# US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga *the old Dixie Highway over Monteagle, with the whiskey dogleg* US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga is a ~220-mile back-roads route from Nashville to Chattanooga on US 41, US 231, TN 82, TN 55 and US 41A, driven in 2 days, that stays off I-24 through the Upper South. - **Drive:** Nashville → Chattanooga - **Distance:** ~220 mi - **Days:** 2 - **Highways:** US 41, US 231, TN 82, TN 55, US 41A - **Avoids:** I-24 - **Region:** Upper South - **Themes:** History & Markers, Battlefields: Other Wars, Eats & Institutions, Natural Beauty, Oddities & Roadside Wonders Before I-24 there was the Dixie Highway, and US 41 still runs its line: out of Nashville by Murfreesboro and the Stones River killing ground, down through Bell Buckle's one-block downtown and the Walking Horse country to Lynchburg for the whiskey, the Old Stone Fort's two-thousand-year-old walls at Manchester, up the Cumberland Plateau to Monteagle's Chautauqua and Sewanee's Oxford-in-the-woods, and the long grade down to the Tennessee River at Nickajack and Chattanooga. Nashville's best day trip in any direction, and a better two. Markers: Civil War Trails markers thick from Murfreesboro to Tullahoma: the 1863 Tullahoma Campaign the newspapers forgot because Gettysburg happened the same week. ## The drive, segment by segment ### Stones River & the Walking Horse country *Nashville → Lynchburg · ~90 mi* US 41 and 70S out through the Murfreesboro battlefield, then the Bell Buckle and Shelbyville back roads south to the hollow where the whiskey is made. Stops: - **Stones River National Battlefield** (Murfreesboro) · Battlefields: Other Wars — New Year's 1862–63, the bloodiest battle in Tennessee for its size, and the oldest intact Civil War monument in the country, the Hazen Brigade's of 1863. The Slaughter Pen and Hell's Half Acre make a short loop. - **Bell Buckle** (Bell Buckle) · Small Towns — A one-block railroad town of quilt shops and the Bell Buckle Cafe, live music Saturdays with WLIJ on the air; the Webb School's 1886 campus; the RC Cola–MoonPie Festival in June, for the record. - **Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration** (Shelbyville) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — The 'Walking Horse Capital of the World' stages the breed's world championship over eleven days ending Labor Day weekend; the rest of the year the barns and the Blue Ribbon Circle are the show. - **Jack Daniel's Distillery** (Lynchburg) · Eats & Institutions — Est. 1866, in a county that has been dry since Prohibition; tours walk from the cave spring to the charcoal mellowing vats, and Miss Mary Bobo's on the square serves a reservations-only midday dinner the way the boarding house did. ### Tullahoma & the Old Stone Fort *Lynchburg → Manchester · ~30 mi* TN 55 to Tullahoma, with George Dickel's distillery up Cascade Hollow as the other whiskey, and the Duck River at Manchester, where the Old Stone Fort's walls predate the Cherokee by a thousand years. Stops: - **George Dickel** (Cascade Hollow) · Eats & Institutions — The other Tennessee whisky, spelled the Scots way and chilled before charcoal filtering since 1870, in a hollow prettier than Lynchburg's and a tenth as crowded. - **Tullahoma Campaign** (Tullahoma) · Battlefields: Other Wars — Rosecrans's nine-day maneuver in June 1863 pushed Bragg out of Middle Tennessee almost without a battle, finished the week of Gettysburg and Vicksburg and was forgotten for it; the Beechgrove and Hoover's Gap markers tell it. - **Old Stone Fort** (Manchester) · History & Markers — A 2,000-year-old Woodland-period enclosure on a peninsula between the Duck and Little Duck rivers, with waterfalls on three sides; the walls' purpose is still argued, the walk is not. ### Up the Plateau *Manchester → Monteagle · ~35 mi* US 41 climbs the Cumberland Plateau's western escarpment to Monteagle, the 1882 Chautauqua assembly, and the University of the South at Sewanee, 13,000 acres of Gothic sandstone and bluff overlooks. Stops: - **Monteagle Sunday School Assembly** (Monteagle) · Small Towns — A Chautauqua that never stopped: 160 Victorian cottages on a gated 100 acres, an eight-week summer platform season since 1882, and the Mountain Goat Market across the road for lunch. - **University of the South** (Sewanee) · History & Markers — All Saints' Chapel, the Memorial Cross overlook, the Perimeter Trail's twenty miles along the bluffs; the Writers' Conference in July; Morgan's Steep at sunset. ### Down to the River *Monteagle → Chattanooga · ~65 mi* The long grade off the plateau through Tracy City's coal country to Jasper and the Sequatchie, the Tennessee River at Nickajack, and the river gorge into Chattanooga. Stops: - **Fiery Gizzard** (Tracy City) · Natural Beauty — One of the best hikes in the South: along a creek of boulders and swimming holes to Foster Falls, 12.5 miles one way, or the 2.5-mile loop at the Grundy Forest end. - **Dutch Maid Bakery** (Tracy City) · Eats & Institutions — Tennessee's oldest family bakery (1902), in the coal camp the Swiss colonists built; the salt-rising bread. - **Children's Holocaust Memorial** (Whitwell) · History & Markers — A German railcar in a middle-school yard holding eleven million paper clips, collected by Whitwell's students from 1998 on to count the victims; the 'Paper Clips' film (2004). Up TN 28 from Jasper. - **Nickajack Cave** (Nickajack) · Natural Beauty — The cave where Johnny Cash went to die in 1967 and came out sober, now a bat sanctuary flooded by the TVA lake; the Maple View boardwalk watches a quarter-million gray bats leave at dusk, May to September. - **Point Park, Lookout Mountain** (Chattanooga) · Battlefields: Other Wars — The Battle Above the Clouds (1863) from the top; Rock City and Ruby Falls are the roadside-America layer, the Incline Railway the way up. - **Walnut Street Bridge** (Chattanooga) · Small Towns — Chattanooga's 1891 bridge, the world's longest pedestrian bridge when it reopened in 1993; the Hunter Museum and Bluff View at one end, Coolidge Park's carousel at the other. ## Tips and best time to go - Jack Daniel's tours sell out on summer weekends; book online, and know that Moore County is dry, so the tour's sample is the legal loophole. - Monteagle's grade is the one truckers fear; in snow or fog take it slow and let the interstate have the trucks. - Fiery Gizzard is best in spring for water and October for color; summer is a swimming-hole hike. - The Nickajack bat flight runs May to September, about twenty minutes before dark; bring bug spray and stay on the boardwalk. - Bell Buckle's shops close early and on Sundays; the cafe's Saturday-night show is the reason to time it. ## Worth a detour - **Savage Gulf & the Stone Door** — A natural stairway through a 150-foot crack in the bluff, a short walk from the Beersheba Springs trailhead on the plateau's most dramatic canyon. - **Falls Mill** — A working 1873 water-powered mill near Belvidere, museum and B&B. - **Cowan Railroad Museum** — The 1904 depot at the foot of the Cumberland Tunnel, where helper engines still push freights up the mountain. ## Spurs & side-roads - US 41A to Sewanee - TN 28 to Whitwell - Cascade Hollow ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga and how many days does it take? US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga is about 220 miles and takes 2 days at a back-roads pace. ### Where does US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga start and end? It runs from Nashville to Chattanooga. ### Which highways does US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga follow? It follows US 41, US 231, TN 82, TN 55 and US 41A. ### Which interstate does US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga replace? It avoids I-24, using US 41, US 231, TN 82, TN 55 and US 41A instead. ### How many stops are on US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga, and what are the highlights? 15 stops are mapped, including Stones River National Battlefield, Bell Buckle, Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration, Jack Daniel's Distillery and George Dickel. ### Which ready-made itineraries include US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga? Nashville to Atlanta on the Dixie Highway (3 days) and Nashville Day Trips: the Dixie Highway Sampler (3 days). ### When is the best time to drive US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga? The atlas’s seasonal note for this route: “Jack Daniel's tours sell out on summer weekends; book online, and know that Moore County is dry, so the tour's sample is the legal loophole.” ## Ready-made itineraries using this route - [Nashville to Atlanta on the Dixie Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/nashville-to-atlanta) — 3 days, ~340 mi - [Nashville Day Trips: the Dixie Highway Sampler](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/nashville-day-trips) — 3 days, ~300 mi ## Connects with - [Natchez Trace Parkway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/natchez-trace) — Natchez → Nashville - [US 41: Dixie Highway & the Atlanta Campaign](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/dixie-hwy-41) — Chattanooga → Atlanta - [The Overhill Country](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/overhill) — Chattanooga → Gatlinburg --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/dixie-hwy-nashville Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-05