Is Jackson, Tennessee really that beatiful? (Memphis, Knoxville: transplants, houses, move to)

[perszona]

I would like to move from SF to a not so expensive, beautiful place with mountains and water and lots of green, but not too far from a city. Someone told me Jackson is really gorgeous and inexpensive and is near Memphis. Is that true? Any other suggestions? Thanks...

[alleycat]

Well . . . it's sort of close to Memphis (about 75 miles), and there's lots of trees . . . but no mountains and no large lakes (not even a river that I know of).

I think someone has gotten confused. Or else I am. ;-)

[perszona]

Thank for the answer... any other city or town suggestions then?

[alleycat]

From what you say you're looking for, I would probably suggest Chattanooga or the surrounding area; Cookeville; or maybe one of the nicer towns in East Tennessee (where there really are mountains) within driving distance of Knoxville (for example, Maryville). There's beauiful lakes and streams all over Tennessee.

[Mike in TN]

Jackson is definately not beautiful.

There's not much scenery at all there.

[DGF]

My family and I moved from San Diego here to Jackson a couple of years ago and love it. Though there are no mountains to speak of, the area is covered with dense forests and many lakes and is better described as rolling plateaus. There are many charming old Victorian style houses near our small downtown area that can be had for less than $100k, I've seen some as low as $35K (fixer upper). In contrast to SF, here one can drive anywhere they want and at anytime of the day they want without all that suffocating traffic congestion. There must be something here because we are getting many CA transplants. My wife works in management at a local medical tech company and told me that over the last year they have hired more than 30 people from CA and had applications from hundreds more from CA alone.

[alleycat]

DGF, I'm glad you're happy with your move to Jackson. Welcome to Tennessee.

You've made me curious. What lakes are you talking about in the Jackson area? Or, do you just mean the lakes in the overall West Tennessee area?

[DGF]

Thank you for the welcoming. I was speaking of the overall west Tennessee area of which Jackson is right in the middle of.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by alleycat

DGF, I'm glad you're happy with your move to Jackson. Welcome to Tennessee.

You've made me curious. What lakes are you talking about in the Jackson area? Or, do you just mean the lakes in the overall West Tennessee area?

Yeah I'm wondering the same thing. I'm looking at a map of West Tennessee and don't see any lakes closer than about an hour or so from Jackson.

I have to be honest--and I mean absolutely no offense here--that I have never heard the words "Jackson" and "beautiful" used in the same sentence. It's not a bad place per se, but if someone wants to move to a beautiful, mountainous part of Tennessee that's close to lakes, it wouldn't be Jackson.

If the author of the original post just has to be close to Memphis, then I suppose Jackson is as good place as any. Otherwise, I'd say look at the eastern third of the state from, say, Cookeville on east. Definitely the Tri Cities (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol), Chattanooga, Knoxville, Cookeville.

[Mike in TN]

Large lakes in the West TN area that I know of:

Reelfoot Lake
Beech Lake
Pickwick Lake