Tennessee has a concentration of genuinely strange attractions that no other state quite matches. Nashville replicated the Parthenon for a world's fair in 1897 and never tore it down. Memphis put a Bass Pro Shops inside a glass pyramid. The Peabody Hotel has marched ducks through its lobby daily for 90 years. A cave in Robertson County was blamed for a man's death in 1820.
Nine of the state's most unusual spots are below.
Jump to: Nashville · Memphis · East Tennessee · Middle Tennessee
Nashville
The Parthenon (Full-Scale Replica, Nashville) Must-see
Davidson County · Nashville · Paid admission
A full-scale concrete reproduction of the Athenian Parthenon, built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in Centennial Park — designed to be temporary and never demolished. The current building dates to 1931 and matches the original Parthenon's dimensions exactly: 228 feet long, 101 feet wide, with Doric columns 6.5 feet in diameter. The interior holds a 42-foot gilded statue of Athena Parthenos — the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western Hemisphere.
Nashville's nickname as the Athens of the South predates the replica, but the Parthenon cemented the identity literally. It operates as an art museum; the Athena statue is the draw.
Memphis
Peabody Hotel Duck March (Memphis) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis · Free
The Peabody Hotel's Duckmaster escorts five North American mallards from the hotel's rooftop duck palace down to the ornate marble lobby fountain every morning at 11 a.m., via elevator and red carpet — and then back up again at 5 p.m. The tradition began in 1933 when hotel manager Frank Schutt returned from a hunting trip and drunkenly placed live decoy ducks in the lobby fountain. The crowd loved them and they stayed.
The march has run without interruption for over 90 years. Lobby viewing is free — arrive 20 minutes early for a good spot. The ducks rotate to a farm every 3 months so no single duck becomes too famous.
Memphis Pyramid (Bass Pro Shops Mega-Store) Worth the detour
Shelby County · Memphis · Free to enter
A 321-foot stainless-steel pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi, built in 1991 as an arena and converted in 2015 into the world's largest Bass Pro Shops — a 535,000-square-foot retail and resort complex. Inside: a four-story cypress swamp ecosystem with live alligators and fish, a hotel built into the structure, a rooftop observation deck, an underground bowling alley, and an archery range. The aquarium tanks are stocked by elevator.
Free to enter as a retail space. The observation deck charges admission; the hotel runs about $200/night. The transition from arena to outdoors superstore is one of the stranger adaptive reuse stories in American architecture.
Casey Jones Home & Railroad Museum Worth the detour
Madison County · Jackson · Paid admission
The preserved home and museum of John Luther "Casey" Jones — the legendary locomotive engineer who died on April 30, 1900, slowing his engine enough to save his passengers before impact, becoming the subject of the most famous American railroad ballad. The museum in Jackson contains his original locomotive cab, personal effects, and the full story of the crash.
Located in Jackson, midway between Nashville and Memphis on I-40. The adjacent 1890s replica train depot and original locomotive are the photographic highlights.
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East Tennessee
Lost Sea Adventure (America's Largest Underground Lake) Must-see
McMinn County · Sweetwater · Paid admission
America's largest underground lake, recognized by the Guinness World Records, sits 140 feet below Sweetwater Valley in McMinn County. The cave was known to Cherokee people and used as a Confederate saltpeter mine; the lake was discovered in 1905 when a boy squeezed through a small passage and found water. The visible portion of the lake covers 4.5 acres; the full extent remains unmapped.
Tours are guided and 45 minutes; glass-bottom boats cross the illuminated lake. The cave temperature holds at 58°F year-round. Located 6 miles from the I-75 exit at Sweetwater — an easy stop on a drive through East Tennessee.
World's Largest Treehouse (Crossville) Worth the detour
Cumberland County · Crossville · Free
A multi-story structure built around a single white oak by Horace Burgess beginning in 1993, reaching 97 feet at its highest point with over 80 rooms, multiple staircases, and a full-size basketball court. Burgess built it as a spiritual calling — no nails were used, only screws and lumber. The structure was closed after a fire in 2019 and remains off-limits to entry, but the exterior is freely visible from the road and is genuinely enormous.
Located on US-70 West in Crossville. The closed status is disappointing but the scale is still remarkable from outside.
Middle Tennessee
Bell Witch Cave (Adams) Worth the detour
Robertson County · Springfield · Paid admission
A limestone cave on the original Bell family farm in Adams, Robertson County, associated with the Bell Witch haunting of 1817–1821 — the most documented poltergeist case in American history, and the only one claimed to have resulted in a death. John Bell, the family patriarch, died in 1820 under disputed circumstances; the entity — which spoke, sang hymns, and reportedly struck family members — was investigated by future US President Andrew Jackson.
The cave is open for tours April through October. The adjacent farm property includes reconstructed log structures from the Bell era. The American horror film An American Haunting (2005) dramatized the events.
Loretta Lynn's Ranch and Campground (Hurricane Mills) Worth the detour
Humphreys County · Hurricane Mills · Paid admission
A 3,500-acre ranch in rural Humphreys County that Loretta Lynn and her husband Mooney purchased in 1966 and developed into an Appalachian compound: a 19th-century plantation home, a grist mill, a replica of her childhood Butcher Holler cabin, a museum, and a campground. Lynn lived here until her death in October 2022 and is buried on the property.
The ranch is 65 miles west of Nashville. Camping here on thousands of acres in rural Middle Tennessee is genuinely removed from the tourism corridor — a quiet, unusual overnight.
International Towing and Recovery Museum (Chattanooga) Worth the detour
Hamilton County · Chattanooga · Paid admission
The only museum in the world dedicated to the history of automotive towing and recovery, located in Chattanooga because the tow truck was invented here in 1916 by Ernest Holmes Sr. after he spent 8 hours using ropes and pulleys to extract a car from a ditch. The collection covers tow truck evolution from Holmes's first prototype through modern recovery equipment — massive, oddly compelling.
A Hall of Fame recognizes tow operators who died in the line of duty. The museum draws visiting tow industry professionals from around the world and is genuinely well done within its niche.