HISTORIC RUGBY, TENNESSEE

Outdoors at Rugby

Thomas Hughes and Rugby's 1880s colonists wrote rapturously of the natural beauty and rich flora and fauna they found in and around their new colony. And like the historic buildings, the town plan and landscape have also survived, remarkably intact.

Rugby's quite sophisticated town plan was developed upon a plateau lying within the boundaries of the Clear Fork and White Oak Rivers. The "Gentlemen's Swimming Hole" and the "Meeting of the Waters" quickly became favorite recreation sites for the colonists. (When the ladies complained by letters to the Rugbeian newspaper, they got their own swimming hole!) Today these beautiful sites are preserved within the Big South Fork Park, reached by the oldest continuously used recreation trail in Tennessee.

The townsite, 250-300 feet above these rock bluff-lined rivers, is intersected by numerous picturesque ravines.  Today the plateau and ravines are still covered by a forest of oak, hickory, poplar, white pine, hemlock and walnut.  Rhododendron and mountain laurel thickly blanket the free-flowing river banks.  Wildflowers and ferns abound.

Rugby visitors and lodgers especially enjoy the winding 4/10 mile walk down to the Gentlemen's Swimming Hole on the Clear Fork River - and perhaps a swim.  Continuing downstream to the White Oak confluence, and up and out is an approximately 2 1/4 mile loop.  Rugby's bike paths and back roads offer the cyclist some enjoyable places to ride.

Just across from the hiking trail entrance is historic Laurel Dale Cemetery.  Many of Rugby's early colonists are buried there, including the seven 1881 victims of typhoid and the founder's mother. The cemetery has been the final resting place for many people through the years and is still in use today. Laurel Dale's a wonderful place to visit on a clear night for star gazing.  Wherever you wander in Historic Rugby, watch for abundant wildlife - birds, whitetail deer, turkey, fox and yes, an occasional snake.

In many locations throughout the townsite, original plant materials established by the early colonists have survived, such as Michaelmas Daisies, English Primroses, Lily of the Valley, Yucca and others. Specimen hardwood trees planted by original colonists remain at some homes.

“We have here two beautiful streams which will be a delight forever to those who dwell here, if they are left free for the use and enjoyment of all.  In laying out the town, we have reserved a strip of various widths along the banks, which will remain common property, and along which walks and rides are being carefully laid out."

Thomas Hughes, Opening Address, Oct. 5, 1881.