Honor Black History at Tennessee State Parks
Written by Tennessee State Parks | Posted on February 1, 2023 | Permalink
This February during Black History Month and throughout the year, we invite you to reflect on Black history in state parks across Tennessee. Explore state parks that preserve and share Black history and heritage or find a park program to attend.
African American History at Booker T. Washington State Park
Written by Tennessee State Parks | Posted on February 24, 2021 | Permalink
As we celebrate African American history throughout the month of February, we also recognize the ties to our cultural heritage. Shared and equitable access to our parks is directly tied to our mission to preserve our natural landscape and the history behind it. T. O. Fuller State Park and Booker T. Washington State Park** are two parks in Tennessee that were established for the state’s African American population in an age when segregation barred equal access to the landscape. In this blog, we're reviewing the history of Booker T. Washington State Park.
African American History at T.O. Fuller State Park
Written by Tennessee State Parks | Posted on February 17, 2021 | Permalink
As we celebrate Black History Month throughout February, we also recognize the ties to our cultural heritage. Shared and equitable access to our parks is directly tied to our mission to preserve our natural landscape and the history behind it. T. O. Fuller State Park was established for the state’s African American population in an age when segregation barred equal access to the landscape.
Next Stop: Train Fest
Written by David s. Piñeros | Posted on February 21, 2017 | Permalink
Each year, people from all around the state gather at the Train History Festival, held at Montgomery Bell State Park. Join David s. Piñeros as he brings out the engineer in all of us on an inspiring visual journey from this year's event.
The Carter Mansion on Tennessee’s 1700s Frontier
Written by Ward Weems | Posted on March 20, 2015 | Permalink
Number 5 in a series of Tennessee State Park History Blogs by Ward Weems.
The Carter Mansion in Elizabethton, Tennessee is an astounding architectural survival of the American frontier.
Tennessee’s Historic River Portage
Written by Ward Weems | Posted on March 4, 2015 | Permalink
While the Cherokee tribe once dominated much of what is now Tennessee, and likely gave the river and the state their names, by the early 1800s their nation had withdrawn to a core area in southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia. With more population in Georgia by this time, their social, religious, and political gathering places where primarily within Georgia.
Tennessee’s New State Park and the Spanish Entrada
Written by Ward Weems | Posted on February 19, 2015 | Permalink
Where history in Tennessee begins…
Rocky Fork State Park is in the process of becoming a reality. It is a portion of a large wilderness area brought into public ownership in Northeast Tennessee that will be accessed through the Tennessee State Park managed property. No other such expanse remains to be obtained - and it is also the first area of Tennessee to come into written history.
Here was the entry point of the first known Europeans into what is now Tennessee. Following the Nolichucky River, the Spanish expeditions of both Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo entered Tennessee in the vicinity of Rocky Fork. Their route seems to have taken them around, rather than through the Rocky Fork property as they followed a loop of the Nolichucky River.
Sweep of the Frontier Line across Tennessee
Written by Ward Weems | Posted on July 22, 2014 | Permalink
For our second entry we return to the idea of the sweep of the Frontier Line across Tennessee as European contact emerged from the crossing points of the Appalachian Mountains or down the valleys from Virginia. Settlers from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and, somewhat latter, Germany made early purchases of land from the Cherokee at Sycamore Shoals in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. Other purchases pushed further to the southwest, but still in East Tennessee. These settlers were advancing down the second geologic division of the state after the Appalachian Mountains – the Ridge and Valley region.
Tennessee State Parks and the History of Tennessee
Written by Ward Weems | Posted on July 22, 2014 | Permalink
Tennessee has to be the best of states in which to put a park system! The diversity that Tennessee State Parks presents across the state is remarkable. And this is both a natural and cultural diversity. The great geologic divisions of the state, and the ecological regions that follow according to climate and terrain, bring about diversity in stories of people in these environments.