Fun Facts about Tennessee

• Did you know that the Tennessee Aquarium is the largest freshwater aquarium in the world?  Centered in Chattanooga, TN, the aquarium is home to over 7,000 animals and 300 species of fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians.

• Did you know the Maxwell House Company, who created the nation’s first blended coffee that is “good to the last drop” was established in Nashville in 1901? 

• Did you know the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Eastern Tennessee is the most visited park in the U.S.? 

• Did you know the Great Smoky Mountains were originally named after the smoke-like, bluish haze that often envelopes these famous mountains?

• Did you know the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort in Gatlinburg, TN boasts the largest artifical skiing surface in the world totaling 5 acres?

• Did you know the Grand Ole Obry in Nashville has broadcast a live radio show every weekend since 1925, making it the longest running live radio program in the world?

• Did you know that Tennessee won its nickname as the Volunteer State during the War of 1812, when volunteer soldiers from Tennessee displayed marked valor in the battle of New Orleans? 

• Did you know that J.C. Bradford & Company was the first Nashville firm to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the only Nashville-owned broker business to survive the depression?

• Did you know that Nissan was not the first automotive manufacturing company to call Tennessee home?  Marathon Motor Works was established in Nashville in 1910 and produced motor cars until 1914.

• Did you know the number one industry in Nashville is not country music?  Country music might draw visitors here, but it is publishing and printing that hold the number one spot. 

• Did you know that Bristol, TN is kown as the birthplace of country music, not Nashville?

• Did you know that Federal Express was founded in Memphis, TN and has turned their airport into the busiest cargo airport in the world?

• Did you know that the Tennessee capital building ws designed by noted architect, William Strickland, who died during it’s construction and is buried within its walls?

• Did you know more civil war battles wre fought on Tennessee soil than any other state, except for Virginia?

• Did you know Tennessee, alon giwth Missouri, has the most neighbors in the U.S.?  Tennessee shares its border with eight other states.

• Did you know that Tennessee had the largest total number of soldiers who fought in the Civil War? 

• Did you know the worst earthquake in history occurred in Northwestern Tennessee?  During the winter of 1811-1812, the earthquake caused tidal waves on the Mississippi River.  The river flowed backwards into a gread land depression, which is now known as Reelfoot Lake.

• Did you know the Ocoee River in Easta Tennessee is one of the top six white water rivers in the country for canoeing and kayaking?  The 1996 canoeing and kayaking Olympics were held on the Ocoee River. 

• Did you know in 1899, Coca-Cola first bottled at a plant in downtown Chattanooga, after two local attorneys purchaed the bottling rights for $1.00?

• Did you know Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, TN, lost a football game to Georgia Tech on October 7, 1916 by a score of 222 to 0? 

• Did you know the name “Tennessee” is originated from the Indian word “Tana-see”, whih means “the meeting place?” 

• Did you know in 1901 Howell Campbell founded the Standard Candy Company in Nashville, which later became famous for their GooGoo Clusters?

• Did you kow that more than 8,000 people died in the State of Tennessee from influenza epidemic in 1918?  That’s almost twice as many Tennesseans that died in World War II.

• Did you know Tennessee has more than 3,800 documented caves?

• Did you know Sweetwater, Tennessee is home to “The Lost Sea,” which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest underground lake?

• Did you know a close vote at the 1854 Methodist church convention not only made Nashville into a major publishing center, but also brought Vanderbilt University to the city?

• Did you know Life and Casualty Insurance Company made Nashville one of the South’s leading insurance centers after being established in 1903?

• Did you know the courthouse in Greenville, TN is home to the only monument in the U.S. honoring both the Union and Confederate armies?

• Did you know Memphis controls one-third of the entire American cotton crop and because of this remains one of the busiest ports on the Mississippi River?

• Did you know that Kingston served as Tennessee’s state capital for one day?  This ws to fulfill an agreement with a Cherokee tribe who were led to believe if they ceded their ladnd around Kingston it would become the capital.

• Did you know the hotel in Memphis where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated is now the Nastional Civil Rights Museum? 

• Did you know that in 1818 the U.S. governmenet pruchaed all of what we now refer to as west Tennessee in the Chickasaw Purchase? 

• Did youknow Davy Crockett was not born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, as the song goes?  He was actually born on the banks of Limestone Creek near Greeneville, TN, where a replica of the Crockett’s log cabin stands today.