Great River Road - Tennessee

Tennessee's Great River Road runs 185.5 miles along the Mississippi River, from Reelfoot Lake at the Kentucky line south to Memphis. It's the Tennessee segment of a 3,000-mile, ten-state byway that follows the Mississippi from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, an idea first proposed in 1936 though Congress didn't fund route improvements until 1973. In Tennessee it crosses Lake, Dyer, Lauderdale, Tipton, and Shelby Counties, hemmed between the river and the Chickasaw bluffs. Reelfoot Lake itself was created by the violent New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12, powerful enough to briefly reverse the Mississippi's flow and flood a 15,000-acre basin. Dyersburg, one of the route's oldest towns, predates the Civil War, having been settled by some of West Tennessee's first white residents. Roughly 40 percent of all North American migratory bird species pass through this corridor twice a year, before the drive's gently sloping terrain gives way to Memphis, with its blues history and modern riverfront.

• Reelfoot Lake
• Memphis
• 185.5 miles
• New Madrid earthquakes
• Chickasaw bluffs
• 10-state Great River Road
• migratory bird corridor

Designated for its historic and cultural qualities