Shelby: Nature, History and Soul Music

Shelby combines impressive natural experiences with African American history, music and distinctive museums. For planning your trip, it is therefore worth first considering whether you are looking for days in nature, cultural discoveries or a mixture of both. The different attractions offer families and other travellers several ways to make their stay varied and choose the right location for a holiday apartment or holiday home.

Nature among forests, parks and urban trails

A notable starting point for active days is the Shelby Farms Greenline. The paved urban trail is 12.94 miles long and connects pedestrians and cyclists in Midtown Memphis through Shelby Farms Park to Cordova. You should take the distance into account when planning your day. Depending on your preferred pace, you can plan the route as a longer outing or focus your stay more on individual natural areas.

Shelby Farms Park covers 4,500 acres. A herd of bison lives there and roams an area of just under 50 acres. This gives the park an unusual natural character that clearly differs from a purely urban exploration. The Meeman-Shelby Forest State Natural Area is even more expansive: the natural area covers 11,000 acres and is located within Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. It is one of the largest contiguous areas of old-growth hardwood bottomland forest and upland forest on the Chickasaw Bluff in Tennessee.

T.O. Fuller State Park also combines landscapes with practical amenities. It is located in Shelby County within the southern city limits of Memphis and covers 1,138 acres with diverse wildlife. The park provides all-terrain wheelchairs, an adult-sized changing table and an accessible half-mile-long trail. Its landscape extends from the Mississippi floodplains to high, distinctive bluff ridges. Birdwatching and other outdoor activities are among the experiences available there.

History from a distinctive perspective

T.O. Fuller State Park is also historically significant: it was the first state park east of the Mississippi and the second state park in the USA to be open to African Americans. Those who want to combine nature and history will therefore find not only scenery here, but also an important historical connection.

The museums offer further insights. At the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the tour begins in an actual church from the Mississippi Delta, built around 1906 and reconstructed inside the museum building. The museum also contains an exact replica of Studio A. In the Hall of Records, you can see the albums and singles released by Stax and its subsidiary labels between 1957 and 1975; there is also a listening station there. For music enthusiasts, this makes the label's development tangible through rooms, objects and sound.

Crafts, architecture and smaller discoveries

Davies Manor Historic Site offers guided tours of the log cabin led by a guide, as well as an arboretum walking trail. This allows you to combine a guided historical visit with time outdoors. The Metal Museum focuses on something different and is devoted exclusively to the visual arts in metal. Practical classes and demonstrations complement the exhibition; the sculpture garden contains more than 20 sculptures.

Morton Museum of Collierville History also makes a clear architectural statement. It is housed in a Gothic Revival religious building dating from around 1873. Such diverse places make Shelby interesting for travellers who want to combine nature, music history, crafts and the region's past at their own pace rather than visit just a single attraction.

Choose accommodation according to your travel rhythm

When choosing your holiday apartment in Shelby or a holiday home, you should first decide on your preferred focus. If extended days in nature are the priority, include the Greenline, Shelby Farms Park, the Meeman-Shelby Forest State Natural Area or T.O. Fuller State Park in your plans. For culture-focused days, the Stax Museum, Davies Manor Historic Site, the Metal Museum and Morton Museum of Collierville History offer different themes.

If you are travelling with children of different ages, it may make sense to put together a varied programme combining a shorter visit, a walk in nature and a special museum experience. Those travelling with several generations can take the facilities available at T.O. Fuller State Park into account when planning their itinerary.

More places for planning your trip

You can also visit Memphis, Collierville, Millington, Bartlett, Fisherville and Brunswick as additional destination pages. For further regional orientation, Sequatchie County and Davidson are also available.

For the higher-level travel overview: Tennessee.