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Grand Divisions (Tennessee)

 

 
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Grand Divisions (Tennessee)
 
 
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The Grand Divisions are geographic, cultural, and legally recognized regions, each constituting roughly one-third of the State
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 of Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
. The Grand Divisions are represented prominently by the three stars on the flag of Tennessee
Flag of Tennessee

File:Flag of Tennessee.svgThe flag of Tennessee consists of an emblem on a field of red, with a strip of blue on the Flag terminology#Description of standard flag parts and terms....
. The earliest reference to the Grand Divisions is in The Acts of Tennessee 1835-1836 Chapter 3, "An Act to establish a Supreme Court in pursuance of the 2nd sec., art. 6, of the Constitution of the United States", at which time the boundaries were roughly the same as they are now.

three grand divisions, East
East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions defined in state law....
, Middle
Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Divisions ....
, and West Tennessee
West Tennessee

West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Of the three, it is the most sharply defined geographically....
, are geographically and culturally distinct.

East Tennessee is dominated by the Appalachian mountain chain, including the Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Mountains....
 on the eastern border of the state, the ridge-and-valley
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a Physiographic regions of the world of the larger Appalachian Mountains division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from northern New Jersey westward into Pennsylvania and southward...
 region where East Tennessee's principal cities are located, and the rugged Cumberland Mountains
Cumberland Mountains

The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains....
.






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The Grand Divisions are geographic, cultural, and legally recognized regions, each constituting roughly one-third of the State
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 of Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
. The Grand Divisions are represented prominently by the three stars on the flag of Tennessee
Flag of Tennessee

File:Flag of Tennessee.svgThe flag of Tennessee consists of an emblem on a field of red, with a strip of blue on the Flag terminology#Description of standard flag parts and terms....
. The earliest reference to the Grand Divisions is in The Acts of Tennessee 1835-1836 Chapter 3, "An Act to establish a Supreme Court in pursuance of the 2nd sec., art. 6, of the Constitution of the United States", at which time the boundaries were roughly the same as they are now.

Geographic and cultural characteristics

East Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Map of Tennessee Highlighting West Tennessee
The three grand divisions, East
East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions defined in state law....
, Middle
Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Divisions ....
, and West Tennessee
West Tennessee

West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Of the three, it is the most sharply defined geographically....
, are geographically and culturally distinct.

East Tennessee is dominated by the Appalachian mountain chain, including the Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Mountains....
 on the eastern border of the state, the ridge-and-valley
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a Physiographic regions of the world of the larger Appalachian Mountains division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from northern New Jersey westward into Pennsylvania and southward...
 region where East Tennessee's principal cities are located, and the rugged Cumberland Mountains
Cumberland Mountains

The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains....
. East Tennessee is one of the few areas in the South
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
 which has consistently voted Republican
Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party . It is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP....
 since Reconstruction.

East and Middle Tennessee are separated along the Cumberland Plateau
Cumberland Plateau

The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia ....
. The boundary between the two grand divisions is close to the line between the Eastern and Central time zones. Middle Tennessee, which includes the state's capital city of Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, is dominated by rolling hills and fertile stream valleys.

A portion of the Tennessee River
Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the Southern United States in the Tennessee Valley....
 demarcates the boundary between Middle and West Tennessee. West Tennessee's other border is the Mississippi River
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
, and most of the region lies within the Mississippi embayment
Mississippi embayment

The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the River delta of the Mississippi River Delta to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois....
. Outside the greater Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
 area, the region is mostly agricultural.

Legal meaning

The Grand Divisions are defined in Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 2, Grand Divisions and State Capital.

The mandates that no more than two of the five Justices on the state can be from any one Division to help keep the court free from geographic bias. The court must also meet regularly in each Division. Similar rules apply to some other state institutions such as the former Tennessee Public Service Commission
Tennessee Public Service Commission

The Tennessee Public Service Commission was a three-member elected body which regulated private public utility, trucking firms, and railroads within the state of Tennessee....
, of whom one commissioner was required to be from each Grand Division, although the commissioners were elected statewide.

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