West Tennessee is the western of three divisions of Tennessee. It's bordered on the east by the Tennessee River and on the west by the Mississippi. The Kentucky Purchase is to the north and Mississippi to the south. Opened for settlement in 1819, West Tennessee is a historic region on whose soil strode men like Crockett, Forrest, the outlaw Merrill and the night riders of Reelfoot Lake, along with hundreds of thousands of everyday West Tennesseans. This is their story.