Why this park
Our Big Hill Pond tee shows the cypress-ringed pond and the observation tower rising over the bottomland, drawn like an old park poster. People made both. The pond is a railroad's borrow pit from 1853, with cypress now standing in and around its 35 acres, and the tower is a refurbished fire tower, 70 feet tall, that looks out over Travis McNatt Lake and the Dismal Swamp.
The park lies where the Tuscumbia River meets the Hatchie, a state scenic river, and its low ground floods and holds cypress swamp. Less than half a mile from the pond, the state's management plan says, the trails climb some of the highest ground in McNairy County, past big sandstone outcrops. Bald eagles nest along Cypress Creek and the Tuscumbia, the park's page says, and more than 150 kinds of birds have been seen here.
The story
People of the Woodland period lived along the Tuscumbia and the Hatchie, and the Chickasaw held this country until 1818, when they ceded West Tennessee in the Jackson Purchase.
In 1853 the Memphis and Charleston Railroad needed a levee to carry its track across the bottoms of the Tuscumbia River and Cypress Creek, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia says work crews scooped out a huge pit for the dirt. Water filled the pit, and that is Big Hill Pond.
The railroad made this contested ground in the Civil War. On October 5, 1862, at Davis Bridge on the Hatchie near Pocahontas, Union troops tried to trap a Confederate army retreating from Corinth, Mississippi; the encyclopedia's Big Hill Pond entry estimates some 18,000 men in the fight and about 1,000 casualties. Afterward the Union army dug in on a ridge above the railroad's long trestle over the Dismal Swamp and the Tuscumbia. The fort's National Register nomination says the 18th Missouri Infantry first garrisoned the area, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia says soldiers of the United States Colored Troops helped man the earthworks. The post was abandoned by the end of January 1864. Its walls, now two to three feet high, still run through the woods, and the site joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The park began with a farmer and his beavers. In the management plan's telling, a beaver dam had flooded about 350 acres of John Howell's farm, so he named it Beaver Lake and charged 50 cents to hunt and fish. When doctors and lawyers wanted to buy it for a private club, Howell worried that his neighbors could no longer hunt and fish there, and he agreed to hold the land until the state could buy it. In the 1960s local men mapped a plan for a Big Hill Pond Wildlife Management Area. The park's page says Big Hill Pond became a state park in 1977, the year the Dismal Swamp boardwalk was built.
When to go, and what to wear
Spring and fall are the seasons for the trails. Nearby, at Selmer, April averages a high near 73°F and a low near 48°F. March is the wettest month, with December and April close behind, so pack a rain shell.
Wear shoes that grip and can get wet. The park warns of cypress knees and roots underfoot, and the management plan says the trails climb and drop a good deal and some flood after heavy rain.
Summer is hot. July averages a high near 90°F and a low near 69°F, so walk early and carry water. Ticks live in grass, brush and woods, the state health department says. It advises staying on marked trails, using an insect repellent as the label directs, wearing loose, light-colored clothing with long sleeves and long pants, and checking for ticks when you come in. A light long-sleeve tee is a good start.
Fall is mild. October averages a high near 74°F and a low in the upper 40s, and August is the driest month, with October next. Winter is cool: January averages a high near 49°F and a low near 30°F. Dress in layers, with a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt and a windproof jacket.
Know before you go
- The campground's 28 sites are closed for renovation, with no reopening date set. Group Campsites 2 and 3 and four trail shelters are still open, without water or electricity; the shelters need a permit.
- The park has more than 30 miles of hiking trails, and the tower stands on the Turkey Call and Tuscumbia trails. The half-mile Dismal Swamp boardwalk is closed while it is replaced, but the park says the blue and red trails still reach the tower.
- Travis McNatt Lake, fed by more than 100 springs, is closed for improvements as one of the state's Bill Dance Signature Lakes. Meanwhile you may bring a small paddling boat to Big Hill Pond, which allows only paddles and electric motors and can't be fished from the bank.
- Cell service is weak in the hunting area south of the railroad tracks, around Big Hill Pond and along the Tuscumbia, and there's no Wi-Fi. If you're towing an RV or a horse trailer, the park suggests John Howell Road over the big hill on Park Entrance Lane.
- Closures change as the work goes on, so check Big Hill Pond State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Big Hill Pond State Park" (Carroll Van West), "Battle of Davis Bridge" (Timothy B. Smith) and "Jackson Purchase" (Blythe Semmer); Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Big Hill Pond State Park Strategic Management Plan 2023–2033 (2025 update); National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places nomination, Big Hill Pond Fortification (Philip Thomason and Doug Cubbison, Thomason and Associates, 1997), and the National Register Information System; Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, news release of December 16, 2021, on the Bill Dance Signature Lakes; Tennessee Department of Health, news releases of April 29 and July 24, 2026; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Selmer station; Wikipedia; Big Hill Pond State Park, tnstateparks.com.
