Crossville and Dayton, Tennessee 5 May 2014

 We arrived in Crossville, Tennessee May first with the intention of staying a week.  Unfortunately, we were unable to find a place to stay over Memorial Day, so decided to just stay here.  It was a pretty park just outside a wildlife refuge.  Much of the time there was no one else in our end of the park.  We enjoyed our solitude..

 Crossville lay squarely on the Avery Trace.  During the early 1800s, many families came across the Avery Trace to newly opened lands in Alabama and Tennessee.  Not far from Crossville, across the Avery Trace, shown here, is the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.

 In 1960, a film starring two Hollywood heavyweights was made about events transpiring here.  In case you haven't already guessed, the movie was Inherit the Wind.  Spencer Tracy portrayed Clarence Darrow and Frederick March portrayed William Jennings Bryan.  This statue outside the Rhea County Courthouse is of Bryan.  The book upon which Bryan rests his left hand is inscribed "Truth and Eloquence" 

Exactly eighty-nine years to the day before our visit, John Scopes, a high school science teacher, was charged with the crime of teaching evolution.  His trial was the subject of the film.  Bryan was the prosecutor, and Darrow was retained by the ACLU to defend Scopes.  Up these stairs, was the courtroom.

This is the book from which Scopes taught.  It was a book on the approved state list.  Note the evolutionary diagram on the left page. 

 The trial was held over eight steamy July days.  Due to the heat, it was convened on the front lawn of the court house rather than this courtroom one day.  It was attended by journalists from around the nation.  Among them was the famous journalist, satirist, and critic H. L. Mencken who referred to the local populace as "Babbitts" from Sinclair Lewis' book. It was a put-down of the judgment of the middle class.

The defense sat at this desk while the prosecution sat across the courtroom.

On the eighth day, the Jury deliberated for nine minutes before finding Scopes guilty.  The conviction was overturned on a technicality, but Scopes' job was not restored.  One year after the trial, Bryan returned to Tennessee.  While there, he died in his hotel room. 

Dayton has a long and colorful history.  Much of it is depicted on the sidewalk outside the court house.  There were, however, years like 1879.