Milan, Tennessee
Encyclopedia
Milan is a city in Gibson County, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 7,851 at the 2010 census. The zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 assigned by the U.S. Postal Service is 38358. Residents of Milan are usually referred to as Milanites. It is Gibson County's second largest city, next to Humboldt, Tennessee
Humboldt, Tennessee
Humboldt is a city in Gibson and Madison counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 8,452 at the 2010 census, a decline of 1,015 in 2000. It is the principal city of and is included in the Humboldt, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Jackson,...

.

The name of the city supposedly comes from an incident where, upon being asked "Whose land is this?" by a railroad surveyor, an early settler said "It's my land." Although this legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

 is often repeated, it is likely not true. It is believed the city was named after Milan, Italy. Milan is often referred to as "Bullet Town", due to the Milan Arsenal being located there, despite the fact that the Arsenal manufactures mortar shells and grenades, not bullets.

Geography

Milan is located at 35.915957°N 88.758035°W. Milan is approximately 100 miles (160.9 km) northeast of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 and 140 miles (225.3 km) west of Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. Elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 is 424 feet (129.2 m) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

.

Milan's elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 424 feet (129.2 m) is the highest point between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico on the former Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...

.

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 8.1 square miles (21 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

At the 2000 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, there were 7,664 people, 3,170 households and 2,076 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 952.2 per square mile (367.6/km2). There were 3,413 housing units at an average density of 424.0 per square mile (163.7/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 75.38% White, 22.68% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.59% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.90% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.50% of the population.

There were 3,170 households of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.9% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 15.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.91.

Age distribution was 23.9% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 21.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 79.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.9 males.

The median household income
Median household income
The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...

 was $30,806, and the median family income was $38,503. Males had a median income of $30,449 versus $21,688 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $17,255. About 9.4% of families and 15.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.6% of those under age 18 and 14.2% of those age 65 or over.

History

In a 1944 article, the Saturday Evening Post, in discussing the boom created by the Milan Arsenal during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, predicted Milan would become a "ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

" when the war was over.

In the 1940s, Milan became the first city in the south to play Little League
Little League
Little League Baseball and Softball is a non-profit organization in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States which organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the U.S...

 baseball.

Led by the late Dr. Robert P. Denney, a long-time dentist in Milan, Milan became the first city in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 to fluoridate its drinking water, and for years its school children were regularly examined in a study of the effects of fluoridation by the
University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

 dental school.

Local government

Milan has a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

-board of aldermen form of government. The mayor, presently Chris Crider, serves a four-year term. There are four wards, each of which elects two aldermen. Milan's City Hall is located downtown. A new public safety building, housing police and fire departments, a jail and a courtroom, has been constructed in the south part of town.

Education

Public education in Milan is provided by the Milan Special School District, which was formed in the 1980s and includes territory immediately adjacent to the Milan city limits
City limits
The terms city limits and city boundary refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limits is sometimes called the city proper. The terms town limits/boundary and village limits/boundary mean the same as city limits/boundary, but apply to towns and villages...

. The district is the successor to the Milan City Schools, formed in the 1960s when the Milan schools left the Gibson County Board of Education and became independent. The system is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...

. Presently, the position of Director of Schools is held by Dr. Mary Reel. She was appointed to the position by the school board in February 2007.

There are three schools, all with modern facilities: Milan High School (which contains the Milan Vo-Tech center) serving grades 9–12, Milan Elementary, serving grades K-4, and Milan Middle, serving grades 5–8. Historically, there were four schools - K.D. McKellar, grades 1–8, Park Avenue, also grades 1-8, Milan High School, 9-12, and Polk-Clark, which served black students in all twelve grades. McKellar's and Park Avenue's buildings were recently demolished; Polk-Clark's is now a community center.

The Milan High athletic teams, the Bulldogs, have won state championships in football, girls' basketball, and baseball. The football team has been considered a state powerhouse since the 1960s. John Tucker, who once held the state record for most victories as a head coach, coached at Milan for 25 years. The Bulldogs won two state championships under Tucker, and have won two under present head coach Jeff Morris. A large number of young men from Milan High have gone on to play college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 for NCAA division I and II teams, as well as NAIA
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...

 teams. The former Polk-Clark high school, known as the Buffaloes, fielded powerful basketball teams. In 1960, in addition to winning the state girls' basketball championship, Milan High won the "Quiz 'Em on the Air", a quizbowl
Quizbowl
Quiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...

-style competition on a Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 television station.. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is one of the active CTE student organizations which is composed of students in Family and Consumer Science courses. There have been 4 state officers from Milan High and many state and national competitive event winners.

The Milan High School Alumni Association is believed to be the oldest and most active organization of its kind. Alumni Day is held on the third Saturday in June each year. Each year, the MHSAA presents thousands of dollars in scholarships to graduating seniors. There is also an active Polk-Clark alumni organization.

The Milan Endowment for Growth in Academics (MEGA), is Tennessee's first private community financial endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....

 for public education. Proceeds provide public school students with opportunities not covered by the school budget. Only the income of the fund is spent. The principal is kept intact to yield proceeds for future years. Since its inception in 1990, MEGA has disbursed money for over 150 different projects. The total amount of the endowment is now over $400,000.

Local facilities

Milan is at the junction of U.S. Highway 45E and U.S. Highway 79 (also known as U.S. Highway 70A). State Route 104 also runs through the city. Unlike many cities in West Tennessee, there are no highway bypasses around the city.

Milan is served by two railroads: CSX (formerly Louisville and Nashville) and West Tennessee (formerly Illinois Central, then Norfolk Southern). The Gibson County Airport (general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

) is located between Milan and Trenton, Tennessee
Trenton, Tennessee
Trenton is a city in Gibson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,264 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Gibson County, and its third largest city.-Geography:Trenton is located at ....

. Airline service is nearby at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport
McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport
McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles west of the central business district of Jackson, a city in Madison County, Tennessee, United States. It is owned by the City of Jackson & Madison County. The airport is mostly used for general aviation...

 in Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson is a city in Madison County, Tennessee, United States. The total population was 65,211 at the 2010 census. Jackson is the primary city of the Jackson, Tennessee metropolitan area, which is included in the Jackson-Humboldt, Tennessee Combined Statistical Area...

, and Milan is within a few hours of larger airports at Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 and Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

.

Milan is the site of the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum (a part of the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

, which has an agricultural experiment station located at Milan). The museum contains more than 2,700 artifacts and farm tools from the local agrarian culture.
The University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

 Agricultural Experiment Station conducts crop research, crop management and erosion control experiments. The no-till method of farming originated at the Milan facility. The experiment station is host of the Milan No Till-Field Day, an agricultural demonstration event held on the fourth Thursday of July in even-numbered years. This event draws visitors from many states. The Buford Ellington 4-H Club Training Center is located at the experiment station.

Milan has a large, modern city park located on State Route 104. Milan is the home of Johnnie Hale Stadium, an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 facility which bears the name of a female schoolteacher, located just off the U.S. 45E-U.S. 79 intersection. For many years, Johnnie Hale Stadium hosted a high school football bowl game, the West Tennessee Jaycee Bowl. The 1971 TSSAA Class AA championship game was also held there.

The Milan Golf and Country Club, a private club, has an 18-hole course.

The public library, Mildred G. Fields Library, contains 35,000 volumes and is housed in a building on Van Hook Street. The B.D.Bryant Memorial Library, located on First Street, houses a collection of rare religious books. This privately owned library is open to the public. The U.S. Post Office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 Building in Milan is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

Water, sewer, and electricity are provided by the city through the Department of Public Utilities. Drinking water is extracted from deep wells, and is very pure. Electricity is obtained from the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...

. Natural gas is provided by the Gibson County Utility District.

Milan General Hospital, a 73-bed acute care facility located on Highland Avenue, has been a for-profit entity since 1998. It was founded as Clemmer Clinic in 1941, and then was a city-owned entity for many years. The city cemetery, Oakwood Cemetery, is located on Highland Avenue.

Local industries

The Milan Army Ammunition Plant (also known as the Milan Arsenal) is located outside Milan.

Media

Milan has a weekly newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, the Milan Mirror-Exchange. The paper was formed by the merger of the Milan Exchange, which was founded in the nineteenth century, and the Milan Mirror, which dated from the 1960s.

Milan has no television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 station, but is within the reach of Jackson and Memphis stations. A cable television service is provided by Charter Communications
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...

.

Radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 stations licensed to Milan are WYNU (92.3 FM) and WAMP (99.1 FM).

In 2006, award winning young adult novelist John Green wrote a novel titled An Abundance of Katherines
An Abundance of Katherines
An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult novel by John Green. Released in 2006, it was a finalist for the Michael L. Printz Award.An appendix explaining some of the more complex equations Colin uses throughout the story was written by Daniel Biss, a close friend to Green.-Plot summary:Colin...

 which took place mainly in Milan, Tennessee.

Notable people

Notable natives and residents of Milan, past and present, include:
  • Turner Barber
    Turner Barber
    Tyrus Turner Barber , was a professional baseball player who played outfielder in the Major Leagues from -. He played for the Washington Senators, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Robins....

    , major league baseball
    Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

     player
  • Gordon Browning
    Gordon Browning
    Gordon Weaver Browning was an American politician who represented Tennessee in the United States Congress and was later Governor of Tennessee from 1937 to 1939 and again from 1949 to 1953.-Biography:...

    , Governor of Tennessee, 1937–1939 and 1949–1953
  • Ben Cantwell
    Ben Cantwell
    Benjamin Caldwell Cantwell was an American major league baseball pitcher from 1927-1937. He was a graduate of the University of Tennessee.-External links:...

    , major league baseball
    Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

     player
  • Kellye Cash
    Kellye Cash
    Kellye Cash-Sheppard from Memphis, Tennessee, was Miss Tennessee 1986 and was crowned Miss America 1987, capturing preliminary honors in both the talent and swimsuit competitions....

    , 1987 Miss America
    Miss America
    The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

     and 1986 Miss Tennessee
    Miss Tennessee
    The Miss Tennessee competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Tennessee in the Miss America pageant.-History:...

     (not a Milan native, but entered the pageant through the local pageant in Milan, and is now a Milan resident)
  • Andy Holt
    Andrew D. Holt
    Andrew David Holt , universally called Andy Holt, was an American educator who was the 16th president of the University of Tennessee, filling that position from 1959 to 1970....

    , president of the University of Tennessee from 1959 to 1970, was born in Milan
  • Buddy Leach, saxophonist with George Thorogood & The Destroyers
    George Thorogood
    George Thorogood is an American blues rock vocalist/guitarist from Wilmington, Delaware, United States, known for his hit song "Bad to the Bone" as well as for covers of blues standards such as Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and John Lee Hooker's "House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One...

  • W. Winfred Moore
    W. Winfred Moore
    William Winfred Moore , the retired pastor of the First Baptist Church of Amarillo, Texas. was president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and, a prominent figure in the Southern Baptist Convention during the second half of the 20th century.-Family and education:Moore was born to the late...

    , Baptist
    Baptist
    Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

     pastor in Amarillo
    Amarillo, Texas
    Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

    , Texas
    Texas
    Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

    , and former vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention
    Southern Baptist Convention
    The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...

  • Jack Parnell, radio personality and widely-heard voice-over
    Voice-over
    Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...

     announcer (and father of former Saturday Night Live
    Saturday Night Live
    Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

     cast member Chris Parnell
    Chris Parnell
    Thomas Christopher "Chris" Parnell is an American comic actor best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998–2006 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Leo Spaceman on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series 30 Rock. Parnell also voices Cyril Figgis on the FX animated comedy...

    )
  • Joe Staton
    Joe Staton
    Joe Staton is an American illustrator and writer of comic books.-Career:Staton started his work with Charlton Comics in 1971 and gained notability as the artist of the super-hero book E-Man...

    , illustrator and writer of comic books
  • Wild Bill Wright, Negro League baseball
    Negro league baseball
    The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

    player

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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