Draw Tennessee Outline from Memory
How well do you know The Volunteer State? Draw Tennessee from memory and score 0–100 based on how accurately you sketch its distinctive outline.
More US States to Draw
Why Tennessee Looks the Way It Does
Tennessee is the Missouri Compromise made visible. When the Southwest Territory became a state in 1796, its northern border was set along 36°30′ — the exact line of the 1820 compromise that would later divide free and slave across the Louisiana Purchase. Tennessee sat on the hinge: slaveholding but heavily settled by small farmers, it sent both Andrew Jackson and future Unionists to Washington, and its straight northern line became the most fateful parallel in American history.
The straightness hides a surveying saga. The 36°30′ line was walked and marked in 1779-1780 by a survey party under Dr. Thomas Walker — and then, decades later, discovered to run slightly wrong, dipping and rising by miles along its length. The Tennessee-Virginia border dispute simmered for two centuries; Bristol straddles the line with one street. Tennessee's ruler-straight borders are, up close, a hand-drawn line two hundred years old.
The east end is where the surveyors finally surrendered to geology. The border with North Carolina follows the crests of the Appalachian ridges — including the Great Smokies, the tallest mountains in the East — because Congress in 1790 found no better line than the ridge tops themselves. Tennessee is therefore both of the mapmaker's Americas at once: pure geometry along its long sides, raw mountain reality at one end, and a river at the other.
Quick Facts: Tennessee
- Capital
- Nashville
- Nickname
- The Volunteer State
- Statehood
- 1796
- Area
- 106,798 km²
- Borders
- Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri
What is "Drawing Tennessee Outline from Memory"?
Drawing Tennessee from memory means sketching the Volunteer State's border on a blank canvas without looking at a map. Focus on the state's distinctive features and overall proportions — that's what pushes your accuracy score up.
Tennessee became a state in 1796 and is rated ★★★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — a trickier outline with more detail to remember. When you hit Reveal, your sketch is scored 0–100 against the real border, so every attempt teaches you something about the outline.
Tennessee is one of the longest, narrowest states — a near-parallelogram: the 36°30′ line running dead straight along the top, the 35th parallel along the bottom, the Mississippi River wiggling down the left edge, and the Appalachian ridges making the right end irregular.
How to Draw Tennessee from Memory
Step 01
Draw a long horizontal strip first — Tennessee is over 430 miles east-west but barely 110 miles tall. The top and bottom edges are both straight parallels, so this is fundamentally a stretched rectangle.
Step 02
The left edge is the Mississippi River: a short, wiggly vertical section where the state meets Arkansas and Missouri near Memphis. Keep it brief — it's the only river on an otherwise straight-lined border.
Step 03
The right end is the mountains: where the state meets North Carolina, the border follows the jagged crests of the Unaka and Great Smoky Mountains. Sketch the eastern end with quick, spiky zig-zags — a mountain wall closing the parallelogram.
A long horizontal strip — the parallelogram state: two dead-straight lines running east-west (36°30′ on top, 35° on the bottom), the Mississippi on the left, and mountains at the right end.
How Tennessee Is Scored
When you hit Reveal & compare, your sketch is measured against Tennessee's real border, point by point, in the same canvas space. Three numbers come back:
Matched — the share of the real border your drawing covered. 100% means you traced every part of the outline.
Extra — how much of your drawing fell outside the true border. This catches sketches that are too big, mispositioned, or drifting off.
Missed — the border you didn't reach, the flip side of Matched.
The three combine into a single 0–100 accuracy score. The rating names give you a target: 80+ is Cartographer, 60+ is Border patrol, 40+ is Getting there, and below 40 is Try again.
Drawing large and roughly centered is the single fastest way to raise your score — a small sketch tucked in a corner overlaps less of the true border, so it scores lower. For Tennessee, keep the whole outline in frame and let the distinctive parts do the work.
FAQ
- What makes Tennessee's outline distinctive?
- Tennessee is one of the longest, narrowest states — a near-parallelogram: the 36°30′ line running dead straight along the top, the 35th parallel along the bottom, the Mississippi River wiggling down the left edge, and the Appalachian ridges making the right end irregular.
- How hard is it to draw Tennessee from memory?
- Tennessee is rated ★★★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — a trickier outline with more detail to remember. You can score your attempts immediately and watch your accuracy climb with practice.
- Which states border Tennessee?
- Tennessee shares its border with 8 US states — Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri are on this site. Drawing a neighbor right after Tennessee helps anchor both outlines in your memory.
- How is my Tennessee drawing scored?
- Your sketch is compared with Tennessee's real border, point by point, in the same canvas space. Matched is the share of the border you covered, Extra is how much of your drawing fell outside it, and Missed is the border you didn't reach. The three combine into a single 0–100 accuracy score.
- Can I draw Tennessee on mobile?
- Yes — Tennessee works on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Draw with your finger on touchscreens; no app download is required and it runs directly in your browser.