Every Lake
Tennessee
Three grand divisions, three stars on the flag, and 440 miles from the Smokies to the Mississippi.
Tennessee in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Tennessee.
About Tennessee
Tennessee is a long parallelogram, ruled north and south by surveyed lines and closed at the ends by the Appalachian crest and the Mississippi River. The state has always thought of itself in three parts, and the map shows why: East Tennessee is ridge and valley under the Great Smoky Mountains, Middle Tennessee is the Nashville Basin ringed by the Highland Rim, and West Tennessee is Delta flatland running to Memphis. The Tennessee River is the strange one — it flows southwest, turns north in Alabama and crosses the state a second time. Ninety-five counties.
Tennessee entered on June 1, 1796 as the 16th state, the first carved out of federal territory. Nashville, on the Cumberland at the head of steamboat navigation, was made the capital in 1826 and confirmed permanently in 1843. The board is a music map as much as a road map — Beale Street at one end, Broadway at the other — and its highways tell the same story: I-40 runs the full 440 miles across, I-24, I-65 and I-75 meet it, and the Natchez Trace Parkway starts just outside Nashville.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 12 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
