Visitors Guide to Dyer County, Tennessee

The lands that make up Dyer County were owned by Native Americans, mostly those that belonged to the Chickasaw tribe until a series of treaties ceded all of their land Tennessee west of the Tennessee River to the Mississippi River in 1818. In 1823 the General Assembly of Tennessee passed an act to establish two new counties immediately west of the Tennessee River. Dyer County was one of these two and was named after and was named in honor of Colonel Robert H. Dyer. Dyer had been an army officer in the Creek War and War of 1812, and a cavalry colonel in the First Seminole War of 1818 before becoming a state senator. He was instrumental in the formation of the counties of Dyer and Madison Counties. John McIver and Joel H. Dyer donated 60 acres for the new county seat, named Dyersburg, at a central location within the county known as McIver's Bluff by the Okeena River. In 1825, Dyer surveyed the town site into 86 lots. The first courthouse was built on the square in 1827. The current Classical Revival-style courthouse, designed by Asa Biggs in 1911, is the centerpiece of a downtown historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Fertile soil made Dyer County desirable farming country. Early farms raised mainly corn and tobacco. Dyersburg, situated at a point accessible to steamboat navigation on the Forked Deer River, grew as a river town, especially once the steamboat Grey Eagle made the first successful trip in 1836. The county was spared the worst of the Civil War, as no major battles or other activity occurred within its borders.

The county's first industrial boom dates to 1879, when the steamboats began shipping timber from Dyersburg to markets in St. Louis. The arrival of the Newport News and Mississippi Valley Railroad in 1884 further expanded market possibilities and a branch line, the Dyersburg Northern, soon linked Dyersburg to Tiptonville along the Mississippi River in Lake County. The new railroad links encouraged the creation of new industries and businesses. It was around this time that farming shifted to cotton, making cotton and lumbering Dyer County’s major economic forces.

In 1904 and 1907 Dyersburg hosted two huge revivals conducted by evangelist George C. Gates. The 1907 revival alone converted seven hundred people. Dyersburg's greatest boom came as it emerged as a regional railroad hub. Between 1909 and 1914 Dyersburg became the junction point for three different lines, led by the Illinois Central Railroad. The Illinois Central expanded its facilities throughout the county, building in 1920 a new combination depot at the town of Newbern, a major cotton and livestock shipping point. Listed in the National Register, this depot survives and is one of only two Amtrak passenger stops in Tennessee. Newbern is the county's second largest incorporated city. The depot in Newbern was restored in 1992 and added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the depot houses a museum in the southern part of the building and features tools, uniforms, schedules, photos, model railroads, and art work. The town hosts an annual “Depot Days” Festival in September. Smaller villages in the county include Trimble, Fowkles, Finley, Bogota, and Heloise, the county's sole Mississippi River village.

During World War 2 the Halls Air Base, located at the border of Lauderdale County and Dyer County, created many civilian jobs as it trained hundreds of B-17 bomber pilots. An emergency landing strip for the trainees was also built in Dyersburg. A Veterans' Museum is located on the site of the Dyersburg Army Air Base. While the Museum honors veterans from that era with displays, photographs, and history of the base, it also honors all veterans with displays from the different wars and conflicts in which the U.S. has been involved.

Modern development has been spurred by two major projects improving the county's transportation system: Interstate I-155 links Dyersburg with Missouri via the only highway bridge (1976) over the Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois, and Memphis, and the four-lane expansion of U.S. 412 connects Dyersburg to I-40 at Jackson.

Explore the Upper Delta Region of the Mississippi River