Port Royal State Park preserves the site of one of middle Tennessee’s earliest colonial communities, first settled in the early 1780s and occupied until 1940. Set along the Red River at a key junction of roads and river travel, Port Royal became an important stop on the Great Western Road stagecoach line. In 1838 and 1839, it served as the last Tennessee resupply station on the northern Trail of Tears route for Chickamauga Cherokee being forced west to Oklahoma. The park preserves old roadbeds, historic bridges, the 1859 Masonic Lodge and General Store, and archaeological remains that reflect early settlement, transportation, and regional conflict.