Olympus, Tennessee Ghost Town: History and Where It Stood

Overview

A post office on the move

Olympus was the first post office in what is now Pickett County, opened on June 7, 1834, when the land was still part of Overton County. Like many rural offices it lived wherever its postmaster did. Over 73 years it had at least a dozen postmasters, two of them Grimsleys, and it was closed and reopened several times before it shut for the last time in 1907, when its mail went to the Hull post office.

The best-known person born there is Cordell Hull, born in a log cabin at Olympus on October 2, 1871, the third of five sons. He served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his part in founding the United Nations. In 1953 the state bought his birthplace cabin, and in 1997 it became Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park.

Little else is on record. In April 1883 the Rugby newspaper reported that W. B. Grimsley's store at Olympus had burned. In 1884 the office moved down to the Obey River, across from the mouth of Eagle Creek, ground that Dale Hollow Lake now covers. Present-day maps show an Olympus Drive, the TNGenWeb history notes, but not Olympus.

Timeline

Seventy-three years of mail

1834A post office named Olympus opens on June 7 in what is then Overton County, with Buckner Gill as postmaster. Its site is given as 3 miles northeast of the Obey River and 4 miles south of the Wolf River.
1835–1873Postmasters include William Chilton, Abraham Grimsley, Samual A. Higgenbatham, Jonathan A. Sewell and William R. Grimsley.
1871Cordell Hull is born in a log cabin at Olympus on October 2.
1883In April a store at Olympus belonging to W. B. Grimsley burns, apparently uninsured, the Rugby Plateau Gazette reports. A county post office list closes the office on July 24.
1884The office reopens on August 28, now on the north side of the Obey River across from the mouth of Eagle Creek.
1900–1902The office moves again, to a site described only roughly, about 5 miles north of Eagle Creek, then about 2 miles west.
1907Olympus closes for good on October 15; its mail goes to the Hull post office.
TodayThe 1884 site is under Dale Hollow Lake, according to the TNGenWeb history.
1997Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park is created around the rebuilt cabin.

The county post office list on TNGenWeb gives different dates for one stretch, opening on July 6, 1881, closing July 24, 1883, reopening August 28, 1884 and closing October 15, 1907. Both accounts agree on the final closing.

What's left

A cabin, a cave and a lake

**The Cordell Hull birthplace cabin, rebuilt by the state, in December 2007.** · Photo: Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Nothing of the post office community is documented. The TNGenWeb history calls Olympus "only history". At our map point stands Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park, on State Route 325 a few miles west of Byrdstown. Wikipedia's park article says the state took the cabin apart and rebuilt it in the 1950s and rebuilt it again in 1996, and that a museum built in the 1960s holds some of Hull's belongings and a replica of his Nobel medal. Bunkum Cave lies just south along Cove Creek, reached by a 2.5-mile loop trail; going beyond the lit area needs a permit.

The 1929 Byrdstown sheet shows the country around the point as small farms and dirt roads between Bloomington and Star Point, with no Olympus. The 1962 Byrdstown sheet marks the Cordell Hull Birthplace east of Bloomington, and the 1985 Tompkinsville sheet shows Dale Hollow Lake filling the Obey valley to the southwest, where the 1884 office stood.

Cordell Hull birthplace cabin (rebuilt 1950s and 1996)
Bunkum Cave, south of the birthplace
The 1884 office site, under Dale Hollow Lake
No documented buildings of the community

USGS topographic map of farmland and roads around the Cordell Hull birthplace west of Byrdstown — **USGS The National Map, topo.** Centered on Wikipedia's point at the Hull birthplace.

Aerial view of fields, woods and a few buildings around the Cordell Hull birthplace — **Aerial imagery, same point.**

Historic maps

Olympus on USGS maps, 1929–1985

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on our best estimate of the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Olympus, 1929 — **Byrdstown sheet, 1929, 1:62,500** · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Maps & access

Location and access

We don't give directions to Olympus, because it stood in more than one place. The site on our map is Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park, which Wikipedia places on State Route 325 a few miles west of its junction with SR 111 at Byrdstown; the park is the one public place among the sites. The 1884 site is under Dale Hollow Lake. Treat any other land as private.

USGS topographic map of the country west of Byrdstown down to Dale Hollow Lake, with the plotted Olympus post office sites marked

Where exactly was it?

Olympus was a post office more than a village, and the office moved. The TNGenWeb history of the community (posted August 15, 2021, updated January 18, 2022), which reproduces a Borderlands article drawn from National Archives post office records, gives at least four sites. The first, in 1834, was 3 miles northeast of the Obey River and 4 miles south of the Wolf River, perhaps near the Old Grimsley Cemetery. In 1884 the office stood on the north side of the Obey across from the mouth of Eagle Creek, about 6 miles southwest of Byrdstown, a site it says is now under Dale Hollow Lake. We plotted it at the mouth of Big Eagle Creek. The 1900 and 1902 moves are described too loosely to plot.

Wikipedia (read October 29, 2026) gives one point, from the USGS record for the Olympus post office. It falls at the Cordell Hull birthplace, which Wikipedia's park article puts about 4 miles from both the Wolf and the Obey, close to the 1834 description. No USGS sheet we read, 1929 to 1985, prints the name Olympus. Our map point is Wikipedia's. Treat it as the best-documented of the sites, not as the only Olympus.

1834 office, Hull birthplace 36.5820, -85.1835: Wikipedia's coordinates, from the USGS record for the Olympus post office, read October 29, 2026. They fall at the Cordell Hull birthplace, close to the 1834 description, 3 miles northeast of the Obey and 4 miles south of the Wolf. Our best estimate. Map
1884 office, now under the lake 36.5190, -85.1977: TNGenWeb: on the north side of the Obey River across from the mouth of Eagle Creek, about 6 miles southwest of Byrdstown. Plotted at the mouth of Big Eagle Creek in the USGS GNIS (Pickett County), which fits that distance; the office stood just across the old river channel, now Dale Hollow Lake. Map

Have you found it? If you know where Olympus stood, a foundation, a cemetery, a marker, tell us where. We check every report against the old maps before we change this page.

Access and safety notes

No route is given: Olympus moved between several sites, and only the Hull birthplace park is public land.

Photos

Olympus in photos

Visitor reports

Did you find Olympus?

We don't know exactly where Olympus stood. If you have found the site, a foundation, the cemetery or a marker, tell us where: coordinates from your phone, or directions from the nearest road. Photos help. We check every report against the old maps before it appears here or changes the map.

Nearby

Other sites near Olympus

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Tennessee index.

Willow Grove8.8 mi W · Clay
Rugby30.9 mi SE · Morgan
Montgomery45.3 mi SE · Morgan
Fork Mountain52.9 mi SE · Anderson
Big Spring59.9 mi W · Wilson
Wheat63.4 mi SE · Roane
Spring Creek66.1 mi SW · Wilson
Couchville83.4 mi SW · Davidson

Sources

Sources and credits

Wikipedia, "Olympus, Tennessee", read October 29, 2026: former community, the 1834 post office, repeated closings until 1907, one site under Dale Hollow Lake, Cordell Hull's birthplace, coordinates from GNIS, its ghost towns category.
TNGenWeb, "Olympus Community, Pickett County", posted August 15, 2021, updated January 18, 2022, reproducing TheBorderlands.org from National Archives records: postmasters and dates, the 1834, 1884, 1900 and 1902 site descriptions, the site under Dale Hollow Lake, the 1907 closing and Hull post office, Olympus Drive, "only history"; and the Plateau Gazette (Rugby), April 14, 1883, on the store fire.
TNGenWeb, "Pickett County Post Offices", read October 29, 2026: opening and closing dates 1881 to 1907.
Wikipedia, "Cordell Hull", read October 29, 2026: born October 2, 1871, in a log cabin in Olympus, third of five sons, Secretary of State 1933 to 1944, Nobel Peace Prize 1945.
Wikipedia, "Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park", read October 29, 2026: location on SR 325 west of Byrdstown, 4 miles from the Wolf and Obey rivers, the 1953 purchase, the rebuilt cabin, the museum, Bunkum Cave and its trail, the 1997 park.
Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Tennessee", read October 29, 2026: Olympus listed.
USGS GNIS, queried October 29, 2026: the mouth of Big Eagle Creek on Dale Hollow Lake, used to plot the 1884 site.
USGS historical topographic maps: Byrdstown 1929 (1:62,500), Byrdstown 1962 (1:24,000), marking the Hull birthplace, and Tompkinsville 1985 (1:100,000) (public domain).
Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

The rebuilt Cordell Hull birthplace cabin at the park, two log pens joined by a stone chimney, December 2007.: Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Bunkum Cave, south of the birthplace along Cove Creek, December 2007.: Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Byrdstown 1929, 1:62,500; Byrdstown 1962, 1:24,000; Tompkinsville 1985, 1:100,000.