Memphis, explained
Access Memphis Editorial Team 
Memphis’s neighbourhoods differ mainly by density, age of housing and distance from the river: Downtown and Midtown are walkable and built on a grid of pre-1950s housing stock, while East Memphis and the suburbs are car-dependent and built on postwar subdivisions. Which one suits a given resident depends less on “safety” than on commute, housing … Read more
The Arkansas side of the river, as seen from Memphis, is the city of West Memphis and the flat farmland of Crittenden County — reached by two vehicle bridges and one pedestrian bridge, and marking the start of the Arkansas Delta. It is a separate state, a separate county, and a separate set of laws, … Read more
Big Hill Pond is a Tennessee state park in the far southwest of the state, in McNairy County near the small community of Pocahontas. The “area” is the park itself and the rural stretch of county around it — swamp forest along Cypress Creek, a man-made pond, a trail network, and a location close to … Read more
Germantown, Tennessee is an incorporated city of roughly 39,000 people in Shelby County, sitting directly east of Memphis. It is not a neighbourhood of Memphis — it has its own mayor, city government, police and fire departments, and since 2014 its own public school district, separate from Memphis and Shelby County Schools. Where is Germantown, … Read more
Collierville’s town square is the historic civic and commercial center of Collierville, Tennessee, a town in far southeastern Shelby County roughly 30 miles from downtown Memphis. It is a rectangular green ringed by storefronts, town buildings and a gazebo — and, unusually, an active railroad line runs directly through the middle of it. Where is … Read more
Pickwick Landing is the name given to a dam, the lake it created, and the Tennessee state park built around it, on the Tennessee River in Hardin County, Tennessee, near the town of Savannah. It sits roughly 110 miles southeast of Memphis, close enough to Shiloh National Military Park to be visited on the same … Read more
Discovery Park of America is a museum and outdoor heritage park in Union City, Tennessee, roughly 100 miles north of Memphis. A single large exhibit building holds galleries on subjects from natural history to space exploration and military history, and a surrounding campus of historic structures and outdoor exhibits sits alongside it. Where is Discovery … Read more
Helena, Arkansas is a small river town about 70 miles south of Memphis, on the Mississippi’s west bank in Phillips County. It matters to Memphis visitors for two connected reasons: it is where the daily blues radio show King Biscuit Time has aired since 1941, and it hosts the King Biscuit Blues Festival, a major … Read more
Reelfoot Lake is a shallow, cypress-studded lake in the northwest corner of Tennessee, straddling Lake and Obion counties. It exists because the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12 dropped a section of land low enough that nearby streams backed up and filled the basin. The result is a natural lake barely two centuries old — young … Read more
Shiloh National Military Park is a National Park Service site in Hardin County, Tennessee, that preserves the ground where the Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6 and 7, 1862. It includes a visitor center, a self-guided tour road with monuments, and the Shiloh National Cemetery. It sits about two hours from Memphis by … Read more
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