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Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville, TN

Photo: JeremyA, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Sports & OutdoorsOutdoor AdventureLocal Gem

Reelfoot Lake State Park

Watch wintering bald eagles and paddle among cypress stumps on a lake formed by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812.

2595 Highway 21 E, Tiptonville, TN 38079 · Tiptonville, TN

About Reelfoot Lake State Park

Reelfoot Lake in the northwest corner of Tennessee formed when the 1811 and 1812 earthquakes made the land sink and the Mississippi briefly flow backward to fill it. The state park, set up in 1925, is spread over several sections around the cypress-lined shore and sits within a 25,000-acre wildlife refuge. In January and February the park runs daily eagle tours by van to see the more than 200 bald eagles that winter here. The Donaldson Memorial Museum and Nature Center, with non-releasable raptors and snakes, has free admission. Watch for stumps if you boat: the lake hides a partly submerged forest.

  • #state park
  • #bald eagles
  • #cypress swamp
  • #fishing
  • #boating

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