• TN is the national center of country music, with Nashville being the home of a thriving music industry.

• Tom Ryman, a riverboat captain, built the Ryman Auditorium in 1891, and was called the Union Gospel Tabernacle.

• The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, in Bristol, were the first performers to record successful country music records in Tennessee. Patsy Cline was the first female to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville . Sun Records, of Memphis, was founded by Sam Phillips, and Elvis Presley graduated from Humes High School in Memphis in 1953.

• Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously-running live radio program in the world. It has broadcast every Friday and Saturday night since 1925. In 1950, the Grand Ole Opry was televised for the first time.

• The Meat & Three is a common term for fare throughout the South, and is a cornerstone of the cultural landscape.
  • Primarily a lunchtime phenomenon, the name refers to the diner's choice of a meat entree and three vegetables, typically including rolls or corn muffins, for a fixed price. The meat is usually drowning in gravy, and the vegetables are probably loaded with fat. But the taste buds jump for joy as those calories slide down the throat. At most places, you can top it off with a delicious homemade dessert.

• Sports:
  • Professional Football Team: Tennessee Titans (schedule) (formerly Tennessee Oilers and Houston Oilers).

  • Pat Summit played on the US basketball team at the World University Games in Moscow, in 1976, she served as co-captain of the US women's basketball team at the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, and went on to become the women's coach of the now-famous Lady Vols, at the University of Tennessee. Pat Summitt is considered as one of best coaches in the history of basketball.

  • In 1922, the University of Tennessee Vols first wore their now-famous orange jerseys.

• The name "Tennessee" comes from Cherokee Indian villages called "Tanasi"

• Jonesborough, Tennessee's oldest town, was a major stop on the Old Stage Road through the frontier in the eighteenth century. After a multi- million dollar restoration in the late 1960s, Jonesborough became the first Tennessee town to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  • It was the first capitol of the Lost State of Franklin. President Andrew Jackson once practiced law in the town and stayed at the Chester Inn, the oldest frame structure in Jonesborough. Built in 1797, it is now home to the National Storytelling Association. The first weekend of October each year, Jonesborough hosts around 8,000 people during the National Storytelling Festival. Every July 4, the Jonesborough Civic Trust holds Jonesborough Days, with parades, crafts, and mountain music.

• Shelbyville is noted for pencil manufacturing.

• Economy: Agriculture: Soybeans, cotton, tobacco, livestock and livestock products, dairy products, cattle, hogs.

• Major Industries: Chemical and allied products, transportation equipment, rubber, plastics, processed foods, and clothing products.

• Historical Sites: The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
  • Andrew Johnson ran a tailor shop in downtown Greeneville, where his wife taught him to read. Johnson held every political office possible from alderman to President of the United States. Johnson's original tailor shop, his home in the 1830s, his residence from 1851 until his death in 1875, and the National Cemetery where he is buried are within walking distance in Greeneville.
  • Tipton-Haynes Historic Site, is an 18th century home in Johnson City was built by John Tipton, a member of the 1776 Constitutional Convention. It has been restored to the style when it was the home of Landon Carter Haynes, a Confederate Senator.

• Points of Interest: `American Museum of Atomic Energy` at Oak Ridge, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, The Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson near Nashville), and Rock City Gardens near Chattanooga.

• Bordering States: Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri.

• The last stagecoach holdup took place in Tennessee on October 15, 1882.

• The Memphis Zoo was the famous home of the MGM's roaring lion until his death in 1944.

• The magnificent cliffs of the Sequatchie Valley make the area around Dunlap one of the top 3 areas in the US for hang gliding.

• Theodore Roosevelt commented that the coffee at the old Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, was "good to the last drop"

• The first traffic-related law in the Tennessee Public Acts of 1837-38 stated that a driver should drive to the right of the center of the road.

• The Tennessee River runs through Tennessee twice.

• The state is known as the U.S. hardwood-flooring center.

• The Scopes monkey trial was held at Dayton in 1925.

• Traditionally, the eastern residents are Republican, whereas the remainder of the state is Democratic.

• W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues was written at the cigar stand in Peewee's Palace, Memphis.

• The Cherokee Indian Sequoyah was the only man in history to single-handedly develop and perfect an alphabet. Today the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum is located in Vonore.

• The annual Choctaw Indian Pow Wow is held at Chacalissa, a reconstructed Indian village near Memphis.

• In 1987, Reggie Cobb became the second University of Tennessee football player to rush more than 1000 yards in a season.

• The red spruce trees (Pica rubens sarg.) of the mountains of Tennessee, sometimes live to be 350 years old.

• Tennesseean Marion Dorset implemented the meat inspection program for the USDA.

• Pete Conrad carried tapes of Nashville music artist Faron Young with him on the Apollo 12 mission, there by giving Young the distinction of having his records heard all the way to the moon.

With her diverse landscape, tales of moonshine wars, "white lightning," revenue agents and stills hidden deep in hollows and along ridgelines, producing the finest corn liquor in the land, thousands of miles of waterways, big cities hosting the giants of Industry, her heritage of music and crafts, and a Southern charm all her own... Tennessee is a perfect vacation destination, as well as an extraordinary place to live.