Hands Across America Mid-Point

Hands Across America Mid-Point is a Tennessee historical marker in Lauderdale County.

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Hands Across America was a public fundraising event when 5 million to 6.5 million people held hands for 15 minutes in an ostensible attempt to form a continuous human chain across the contiguous United States. On Sunday, May 25, 1986, at this location, Ripley was the mid-point of the unprecedented, continuous human chain across 16 states for 4,125 miles when more than five million people held hands for 15 minutes to raise money and awareness of programs to fight adversities, hunger, and homelessness, within the United States.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1796 · Map of The Tennassee (sic) Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1895 · Gen. map XVIII. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1939 · Hales Point, Arkansas (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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