Why this park
Our Big Cypress Tree tee shows the boardwalk into flooded cypress bottomland, with a gap in the canopy where the giant stood, drawn like an old park poster. The park is named for a tree that isn't there anymore. The state says the bald cypress that grew here was the largest of its kind in the United States, and the largest tree of any kind east of the Mississippi River, until lightning brought it down in 1976.
The ground it grew in is still here. The park keeps a piece of bottomland forest on the Middle Fork of the Obion River, low ground that floods with the seasons and shelters reptiles, amphibians, beavers and waterfowl. The park's page calls it one of the few places left to see the landscape that once covered West Tennessee's lowlands.
The story
The Tennessee Encyclopedia puts the tree's age at an estimated 1,350 years and says it was 40 feet around at the base. It grew in a remote swamp that stays flooded most of the year, the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council says, and it held the title of national champion bald cypress from 1950 until 1976.
That year a bolt of lightning struck it during a thunderstorm. Fire consumed much of the tree, and local people said it burned for several weeks. Only a remnant of the stump stands today.
People worked this ground long before it was a park. The park's page says the land was farmed in row crops and livestock, and that a sizable logging business worked the area, with a sawmill that cut the bald cypress timber. Remnants of an early-1900s settlement survive in the park, among them a house built in the 1910s, where the Tillman family raised four daughters during the Great Depression. Long before, the page adds, David Crockett hunted the Obion River bottoms.
The rivers nearby were channelized, straightened and enlarged to control floods and drain land for crops. A 1994 University of Tennessee study of the Obion found that the work cut the days of flooding in the growing season on the river's middle reaches but made high water rise more sharply downstream.
The park was established in 1973 and covers 330 acres. A 1995 oral history in the University of Tennessee at Martin's library includes stories of how the park was created.
When to go, and what to wear
Spring starts the wildflowers, which bloom into early fall in the native gardens off the paved trail, the park's page says, and rangers lead night hikes in spring to watch the fireflies. Nearby, at Martin, April averages a high near 70°F and a low near 47°F. May is the wettest month, so pack a rain shell. The bottomland floods with the seasons, so off the pavement wear boots or shoes that can get wet.
Summer is hot. July averages a high near 90°F and a low near 70°F, so walk early: the rangers say wildlife is most active in the morning, and weekday mornings are the quietest. Cardinal flowers bloom in late summer. Ticks live in grassy, bushy and wooded places, and mosquitoes breed wherever water stands, the state health department says. It advises an insect repellent, used as the label directs, and long, loose, light clothing with long sleeves and long pants tucked into your socks. It also says to stay on the trail and check for ticks when you come in. A light long-sleeve tee is a good start.
Fall is mild. August is the driest month, and October averages a high near 72°F and a low near 47°F. On a September walk in 2017, the Tennessee Native Plant Society found red turtlehead in bloom near the boardwalk, an uncommon wildflower known from five Tennessee counties, most of them in and around Weakley. Blue mistflower and cardinal flower grew on hummocks a foot or two higher than the ground around them, out of reach of the floods.
Winter is cold. January averages a high near 46°F and a low near 27°F, and the park's page says the boardwalk is a good place to watch migrating waterfowl. Dress in layers, with a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt and a windproof jacket, and bring binoculars.
Know before you go
- The park is for day use, with a visitor center and gift shop, a picnic area, a playground and EV chargers. Its page gives the hours as 8 a.m. to sunset in summer and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central time in winter.
- A paved path leads to the Boardwalk Trail, which runs 1,142 feet into the seasonally flooded forest, and the River Trail goes on past it for half a mile on natural ground. The paved paths are wheelchair friendly.
- The River Trail closes in floods. The boardwalk usually stays open, though high water sometimes closes it too, and the natural-surface part of the trail is closed from January through April, when the ground is swampy. On November 3, 2026, the park's page listed the River Trail as closed.
- Cell service is limited inside the park office but generally available in most of the park. Space to turn an RV or trailer is tight, except in the day-use area by the EV chargers.
- Hours and trail closures change with the water, so check Big Cypress Tree State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Big Cypress Tree State Natural Area" (Carroll Van West); Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, "Big Cypress"; Bart Jones, "Big Cypress Tree State Park, Weakley County," Newsletter of the Tennessee Native Plant Society (December 2017); Patrick Durrell Solomon, "Channelization effectiveness in the Obion River Basin, West Tennessee," master's thesis, University of Tennessee (1994); University of Tennessee at Martin, Paul Meek Library Special Collections, Oral History Tape 020 (Joy Cavender, 1995), catalog record; Tennessee Department of Health, news releases of April 29 and July 24, 2026; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Martin U of T Branch Experiment Station; Big Cypress Tree State Park, tnstateparks.com.
