Jackson, TN

Jackson houses the Tennessee Supreme Court’s courthouse for West Tennessee, a role dating to the court’s establishment in 1834, when Jackson was the region’s major city. The Madison County seat lies about 70 miles east of Memphis and 130 miles southwest of Nashville; its 2020 population was 68,205. European-American settlement began along the Forked Deer River before 1820, largely with migrants from Virginia and Kentucky. Jackson became a market for the surrounding cotton region and, beginning in 1851, a railroad hub linked to markets in all four directions. As late as the 1960s, 15 passenger trains served the city each day. Jackson bought locomotive engineer Casey Jones’s Chester Street home in 1956 and opened it as a museum. Higher-education institutions include Union University, Lane College, and Jackson State Community College.