Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park is a state park in Benton County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park is situated on the western shore of the Kentucky Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River, just north of the community of Eva. Established in 1929, the park consists of managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The park is named after Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), who conducted operations in the area during the U.S. Civil War. The park encompasses part of Forrest's operational area during the 1864 Battle of Johnsonville, in which Forrest attacked and destroyed a Union supply depot and transfer station on the opposite bank of the river. Along with the battle site, features in the park include Pilot Knob, which at is one of the highest points in West Tennessee, and the Tennessee River Folklife Center, which interprets life in the lower Tennessee Valley in the 19th and 20th centuries. Geographical setting The Tennessee River enters the Benton County/Humphreys County area from the south, where it absorbs the Duck River and the Beech River, and proceeds northwestward for another before emptying into the Ohio River. Kentucky Lake, created with the completion of Kentucky Dam in 1944, covers a stretch of the river between Kentucky Dam (near Paducah) and Pickwick Landing Dam, near the Tennessee-Alabama border to the south. Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park is situated along the western bank of Kentucky Lake, approximately upstream from Kentucky Dam. Pilot Knob is the pinnacle of a ridge that extends approximately northwestwardly to the Harmon Creek valley, along the park's northwestern boundary. Much of the park's topography consists of ridges and hollows that run roughly parallel to Pilot Knob Ridge. The park's offices are located on the slopes of Pilot Knob, and the Tennessee River Folklife Center and hiking trailheads are located at its summit. State Route 191, which terminates atop Pilot Knob, connects the park to Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 70 to the south. History The Benton County area has been occupied on a semi-permanent basis for at least 7000 years. In 1940, University of Tennessee archaeologists excavated a substantial Archaic period (8000-1000 BC) site along Cypress Creek, near the park's southern boundary. The actual site— named the Eva site after the nearby community— is now submerged by Kentucky Lake. At the Eva site, University of Tennessee archaeologists Thomas