Escort Notes

• The Grand Ole Opry has had numerous homes throughout the years. In addition to the Opry House and the historic Ryman Auditorium, the Opry has been broadcast from the Hillsboro Theater (renamed the Belcourt Theatre) in Hillsboro Village, the Dixie Tabernacle on Fatherland Street in East Nashville, and the War Memorial Auditorium.
• The Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously running live radio program in the world, broadcasting every Friday and Saturday night since 1925.
• The original name of the Ryman Auditorium was the Union Gospel Tabernacle.
• Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg is the oldest registered distillery in the U.S.
• Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville is the largest commercial Bible publisher in the world.
• The nation’s oldest African-American financial institution, Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, is located in Nashville.
• Hatch Show Print in Nashville is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. Hatch has produced posters for everyone from Hank Williams and Bill Monroe to B.B King and Bruce Springsteen.
• The Standing Stone Marbles Festival & National Rolley Hole Championship is a one of a kind event held annually in Overton County featuring various takes on the game of marbles.
• Murfreesboro is home the “world’s largest cedar bucket” Built in 1887, the bucket is made of red cedar, stands 6 feet high, 6 feet in diameter at the base, and 9 feet at the top, weighs 800 pounds and can hold 1,556 gallons.
• The Upper Room Chapel and Museum in Nashville features an 8’ x 17’ wood carving of “The Last Supper.”
• Founded in 1779, Jonesborough is Tennessee’s oldest incorporated town
• The first permanent American settlement outside the original 13 colonies, and the “Articles of the Watauga Association”—the first majority-rule system of American democratic government—was formed in 1772 at Sycamore Shoals (near modern-day Elizabethton).
• Bristol Caverns was once an underground river used by Native Americans to attack settlers and swiftly disappear. It is the largest series of caverns in the Smoky Mountain region.
• Bristol is known as the “Birthplace of Country Music.” In 1927 the first commercial recordings of country music were made by Ralph Peer, a talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Country music pioneers Jimmie Rodgers, the original Carter Family, and Ernest Stoneman highlight the many local musicians and singers who were included on what is known as the “Bristol sessions.”
• From Rock City on Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain, it is possible to see seven states – TN, GA, AL, NC, SC, KY and VA.
• Southeast Tennessee has a tradition of confections and baking. In Chattanooga the iconic Moon Pie was developed by the Chattanooga Bakery in 1917. Chattanooga is also home to Little Debbie Snack Cakes. The Dutch Maid Bakery in Tracy City, the oldest family owned bakery in the state of Tennessee, has been making quality breads and cakes since 1902.
• Coca-Cola was first bottled in 1899 at a plant in downtown Chattanooga after two local attorneys purchased the bottling rights to the drink for $1.00.
• The Manhattan Project, to develop the atom bomb during World War II, led to the creation of the city of Oak Ridge. Today, because of constant energy research, it is known as the “Energy Capital of the World”
• In the Great Smoky Mountains there are 16 peaks which soar over 6,000 feet
• Fall Creek Falls State Park has the highest waterfall East of the Rocky Mountains, at 256 feet, 90 feet higher than Niagara Falls.
• Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis, is the second most visited house in the country – second only to the White House.
• Sun Studio in Memphis is the first studio to receive the status of National Historic Landmark. Sun Studio launched the careers of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.
• In the 1960s and early 1970s Stax Records in Memphis was “Soulsville,” cranking out R&B and pop hits by Booker T. & the MGs, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers and many more.
• Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee’s largest natural lake, was formed by tidal waves from the Mississippi River caused by an earthquake in 1811.
• Henning, Tennessee boasts the boyhood home of Alex Haley, where the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Roots spent his childhood listening to his family recount stories of their ancestors.
• Tennessee is home to numerous national championship competitions held annually including The National Field Trial Championship for Bird Dogs in Grand Junction and the NAIA National Football Championship Game in Savannah.
• The world’s largest collection of teapots, said to be worth millions of dollars, is located at the City Hall in Trenton, Tennessee.
• The "World's Biggest Fish Fry" is held every year in the town of Paris.
• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park is the site of the second largest Indian mound in the U.S., 72 feet high and over 1,500 years old.
• The Freshwater Pearl Farm, located in Camden, is the only freshwater pearl farm located in the U.S.
• Tennessee is second only to Virginia in the number of Civil War battlefield sites.
• Tennessee’s official state slogan is “Tennessee-America at its Best.”
• Tennessee’s official state sport fish is the largemouth bass.

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