Downtown Clarksville from the former site of Fort Defiance, a Civil War fort in Clarksville
Clarksville is the fifth largest city in Tennessee. It is located near Tennessee’s northern border, where the Red River pours into the Cumberland River.
Clarksville was also the home of one of the most celebrated female athletes of all time. The 20th of 22 children, Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 and until she was 12 couldn’t walk without crutches or braces.
In junior high school she joined the basketball team but didn’t play for several years. But her athletic skills eventually blossomed, and in 1960 she became the first American woman to win three gold medals when she did so as a track and field athlete at the Olympic Games in Rome.
The entrance to Dunbar Cave
If you need a break from the heat while visiting Clarksville, we strongly recommend Dunbar Cave. A popular tourist attraction since the Civil War, Dunbar Cave is the only large cave in Tennessee that is now operated as a state park.
As an amazing as it may sound, people are still discovering new things in Dunbar Cave. In 2005, four explorers discovered some Mississippian Era petroglyphs in the cave which no one had ever noticed before. Today you can see these wonderful petroglyphs if you take a guided tour of Dunbar Cave.
The Montgomery County Courthouse is one of the most beautiful courthouses in Tennessee. When we passed through town, we took this wonderful photo of it, right before sunset.
