Bill C.
Yelp
My wife and I are vacationing at the Pickwick Landing State Park, TN and decided to visit the museum. It's small, and we didn't have high expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised. It covers the gamut of the river's lifetime, all the way back to pre-historic times when the Mississippi River Valley was an ocean. There are a variety of fossils and brief but well-written and informative placards describing everything. Not too wordy, but just enough to get the point across.
The next room shows the development of the native (pre-western) cultures and it's really quite fascinating. Then comes the white man and the genocide (they don't say it quite that way). It even gives fair time to the Trail of Tears, including the fact that the Supreme Court ruled against President Jackson and he just ignored them. Then on to the civil war and the post war economic boom. One thing Wanda and I were surprised by is that this area of the Tennessee River is uniquely rich in fresh water mussels and became the main source of fresh water pearls and "pearl" buttons in the US. They would cut round pieces right out of the shells, polish them and turn them into buttons. It was really cool.
It doesn't take too long to tour and is well worth the stop. The staff is friendly and the surrounding Savannah historic district makes for a nice walk afterwards with several nice little restaurants.