The Tennessee History Nerd

We'd love to hear what you think! Season One of The Tennessee History Nerd may be complete, but new content continues throughout October as we prepare for Season Two to launch on November 2. In this fourth and final interim release, I turn from looking back at Season One to previewing the stories, county drives, and interviews planned for the coming season. Season Two will feature 31 episodes...

We'd love to hear what you think! Season One of The Tennessee History Nerd may be complete, but new content continues throughout October as we prepare for Season Two to launch in November. Historical sources don't always agree. Historical markers compress complicated events into a few sentences. Published histories may conflict with surviving documents. Family traditions can preserve valu...

We'd love to hear what you think! Season One of The Tennessee History Nerd may be complete, but new content continues throughout October as we prepare for Season Two to launch in November. Every historical account requires choices. Whether someone is writing a book, producing a documentary, or creating a podcast, the available material almost always exceeds what can reasonably be included. Som...

We'd love to hear what you think! Season One of The Tennessee History Nerd may be complete, but new content continues throughout October as we prepare for Season Two to launch in November. In this first interseason release, I lift the veil and offer a look behind the scenes at the work that goes into creating the podcast. The Tennessee History Nerd is a one-man operation: research, writing, tr...

We'd love to hear what you think! Camp Tyson rose from Henry County, Tennessee farmland in 1941 as the U. S. Army prepared for a war the United States had not yet entered. Built to train barrage balloon crews, the post brought soldiers, construction workers, and new opportunities to the Routon community and nearby Paris. Its construction also forced families from land they had called home for...

We'd love to hear what you think! Russell Summers spent 43 years working in medicine in Cannon County as a laboratory and X-ray technician. In this final INTERVIEWSDAY offering of Season One, I sit down with my dad to preserve his firsthand memories of Good Samaritan Hospital, Stones River Hospital, and Woodbury Medical Center. Born at Good Samaritan Hospital in 1946, Daddy later returned ther...

We'd love to hear what you think! Cannon County may be one of Tennessee’s smaller counties, but its history is remarkably deep. Beginning along Jim Cummings Highway, we travel through a landscape shaped by the Highland Rim, the Central Basin, and Short Mountain—the highest point between the Appalachians and the Ozarks. Near the mountain’s base, the East Fork of the Stones River begins its jour...

We'd love to hear what you think! Dr. Michael R. Bradley has spent decades studying, teaching, and writing about the Civil War—and few people know the war in Tennessee better. In this INTERVIEWSDAY offering, Dr. Bradley joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about Nathan Bedford Forrest, historical memory, and the importance of returning to the original evidence behind familiar stories. We b...

We'd love to hear what you think! The Battle of Stones River was one of the bloodiest major engagements of the Civil War—and one of the most consequential battles fought in Tennessee for multiple reasons. In December 1862, Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee waited around Murfreesboro while William Starke Rosecrans prepared the Army of the Cumberland to advance from Nashville. Rain, mud, swollen...

We'd love to hear what you think! It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday), we visit with Kyle Dickson , executive director of Marble Springs State Historic Site in Knoxville, for an extended conversation about historic preservation, life on the Tennessee frontier, and John Sevier—the first governor of Tennessee and one of the central figures in the founding of our st...

We'd love to hear what you think! Campbell County is a place shaped by mountains, coal, railroads, industry, and water. Our drive begins at Rocky Top, a community that straddles the Anderson-Campbell County line and has carried three different names through three different chapters of its history. Coal Creek reflected the resource that originally shaped the community. Lake City reflected the t...

We'd love to hear what you think! It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY —Interview Tuesday—we cross the Tennessee state line to visit Historic Blakeley State Park on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. My guest is Mike Bunn , historian, author, and director of Historic Blakeley State Park. Together, we explore the rise, decline, disappearance, and preservation of Blakeley, Alabama —a onc...

We'd love to hear what you think! For the Cherokee people, the Trail of Tears was not a single trail—and it did not begin with the first steps westward. Before the forced journey came decades of land concessions, broken promises, political pressure, and the growing determination of white governments to obtain the remaining Cherokee homeland. In this first episode of our special Trail of Tears...

We'd love to hear what you think! It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY —Interview Tuesday—we visit with Sam Gowin to explore the extraordinary life, tragic death and enduring legacy of Juliette Derricotte . Born in Athens, Georgia, in 1897, Derricotte graduated from Talladega College and became a nationally recognized leader in the Young Women’s Christian Association. She traveled th...

We'd love to hear what you think! Bradley County’s history exists in layers. As we enter the county from the northeast, even the road beneath us tells part of the story. The old path of U.S. Highway 11 once crossed the Hiwassee River differently, before the creation of Chickamauga Lake altered the landscape and required a new bridge. But the oldest layers of Bradley County’s story belong to th...

We'd love to hear what you think! It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday), we visit with Brian Rutledge to explore the history, traditions and enduring legacy of Jack Daniel and the distillery that bears his name. Brian is a Marine Corps veteran, Lincoln County magistrate and emergency medical technician who has spent the past fifteen years working as a tour guide at...

We'd love to hear what you think! The origins of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey are surrounded by legend. Jack Daniel’s birth year is disputed. His age when he began working for Dan Call is uncertain. Even the stories of the baby beneath the Call house, the square bottle, and the safe Jack supposedly kicked survive somewhere between documented history and oral tradition. Behind those legends,...

We'd love to hear what you think! It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday) , we visit with Bill Wilson , better known throughout Middle Tennessee as “Mr. Murfreesboro.” Bill is a realtor, writer, broadcaster, local-history enthusiast and community ambassador who has spent more than a decade sharing the people, places and stories of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County....

We'd love to hear what you think! Driving Across Tennessee takes an unusual detour this week as we temporarily leave our alphabetical journey through Tennessee’s counties to visit one that no longer officially exists—the forgotten county of James County, Tennessee. Created in 1871 from portions of Hamilton and Bradley counties, James County emerged from the bitter controversy surrounding the r...

We'd love to hear what you think! It's INTERVIEWSDAY! In this bonus Interviewsday episode, we step inside one of the most famous courtrooms in American history with former Rhea County Circuit Court Clerk John Fine to explore the story behind the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial. Recorded inside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee, this conversation looks beyond the headlin...

We'd love to hear what you think! In the spring of 1925, Tennessee enacted a law called the Butler Act prohibiting teachers in state-supported schools from teaching that humans had descended from a lower order of animals. The American Civil Liberties Union offered to defend any teacher prosecuted under the new law. Then a group of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee recognized an opportunity. Wha...

We'd love to hear what you think! It's INTERVIEWSDAY! One of Tennessee's best-known Civil War figures is Sam Davis , remembered as the "Boy Hero of the Confederacy." But according to author Alton Anderson , Davis's story is only one part of a much larger and largely forgotten saga. In this INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday) bonus content, I sit down with Alton Anderson...

We'd love to hear what you think! Driving Across Tennessee continues this week as we cross into Blount County , one of the state's oldest and most historically significant counties, where frontier settlements, planned communities, mountain resorts, industry, education, and the Great Smoky Mountains all come together to tell one remarkable story. Beginning on Alcoa Highway at McGhee Tyson...

We'd love to hear what you think! It's INTERVIEWSDAY! The Battle of Athens remains one of the most fascinating and controversial events in Tennessee history. To better understand the story behind Episode 20: Taking Back a Town , in this INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday) bonus content, I traveled to Athens, Tennessee, to sit down with Tyler Boyd, President of the McMinn County Historical S...

We'd love to hear what you think! For nearly ten years, the people of McMinn County lived under the control of one of Tennessee's most powerful political machines. Elections were marred by intimidation and allegations of fraud. Deputies profited from fee grabbing. Citizens pleaded with state and federal authorities for help, but little changed. Then World War II ended. Thousands of vetera...