Tennessee

Tennessee is a long, narrow state — more than 400 miles east to west — that crosses three distinct grand divisions, each with its own landscape and identity. East Tennessee is mountain country, where the Great Smoky Mountains rise along the North Carolina line and Clingmans Dome reaches 6,643 feet (2,025 m), the state high point. Middle Tennessee rolls through the fertile Nashville Basin and the surrounding Highland Rim. West Tennessee flattens toward the Mississippi River, ending in the Delta lowlands around Memphis.

The Tennessee River ties the grand divisions together in an improbable loop, flowing southwest out of the eastern mountains into Alabama, then doubling back north across the whole state to reach the Ohio. That river, harnessed by the dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s, reshaped the region with power and flood control. From the misty, biodiverse forests of the Smokies — the most visited national park in the country — to the bluffs above the Mississippi at Memphis, Tennessee strings together a remarkable cross-section of the South.