If you’ve driven around town, you’ve probably encountered Couchville Pike and you know, if it’s got a “something” pike formation, it’s a road that probably went to that “something,” and usually that “something” was a place. So, Couchville.
Comparing the TSLA map to the Google Map, I think I have a pretty good guess. But I’m not sure. Also, extra credit to those who can point out Bryant Grove. Every site I found that gives a location for it, gives a different location–west or east or south of Couchville.
Tiny Cat Pants 
If you check a map of the Four Corners Recreation area, you’ll see that LaVergne-Couchville Pike, which runs more or less north and south, comes to an abrupt end at the water’s edge and makes a more-than-right-angle turn to the west, becoming Hamilton Church Road. This layout doesn’t make any sense – unless the Lavergne-Couchville Road originally proceeded on to the north, across what is now Percy Priest Lake.
This notion is supported by the wide variety of sunken houses scattered all across the Lake, and by Hole-in-the-Wall Island, a few minutes WNW of Four Corners. I’m pretty sure the “hole” in Hole-in-the-Wall used to be the right of way for a road running east and west across what used to be the ridge that is now the island. Some of old Couchville, at least, is now underwater.
Hole-in-the-Wall is now a famous party spot where boats anchor, and idiots (including me, once or twice in the past) jump from a fairly tall cliff into the lake.
See http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Nashville&state=TN&cat=four+corners+recreation+area&country=US&latitude=36.165798&longitude=-86.784401&geocode=CITY for a pretty good map.
Oooh… I’m hoping for a ghost story about Couchville under the lake.
On a boat with a good GPS/sonar system, you can float right over the old houses and see their outlines pretty clearly. It’s a little creepy, but fishermen love these spots.
Growing up in Smyrna, my neighbors were an older couple who’d grown up in Couchville and still had anger over being forced to abandon their childhood homes for the creation of the lake. I never was sure exactly where it was under there, though.
OC, me, too! That’s why I wanted to be sure it is actually under the lake before I start writing. I was reading yesterday that they abandoned Jefferson, Tennessee, even burnt some of the buildings down, and then the lake never got up that far.
Oops.
So, I’m glad I have readers who know that it is indeed under there.
That map shows things not too far from where I live. I’m pretty sure there’s a Bryant Grove directional sign on SR-171 north of the bridge. I think it points west, so that would put it somewhere in a box between between the lake, Mount Juliet, and SR-171. More or less consistent with your guess on the map.
I live on Couchivlle Pike before the lake and I think the hole in the wall looks like the area where stones river ran thru the land and there was an old bridged that crossed Stones River. If you were headed to Nashville on Couchville Pike you cross stones river on this one lane bridge and the road then went in between two cliffs on each side. You could continue straight until you eventually ran into Donelson Pike or you could have turned left right after the cliffs and would run into Smith Springs Road if I remember correctly. There is a ghost story in that some people actually saw ghostly figures on the old bridge at night.
rm, thanks for sharing! I am so delighted to learn that there’s an actual ghost story under the lake. That is awesome.