Jackson, TN travel tips

 Our family loves traveling and exploring Tennessee! Nick and I have been here since 2002 (his family even longer) and we spend as much time as possible exploring the unique places around our state. This week I took my mom, Christian, and Eva Mae to Jackson, TN to enjoy some rest and relaxation at a hotel and enjoy some history learning at the Casey Jones museum.

While exploring Jackson, TN in one of the TN Vacation guides, I read that it's the home for the Pringles factory! My kids were happy as clams to pose for a picture once they knew they were promised a tasty snack! LOL!

I'm not sure if the factory does any tours of the factory, but you can buy the snack at any grocery store and find the "made in Jackson, TN" in fine print on the canister! If you love downtown city murals, the Jackson mural is located at 218 E Main St. There are several other murals around downtown and since it is the county seat of Madison county it is a wonderful and vibrant area with shops, restaurants, and more!

I love educating my children on TN history and civics. If you haven't already, check out the resources on TN History for Kids! Bill Carey does such a wonderful job writing about the importance of TN history, government, geography and more. Here are some links helpful for Jackson:
Madison County - this page lists the important features of the county. It will give you some inspiration for more visits!
Physical Geography - the physical geography of TN is something that I point out whenever we drive across the state. Bill has a wonderful video series where he goes all across the state and highlights the important features of each region. Watch it here.

The majority of time on our trip was spent at the Casey Jones village. Before we went, I read a chapter about the Casey Jones story to the kids. I always feel that preparing for a museum trip or attraction is more enjoyable if you spend a bit of time preparing. That way more will jump out at you as you observe and learn. One observation that I thought was great was when Christian looked at the hearse that was used to bring Casey's body to the cemetery. In our book, it made a big deal about how tall Casey Jones was as when Christian looked at the hearse he observed that it didn't look long enough for his body!

The book I read from was my Tennessee Landmark book written in the 1960s. In the chapter, it talks about the museum being on West Chester St. However, in 1980 they moved the house to the current location in Casey Jones Village! I love this quaint little historic shopping area and I'm sure it has been good for Jackson, TN tourism to have a convenient location and parking area for travelers.

Check out this video tour of the village:

There are several picture books about Casey Jones but I like this illustrated comic from Children's Digest:

There's also this video from Tennessee Crossroads:

After enjoying all there is to do at the museum, grab a visitor's guide from the lobby of the museum and get some food at the adorable Country Store. Browse through the information about Jackson and plan some more fun events! While you're in the area you could also visit the Animal Safari Park in Alamo, TN!

It's only about 15 miles from Jackson. We had a great time there a few years ago!

I wrote all about a trip to the park along with other nearby attractions here! Thanks for reading!