"Did You Know?...
The Cherokee silversmith,Sequoyah,was the only known man in the history of the world to single-handedly develop an alphabet. His syllabus for the Cherokee Nation resulted in the first written language for a Native American people. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore tells his story and is dedicated to the history and culture of Native Americans.
The first constitution ever written by white men in America was drafted in 1772 by the Watauga Association at Sycamore Shoals near Elizabethton, Tennessee. Formation of the Watauga Association also marked the first attempt by Americans at complete self-government. The 1772 constitution was based on the Iroquois Federation's laws.
Tennessee has produced three U.S. presidents: Andrew Jackson, 1829-37; James K. Polk, 1845-49; and Andrew Johnson, 1865-69. Other famous Tennesseans include frontiersman Davy Crockett, Admiral David Farragut, cavalry officer Nathan Bedford Forrest, U.S. Register of the Treasury James Carroll Napier (appointed 1911 by President William Howard Taft), World War I hero Alvin York, and Cordell Hull (secretary of state under Franklin D. Roosevelt).
Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union during the War Between the States and the first state to be readmitted after the war. East Tennesseans were strongly pro-Union, while West and Middle Tennesseans were primarily on the side of the Confederacy.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was named for the smoke-like bluish haze that often envelopes these fabled mountains. This 500,000-acre wilderness has 1,400 kinds of flowering plants. The highest point is Clingman's Dome, at 6,643 feet.
Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously-running live radio program in the world. It has broadcast since 1925.
Oak Ridge, the secret city created in the 1940s, was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. Today, because of constant energy research,it is known as the "Energy Capital of the World." It is the home of the American Museum of Science and Energy.
The Alex Haley boyhood home in Henning is the first state-owned historic site devoted to African Americans in Tennessee. It was here that the family history handed down by Haley's grandmother and aunts inspired him to write about his ancestors who had been brought to America as slaves.
Another touchstone of African-American history is the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain in 1968. The museum preserves the motel and tells the history of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Tennessee has more than 3,800 documented caves. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the "Lost Sea" in Sweetwater as the largest underground lake in the U.S.
- From the state.tn.us website
To learn more about Tennessee visit http://www.state.tn.us/
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