Grinder's Switch

Grinder's Switch is a real location just outside of Centerville, Tennessee, which consists of little more than the eponymous railroad switch. It was also the fictional hometown of Minnie Pearl, but those who knew her knew that the characters were largely based on real residents of Centerville. "Cousin Minnie Pearl" was actually born Sarah Ophelia Colley in the nearby Colleyville neighborhood of Centerville.

Her father was a logger who would ship logs from the Grinders depot on the Centerville branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis RR. There was a team track at the depot, necessitating the installation of a switch. Long after the depot disappeared, the team track and its switch remained, thus the name "Grinders Switch." (Note, the article name has the apostrophe in the name, although the local Foundation omits it altogether.) Grinders was still listed in the railroad tariff book called "Official List of Open & Prepay Stations No. 82" dated November 15, 1967.

Sara (or Minnie) would sometimes accompany her father to the Grinders depot, where the local characters would hang out. This was part of her inspiration for her "Cousin Minnie Pearl" routine.

So much unwarranted traffic to Grinder's Switch looking for the hometown Pearl described was generated by tourists following the road sign that the Hickman County Highway Department was finally motivated to change the designation on the sign to "Hickman Springs Road."

A "Grinder's Switch" theme park for the area has been proposed, with promoters going so far as to move the former railroad depot of Slayden, Tennessee to the area to serve as one of its buildings, but little more seems to have been done in regard to developing the park to this point.

The park failed and all investors lost their money. The railroad depot remains though. Hickman County bought the land and now operates the Hickman County Agricultuure Pavilion there. The Hickman County Fair is located at the Ag Pavilion.

Grinder's Switch was named for the Griner family that lived nearby. Robert Evans Griner and his wife Priscilla Knight lived nearby. Griner is the proper spelling. Priscilla is the last person to have seen Meriwether Lewis alive. Robert and Priscilla moved to this part of Hickman County after his controversial death.

The annual Grinder's Switch Music & Arts Festival is held on the square in Centerville in September. There are crafts booths, a booth for the local theatre, and music lasting throughout the day and into the night.