12 Best Sights in Side Trips from Memphis, Tennessee

The Alex Haley House Museum, the only state-owned historic site in West Tennessee, displays family portraits, mementos, and furnishings.

the Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum contains a diverse assortment of railroad memorabilia. On the grounds is a replica of Old No. 382, Casey's steam engine

In Casey Jones Village. The Casey Jones Village Old Country Store, also in the village, has a restaurant, an 1890s-style ice cream parlor, and gift, souvenir, confectionery, and antiques shops.

The historic Cherry Mansion, built in 1830, served as General Grant's headquarters during the Battle of Shiloh. The house is privately owned, but visitors are allowed to walk around the grounds and take pictures.

For more information on Jackson, call the Jackson/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, open weekdays 8:30–4:30.

Named after the eponymous character in Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers, Pickwick Dam is considered by locals to be the playground of southwestern Tennessee's Hardin County.

Pickwick Landing State Resort Park has a resort inn, a restaurant, playgrounds, swimming beaches, picnic areas, campsites, and a par-72, 18-hole golf course.

The Reelfoot Area Chamber of Commerce can answer questions about dining and lodging.

Tiptonville's Reelfoot Lake gains a peculiar and mysterious beauty from a romantic scattering of cypress trees and charred stumps. The 13,000-acre lake was formed between 1811 and 1812, when the New Madrid earthquakes caused the Mississippi River to flood into the sinking land where a luxuriant forest once stood. From late November through mid-March the lake is a major sanctuary for American bald eagles. The quiet lake provides good fishing year-round for bass, crappie, trout, bream, and catfish.

The Tennessee Department of Conservation conducts eagle-spotting tours at Reelfoot Lake State Park Vistors Center.

Site of one of the Civil War's grimmest and most pivotal battles, Shiloh National Military Park is the resting place of almost 4,000 soldiers, many unidentified, in the national cemetery. A self-guided auto tour (about 2½ hours) leads you past markers explaining monuments and battle sites. The visitor center runs a 25-minute film explaining the battle's strategy and has a display of Civil War artifacts. To get to Shiloh from Memphis, head east from Memphis on U.S. 64, then 10 mi south on TN 22.

The Tennessee River Museum has exhibits on the Civil War, the river, and fossils from 65 million years ago, when this area was underwater.