Why this park
Cedars of Lebanon State Park lies in southern Wilson County, off Highway 231 south of Lebanon. Its red cedars are not true cedars; the Tennessee Encyclopedia calls them Virginia juniper. The rare ground is the cedar glade: open rock where the limestone lies at or just under the surface, with only inches of soil, ringed by red cedars and then by hardwoods.
That is the picture on our shirt: Tennessee coneflowers in bloom on a sunlit glade at midsummer. The US Fish and Wildlife Service says the coneflower grows wild only in the cedar glades and limestone barrens of Davidson, Rutherford and Wilson counties. Across from the park's entrance lies the Cedars of Lebanon State Natural Area, which TDEC counts as part of the biggest unbroken stretch of cedar glades and barrens in public hands.
The story
The Tennessee Encyclopedia says the town of Lebanon was named for the region's stands of red cedar. Once, cedar forest covered this ground. After it was cut, the encyclopedia says, families tried to farm the thin, rocky soil that was left.
In September 1935 the Lebanon Cedar Forest Project won President Franklin Roosevelt's approval, and late that year the federal Resettlement Administration began work. The government bought the land from about 60 local farmers, and many of them were resettled; the Works Progress Administration hired workers from those same farm families. They built roads, power lines, cabins and shelters of red cedar and local limestone, and more than 750,000 seedlings were raised and planted to bring the forest back.
Lebanon Cedar Forest opened on September 10, 1937. Dixon Merritt, a Lebanon newspaper editor who had pushed for the project, presided as the cornerstone of the lodge was laid. Built of rough-cut limestone, the lodge housed the park office, a recreation hall and the superintendent at first, and in 1995 it and other WPA structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The nature center, once the bathhouse for the park's pool, carries Merritt's name.
When the state took over management in March 1939, the forest took the name Cedars of Lebanon, for the cedar woods of Lebanon in the Bible. The federal government deeded the park to Tennessee on August 12, 1955. In the 1950s the botanist Elsie Quarterman and her Vanderbilt students showed how much the glades mattered. In 1968 Quarterman and a graduate student found the Tennessee coneflower, long thought extinct, at Mount View Cedar Glade, and in 1974 the glades north of Cedar Forest Road became a state natural area. Protected glades and new colonies, some of them planted at the park's entrance and in the state forest, brought the coneflower back, and in 2011 the Fish and Wildlife Service took it off the endangered list.
When to go, and what to wear
Spring is the season for the glades. By the park's account its wildflowers begin to bloom in March, among them rare plants that grow nowhere but Middle Tennessee. Nearby, at Lebanon, April averages a high near 71°F and a low near 46°F. May is the wettest month, so pack a rain shell.
Summer is coneflower season. A note in the botanical journal Castanea puts the coneflower's bloom from mid-May into October, at its peak in June and July. It is hot, too: July averages a high near 90°F and a low near 69°F, and the open glades offer little shade. Wear a light, breathable tee, and carry water.
The state health department suggests long, loose, light-colored clothing against bites and a tick check when you come indoors.
October is the driest month, with highs near 73°F and lows near 47°F. January averages a high near 47°F and a low near 28°F, so dress in layers: a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt, a jacket and a hat.
Know before you go
- The park has a campground, cabins and picnic shelters. The Cedar Glade Trail is a half-mile walk. The Hidden Springs Trail is a 4.2-mile loop that passes sinkholes on the way.
- The state natural area across from the entrance has no trails or parking. TDEC says it is open from sunrise to sunset, and that hunting is allowed there and in the state forest.
- State park rules forbid digging, cutting or removing any plant without a permit, so leave the glade flowers where they grow.
- Long Hunter State Park lies to the west, across the county line on Percy Priest Lake.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Cedars of Lebanon State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Cedars of Lebanon State Park" (Sandy Suddarth), "Cedar Glades" (Thomas E. Hemmerly), "Wilson County" (Frank Burns) and "Long Hunter State Park"; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Natural Areas, "Cedars of Lebanon"; State of Tennessee news release, "Cedars of Lebanon to Host Works Progress Administration Day" (September 27, 2011); US Fish and Wildlife Service, proposed rule to remove the Tennessee purple coneflower from the federal list (Federal Register, August 12, 2010), a 2010 news release and the final rule of August 3, 2011; Roger D. Applegate and Brian E. Flock, scientific note on the late flowering of the Tennessee coneflower, Castanea (2009); The Nature Conservancy, "Tennessee Coneflower"; NPR, "Flower Once Thought Extinct Will Come Off Endangered List" (2011); National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Cedars of Lebanon State Park Historic District (1995); The Living New Deal, "Cedars of Lebanon State Park," after Carroll Van West, Tennessee's New Deal Landscape (2001); Tennessee State Library and Archives, "The New Deal and State Parks"; Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0400-02-02-.18; Tennessee Department of Health, news releases of July 17, 2024, and April 29, 2026; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Lebanon station; Wikipedia; Cedars of Lebanon State Park, tnstateparks.com and its program listings.
