Tennessee

Judge William O. Beach paved the way for wine production in Tennessee when he opened this winery in 1987. While Beachaven produces a number of sweeter, fruit-flavored wines, it also produces a strong assortment of drier wines. For starters, consider sampling the Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. For anyone unsure about the wine, the tastings are free, as is a brief tour of the grounds. The winery’s highly popular Jazz on the Lawn series in summer months features free music at the winery.

Located about two miles from Downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Centennial Park is perhaps best known for its Parthenon replica. The 132-acre park originally opened in 1903 where the Tennessee Centennial Exposition was held in 1897. The Parthenon replica was built for the Nashville pavilion of the Centennial Exposition, but since it was largely out of plaster and as a temporary exhibit building, the structure was rebuilt in the 1920s. Prior to Centennial Park, the area was a fairgrounds after the Civil War and the home of a race track known as West Side Park from 1884 to 1895.

Chattanooga National Cemetery is located near the center of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 120.9 acres and has more than 50,000 interments. The cemetery was established in 1863, by an order from Major General George Henry Thomas after the Civil War Battles of Chattanooga, as a place to inter Union soldiers who fell in combat.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park preserves the sites of two major battles of the American Civil War: the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign.

The most impressive railroad relic in Clarksville, Tenn., is the swing bridge over the Cumberland River. With stone pillars dating to 1859, the 678-foot-long bridge is normally more than 50 feet above the river and can swing to allow river traffic to pass when the water level is high.

In 1898, the federal government built a customs house and a post office at the corner of Second and Commerce streets to help process the increasing volumes of mail to and from the city. In 1984, the building was transformed into the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center touted as the state’s second-largest general interest museum. The museum features a number of permanent exhibits, including the postmaster’s office and Memory Lane, dedicated to telling the story of Clarksville and Montgomery County’s history.

The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial includes 32 granite monuments with inscribed names of more than 6000 veterans from 35 counties in East Tennessee who have died in military service since World War I. The memorial lists names by conflict and by county. The memorial, located on a grassy plot at the northern end of Knoxville’s World’s Fair Park, also includes the names of the 14 Medal of Honor recipients from East Tennessee. Other features are a plaza entrance with a 50-foot flag pole and a 27-foot high bell tower.

Fort Donelson National Battlefield preserves the resources of and tells the stories of the 1862 campaign and battles for Forts Henry, Heiman, and Donelson, and the opening of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. The national park includes Fort Donelson National Cemetery, established in 1867, as the final resting for Union soldiers and sailors initially buried in the Fort Donelson area. It contains the remains of 670 Civil War burials and roughly 909 veterans from other wars. Dover Hotel, the Surrender House, was built between 1851 and 1853 and served riverboat travelers before and after the Civil War. Confederate Brig. General Simon B. Buckner and his staff used the hotel as their headquarters during the battle. Buckner surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the hotel.

The city of Clarksville, Tennessee, unveiled the Frank Sutton Statue on Franklin Street in May 2017. Local sculptor Scott Wise created the statue of Sutton, a Clarksville native best known for portraying Sgt. Vince Carter on the 1960s CBS show “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.” Sutton in the South Pacific with the U.S. Army during World War II. The statue stands along Franklin Street across from the Roxy Regional Theatre. Sutton, who died in 1974, also appeared in “Gunsmoke” and “The Twilight Zone.”

The Hunter Museum of American Art features works representing a range of genres, including American Impressionism, early modernism, regionalism and post World War II modern and contemporary art. The museum, perched on an 80-foot bluff on the edge of the Tennessee River, opened in 1952 and is located in a building represents three distinct architectural stages: the original 1904 classical revival mansion designed by Abram Garfield, the son of president James A. Garfield, which has housed the museum since its opening in 1952, a brutalist addition built in 1975, and a 2005 addition designed by Randall Stout which now serves as the entrance to the museum.

Thanks to mechanic Ernest Holmes, Chattanooga is inextricably linked to the world of towing. Holmes invented the tow truck in 1916 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Today, those trucks are indispensable emergency vehicles throughout the world. So, it makes sense the International Towing & Recovery Museum would open here in September 1995. Over its more than 20-year history, the museum has amassed a collection that includes antique and modern tow trucks, photos and related toys. Outside the museum stands the Wall of the Fallen memorial, which includes the names of towers killed in the line of duty.

The Johnny Cash Tennessee, Museum opened its doors to the public in May 2013. The museum, located in downtown Nashville, features a remarkable collection of Cash artifacts, including the standard concert posters and album covers. But the museum’s collection includes more off the beaten path artifacts such as the first wills of Cash and his first wife, Vivian; an artist royalty check from 1957; tin cups from Folsom Prison given to Cash in 1968, and handwritten lyrics of “Walk the Line” that cash wrote in 1990 for museum founder Bill Miller.

In April 2007, a statue was unveiled in downtown Clarksville, Tennessee, honoring Lenora “Nora” Witzel, who has been described as a pioneer and a rebel. Witzel (1875-1968) photographed Clarksville’s architecture and people for nearly three decades. She worked out of her photography studio at the ML Clothing Store on Franklin Street and is considered a pioneer of early 20th century small-town photography. Andrea Lugar of Lugar Art and Bronze Foundry in Arlington, Texas, created the life-sized bronze cast of Witzel and her dog Nettie.

What is today Rock City has been a popular tourist attraction for years. But, it was until the 1930s that the Rock City of today began taking shape. Frieda Carter, whose husband, Garnet, fashioned one of the country’s first miniature golf courses and a housing development atop Lookout Mountain, built a walkway and rock garden for the people living in the development. To promote the new attraction, which officially opened on May 21, 1932, Carter’s husband hired Clark Byers to paint farmers’ barns – for free, if the barns’ owners would let him paint “See Rock City” on the roof. The campaign worked; the slogan not only helped to draw guests to Rock City, it also became one of the most recognized advertising tag lines of all time. Today, Rock City features winding, garden-lined trails. But, the highlight is Lover’s Leap, a natural overlook where travelers can supposedly see seven states from one spot.

In the 1920s, Leo Lambert thought Lookout Mountain Cave would make a great tourist attraction. Once used as a hideaway for outlaws, refuge for Native Americans and a hospital during the Civil War, a railroad tunnel built in the early 1900s intersected the cave’s entrance and sealed it from the public. But that didn’t deter Lambert from searching for the cave. In 1928, he led a team of engineers and started digging an elevator shaft to access the cave. Ninety-two days later, Lambert found the cave, but not before digging through more than 400 feet of solid limestone. But when Lambert realized there might be more than just a cave buried beneath Lookout Mountain, he took off down a tight corridor, and 17 hours later, he found what today known is as Ruby Falls.

A stone cabin on this site is said to be stone blockhouse of the Valentine Sevier Station. On Nov. 11, 1794, Native Americans attacked the outpost, killing six; a seventh was scalped, but recovered. Valentine Sevier was a brother of Tennessee’s first governor, John Sevier.

The Tennessee Central Railway Museum is named for a railroad that traces its history to 1884 and operated until 1968. At its prime, the Tennessee Central Railway operated trains over a roughly 248-mile stretch of track running from Harriman, Tennessee, to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, passing through cities such as Clarksville, Tennessee, along the way.

The Tennessee State Museum highlights the history of Tennessee starting from pre-colonization and into the 20th century. The museum interprets the Frontier, the age of President Andrew Jackson and the American Civil War.

Clarksville firefighter and sculptor Scott Wise created “The Day After,” also known as “The Seated Piece.” Main Street Clarksville commissioned the public art, the group’s last. The statue’s title refers to January 23, 1999, the day after a tornado struck downtown Clarksville. The statue, described by the artist as “Joe Public,” is reading a replica of the January 23, 1999 edition of The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper, which is located across Commerce Street from the statue. The statue was formally unveiled on October 30, 2003, and Main Street Clarksville donated it to Montgomery County after its unveiling.

Andrew Jackson built the original Hermitage in 1804, more than a decade before the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and more than 20 years before he was elected the nation’s seventh president. The current mansion was built between 1819 and 1821 and later underwent major renovations in 1831 and after an 1834 fire heavily damaged much of the house. The current Greek revival look of the house dates to 1835. Jackson — nicknamed “Old Hickory” — retired from public life in 1837, and he lived in The Hermitage until his death in 1845. Jackson and his wife, Rachel, who preceded him in death, are buried on the grounds.

The 2,376-foot-long Walnut Street Bridge, constructed between 1889 and 1891, was the first to connect Chattanooga, Tennessee’s downtown with North Chattanooga (or North Shore). According to the Historic American Engineering Record, “The bridge was apparently the first non-military highway bridge across the Tennessee River.” Streetcars formerly ran across the bridge, which was open to vehicle traffic until May 11, 1978. The bridge was the site of two lynchings, Alfred Blount on February 14, 1893, and Ed Johnson on March 19, 1906.

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame honors men and women who have contributed to the sport of women’s basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tenn.