Tennessee Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

Looking for Tennessee trivia? Try our list Tennessee little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Born Frances Rose Shore in 1917 in Winchester (pop. 7,329), Dinah Shore hosted the popular TV series The Dinah Shore Chevy Show from 1956 to 1963 and revved up car sales with the slogan, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet . . ."

first appeared: 7/2/2006

A card game of "pig" often is in the works at Forbus General Store in Pall Mall in Fentress County (pop. 16,625), where locals believe the fast-paced game originated about 100 years ago. The store is host to the annual World Pig Championship.

first appeared: 6/25/2006

Trenton (pop. 4,683) is steeped in teapots, with the world's largest collection of porcelain veilleuse-theieres at City Hall. The 525 rare night-light teapots date from 1750 to 1860.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

Mile-high overlooks dazzle along the Cherohala Skyway, a National Scenic Byway between Tellico Plains (pop. 859) and Robbinsville, N.C. (pop. 747). The highway's name comes from the national forests through which the road meanders: the Cherokee and the Nantahala.

first appeared: 5/21/2006

In 1916, the Ernest Holmes Co. in Chattanooga built the first wrecker truck, near where the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum is today. Restored antique wreckers and toy trucks dating to the 1900s are among the museum's exhibits.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

The geographic center of the state is on Old Lascassas Pike, within one mile of the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro. A stone monument has marked the Rutherford County spot since 1976.

first appeared: 4/23/2006

Visitors can take time to watch grandfather clocks being crafted at Rhyne Clock Co. in Newport (pop. 7,242). The family clock business began as a lumberyard in the late 1800s.

first appeared: 4/9/2006

In the late 1890s, "Beautiful Jim Key" of Shelbyville (pop. 16,105) entertained crowds with his ability to do arithmetic, read, tell time and sort mail. The homely, "educated" horse was trained by William Key, a self-taught veterinarian.

first appeared: 3/26/2006

Known as the "Harmonica Wizard," DeFord Bailey was one of the first stars of the Grand Ole Opry, playing from 1926 to 1941, and one of country music’s only African-American stars. Born in 1899 in Carthage (pop. 2,251), Bailey was buried in Nashville in 1982.

first appeared: 3/12/2006

Students carve their own carousel critters at America’s only carousel-carving school, Horsin’ Around Wood Carving School in Soddy Daisy (pop. 11,530). Instructor Bud Ellis and students built the Coolidge Park Carousel in Chattanooga.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

The state’s oldest silent-movie theater still in its original location is the Palace Theater in Gallatin (pop. 23,230). Volunteers restored the 1913 theater and today the venue shows movies and hosts community events.

first appeared: 2/12/2006

In the 1920s, Clarence Saunders, founder of the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain, started building his Memphis home, known as the Pink Palace Mansion because of its pink Georgian marble façade. Today, the mansion houses a museum and features a replica of a Piggly Wiggly store.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

In January 1877, thousands of living black snakes from a foot to 18 inches long rained on southern Memphis. According to one theory, a hurricane swept the snakes into the air and dumped them on the city.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS TENNESSEE 2006—Tara Burns majors in vocal performance at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and hopes to record professionally. She’s also involved in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and is a spokesperson for the state’s anti-drug program.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

The state’s first permanent settler was William Bean, who arrived from Virginia in 1769 and built a cabin on Boone’s Creek close to its junction with the Watauga River, near present-day Johnson City (pop. 55,469).

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Young ladies learn the way of Southern belles at the popular 1861 Athenaeum Girls School at the Athenaeum Rectory in Columbia (pop. 33,055). Dressed in 19th-century costumes, girls learn etiquette, penmanship, needlework, elocution and social graces.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

Memphis International Airport is the world’s busiest cargo airport, a title held since 1992. The airport is home to FedEx’s world headquarters, and more the 200 FedEx Express aircraft arrive and depart daily carrying a multitude of airborne packages.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

Built in 1828 as a stagecoach inn along the Nashville-Knoxville Road (today’s State Highway 25), Wynnewood is believed to be the state’s largest log structure. The house at Castalian Springs, near Gallatin (pop. 23,230), is 142 feet long.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

Since 1910, the Calhoun family has built Reelfoot Lake "stump jumper" boats that can navigate in a foot of water over submerged bald cypress tree stumps. Dale Calhoun, owner of Calhoun Boat Works in Tiptonville (pop. 2,439), is the fourth-generation builder of these shallow-draft boats.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

Murray Hudson has the world at his fingertips in Halls (pop. 2,311), where he has amassed more than 40,000 antique globes, rare atlases, maps and geographies for sale through his store and website.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

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