Trail Driving Tennessee Walker

Tullahoma was founded in 1852 as a work camp along the new Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Its name is derived from the Choctaw language, and means "red rock". An alternative explanation (see Sam Davis Elliott's Soldier of Tennessee and sources cited therein) of the name is that Peter Decherd, who donated the land for the railroad right-of-way (and was therefore given the right to name two stations along the line), named one station Decherd, after himself, and the other as Tulkahoma (later changed to Tullahoma). Tulkahoma was the name of Decherd's favorite horse, which had been named for a Choctaw chief who had been captured by Decherd's grandfather. (There was also a town of Tullahoma, Mississippi; that settlement later changed its name to Grenada.) The earliest settlement was by farmers, mostly from Virginia and North Carolina.