Tennessee
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Where is Tennessee located in the United States?
Tennessee is a state located in the upper South of the eastern United States. It became the 16th state in 1796.
Tennessee is bordered to the east by North Carolina and to the south by Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Its northern neighbors are Kentucky and Virginia. The state stretches 432 miles (695 km) from east to west and is only 112 miles (180 km) wide from north to south.
Tennessee is divided into three "grand divisions": East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Each region has unique geographic, economic, and cultural characteristics.
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What is the capital city of Tennessee?
The capital of Tennessee is Nashville. Established in 1779 and originally named Fort Nashborough, the city was later renamed in 1784 after American Revolutionary War general Francis Nash. Chosen as the capital in 1843, Nashville is located on the Cumberland River in the north-central part of the state.
Throughout its history, Nashville has grown into a major economic hub with a diverse economy that includes healthcare, finance, insurance, education, manufacturing, printing, and tourism. The city is known as a center for American traditional and country music, earning it the nickname "Music City".
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What are some major rivers or mountains found in Tennessee?
Tennessee features a diverse landscape marked by several major rivers and mountain ranges. The Tennessee River is a central waterway, formed by the joining of the Holston and French Broad rivers, and it flows through the state. The Cumberland River also drains a significant portion of the state.
The Unaka Mountains, part of which are known as the Great Smoky Mountains, are found in eastern Tennessee. Within the Great Smokies, Kuwohi reaches an elevation of 6,643 feet (2,025 meters), the highest point in Tennessee.
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Which Native American groups originally lived in Tennessee?
The earliest inhabitants of Tennessee were Ice Age peoples descended from Asians. These people of Paleo-Indian culture primarily lived by hunting. The Archaic culture then succeeded this culture, followed by the Woodland and later by the Mississippian culture, both of which developed agriculture and refined hunting methods.
When Europeans arrived in the 1700s, the main indigenous groups were the Chickasaw in the west and the Cherokee in the east. The name Tennessee even comes from the Cherokee village Tanasi. However, most native people were forced to leave the state in the 1830s to live on reservations.
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Why is Tennessee important in American music history?
Tennessee holds a central place in American music history due to its diverse musical traditions and pivotal role in the development of several genres.
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Nashville Since 1925, Nashville has been the center for country music performance, recording, and publishing, largely due to the "Grand Ole Opry" radio program.
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Memphis In the early 20th century, Memphis' Beale Street became a hub for African American musicians, fostering the blues genre. Later, it was a birthplace of rock and roll when Elvis Presley merged blues and country music at Sun Records.
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Regional Diversity East Tennessee is home to Appalachian musics rooted in Scotch-Irish tradition and popularized country music styles.
Tennessee's cultural institutions, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Graceland, further solidify its importance in American music.
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News •
Tennessee, constituent state of the United States of America. It is located in the upper South of the eastern United States and became the 16th state of the union in 1796. The geography of Tennessee is unique. Its extreme breadth of 432 miles (695 km) stretches from the Appalachian Mountain boundary with North Carolina in the east to the Mississippi River borders with Missouri and Arkansas in the west; its narrow width, only 112 miles (180 km), separates its northern neighbors, Kentucky and Virginia, from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, to the south. Nashville is the capital and largest city.
The geographic diversity of Tennessee has generated a variety of economic, social, and cultural patterns that have led residents to perceive the state in terms of three āgrand divisionsā: East, Middle, and West Tennessee. East Tennessee, dominated geographically by the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau (also called Cumberland Mountains), is the home of the stateās well-known mountain traditions. Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Kingsport are East Tennesseeās major population centers. Middle Tennessee has level, fertile land interrupted regularly by gently rolling hills; it traditionally has been a balanced agricultural and commercial region, with Nashville as its main urban center. West Tennessee is mainly flat land with rich soil and long has had an economy based on plantation agriculture, notably cotton. Memphis is by far the regionās dominant urban center.
- Capital:
- Nashville
- Population1:
- (2020) 6,910,840; (2025 est.) 7,315,076
- Governor:
- Bill Lee (Republican)
- Date Of Admission:
- June 1, 1796
- U.S. Senators:
- Bill Hagerty (Republican)
- Marsha Blackburn (Republican)
- State Nickname:
- Volunteer State
- State Motto:
- āAgriculture and Commerceā
- State Bird2:
- northern mockingbird
- bobwhite quail
- State Flower3:
- iris
- purple passionflower
- State Songs:
- āMy Homeland, Tennesseeā
- āWhen Itās Iris Time in Tennesseeā
- āMy Tennesseeā
- āThe Tennessee Waltzā
- āRocky Topā
- āTennesseeā
- āThe Pride of Tennesseeā
- āSmokey Mountain Rainā
- Seats In U.S. House Of Representatives:
- 9 (of 435)
- Time Zone:
- Eastern (GMT ā 6 hours)
- Central (GMT ā 5 hours)
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 109,153
- Total Area (Sq Mi):
- 42,144
- Excluding military abroad.
- The bobwhite quail is the state gamebird.
- The purple passionflower is the state wildflower.
Tennessee enjoys a rich Native American heritage, mainly from the Cherokee and Chickasaw, who populated the area at the time of white settlement in the 1770s. The Cherokee, who lived in the Smoky Mountains area, left a palpable legacy in East Tennessee, despite white encroachment. In response to the challenges on the frontier, white settlers in Tennessee developed a strongly independent attitude that has revealed itself often in state and national politics. Tennessean Andrew Jackson, hero of the War of 1812 and seventh president of the United States, led the Democratic Party of the 1830s to become the party of the common people, a path similarly pursued by his fellow Tennessean and U.S. president in the 1840s, James K. Polk. Strongly divided by the American Civil War and its own version of Reconstruction, Tennessee became a part of the solid Democratic South, and, like much of that region, it lagged behind the rest of the country in wealth and prestige. The dreams of the industrialists of the late 19th century were not realized until later in the 20th, when World War II and spending by the national government fueled new kinds of industrial activity. By the early 21st century, a strong service sector had developed. Also by this time, the Republican Party had won the favor of many Tennesseans, and Tennessee became once again a two-party state. Although still diverse within its own borders, Tennessee had clearly begun to merge economically and politically with the rest of the country. Area 42,144 square miles (109,153 square km). Population (2020) 6,910,840; (2025 est.) 7,315,076.
Land
Relief
From a strictly geological perspective, Tennessee is divided into six natural regions. In the extreme eastern part of the state lie the Unaka Mountainsāa section of which is popularly known as the Great Smoky Mountainsāwith more than a dozen peaks that rise above 6,000 feet (1,830 meters); the tallest of them, Kuwohi, rises to 6,643 feet (2,025 meters). West of the Unakas, the Great Appalachian Valley (or, simply, Great Valley) of East Tennessee, varying from 30 to 60 miles (50 to 100 km) in width, includes a series of low ridges that rise above the intervening valleys. West of the Appalachians, the Cumberland Plateau has a generally flat, slightly undulating surface cut by deep and sometimes wide river valleys. The Interior Low Plateau in Middle Tennessee is dominated by the Nashville, or Central, Basin and the Highland Rim. About 60 miles (100 km) wide and running roughly north to south across the state, the basin floor is a slightly rolling terrain punctuated by small hills known as knobs. To the west the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain undulates only slightly and is laced with meandering low-banked streams; the region stretches westward, terminating in the Mississippi alluvial plain, a narrow strip of swamp and floodplain alongside the Mississippi River.
Drainage and soils
Tennessee is drained directly by three major rivers. The Tennessee River, which flows southward in the east and northward in the west, drains the east, the southern part of the middle region, and a major part of the west. The Cumberland River, dipping into the state from the north, drains the upper middle region, while the Mississippi River directly drains a small portion of the west. The damming of the Tennessee and, to a lesser extent, of the Cumberland not only has controlled flooding and improved navigation but also has created an impressive chain of slack-water lakes, sometimes known as the Great Lakes of the South, many of which lie in Tennessee.
The valleys and upland basins of Tennessee have moderately fertile soil of limestone origins, and the streams have created rich alluvial lands along their beds. The soils of the ridges and the plateau, however, are thin, stony, and moderately acid, while the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain has a sandy, thin soil that does not support agriculture. Although a substantial portion of the stateās soils are unfit for any kind of cultivation, over two-fifths of the total land area is used for crops, livestock, or other agricultural products.