Why this park
Mousetail Landing State Park lies along the Tennessee River's east bank in Perry County, west of Linden, where the river is part of Kentucky Lake. The park's page counts 1,867 acres and describes a riverside setting of forested hills and creeks.
What makes the place worth drawing is its name, and the riverbank it came from. In the 1800s steamboats called here for tanbark, leather and peanuts, and the landing was named to go with a neighbor overrun by rats. A short trail leads to its foundation stones on the bank. From a bluff at the Eagle Point Trail's second shelter, the view runs across the river to the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge's Busseltown Unit, kept for migrating and wintering waterfowl.
The story
An early account of the name comes from Goodspeed's history of Perry County, published in 1886. The county's first tan-yard, it says, was opened about 1843 by Charles Gotthardt, a German immigrant, at a river landing called Rat Tail, named for the rats that came ashore from a St. Louis hide barge and overran the yard. Mouse Tail, as Goodspeed spells it, was named to set it apart from Rat Tail, out of use by the 1880s, and became the county's main shipping point for tanning products. It sent out great quantities of tanbark and, later, peanuts.
The park tells it another way: a building at the tannery where uncured hides were kept caught fire in the Civil War years, the fleeing rats gave Rat Tail its name, and a smaller landing opened soon after, just to the south, became Mousetail. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says only that rodents were said to have come for the cowhides awaiting shipment. Each is a story, and all of them turn on rats and hides.
The local historian Lillye Younger gave a plainer account, from Frank Weems, who had it from his father: Tom Smith, who kept the first store, asked what to call the landing, and someone suggested Mousetail, to go with Rat Tail. Other memories she gathered tell of a log store whose door took bullets in the Civil War and a packet boat from Paducah that called on Wednesdays. The Conder family kept the general store and warehouse, with the post office inside, and a steamboat pilot remembered the landing, after 1900, as a good place to take on crossties and peanuts.
TVA closed Kentucky Dam's gates, far downriver, on August 30, 1944, and the Tennessee here became part of Kentucky Lake, which flooded old Perryville, Perry County's first county seat, across the river. By the time the park was being built, Younger wrote, every building at Mousetail was gone, though the park says foundation stones remain at the landing and homestead ruins in the backcountry.
The park's page dates the park to 1979, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia says it was dedicated in 1986. The state's 2026 draft management plan counts 685 acres added on the northeast side in the past three years, with four cedar barrens the park means to protect.
When to go, and what to wear
NOAA keeps 1991–2020 climate normals for a weather station at the park. Spring brings wildflowers and passing songbirds, the park says, and crappie along the banks from late March through May. April averages a high near 73°F and a low near 47°F, and May is the wettest month, so pack a rain shell.
Summer is hot: July averages a high near 87°F and a low near 68°F. Hike early, then swim at the beach or wade the creek at the entrance. The state health department advises light, loose clothing, sunscreen and plenty of water. Ticks are most active from April through September, the CDC says, so use a repellent and check yourself afterward. The park lists copperheads and timber rattlesnakes, so wear closed shoes and watch your step.
Fall is mild: October averages a high near 73°F and a low in the upper 40s, and August is the driest month. In winter, waterfowl gather on the Spring Creek embayment. January averages a high near 48°F and a low near 28°F, so dress in layers: a long-sleeve tee, a sweatshirt, a windproof jacket and a hat. Bring binoculars.
The Eagle Point Trail, about eight miles, has an elevation change of 800 to 1,000 feet, The Tennessee Magazine says, so wear boots that grip. Its two shelters have bunks and a wood stove but no restrooms.
Know before you go
- When the park's page was checked in November 2026, part of the Eagle Point Loop between backcountry Shelters 1 and 2 was closed after storm damage, with no reopening date. Both shelters could still be reached from the trailhead.
- The main campground has 25 sites, 19 with water and electric hookups; Spring Creek, on the riverbank, has 21 primitive sites. The swim beach is open all year, with no lifeguard.
- Cell service is reliable only in the main campground and at Sunset Point. If you're towing an RV, the park advises staying on Highway 412 and avoiding Highway 438 West, especially from the east.
- Older maps still show two mountain bike trails; storm damage closed both, The Tennessee Magazine reported in 2024.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Mousetail Landing State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee (1886), "History of Perry County," transcribed by David Donahue for TNGenWeb; Lillye Younger, "The Story of Mousetail Landing," from People of Action (Decatur County Printers, 1983), via Yesterday's Tennessee; Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Mousetail Landing State Park" (Carroll Van West), "Perry County" (Gus A. Steele), "Decatur County" (Teresa Biddle-Douglass) and "Tennessee Valley Authority" (W. Bruce Wheeler), Tennessee Historical Society; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Mousetail Landing State Park Strategic Management Plan 2023–2033 and its 2026 draft update; Trish Milburn, "A River Runs by It," The Tennessee Magazine (May 2024); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge; Tennessee Department of Health, news release of June 30, 2026; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Preventing Tick Bites"; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Mousetail Landing State Park station; Wikipedia; Mousetail Landing State Park, tnstateparks.com.
