on one end and the historic train depot on the other, was the heart of industrial and economic growth. Take a cruise down Broad Street and experience Kingsport from its early beginnings to the modern era.

Take a fascinating journey through the history of Dyersburg, Tennessee with more than 200 vintage photographs and anecdotes from the locals who experienced it.

In the early 1800s, West Tennessee was wild country, covered with dense hardwood forests and rich soil, with clear rivers and creeks winding through. In 1818, a final treaty was signed with the Native American tribes in the area, bringing white settlers from East Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.

In 1825, the town of Dyersburg was laid out and quickly began to thrive. By 1911, the present courthouse was completed, anchoring a classic Southern town square that now belongs to the National Register of Historic Places. Just a few months before the historic crash of the stock market in 1929, Dyersburg became the site of a cotton mill transplanted from Oswego, New York. Nearby, the mill built about 100 small houses for its workers, and this neighborhood became Milltown, a name that still shines in residents' memories.

The Dyer County Historical Societyhas offered the best of its photo collection, along with images from the Tennessee State Library and Archives, for Images of America: Dyersburg. In addition, the warm-hearted residents of Dyersburg have supplied photographs from their personal albums.

Eastern Sevier County rests in the toursity foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park but also boasts a colorful history of its own.

Eastern Sevier County is home to the small communities of Foxfire Mountain, Pittman Center, Jones Cove, Richardson's Cove, Locust Ridge, and Pearl Valley. Foxfire Mountain is best known today for the adventure park and agri-tourist destination brought to life by the Postlewaite family, yet it also boasts a colorful history that includes Benjamin Owens, a judge notorious for hanging convicts from an oak tree on his property. Locust Ridge is the birthplace of country music legend Dolly Parton, and it has been reported that her father compensated the attending physician who delivered Dolly with a bag of cornmeal.

Pittman Center, originally a Cherokee hunting ground, is now the largest community in this portion of the county. Strangely, the town is named for Dr. Eli Pittman of New York, who assisted local minister John Burnett with fundraising to build a school to serve the area. Pittman Center is now a favorite destination for those enjoying the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Enter the forest with author F. Carroll McMahan as he tells dramatic, fascinating and sometimes humorous stories of a man who lived truly on his own terms.

Born in 1889 in the Smoky Mountains, Lem Ownby became one of the region's most recognized figures. Sight-impaired from an early age, Lem spent his life logging, bear hunting, farming and tending his beehives. He welcomed the arrival of logging operations into the pristine wilderness but became an eyewitness to the devastation it brought to land, streams and wildlife. As the last leaseholder living within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lem became a legend, selling his honey and offering pearls of wisdom to hikers, writers and even the governor. Lem's principles remained solid, his opinions so unwavering that he once refused to entertain two Supreme Court justices.

Halfway between Cincinnati and Atlanta, the town of Etowah was created in order to service the great railcars that connected the country.

In 1902, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was looking for a location halfway between Cincinnati and Atlanta to build a rail center; this site would be the home of a rail yard for crew changes and shops to build and repair boxcars. After being turned down for two locations, the third proved to be the lucky number--the area at the foot of Starr Mountain was rich with timber to build the shops and railcars, and several years later, the decision was made to go forward with this site. By 1906, the L&N Railroad built its first planned community, and in one year, over 2,000 people were employed by the rail line. 100 years later, the town that emerged from that original community maintains a rich heritage built around the railroad that made their town.

In January of 1866, with the devastation of the Civil War far from assuaged in the slowly recuperating South, Fisk University made its home in abandoned Federal barracks near Nashville, Tennessee.

The entire region faced hardships after the conflict, but Southern blacks still encountered what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles, even after the emancipation of slaves. Within five years of its opening, Fisk was in such a dire financial situation, many expected its closure; however, in an effort to raise funds for the university, Professor George L. White and nine students traveled the country performing in a musical ensemble known as the Jubilee Singers. Their hard-won rise to fame led them to the White House where they performed for President Ulysses S. Grant, and the money they earned touring the country literally saved Fisk. The spirit of the first Jubilee Singers lives on at Fisk today, but it is a university much different than the one that opened in 1866. Today Fisk is an institution fully equipped for the challenges of the future, noted for its excellence in academics, and celebrated for the achievements of its distinguished alumni. Whether in the classroom, on the playing field, or on stage, Fisk students and faculty are torchbearers of achievement in all areas of life. It is their unyielding determination that is celebrated within these pages, as the university's history comes to life in vintage photographs. Early classrooms, beloved professors, civic and social organizations, sporting events, famed alumni, and the Jubilee Singers are all included in this retrospective.

Tennessee has never been a stranger to strangeness.

Stories of the weird, wild, and wonderful abound in the Volunteer state. Join author and seasoned journalist Kelly Kazek as she tracks down the extraordinary stories that other history books overlook. Each section covers a different outlandish theme of Tennessee history colorful characters, strange sites, intriguing incidents, tombstone tales, odd occurrences, and curious creatures. Readers will discover the brilliant phenomenon of synchronized firefly flashes in the Smoky Mountain town of Elmont, take on the world's largest Moon Pie in Chattanooga and learn Tennessee's history of damaging earthquakes. From the humorous to the haunting, the madcap to the macabre, Forgotten Tales of Tennessee offers a collection as remarkable as the state itself.

Rare, historic images lift the veil on a town's history, revealing heroes and villains that will shock and delight.

Named for its ebullient natural springs, Fountain City, Tennessee, has a rich history and a truly unique identity. Originally established in 1788 by John Adair as Adair's Fort, this area was a depot for the Cumberland Guard, which protected emigrant families traveling to settlements in present-day Nashville. With a population of about 30,000, Fountain City was thought to be the nation's largest unincorporated city by the mid-20th century. Though this distinction was lost when the community was incorporated into Knoxville in 1962, Fountain City has maintained a separate identity and preserved its extensive history. Filled with detailed images of the area, this volume provides a rare glimpse of the people, places, and events that have molded the suburb into an ideal environment in which to learn, relax, and enjoy a myriad of recreational activities.

Join authors George B. Henry and Linda Braden Albert as they recount the history of Friendsville, Tennessee through the lens of over 200 vintage images.

Friendsville is a small town with a rich, varied history. It had its beginnings in the late 1790s, when several related families with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) moved from North Carolina into what is now Blount County and established a Friends meeting about 12 miles from Maryville, the county seat. The families built a gristmill and a sawmill and later sold town lots. The Friendsville Post Office was established in 1850, and the town was incorporated in 1953. Friendsville has played a remarkable role in the history of the United States. The Friends, who did not support war or slavery, operated several stops on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, helping runaway slaves, freed African Americans, and southern residents who wanted to fight for the North or move north to avoid the war. The area is now noted for its marble production, with Friendsville pink marble gracing such buildings as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The stars were in alignment to transform the isolated hamlet of White Oak Flats into the major tourist destination that Gatlinburg is today.

Settlers arrived at the end of the 18th century to farm, and a community emerged. When the ladies of the Pi Beta Phi Women's Fraternity established a school in Gatlinburg in 1912, the mountain people learned they had the skills to produce marketable, handmade items. With interest in a national park developing in the 1920s, people began to visit the area to buy handcrafts and to enjoy the scenery. Enterprising residents then built hotels and shops to accommodate them. Today, Gatlinburg supports approximately 11,000 people with an active chamber of commerce, a prize-winning community center, an outstanding public school system, a national art education center, and a nationally known public library.

Friendly people welcome neighbors and visitors alike with warm hospitality in Germantown. Great pains have been taken by the city planners in preserving the small-town atmosphere, while still being quite mindful of the future progress of a growing city. Come and discover, through 200 intriguing old photographs, the treasures of the community's history spanning 150 years. Included in this volume are vintage images of local families, business, schools, and churches.

From the Civil War to present day; Greenville's history has impacted more than its home state of Tennessee.

The Greeneville area was settled in 1775 by English, German, and Scotch-Irish pioneers. In 1783, while still part of North Carolina, the town of Greeneville was founded and named for Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. It served as the capital of the State of Franklin from 1785 until 1788 under the leadership of John Sevier. In 1796, Greeneville was included in the formation of a new state--Tennessee. Over the years, farming has been the mainstay of the area with tobacco becoming the most prominent income producer for the agricultural community. Greeneville is proud to be the home and burial place of our 17th president, Andrew Johnson, and home to the state's oldest institute of higher learning, Tusculum College.

Hardeman County was named for Thomas Hardeman, a War of 1812 veteran and a pioneer of young America's frontier.

He served as the county's first clerk and helped to shape the county that would bear his name. Hardeman and other early settlers created towns and settlements that eventually stretched over 650 square miles. They quickly established churches and schools and added businesses and farms to the fabric of the county. The nearby Hatchie River had long been a waterway used by the Chickasaw Indians, and many of the county's towns were settled on or near the waterway that led them to the Mississippi River. This river and the railroads became a prize to be won--and controlled--during the Civil War.

Nestled in the mountains where Tennessee meets Kentucky and Virginia, the towns of Harrogate and Cumberland Gap showcase the nation's history and the beauty of nature.

Here, a British investor dreamed of creating a resort town that rivaled the spas of Europe. The Panic of 1893 crushed those plans, but it also allowed a former Civil War general to keep his promise to Abraham Lincoln that he would do something to assist the area's mountain people. As a university that became a memorial to the 16th president grew in Harrogate, locomotives steamed through Cumberland Gap. The 1930s and 1940s marked hard times, but the pluck of the populace held firm. Indeed, the philanthropic effort put into the region, as well as a southern movie premier and even a presidential visit, demonstrated the area's potential. As time marched on, both Harrogate and Cumberland Gap welcomed tourists who explored the nearby Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and visited the university's Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum.