Trousdale County was the scene of a terrible tragedy in 1944.
During World War II, the U.S. Army used Middle Tennessee for maneuvers; more than 850,000 soldiers trained in the state. During these military exercises, it wasn’t unusual for a farmer to see tanks driving through his cow fields or for children to encounter soldiers marching down the highway.
Military exercises can be dangerous – especially ones that involve the movement of larger numbers of troops at night.
On March 23, 1944, a unit of U.S. Army soldiers were crossing the Cumberland River near Hartsville when their boat capsized. The river was high and flowing fast that night, and twenty-one soldiers drowned. They hailed from places as far away as Massachusetts and Texas.
Today, Trousdale County is home to a nuclear power plant that the Tennessee Valley Authority never finished. You can see the never-operational Hartsville Nuclear Power Plant from nearly 20 miles away. It sort of towers over Trousdale County.
If you can think of a use for it, please tell someone, because the people in Trousdale County have been trying to do something with the Hartsville Nuclear Power Plant for a long time!
Trousdale County is also the answer to a trivia question: With about 110 square miles, it is Tennessee’s smallest county.
Here (on the right) is the Trousdale County Courthouse.