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00:00Tennessee, America's 16th state, is bordered on the east by the majestic Appalachian Mountains
00:07and on the west by the mighty Mississippi River. What lies between is a spectacular range of
00:15images. Nearly 20,000 miles of rivers and streams, stunning geological formations,
00:23quiet fields where some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War were fought.
00:29It's home to one of America's most controversial public works programs
00:34and the most visited national park in the United States. What other state can claim ownership of
00:41the grandest icon of country music, the birthplace of the blues, and the homes of the queen of soul
00:48and the king of rock and roll? An aerial trip through Tennessee is a magical musical ride
00:56over timeless wonders.
01:26Long before Elvis got here, Tennessee was home to the Cherokee Indians.
01:47In 1540, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to travel to what would
01:53eventually become Tennessee on a quest to find silver and gold. He crossed the Mississippi near
02:01this point. De Soto never did find silver or gold, and in 1542 he died on the banks of the Mississippi
02:10River. More than 100 years later, the French and British also arrived to stake their claims here.
02:18Fort Loudoun, the first planned fort on the western frontier, was built by the British in 1756
02:25to keep the French army out of the Appalachian region, and to maintain the alliance the Brits
02:31had formed with the Cherokee tribe. But that alliance turned to disaster. Over time,
02:40betrayal and mistrust left the Cherokee weary, and they surrounded the fort until the British
02:46families living there ran out of food and water. The present-day fort is a replica of the original
02:54and surrounded by a man-made lake. It is recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
03:05Just south of Fort Loudoun sits the birthplace of a mixed-blood Cherokee Indian
03:10named Sequoyah, now marked by a stylish museum complex.
03:16Fascinated by the European immigrant's ability to communicate with marks on paper, or what he called
03:23talking leaves, Sequoyah was convinced that a written form of language would help his people.
03:30He spent 12 years working on a system of writing for the Cherokee language.
03:34It quickly became the official written language of the Cherokee.
03:39Newspapers and books were printed, and in just a few years, the literacy rate of the Cherokee
03:45was said to be 95%. Today, this land is owned by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians,
03:53and a museum to promote understanding of the Cherokee culture was built.
04:03Modern Tennessee has three distinct regions, officially known as Three Grand Divisions.
04:10West Tennessee is made up of lush farmlands, cities, and small towns built on the banks of
04:16the Mississippi River, and reaching to the Tennessee River. Its history and culture are
04:22distinct from the rest of the state. This region has had a significant influence on American music.
04:32Middle Tennessee is home to the state's capital, Nashville, while Memphis may be the most
04:38While Memphis may have brought America the blues and rock and roll,
04:42Nashville is the world capital for country music.
04:51But our journey begins in Eastern Tennessee, a region filled with dense forests and breathtaking
04:57mountains. These roads were originally just a mountain trail, but even two centuries ago,
05:10it was the early American version of a superhighway.
05:18Called the Cumberland Gap, it was one of the most important routes for early settlers,
05:23Native Americans, and possibly even bison.
05:30The Gap is a low point in the Cumberland region of the Appalachian Mountains,
05:34where the states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee all meet.
05:42Steep cliffs that rise hundreds of feet off the valley floor line its sides.
05:47Scientists believe the path was created by stream erosion that took place over millions of years.
06:02American colonists, barricaded by the mountains, were anxious for a way to expand west.
06:09So pioneer Daniel Boone led a team of 30 men to explore the area.
06:16To mark and cut a trail, giving access to settlers
06:20who used it to journey to the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee.
06:29This part of the Gap was called the Wilderness Trail.
06:40Hundreds of thousands of people either walked, rode, or were carried across the Cumberland Gap.
06:46Part of which is now a national park.
06:53Further south in the Appalachians sits the most visited national park in the United States,
06:59the Great Smoky Mountains.
07:05This national park covers more than 500,000 acres.
07:08Geologists believe these mountains are millions of years old, much older than the Rocky Mountains.
07:22The Cherokee Indians living here called the land the Place of Blue Smoke,
07:26because of the smoky blue haze that sits over the mountains.
07:30In the early 1900s, lumber companies moved in and began logging here.
07:36Within 20 years, despite the protests of conservationists, two-thirds of the trees had been cut down.
07:45In 1934, Congress established the Great Smoky Mountains,
07:50a national park for the Cherokee Indians.
07:52It's home to countless animal species, including at least 700 black bears.
08:03The park has more species of plants than any other area on the continent.
08:10The park is also home to the National Park Service,
08:13which is responsible for the conservation of the park's natural resources.
08:23It's an international biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site.
08:32Bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a beautiful but often overlooked treasure.
08:39The 640,000-acre Cherokee National Forest follows the ancient ridges of the southern Appalachian Mountains,
08:48their valleys filled with a chain of lakes.
08:53It's the largest public tract of land in Tennessee.
09:02Resting at the foothills and surrounded on three sides by the Smokies is Gatlinburg,
09:07a destination for vacationing tourists.
09:10The Skylift takes riders on a 500-foot ascent over Gatlinburg to the top of Crockett Mountain,
09:17and the aerial tramway is one of the largest in the country.
09:21The two 120-passenger counterbalanced cars lift off to take passengers to Gatlinburg's wintertime ski runs.
09:30The Skylift is the first of its kind in the world.
09:34In the 1900s, Pigeon Forge was a small mountain village with no paved roads.
09:40Today, it's known mostly for a giant theme park called Dollywood,
09:46co-owned by Tennessee native and country music superstar Dolly Parton.
09:51A vintage steam train runs through this 125-acre park,
09:56which combines crafts native to this region with thrill rides and water parks.
10:11The Skylift is the first of its kind in the world.
10:15It was named Dollywood to draw Dolly Parton fans who might be coming to Tennessee for another attraction.
10:23Knoxville was the site of the 1982 World's Fair.
10:29Some were cynical about the choice of Knoxville as the site for the fair.
10:34A Wall Street Journal writer called Knoxville,
10:37Maybe that was just the impetus the city needed.
10:41The fair was the last successful World's Fair held in America,
10:47with 22 countries and more than 50 corporations participating.
10:5211 million visitors came for the experience, and the fair made a profit of exactly $1.5 million.
10:59Today, the most striking reminder of the fair is the Sun Sphere,
11:03a 266-foot tower with a 75-foot-high giant globe on top.
11:10The window panels are layered in 24-karat gold dust,
11:14and an observation deck offers a panoramic view of the fair from the top of the tower.
11:20The Sun Sphere is the tallest tower in the world,
11:23layered in 24-karat gold dust, and an observation deck offers visitors views of the city.
11:33Knoxville is Tennessee's third-largest city,
11:36and was the state's first capital from 1796 through 1819.
11:44The city sits on the Tennessee River and is home to the University of Tennessee,
11:49the Volunteers. Chartered in 1794, today UT has nearly 30,000 students.
12:02But basketball is what the Vols are most famous for,
12:06women's basketball. Given the success and large following of women's basketball here,
12:12it seemed the only logical place to have the National Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
12:20Built in 1999, the Hall of Fame honors both men and women
12:24who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball.
12:30The ball that sits on the roof is 30 feet high, weighs 10 tons,
12:35and sits on top of a glass staircase that was created to resemble a basketball net.
12:41A few miles northwest of Knoxville is a town that was born in secrecy.
12:48Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is 10 miles long and 2 miles wide, the whole thing surrounded by a high
12:55chain-linked fence, topped with barbed wire, and patrolled by guards on horseback.
13:02This area used to be filled with small farming towns,
13:06until 1942. America was at war, and suddenly the farmers here began getting visits from
13:15federal officials. They only wanted one thing, all of the land. Reluctantly, and with little choice,
13:281,000 families left their small farming communities, and soon, thousands of engineers,
13:34scientists, and construction workers swarmed into the new land.
13:41Construction began, and three huge windowless buildings were erected within months.
13:48Oak Ridge had a secret.
13:52Of the 75,000 people who lived and worked here, only 1% knew what was really going on.
14:00Workers were told, loose lips sink ships. Meanwhile, some of the most brilliant scientific
14:08scientists in the world were told, the world is a big place, and it's time to get to work.
14:16Oak Ridge was part of the Manhattan Project,
14:19the American government's highly secret initiative to develop an atomic bomb.
14:27And on August 6, 1945, when America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
14:32the world's largest nuclear power plant, the Manhattan Project was launched.
14:38And on August 6, 1945, when America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
14:43it ultimately brought World War II to an end.
14:50Even today, aircraft must keep their distance from the site,
14:54and the buildings are still used by the United States Department of Energy for federal projects.
15:02Oak Ridge isn't the only secret in the Tennessee hills.
15:05This is the home of the oldest registered distillery in the United States,
15:09and its renowned whiskey, named after Jasper Newton Daniel, better known as Jack Daniel.
15:19When he was just a teenager, Jack Daniel bought his whiskey distillery from a local Lutheran minister.
15:27He handcrafted the sour mash whiskey from his father's house,
15:32he handcrafted the sour mash whiskey from his secret ingredient,
15:37the spring water piped into the distillery from a nearby limestone cave.
15:43Ironically, Lynchburg, Tennessee is a dry town,
15:47so while the whiskey can be distilled here, it can't be purchased.
15:53Following an infection from a broken toe, Daniel died from blood poisoning in 1911,
15:59and is buried near the distillery, now a National Historic Landmark.
16:10Tennessee is home to 28 sites recognized by the National Park Service as Historic Landmarks.
16:18One of them, located 131 miles from Lynchburg in the small town of Dayton,
16:24was home to a publicity stunt that turned into one of the most famous trials in American history.
16:31In this courthouse in 1925, Tennessee passed the Butler Act,
16:36a law that made it illegal to teach any theory that denied the biblical story of creation,
16:43specifically Darwin's theory of evolution.
16:47In July of 1925, John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwinism.
16:54News of the impending trial traveled quickly, and this man, William Jennings Bryan,
17:00known for his crusade against Darwinism, offered his services as a prosecutor for free.
17:08That's when Clarence Darrow, an agnostic, offered to defend Mr. Scopes,
17:13also for free. It was called the Monkey Trial because of its association with evolution.
17:22Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. However, a year later, the verdict was overturned on appeal.
17:31The Wray County Courthouse is still in use,
17:33and its most famous trial raised issues debated in America to this very day.
17:38Chattanooga, the fourth largest city in Tennessee,
17:42is located on a seven-mile bend in the Tennessee River near the border of Georgia.
17:55The town's fame rests on a song about a train, the invention of moon pies,
18:01and a poetically named Civil War battle.
18:04Lookout Mountain rises up over the city of Chattanooga.
18:12Sitting atop the mountain is a one-of-a-kind piece of Americana.
18:20Part nature, part fantasy, Rock City features caves and ancient rock formations carved by
18:27Part nature, part fantasy, Rock City features caves and ancient rock formations
18:34carved by nature over millions of years.
18:45Rock City's history as a tourist attraction dates back to before the Great Depression,
18:50when a local businessman wanted to turn the area into a residential community called
18:56Ferryland.
19:04Here it is said that on a clear day one can see seven states.
19:10About a hundred years earlier, Lookout Mountain
19:13had grabbed the attention of another man with dreams.
19:17In 1852, Colonel James Whiteside built a road to his property on the top of the mountain.
19:24He called it Point Lookout.
19:27During the Civil War, Point Lookout became an observation post.
19:32The Confederate Army held the mountain, but in 1863, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant
19:38won a decisive victory and took over the mountain in what was called the Battle Above the Clouds.
19:47Today, visitors can ride up one of the steepest passenger railways in the world.
19:53At the top of the incline sits Point Park, part of the Chequemaga-Chattanooga National Military Park.
20:05The New York Peace Memorial, featuring a Union and Confederate soldier
20:09shaking hands, is just one of the monuments to the men who fought and died here.
20:14When the Civil War ended, Chattanooga continued to be a major railroad hub and industrial center.
20:22It was known as the Dynamo of Dixie and inspired Glenn Miller's big band swing song, Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
20:34But the mountains that made Chattanooga such a scenic town
20:38also trapped in the pollution being created here.
20:45In 1969, Walter Cronkite announced on the CBS Evening News
20:50that the Environmental Protection Agency deemed Chattanooga the dirtiest city in America.
20:58Embarrassed and humiliated, city leaders mounted a rally to protect Chattanooga.
21:03Embarrassed and humiliated, city leaders mounted an $850 million cleanup.
21:11Today, the city is vibrant and the air is clean.
21:15Today, the city is vibrant and the air is clean.
21:29Today's highways heading west bear no sign of an earlier, more painful journey.
21:37It became known as the Trail of Tears.
21:45From May 1838 through March 1839,
21:51the federal government removed 16,000 Cherokee Indians from Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
22:03Many walked barefoot the entire way from East Tennessee to Oklahoma.
22:10It's believed that more than 4,000 Native Americans died on the journey.
22:28The development of Raccoon Mountain is the result of another federal plan.
22:32The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in 1933 and signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt.
22:42Its mission was to provide flood control and cheap electric power
22:48and to improve economic development in the Tennessee Valley, an area hit hard by the Great Depression.
22:54Today, the TVA is the largest public power company in the United States
23:00and provides electricity for most of Tennessee
23:04and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia,
23:10an area with a population of more than 8 million people.
23:16In the 1960s, the TVA was looking for a way to provide electricity
23:23and in the 1980s, the TVA was looking for ways to meet the growing demand
23:27for more power to run new appliances in people's homes.
23:31The idea was to create a reservoir on top of Raccoon Mountain
23:35and then funnel the water to a turbine 1,000 feet under the mountain.
23:41It was called a waste of taxpayers' money, wild-eyed, and impractical.
23:47Despite the scandal, the TVA began work.
23:51Over eight years, a man-made lake holding 60 million cubic yards of water
23:57was created on top of the mountain and sealed by an 8,500-foot-long dam.
24:05Deep below the lake sits a turbine pump house that releases water from the dam when needed
24:11and then pumps it back up to the top at a rate of 7 million gallons per minute.
24:18Today, it's considered a modern marvel of engineering.
24:28The giant factory feel of this area is in stark contrast
24:32to the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee's plantation country.
24:38This nearly 6,000-acre plantation was won in a game of chance.
24:44Rattle and Snap Plantation is an example of the lavish scale
24:48of many southern homes built before the Civil War.
24:52William Polk built the Rattle and Snap Plantation for his son, George.
24:59Polk, one of the largest landholders in Tennessee at the time,
25:03won the nearly 6,000-acre tract in a game of chance that's played with beans.
25:09The game was called Rattle and Snap.
25:14Built in 1853, Belle Meade is often called the Queen of Tennessee Plantations.
25:24Originally spanning more than 5,000 acres,
25:28nearly 150 people lived here, mostly slaves.
25:36Today, the property covers 30 acres and includes the original mansion
25:41and several of the original outbuildings.
25:46It's owned by the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities.
25:59Outside of Nashville sits the Carnton Plantation.
26:03Built in 1826, the home was the location of large social gatherings
26:09and visits from presidents and business leaders.
26:13But that all changed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of November 30, 1864,
26:19when Carnton came under attack by Union troops.
26:25In only five hours of fighting, more than 9,000 soldiers were killed,
26:30wounded, or unaccounted for, most of them Confederate soldiers.
26:35The Confederacy also lost 12 generals as casualties that day.
26:43Soon, the elegantly manicured lawns at Carnton were filled with the injured and dying.
26:50It is said that the floors of the home are still stained with the blood of soldiers,
26:55and many of their ghosts are rumored to be here as well.
27:05Carnton was not the only place in Tennessee bloodied by Civil War battles.
27:09Tennessee was the last state in the South to join the Confederacy.
27:20But when President Lincoln called for rebel states to be subdued,
27:24some Tennesseans took up arms with their fellow Southerners in the Confederacy.
27:30The eastern part of the state remained loyal to the Union throughout the war.
27:41More Civil War battles were fought here than in any other state except Virginia.
27:46One was the Battle of Stones River.
27:5380,000 Confederate and Union soldiers fought for three days.
27:58There were over 23,000 casualties.
28:03And although the Union claimed a victory and took control of Middle Tennessee,
28:07it came with a heavy price.
28:11They lost more than 13,000 of their soldiers
28:15in what was one of the bloodiest battles fought on the Western Front.
28:19Today, the battlefield is a national park.
28:24Among its 700 acres is the Stones River National Cemetery,
28:29established in 1865 and filled with more than 6,000 Union graves
28:34and more than 2,000 unknowns.
28:39More than 4,000 acres rest in private hands,
28:45and have been consumed by new development and urban sprawl.
28:50Local conservation groups are working to try and preserve this land
28:54that is in danger of being paved over.
29:04When the last cannons fired at the Battle of Shiloh,
29:08located a little more than 30 miles away from Stones River,
29:12nearly another 24,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.
29:17More than all the casualties of the Revolutionary War,
29:21the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War combined.
29:31Ironically, Shiloh is a Hebrew word meaning
29:35Place of Peace.
29:40General Grant's men bore the brunt of the fighting over two days,
29:44when the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack
29:48while the Union soldiers ate breakfast.
29:52Critics condemned Grant's poor performance
29:56and suggested that he was drunk leading up to the attack.
30:00The next day, he commanded his troops to regain their lost territory.
30:04And that's what they did.
30:08Ultimately,
30:12the South was defeated again.
30:16After the battle,
30:20the Union troops gathered as many of the dead bodies as they could
30:24and buried them with simple wooden crosses.
30:28In 1889,
30:32the Shiloh National Cemetery was created here.
30:36There are 3,584 Civil War dead,
30:402,359 of them unknown.
30:49Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States,
30:53arrived in Nashville when Tennessee was still the frontier.
31:00He bought 425 acres of land
31:05where he would eventually create his stately, southern plantation home,
31:09the Hermitage.
31:13Jackson was not an aristocrat like the presidents who preceded him.
31:17He was a scrappy, short-tempered man.
31:23At the Hermitage, he grew cotton
31:27and advanced his political career.
31:31Jackson led the American forces to defeat the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1812.
31:35His role in that battle
31:39helped Jackson win the presidency in 1828.
31:43He served two terms.
31:47Probably the most controversial aspect of his presidency, by modern standards,
31:51was his plan to remove Native Americans from their land,
31:55ultimately causing the Trail of Tears.
32:00Today, the Hermitage is a popular tourist destination
32:04and one of the oldest historic site museums in the country.
32:08Situated as it is, just outside Nashville, Tennessee's state capital.
32:12Some people call it Twang Town.
32:16Locals call it Nash Vegas.
32:20And while it is the state capital of Tennessee,
32:24it's best known as Music City
32:28or, call it home.
32:32Nashville has seen a transformation from a frontier settlement to a thriving city
32:36with a football franchise, a hockey team
32:40and the slicker, glossier world of today's country musicians.
32:44The Country Music Hall of Fame
32:48in Nashville is filled with mementos
32:52from some of country music's most storied veterans.
32:56John Wesley and Johnny Cash
33:00and one of its first inductees, Hank Williams Sr.
33:08The building is 130,000 square feet.
33:12Depending on what angle it's viewed from,
33:16it resembles a piano, the fin tail of a Cadillac,
33:20a bass clef or a radio tower.
33:25The museum is filled with artifacts that trace the history of country music.
33:35Nashville's rise as the capital of country music
33:39came because of the popularity of a radio station.
33:43WSM began broadcasting in 1925.
33:47A live radio show produced here would change the country music industry forever.
33:51It's the Grand Ole Opry.
33:55The first broadcast took place in October of 1925
33:59and played at this building, the Ryman Auditorium,
34:03from 1943 to 1974.
34:07The Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuous running live radio show
34:11in U.S. history.
34:15In 1954, a teenager named Elvis Presley
34:20walked through these doors and performed here.
34:24When he was done, one of the show's organizers told him
34:28he should stick to his day job as a trucker in Memphis.
34:32Elvis never performed at the Opry again.
34:36Nevertheless, today the Opry is an institution.
34:40It's not just a Tennessee icon, but also a potent symbol of American culture.
34:44Of course, Nashville's history
34:48began long before high-rise buildings
34:52or when the first country singer came to town.
34:56Nashville became the permanent capital of Tennessee in 1843.
35:00Two years later,
35:04work began on a state capitol building.
35:08The architect William Strickland died while the capitol was being built
35:12and, according to his wishes, was buried in the walls of the building.
35:18Completed in 1859, the capitol sits on a hill
35:22overlooking the city.
35:26Many of Tennessee's most prominent citizens are honored here.
35:30President James Polk and his wife are both buried here.
35:34The Greek Revival building is one of the oldest
35:38working state capitals in the country.
35:42At the time, Nashville was dubbed
35:46the Athens of the South.
35:50So, the citizens built themselves an exact replica of the Greek Parthenon
35:54for the state's centennial celebration in 1897.
36:08So many of America's characters have come from these rolling hills.
36:12The famous frontiersman Davy Crockett
36:16and Sam Houston.
36:20But many would argue that you'd have to head west to find Tennessee's most vivid characters.
36:24Separated from the rest of the state by the Tennessee River,
36:28West Tennessee has its own culture and folklore.
36:32Highway 61, also known as the Blues Trail,
36:36cuts north through the Mississippi Delta,
36:40the birthplace of the blues, and leads to Memphis,
36:44the breeding ground of some of America's greatest musical gifts to the world.
36:48Sitting right on the Mississippi River,
36:52in its early days, Memphis was a busy port city
36:56and a center for the southern slave trade.
37:00The soil and climate of much of West Tennessee
37:04was rich in growing cotton, and as a result,
37:08much of the land here was dominated by large plantations.
37:12Cotton was king.
37:16But having so much cotton was only good if it could be sold.
37:20In 1873, the Memphis Cotton Exchange
37:24was created.
37:28Cotton farmers would come to this building downtown
37:32who would then sell it to textile manufacturers.
37:36The cotton was shipped out of Memphis on steamboats
37:40and, in later years, on trains.
37:44The cotton fields were worked by slaves.
37:52During their arduous days in the field, they would sing and clap,
37:56do field hollers and work songs.
38:00The methods for creating music would have a lasting impact
38:04on every form of American music, beginning with the blues.
38:12African-American musician and bandleader W.C. Handy
38:16began to experiment with the unusual rhythms and cadence of the former slaves' music.
38:20At his headquarters on Beale Street,
38:24Handy wrote a wildly popular song called
38:28The Father of the Blues.
38:32Handy brought the music to a much wider audience,
38:36and today is known as The Father of the Blues.
38:40And here on Beale Street, it was blues central.
38:44By the 1920s,
38:48the sounds of the blues rang out on the streets of Memphis,
38:52especially here on Beale Street.
38:56Handy played some of the hottest music in the country.
39:04Over the next 20 years, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters,
39:08and many other blues legends performed on Beale Street.
39:12In the 70s,
39:16Beale Street was officially declared the home of the blues
39:20by an act of the United States Congress.
39:34It's one of the most storied addresses in popular music.
39:38And not too far away, there's another one.
39:42On July 5th in 1954,
39:46Sam Phillips was sitting in his office here at Sun Records
39:50when a 19-year-old walked in the door and sang That's Alright.
39:54That young man was Elvis Presley,
39:58and the song became an overnight sensation.
40:02During the hourly tours given here,
40:06visitors can touch the microphone
40:10and stand on the exact spot where Elvis stood
40:14to record his first song.
40:18For those who need a bigger fix of Elvis,
40:22there's plenty to be seen just a short way south on old US Highway 51.
40:26When he was just 22 years old,
40:30Elvis bought Graceland, a 14-acre estate.
40:36He died here 20 years later.
40:40In 1982, Graceland opened to the public as a museum.
40:46Tourists can even visit one of his private jets.
40:50Nearly 650,000 visitors make the pilgrimage
40:54to Graceland each year.
40:58Elvis's name is synonymous with Memphis,
41:02Memphis often gets credited as the home of the blues
41:06and the place where rock and roll was born,
41:10but its contributions to soul music are often overlooked.
41:14Memphis Soul got some attention in 2000
41:18when the Smithsonian Institution opened its 8,000-square-foot
41:22Memphis Rock and Soul Museum just off Beale Street,
41:26the Smithsonian's first permanent exhibition
41:30Memphis Soul was further honored in 2003
41:34when the Stax Museum of American Soul was opened here.
41:38In the 1960s, Stax Records
41:42was the second-best soul record label in the country,
41:46after Motown.
41:50Memphis Soul was grittier and born out of the blues.
41:54Al Green, Isaac Hayes, and Otis Redding
41:58recorded at Stax.
42:02Black and white musicians worked alongside each other
42:06at Stax, a rarity in a largely segregated city.
42:14But that racial harmony came to an end in 1968,
42:18largely because of an event that took place not too far
42:22from Stax Recording Studios.
42:28This building is part of the National Civil Rights Museum,
42:32founded to commemorate the events of 4 April 1968.
42:44On that date, at 6.01 p.m.,
42:48Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed here in Memphis
42:52at the nearby Lorraine Motel.
42:58This building
43:02was originally the rooming house across from the motel
43:06where James Earl Ray allegedly fired the fatal shot.
43:14The museum chronicles the struggle for racial equality
43:18from the days of slavery up through Dr. King's death.
43:28Today, Memphis is still known
43:32and visited for the musical revolutions that began here.
43:36It's also a five-time winner
43:40of the nation's Cleanest City Award.
43:44In 1991, planners wanted to create
43:48a visual landmark here.
43:52They decided to build a building
43:56called the Great American Pyramid.
44:00At 321 feet tall,
44:04it's the sixth-largest pyramid in the world.
44:08Once used as a sports arena and concert venue,
44:12today it stands empty.
44:16The nearby FedEx Forum took over as the main venue in town.
44:20FedEx Forum is only one small part
44:24of the Federal Express presence here in Memphis.
44:28The company's headquarters are here, too.
44:32FedEx is the largest employer in Memphis,
44:36with more than 30,000 employees and a superhub at the airport.
44:40Sometimes even vintage World War II planes
44:44like this Hawker Sea Fury fly over Memphis,
44:48a city that will always be known
44:52for its history.
44:56From its ancient eastern mountains
45:00to its rolling central hills
45:04and very musical West End,
45:08Tennessee tells the story
45:12of America's expansion west
45:16and all of the celebration and sadness
45:20that came with it.
45:24From the air, Tennessee is a natural beauty,
45:28rugged, inviting,
45:32and infused with the spirit of a nation.
45:50Music
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