Harpeth Scenic River and Narrows State Historic Area

This state park preserves both a beautiful section of the Harpeth River and several of the most important archaeological properties in the state. The centerpiece is the Narrows Tunnel, designed by ironmaster Montgomery Bell and built by his slaves about 1818. The 290-foot tunnel is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Engineering Landmark. The tunnel provided waterpower for Bell's Patterson Forge, the mid-state's largest iron works in the early nineteenth century. Bell's grave is on the opposite riverbank from the tunnel.

The two-hundred-acre park also contains the ruins of Newsom's Mill, which dates to the Civil War era, and Mound Bottom, one of the South's most important Mississippian village sites, and a worthy candidate for National Historic Landmark status itself.