West Region

West Region covers the western third of Tennessee, the country between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi. The terrain is gently rolling — Loess hills along the Mississippi bluffs, broad bottomland along the Hatchie and Wolf rivers, and the flat coastal-plain agricultural country across most of the interior. Memphis sits at the southwestern corner where the Mississippi River bends. Most of the state’s cotton country runs through here. Twenty counties cover the region. Shelby holds Memphis (the largest city in Tennessee); Madison holds Jackson; Tipton holds Covington; Dyer holds Dyersburg; Henry holds Paris and Paris Landing State Park; Hardin holds Savannah and Shiloh National Military Park; Lake holds Tiptonville and Reelfoot Lake (the only large natural lake in the state, formed by the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes). Major attractions include Graceland, Sun Studio, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Beale Street, the Memphis Zoo, Shiloh National Military Park, and Reelfoot Lake. Most trips here center on Memphis. Memphis handles a multi-day music-and-history itinerary — Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street, the National Civil Rights Museum, the barbecue scene; Shiloh National Military Park draws Civil War visitors; Reelfoot Lake’s cypress swamps and bald eagle wintering grounds pull birders fall through spring; Pickwick Landing on the Tennessee River handles boating and fishing.