Home to Tennessee's Entrance to Land Between the Lakes, Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Cemetery, and Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge.
Stewart County Tennessee contains a number of sites of recreational, educational, and historical interest. Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley offer opportunities for fishing and boating. Cross Creek Wildlife Refuge and the Land Between the Lakes provide nature lovers sightings of eagles, wild geese, turkey, and deer. The 1850 Homeplace, a living history farm, furnishes entertainment and education for all ages. For Civil War buffs, Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Cemetery and Surrender House, the site of Buckner’s surrender to Grant, are popular attractions.
As part of America’s great outdoors since 1963, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area manages over 170,000 acres of forests, wetlands, and open lands on a peninsula between Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Western Kentucky and Tennessee. The family friendly recreation area offers one of the largest blocks of undeveloped forest in the eastern United States. With 300 miles of natural shoreline, lake access provides idyllic settings for camping, picnicking, hiking, fishing, boating, wildlife viewing, and water sports. Licensed hunts for deer, turkey, squirrel and other small game animals occur throughout the year.
You'll be amazed at how much there is to see and learn about Dover plus the state of Tennessee including it's historic importance in Civil War History. While visiting us, you have the opportunity to visit Fort Donelson National Battlefield, a unit of the National Park Service, with units in Dover, Tennessee, and in New Concord, Kentucky. You will be able to explore much of the 1862 battlefield, to understand why this campaign was so important in the American Civil War, see the Confederate river batteries along the Cumberland River and have a unique perspective of the naval battle of February 14, 1862, explore the Dover Hotel, where Ulysses S. Grant accepted the Confederate surrender of the Fort from his old friend Simon B. Buckner, and visit the final resting place of 670 Union dead from the Civil War and others who have served our Nation well in the Fort Donelson National Cemetery.
Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge is a part of the U.S. system of National Wildlife Refuges located along the Lake Barkley impoundment of the Cumberland River in Stewart County, Tennessee covering 8,862 acres. Located four miles east of Dover and approximately seventy-five miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. The refuge was established in 1962 as a result of mitigation proceedings with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when portion of the Kentucky Woodlands NWR was inundated with the creation of the Lake Barkely Project. Its primary purpose is to provide feeding and resting habitat for migratory birds with an emphasis placed on providing habitat for wintering waterfowl..
Among the many historic sites of Stewart County sits the W.D. Sykes Historical Showboat Museum. Visitors are invited to learn more about Dover and Stewart County, Tennessee at the 1888 historic W.D. Sykes-Brandon House, an imposing Victorian frame home built in the style of a river showboat. This house now serves as the Stewart County Historical Museum with rotating exhibits that depict the county's early history, including its historic importance in the Civil War. In the 1980s, Rebecca Sykes Wilford, daughter of W.D. Sykes, purchased the home as a weekend retreat, and in 1998 she donated it to the Stewart County Historical Society. The house stands on the site where two Civil War battles were fought, the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862 and the Battle of Dover in 1863.
No matter the season, Stewart County, Tennessee has something to delight the senses. Stop by our many county area restaurants, novelty shops, antiques stores and businesses. There's always a friendly smile or a wave to greet our visiting guests.
As part of America’s great outdoors since 1963, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area manages over 170,000 acres of forests, wetlands, and open lands on a peninsula between Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Western Kentucky and Tennessee. The family friendly recreation area offers one of the largest blocks of undeveloped forest in the eastern United States. With 300 miles of natural shoreline, lake access provides idyllic settings for camping, picnicking, hiking, fishing, boating, wildlife viewing, and water sports. Licensed hunts for deer, turkey, squirrel and other small game animals occur throughout the year.
You'll be amazed at how much there is to see and learn about Dover plus the state of Tennessee including it's historic importance in Civil War History. While visiting us, you have the opportunity to visit Fort Donelson National Battlefield, a unit of the National Park Service, with units in Dover, Tennessee, and in New Concord, Kentucky. You will be able to explore much of the 1862 battlefield, to understand why this campaign was so important in the American Civil War, see the Confederate river batteries along the Cumberland River and have a unique perspective of the naval battle of February 14, 1862, explore the Dover Hotel, where Ulysses S. Grant accepted the Confederate surrender of the Fort from his old friend Simon B. Buckner, and visit the final resting place of 670 Union dead from the Civil War and others who have served our Nation well in the Fort Donelson National Cemetery.
Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge is a part of the U.S. system of National Wildlife Refuges located along the Lake Barkley impoundment of the Cumberland River in Stewart County, Tennessee covering 8,862 acres. Located four miles east of Dover and approximately seventy-five miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. The refuge was established in 1962 as a result of mitigation proceedings with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when portion of the Kentucky Woodlands NWR was inundated with the creation of the Lake Barkely Project. Its primary purpose is to provide feeding and resting habitat for migratory birds with an emphasis placed on providing habitat for wintering waterfowl..
Among the many historic sites of Stewart County sits the W.D. Sykes Historical Showboat Museum. Visitors are invited to learn more about Dover and Stewart County, Tennessee at the 1888 historic W.D. Sykes-Brandon House, an imposing Victorian frame home built in the style of a river showboat. This house now serves as the Stewart County Historical Museum with rotating exhibits that depict the county's early history, including its historic importance in the Civil War. In the 1980s, Rebecca Sykes Wilford, daughter of W.D. Sykes, purchased the home as a weekend retreat, and in 1998 she donated it to the Stewart County Historical Society. The house stands on the site where two Civil War battles were fought, the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862 and the Battle of Dover in 1863.
No matter the season, Stewart County, Tennessee has something to delight the senses. Stop by our many county area restaurants, novelty shops, antiques stores and businesses. There's always a friendly smile or a wave to greet our visiting guests.