Tennessee, a historic Civil War battlefield, is characterized by six mainland regions. The Blue Ridge, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley region, the Appalachian plateau, the Highland Rim, the Nashville Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain.
Tennessee’s geographic diversity has generated various economic, social, and cultural patterns that have led residents to perceive the state in terms of three grand divisions; East, Middle, and West Tennessee.
Tennessee Facts Trivia Questions and Answers
From nurturing music icons like Justine Timberlake to hosting the world’s famous rock and roll residents, Tennessee is indeed a top attraction in the US. Graceland Mansion, the home of the late Elvis Presley is a place of pilgrimage to fans from far and wide. The tour’s destination home provides a unique glimpse into the King’s life-nothing has changed since he passed away in 1977.
Nashville, the capital, is the most populous city in Tennessee. Named for Francis Nash, a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the city was founded in 1779.
Below is a series of Tennessee trivia to expand your knowledge of this beautiful state.
1. Tennessee is bordered by what other two US States to the north?
2. What are the Tennessee State insects?
3. Which state borders Tennessee to the east?
4. Tennessee contributed more soldiers to the Union Army than any other what?
5. What is the Tennessee State butterfly?
6. The city of Oak Ridge was created to house the Manhattan Project’s uranium enrichment facilities aiding the effort to build the world’s first what?
7. What three states border Tennessee to the south?
8. What is the Tennessee State agricultural insect?
9. Which two US states border Tennessee to the west?
10. What location is considered by many to be the birthplace of the blues?
11. Tennessee’s western border is formed by what river?
12. Memphis is home to what record label, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich began their recording careers?
13. What is the Tennessee State bird?
14. What is the Tennessee State wild animal?
15. What is Tennessee’s capital and second largest city?
16. The success of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s helped make Nashville the center of the what?
17. What city is Tennessee’s largest in population?
18. What are the names of the three brick-and-mortar museums that recognize Tennessee’s role in nurturing popular music?
19. The area that is now Tennessee used to be part of North Carolina, and later it was part of the what?
20. What is the Tennessee State horse?
21. What is the Tennessee State sport fish?
22. In what city is Elvis Presley’s Graceland residence and tomb?
23. On what date was Tennessee admitted to the Union as the 16th state?
24. The modern spelling of the state is attributed to what governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s?
25. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, and the first state to what?
26. What is the Tennessee State tree?
27. Tennessee provided more “what” for the Confederate Army than any other state?
28. Tennessee borders how many other US states?
29. What is the highest point in the state?
30. Tornadoes can touch down anywhere in the state, with what part of Tennessee the most vulnerable?
31. What is the Tennessee State evergreen tree?
32. Typically, how many tornadoes per year does the state average?
33. What is the lowest point in the state of Tennessee?
34. What is the Tennessee State gem?
35. What is the location of the geographical center of Tennessee?
36. Tennessee leads the country in the percentage of total tornadoes that cause what?
37. What is the Tennessee State beverage?
38. Tennessee was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians how long ago?
39. Tennessee has more caves than anywhere else in the United States with how many documented caves?
40. What is the Tennessee State mineral?
41. What percentage of the US population resides within 600 miles of Nashville?
42. The first recorded European excursions into what is now called Tennessee were Three expeditions led by Spanish explorers, which were the first recorded European excursions into the state. What were their names?
43. How many state parks does Tennessee have?
44. What is the Tennessee State game bird?
45. What is the Tennessee State reptile?
46. Settlers from the colony of South Carolina at Fort Loudoun, near present-day Vonore built the first what in 1756?
47. What is the Tennessee State rock?
48. What is the highest recorded temperature for the state of Tennessee?
49. During the American Revolutionary War who attacked Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals?
50. What is the Tennessee State dance?
51. Most of the major battles of the American Civil War were fought in Tennessee, and most of the victories went to which side?
52. What is Tennessee’s lowest recorded temperature?
53. The Tennessee state legislature amended the state constitution to prohibit slavery on what date?
54. What is the Tennessee State fruit?
55. What is the Tennessee State motto?
56. Tennessee averages around how many days of thunderstorms per annum?
57. Tennessee ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery in every state, on what date?
58. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the thirty-sixth and final state needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment providing women the right to what?
59. Which Tennessee city was originally named Alexandria?
60. What is the Tennessee State slogan?
61. Jackson was previously called Alexandria to honor which president?
62. Memphis International Airport is the major hub for FedEx, and it is the world’s largest what?
63. Which year was Alexandria renamed Jackson?
64. Tennessee’s current state constitution, it’s third, was adopted in what year?
65. Which village name is the word Tennessee named from?
66. What are the four law enforcement groups that the state of Tennessee maintains?
67. The Tennessee Constitution mandates that every County have an elected?
68. Tennessee is ranked where as per area proximity?
69. What is the Tennessee State amphibian?
70. Tennessee is also called the?
71. How many official state songs does Tennessee have?
72. What Tennessee city is the exact geographical center of the state?
73. What does “Tennessee” mean?
74. What is the oldest town in Tennessee?
75. What is the official state tree of Tennessee?
76. What happened when the architect who designed the Tennessee State Capitol died during construction?
77. Which soft drink was invented in Tennessee?
78. Which Tennessee city was founded by a future U.S. president?
79. Which American folk hero was born and raised in Tennessee?
80. Which Tennessee city is known as the “Birthplace of Country Music”“?
81. Who was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee?
82. Who owned the most-visited house in Tennessee?
83. What American Naval hero from Knoxville is remembered for his famous rally cry “Damn the torpedoes!”?
84. What Carthage native served as U.S. Vice President from 1993-2001?
85. What U.S. Vice President and Tennesseeans graduated from Harvard University in 1969?
86. What TN Senator served three terms in the U.S. Senate from 1953-1979?
87. What World War I hero was born in Pall Mall in 1887?
88. In 1796, who became the very first Tennessee congressman?
89. What Tennessee U.S. Senator became the 7th U.S. President in 1828 and served for two terms in office?
90. What Greenville resident became the 17th U.S. President after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865?
91. What secret weapon of mass destruction was first assembled in Oak Ridge in 1945?
92. General Andrew Jackson of TN was the leader of what victorious battle on January 8, 1815?
93. What Republican U.S. Senator from TN graduated from Princeton and Harvard was a heart surgeon for 17 years?
94. During the American Civil War, the battle of Missionary Ridge was conducted in what East, TN city?
95. What American Indian tribe was denied their appeals for government protection by President Andrew Jackson?
96. What former TN governor was sent to prison in 1979 for selling pardons?
97. What American Statesman born in Overton (now Pickett) County won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1945?
98. What garment did Governor Lamar Alexander associate with his campaign?
99. Trailblazer Daniel Boone cleared this passageway through the Cumberland Mountains?
100. What military commander and Tennessee governor resigned his position and went to live with the Cherokee Indians?
101. What Amer. Politicians and frontiersmen from TN were killed at the Alamo?
102. What Native American leader and inventor of the Cherokee Alphabet was born in Taskigi around 1770?
103. What Nashville-born astronomer born in 1857 had a star named after him?
104. Tennessean and World War I hero Alvin Cullum York was better known as?
105. What U.S. senator and reformer is known as the creator of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)?
106. What endangered fish caused a U.S. Supreme court to delay the construction of Tellico Dam in the late 1970s?
107. What Memphis, TN State Representative graduated from John Gumpton College with a B.S. in Mortuary Science?
108. What federal corporation was created in 1933 to develop the natural resources of the Tennessee valley?
109. What female Tennessean became the first woman U.S. Senator?
110. What was the name of the secret government project in Oak Ridge that produced the Atomic Bomb?
111. What Spanish explorer crossed the Mississippi and met with the Chickasaw Indian tribe near Memphis in 1541?
112. What privately controlled institute of higher learning in Nashville was founded in 1873 as Central University?
113. Who is Jasper Newton Daniel better known as?
114. Who founded the city of Knoxville?
115. What Nashville lawyer and state Governor became the 11th U.S. President (1845-1849)?
116. What Nashville-born adventurer was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua in 1856?
117. What TN, U.S. president declared war on Mexico on May 11, 1846?
118. In 1982 Knoxville was the host of what major world event?
119. What American Statesman born near Nashville, defeated James Polk to become speaker of the house in 1834?
120. What Hollywood actress with a 90210 address was born in Memphis, on April 12, 1971?
121. What Native American chief of the Cherokee Nation was born near Lookout Mt.. in 1790?
122. What legendary railroad engineer that lived in Jackson was killed in a train crash on April 30, 1900?
123. Who was the first Governor of Tennessee?
124. What had 11,127,786 visitors in one year?
125. What Spanish explorer, explored East TN in 1560 and built several cabins near Chattanooga that he later abandoned?
126. What Tennessee whiskey maker was never married but never seen out of the company of women?
127. In 1796, Congress made Tennessee the 16th state of the Union, what city was first named as the state capital?
128. What was Tennessee’s first Television station?
129. What secret terrorist organization was started in Pulaski in 1865?
130. What Tennessee Senator was US Senate Majority Leader from 1981-1984?
131. The former University of TN president served as Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush?
132. The first settlement in middle TN located in Castalian Springs is called what?
133. Where was the civil war battle called “The Battle Above the Clouds” fought?
134. In 1756 this was the 1st Anglo-American settlement west of the Alleghenies and South of Pennsylvania.
135. From Fort Donelson, during the Civil War, who said “No terms except immediate and unconditional surrender can be accepted”?
136. In the 1800s Tennesseeans earned their nickname as the Volunteer State by volunteering for what?
137. Although Knoxville was founded by William Blount, who was the city named after?
138. In 1715 what disease greatly devastated the Cherokee Indians, reducing their population to about 11,000?
139. In 1969, escaped convict James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to killing Martin Luther King Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in what prison?
140. Where was Tennessee’s state capital from 1819-1826?
141. What Nashville mayor and millionaire was elected as governor of Tennessee in 2002?
142. What American Confederate Cavalry general born in Bedford Co. became the first leader of the original Ku Klux Klan?
143. In 1983 two Knoxville banking brothers were responsible for the fourth largest bank failure in U.S. history?
144. What black American poet, essayist, and lecturer born in Knoxville founded Nikton Limited publishing company?
145. In 1994 what 73-year-old Chattanooga resident was convicted of the 1963 slaying of civil rights leader Medgar Evers?
146. What American Civil War general founded Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate in 1895?
147. Where was Coca-Cola first bottled?
148. After graduating from Tennessee State University in 1976, this talk show host went on to form HARPO productions.
149. Little Diamond, born in the Knoxville Zoo was the first one of these to be born in the western hemisphere.
150. What popular Tennessee public service announcement first “littered” the airwaves in 1976 and then again in 1998?
151. June 8, 1861, what did the state of Tennessee join?
152. Who was the first Confederate commander in Tennessee?
153. Who did Abraham Lincoln appoint as military governor of Tennessee?
154. What Confederate general was killed in 1862 during the battle of Shiloh?
155. What Tennessean U.S. President was the first President to ever be impeached?
156. With 23,000 casualties, where in Tennessee was the “bloodiest battle” of the Civil War fought?
157. What was former Governor Ned McWherter’s trademark snack?
158. What National hero Naval officer that was born near Knoxville in 1801, entered the navy as a midshipman at age 9?
159. On average, how much rain does Tennessee have per year?