The Flag of Tennessee
Tennessee ( TEN -iss-EE , TEN -iss-ee ), officially the State of Tennessee , is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia , Alabama , and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. Tennessee's population as of the 2020 United States census is approximately 6.9 million.
Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East , Middle , and West Tennessee . Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its largest metropolitan area. Tennessee has diverse terrain and landforms, and from east to west, contains a mix of cultural features characteristic of Appalachia , the Upland South , and the Deep South . The Blue Ridge Mountains along the eastern border reach some of the highest elevations in eastern North America, and the Cumberland Plateau contains many scenic valleys and waterfalls . The central part of the state is marked by cavernous bedrock and irregular rolling hills, and level, fertile plains define West Tennessee. The state is twice bisected by the Tennessee River , and the Mississippi River forms its western border. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park , the nation's most visited national park, is in eastern Tennessee.
Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association , a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachian Mountains . Its name derives from Tanasi (ᏔᎾᏏ ), a Cherokee town preceding the first European American settlement. Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later the Southwest Territory , before its admission to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. It earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" due to a strong tradition of military service. A slave state until the American Civil War , Tennessee was politically divided, with most of its western and middle parts supporting the Confederacy , and most of the eastern region harboring pro -Union sentiment. As a result, Tennessee was the last state to officially secede from the Union and join the Confederacy , and the first former Confederate state readmitted to the Union after the war had ended during the Reconstruction era . (Full article... )
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Workers leaving the Manhattan Project's Y-12 plant on 11 August 1945
The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW ) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima , as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium . It consisted of production facilities arranged at three major sites, various utilities including a power plant , and the town of Oak Ridge . It was in East Tennessee , about 18 miles (29 km) west of Knoxville , and was named after the town of Clinton , eight miles (13 km) to the north. The production facilities were mainly in Roane County , and the northern part of the site was in Anderson County . The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols , moved the Manhattan District headquarters from Manhattan to Oak Ridge in August 1943. During the war, CEW's advanced research was managed for the government by the University of Chicago .
Construction workers were housed in a community known as Happy Valley . Built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943, this temporary community housed 15,000 people. The township of Oak Ridge was established to house the production staff. The operating force peaked at 50,000 workers just after the end of the war. The construction labor force peaked at 75,000, and the combined employment peak was 80,000. The town was developed by the federal government as a segregated community ; Black Americans lived only in an area known as Gamble Valley, in government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) on the south side of what is now Tuskegee Drive. (Full article... )
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee , United States. As of the 2020 United States census , Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third-most-populous city after Nashville and Memphis . It is the principal city of the Knoxville metropolitan area , which had a population of 879,773 in 2020.
First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century; the arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. The city was bitterly divided over the issue of secession during the American Civil War and was occupied alternately by Confederate and Union armies, culminating in the Battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Following the war, Knoxville grew rapidly as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed , the downtown area declined and city leaders became entrenched in highly partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in the city, especially the downtown area. (Full article... )
History of Tennessee List of Tennessee state symbols Nashville, Tennessee List of governors of Tennessee Governor of Tennessee East Tennessee Middle Tennessee West Tennessee Tennessee River Memphis, Tennessee Chattanooga, Tennessee Clarksville, Tennessee Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Cleveland, Tennessee Dolly Parton Tennessee State Guard University of Memphis Toqua (Tennessee) Great Smoky Mountains Great Smoky Mountains Interstate 40 in Tennessee Old Crow Medicine Show Swaggerty Blockhouse Unicoi Mountains Old City, Knoxville Nashville Americans Valerie June Battle of Fort Donelson Battle of Fort Henry Collierville, Tennessee Vanderbilt University Tennessee whiskey Jack Daniel's Grand Ole Opry Battle of Nashville Nashville Superspeedway Johnny Cash Carl Perkins Tennessee Waltz Morristown, Tennessee Fainting goat Bessie Smith Cookeville, Tennessee Murfreesboro, Tennessee Bob Corker Edgar Evins State Park Graceland Bledsoe Creek State Park Dollywood Tennessee Valley Authority Black Patch Tobacco Wars Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The following are images from various Tennessee-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 The
Ryman Auditorium , home of the "Grand Ole Opry" in Nashville (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 2 Interstate 40 traverses Tennessee from east to west, and serves the state's three largest cities. (from
Tennessee )
Image 3 Köppen climate types of Tennessee, using 1991–2020
climate normals . (from
Tennessee )
Image 4 The
1982 World's Fair in Knoxville (from
Tennessee )
Image 6 Conquistador Hernando de Soto , first European to visit Tennessee (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 7 John Bell (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 9 Map of counties in Tennessee by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
Non-Hispanic White 50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
90%+
Black or African American 50–60%
(from
Tennessee )
Image 10 Cedar glades are an ecosystem that is found in regions of Middle Tennessee where limestone bedrock is close to the surface (from
Tennessee )
Image 11 Al Gore served as a
United States Senator from Tennessee (1985–1993) and as
Vice President of the United States (1993–2001) (from
Tennessee )
Image 12 Fall Creek Falls , the tallest waterfall in the eastern United States, is located on the Cumberland Plateau (from
Tennessee )
Image 13 Köppen climate types of Tennessee, using 1991–2020
climate normals . (from
Tennessee )
Image 14 A geomap showing the counties of Tennessee colored by the relative range of that county's median income. (from
Tennessee )
Image 15 Memphis became known as the "Cotton Capital of the World" in the years following the Civil War (from
Tennessee )
Image 18 Mount Le Conte in the
Great Smoky Mountains is the tallest mountain in eastern North America, measured from base to summit (from
Tennessee )
Image 19 Offices of
The Tennessean in Nashville (from
Tennessee )
Image 20 The
Battle of Franklin , November 30, 1864 (from
Tennessee )
Image 22 Chart showing poverty in Tennessee, by age and gender (red = female) (from
Tennessee )
Image 23 Workers at the
Norris Dam construction camp site in 1933 (from
Tennessee )
Image 24 Established in 1942,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest national laboratory in the Department of Energy system (from
Tennessee )
Image 25 Mount Le Conte in the
Great Smoky Mountains is the tallest mountain in eastern North America, measured from base to summit (from
Tennessee )
Image 26 The
Grand Ole Opry , which was recorded in
Nashville 's
Ryman Auditorium from 1943 to 1974, is the longest-running
radio broadcast in US history. (from
Tennessee )
Image 27 Nashville's replica of the
Parthenon (built 1897) (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 28 The
Ocoee River was home to the
1996 Summer Olympics whitewater slalom events, the only Olympic sporting event ever held in the state. (from
Tennessee )
Image 29 Calutron operators at the
Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge during the
Manhattan Project (from
Tennessee )
Image 30 Fall Creek Falls , the tallest waterfall in the eastern United States, is located on the Cumberland Plateau (from
Tennessee )
Image 31 A
Nissan Leaf , one of six models manufactured at the
Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant , the largest automotive assembly plant in North America (from
Tennessee )
Image 32 Howard Baker served as
Senate Minority and Majority Leader from 1977 to 1985, and was known as "The Great Conciliator" (from
Tennessee )
Image 33 Offices of
The Tennessean in Nashville (from
Tennessee )
Image 34 Workers at the
Norris Dam construction camp site in 1933 (from
Tennessee )
Image 36 1861 Bank of Tennessee 1 dollar banknote (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 37 Vanderbilt University in Nashville is consistently ranked as one of the top research institutions in the nation (from
Tennessee )
Image 38 Chart showing poverty in Tennessee, by age and gender (red = female) (from
Tennessee )
Image 39 The
1982 World's Fair in Knoxville (from
Tennessee )
Image 41 The Hermitage , plantation home of President
Andrew Jackson in Nashville (from
Tennessee )
Image 42 Al Gore served as a
United States Senator from Tennessee (1985–1993) and as
Vice President of the United States (1993–2001) (from
Tennessee )
Image 44 Memphis International Airport , the hub of
FedEx Corporation , is the busiest cargo airport in the world (from
Tennessee )
Image 45 in 1946 the U.S. Post Office issued a
commemorative stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of Tennessee statehood. (from
Tennessee )
Image 46 Calutron operators at the
Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge during the
Manhattan Project (from
Tennessee )
Image 47 The
resort city of
Gatlinburg borders the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park , which is the most visited national park in the United States. (from
Tennessee )
Image 48 A
Nissan Leaf , one of six models manufactured at the
Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant , the largest automotive assembly plant in North America (from
Tennessee )
Image 50 Map of counties in Tennessee by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
Non-Hispanic White 50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
90%+
Black or African American 50–60%
(from
Tennessee )
Image 51 The Hermitage , plantation home of President
Andrew Jackson in Nashville (from
Tennessee )
Image 54 Established in 1942,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest national laboratory in the Department of Energy system (from
Tennessee )
Image 55 Reconstruction of
Fort Loudoun , the first British settlement in Tennessee (from
Tennessee )
Image 56 Memphis International Airport , the hub of
FedEx Corporation , is the busiest cargo airport in the world (from
Tennessee )
Image 57 in 1946 the U.S. Post Office issued a
commemorative stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of Tennessee statehood. (from
Tennessee )
Image 61 Memphis became known as the "Cotton Capital of the World" in the years following the Civil War (from
Tennessee )
Image 63 Reconstruction of
Fort Loudoun , the first British settlement in Tennessee (from
Tennessee )
Image 64 The
Ocoee River was home to the
1996 Summer Olympics whitewater slalom events, the only Olympic sporting event ever held in the state. (from
Tennessee )
Image 65 A View of Memphis, Tennessee , 1871 (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 66 Cedar glades are an ecosystem that is found in regions of Middle Tennessee where limestone bedrock is close to the surface (from
Tennessee )
Image 67 The
resort city of
Gatlinburg borders the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park , which is the most visited national park in the United States. (from
Tennessee )
Image 68 The Hermitage , plantation home of President
Andrew Jackson , now a museum in
Davidson County (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 69 The Tennessee at Chattanooga , 1872, by
Harry Fenn (from
History of Tennessee )
Image 70 Vanderbilt University in Nashville is consistently ranked as one of the top research institutions in the nation (from
Tennessee )
Image 71 Surveyor
Daniel Smith's "Map of the Tennassee State" (1796) (from
Tennessee )
Image 72 The Southwest Territory in 1790 (from
Tennessee )
Image 73 Surveyor
Daniel Smith's "Map of the Tennassee State" (1796) (from
Tennessee )
Image 74 A geomap showing the counties of Tennessee colored by the relative range of that county's median income. (from
Tennessee )
Image 75 Howard Baker served as
Senate Minority and Majority Leader from 1977 to 1985, and was known as "The Great Conciliator" (from
Tennessee )
Image 76 The
Battle of Franklin , November 30, 1864 (from
Tennessee )
Image 77 Interstate 40 traverses Tennessee from east to west, and serves the state's three largest cities. (from
Tennessee )
Image 78 The
Grand Ole Opry , which was recorded in
Nashville 's
Ryman Auditorium from 1943 to 1974, is the longest-running
radio broadcast in US history. (from
Tennessee )
Image 79 The Southwest Territory in 1790 (from
Tennessee )
... that Tennessee State Route 396 was constructed to provide access to the Spring Hill Manufacturing plant of Saturn Corporation ?
... that Mister Rogers said that Mr. Chuck, the host of a children's show on the public TV station in Memphis, Tennessee , was "truly remarkable" and "achieving things I still struggle to achieve"?
... that in 2015, GracePointe Church , Nashville, Tennessee , became one of the first evangelical megachurches to openly support full equality for LGBTQ people?
... that one of Beverly Robertson 's biggest accomplishments as CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber was attracting the Ford Motor Company 's US$5.6 billion Blue Oval City complex to Memphis, Tennessee?
... that Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park , modeled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. , was created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the statehood of Tennessee in 1996?
... that Walter White was a member of the prosecution for the Scopes trial in 1925 despite not passing the bar until 1944?
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