Why this park
On 55 acres of the Highland Rim, about two miles west of Byrdstown, Hull's birthplace park holds two pictures. One is a log cabin on a ridge, two rooms joined by a porch, on the spot where he was born. The other lies across the road and down a wooded trail: the mouth of Bunkum Cave, which the park measures at 100 feet across and 50 high, with a stream passing through.
Between them runs the story of a boy from a poor hill family who served as secretary of state longer than anyone and won the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002 the state's management plan described the Nobel medal on display in the museum, beneath a window that framed the cabin.
The story
Hull was born at Olympus on October 2, 1871, when it was part of Overton County; Pickett County was formed in 1879. He was the third of five sons, and his parents were William and Elizabeth Riley Hull.
William Hull farmed and later dealt in timber. Family story, which the park and the state's 2002 plan repeat, says he first ran a still in Bunkum Cave. As the Friends of Cordell Hull told it in 2007, he was caught and fined $25, but had already saved $1,000, enough to buy the poplar he rafted down the Cumberland to Nashville.
Cordell was practicing law in Celina before he turned twenty, the Nobel Foundation says, then served in the state House, as a captain in the Spanish-American War and as a circuit judge. He won a seat in Congress in 1906, wrote the income tax law of 1913, and moved to the Senate after the 1930 election.
Franklin D. Roosevelt made him secretary of state on March 4, 1933. He served until ill health ended his tenure in November 1944, longer than anyone else, the State Department's Office of the Historian says. He pushed for lower tariffs and better ties with Latin America. The Nobel Committee honored him for his central part in founding the United Nations. He died in 1955, and by the Tennessee Encyclopedia's account he never went back to Tennessee after retiring.
In 1953 a memorial association set up by the General Assembly bought the cabin, with 1.43 acres, from the Amonett family. Four years later it was taken apart and rebuilt with some logs from a neighboring cabin, and the 2002 plan judges that little of the original remained. That version went on the National Register in 1972. The one standing now, the third on the site, was built in 1996 from research into local cabins of 1871, and the park calls it a replica.
Hull's will sent his belongings home to Pickett County, and local money and volunteer labor built a log museum, finished in 1969 and now the park office. In 1979 the site passed to the state's Department of Conservation, which gave it little care. The Friends of Cordell Hull, formed in 1990, won a federal grant of $497,000 that paid for the new cabin and the present museum. The Friends hold the Nobel medal itself; for security, TN History for Kids says, the museum displays a duplicate. In 1997 the legislature returned the site to the state parks, and in 2002 the state bought the 29-acre tract that holds the cave.
When to go, and what to wear
At NOAA's Byrdstown station, about 880 feet up, April averages a high near 70°F and a low near 44°F, and the park says the loop trail's wildflowers are at their best in April and May, so bring a light jacket.
Summer is cave season, May 1 through August 31. July averages a high near 85°F and a low near 67°F, and only December is wetter. A tee will do on the trail, but a cave tends to stay near its area's average yearly temperature, the National Park Service says, and Byrdstown's is about 57°F: carry a layer and your own light.
Fall and winter suit the cabin and museum. October, the driest month, averages a high near 70°F and a low near 45°F; January, a high near 46°F and a low near 27°F, so dress in layers.
The 1.25-mile loop is rated moderate and reaches the cave mouth by steep metal stairs, with grades up to about 44 percent, so wear shoes that grip. Watch for sinkholes near the cave, and inside, step around the pools, where the park says fragile creatures live.
Know before you go
- Going beyond the cave's mouth takes a free permit, one for each person of any age; register online or with the park three days ahead. The park issues 20 a day, and no one may go in alone.
- White-nose syndrome, a disease of bats, can travel on shoes and gear, so clean yours before and after. The cave closes September 1 through April 30 while the bats hibernate, and the park's pages differ on whether the loop trail closes too, so ask before an off-season hike.
- The museum is wheelchair accessible, and a short paved path links it with the office and the parking lot.
- Cell signal is weak; the park says it is best at the trailhead parking and between the museum and office.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Hull, Cordell" (Jonathan G. Utley), "Cordell Hull Birthplace and Museum State Park" (Meredith Fiske Bare) and "Pickett County" (Anne-Leslie Owens), Tennessee Historical Society; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Strategic Planning, Cordell Hull Birthplace State Historic Area Management Plan (December 2002), via the Internet Archive; National Register of Historic Places, Cordell Hull Birthplace nomination (Tennessee Historical Commission, 1971), National Park Service; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Cordell Hull"; NobelPrize.org, "Cordell Hull: Facts" and "Cordell Hull: Biographical"; The Political Graveyard, "Hull, Cordell"; Lana Baker Rossi, "Cordell Hull and Bunkum Cave," Friends of Cordell Hull (2007), via the Internet Archive; TN History for Kids, "Cordell Hull Birthplace"; Associated Press, "State museum displaying Cordell Hull's Nobel Peace Prize" (October 13, 2020);Overton-Fentress-Pickett Counties TNGenWeb Project, "Cordell Hull Birthplace & Museum State Park" (2021); National Park Service, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, "Weather"; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Byrdstown station; Wikipedia; Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park, tnstateparks.com.
