There are many interesting facts, stories, and legends about Tennessee. In honor of my adopted state’s 225th birthday, I’ve decided to share some of them with you this month.

Today, let’s look at a few interesting facts from Tennessee’s history.

Early History

• The Paleo-Indians made forays into the future state as early as 12,000 years ago.
• By the 16th and 17th centuries, several different native peoples shared the area.
• In the 16th century, three different Spanish expeditions visited.
• The French tried to claim the land in the late 17th and early 18th centuries but were unsuccessful.
• By 1715, the Cherokee and Chickasaw were the two main Native American peoples here.
• The name “Tennessee” comes from the Cherokee village of Tanasi.
• The British successfully claimed the region in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars. Under their control, the land remained only for Native Americans. Settlement by anyone else was prohibited.

Pre-Statehood

• In 1775, Daniel Boone cut a trail (called the Wilderness Road) from Virginia west across the mountains, opening the land to settlers.
• After the American Revolution, North Carolina (N.C.) claimed the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and people immediately began moving in.

Statehood

• Formed from this area of western N.C., President George Washington made Tennessee the sixteenth state on June 1, 1796.
• Tennessee was the first territory under the Federal Constitution to become a state.

Wars

• Tennessee is nicknamed “The Volunteer State” because so many Tennesseans volunteered to fight in the War of 1812.
• Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union and the first to rejoin after the Civil War.
• The number of soldiers Tennessee supplied to the Confederate Army was second only to the State of Virginia. But Tennessee also supplied the Union Army with more units of soldiers than any other Confederate State.

Presidents

• Three U.S. Presidents were Tennesseans: #7 Andrew Jackson, #11 James K. Polk, and #17 Andrew Johnson.

Birthday Celebrations

• Almost two million people attended the six-month-long Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition held in Nashville.
• Tennessee built an 11-acre Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park (“Bicentennial Mall”) north of the State Capitol in Nashville.

Family Funny: A year or so after the Bicentennial Mall opened, I took some of my family to see it. The visit proved to be a major disappointment for my oldest niece. A teenager at the time, she didn’t know, until we arrived, the Mall wasn’t a shopping mall.

Come back next week to read about the lost state.