By Alison Ramsey
From ancient cave drawings to modern street art, pioneer villages to world-class military museums, Clarksville, Tennessee, offers an eclectic mix of historic and new attractions. Rooted in history, this Southern town where the Cumberland and Red rivers meet is a place to create new memories where many old ones were made.
The underground limestone landscape of Dunbar Cave is a Clarksville highlight that was shaped by centuries of cultural convergence. This 8-mile cave system served as a sacred ceremonial site for Indigenous Mississippians, with cave drawings inside to study and interpret. Cherokee drawings dating to 1855 add more history to the walls.
Once a plantation and later a privately owned resort and dance hall, the area and its Swan Lake drew vacationers and courting couples. Now a state park, Dunbar Cave and its prehistoric charcoal pictographs, petroglyphs and abstract art are open for tours.
When Cumberland River boat traffic was heavy, companies commonly painted advertisements on buildings visible from the water. A vintage "5 cents a package" Uneeda Biscuit soda cracker ad still graces a brick wall sloping toward the river.
Modern street murals include "Clarksville Starry Night," which depicts the city's Customs House Museum and Montgomery County Courthouse beneath Vincent van Gogh-inspired skies. The vibrant "Last Train to Clarksville" mural, painted by a local tattoo artist, appears to explode from the support pillar of a downtown pedestrian bridge. The 1966 Monkees song of the same name was not about this Clarksville, but the portrait honors the town's railroad roots, with painted dates marking when passenger trains last ran on the tracks above.
The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center houses nature-inspired Boehm porcelain, Olympic hometown hero Wilma Rudolph's relay baton, an original 1842 log house, an operating O-gauge model train layout with five trains and more than 360-feet of track, and an Explorers Landing children's area with Bubble Cave are all here. Before becoming a museum, the building served as the Federal Post Office and Customs House, where mail was sorted and government business tied to the region's international tobacco trade was conducted.
The stately marble facade of The Mailroom restaurant, serving cheeseburger egg rolls and mac 'n' cheese variations with global flavors, also has a historic past. The eatery occupies a 1935 post office building built during the Great Depression and is now beautifully renovated, with the original high ceilings, tall windows and a hostess stand fashioned from a tall block of mailroom cubbies.
Rural Tennessee life in the 1800s is re-created at Historic Collinsville Pioneer Settlement, a 40-acre property of log houses and outbuildings furnished with authentic early settler artifacts. The old schoolhouse has slates on each wooden desk, and the teacher's blackboard dates to 1879. Visitors can make homemade butter in the pioneer-style kitchen by shaking stout glass jars filled with heavy whipping cream and salt.
Frontier families often repurposed textiles. Jeff Harris, director of the Historic Collinsville Weakley House Museum, gives tours of the founders' original home, including their quilt collection.
"Quilting was done with your scraps," Harris said. "You never threw anything away. If you had old clothes, you saved them and you cut them up for quilt scraps and that made your quilt."
Harris explained that dating quilts can be difficult because some fabrics might have been a ladies' dress for 20 years before becoming part of a quilt.
The world-class 51,000-sqare-foot Tennessee Wings of Liberty Museum is now open to the public on a 33-acre campus. Its modern immersive exhibits and models outline special operations missions, wars, aviation units, and events important to Fort Campbell and military history. Inside are a refurbished MH-47 Chinook helicopter and flight simulation complete with video graphics, sensations and radio communications that replicate a military mission over the mountains in Afghanistan.
Bourbon, whiskey and wine age well, and Clarksville has them all. Old Glory Distillery offers tours and tastings of small-batch spirits that include Tennessee Bourbon Maple Cream and Pin-Up Gin. Leatherwood Distillery serves Snake Eater Bourbon Whiskey and many rum flavors. For local wine, visit Beachaven Winery to find a new favorite.
From outdoor art to architecture and aviation, Clarksville preserves the past while embracing the future. Just as the Cumberland and Red rivers continue their steady flow, the city carries the past forward, evolving and finding new expression while keeping its roots intact.
WHEN YOU GO
DoubleTree by Hilton is one block from downtown and the Cumberland Riverwalk. A pedestrian overpass leads to the half-mile walk to the RiverCenter activity area. For more hiking and sunset views, continue along the Riverwalk until the Red River Trail begins.
Alison Ramsey is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The Batson Dogtrot House in historic Collinsville, Tennessee, represents a showplace house owned by wealthy tobacco farmers in 1855 with a "dogtrot" through its center to provide natural ventilation. Photo courtesy of Alison Ramsey.
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