You're listening to Sixteenth Avenue performed by Lacy J. Dalton. Few songs have so accurately described the lives of musicians and songwriters in Nashville. So here's to the boys who make the noise - on Sixteenth Avenue!

The area that is now occupied by the city of Nashville was occupied by people of the Mississippian Culture for thousands of years. At some point, these people disappeared from the region. The Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw peoples occupied the area prior to the arrival of European settlers.

In the 1541, Hernando de Soto’s Spanish expedition traveled through the area, but it wasn’t until sometime between 1710 and 1720 that the Europeans attempted to build here. French fur trapper Charles Charleville of New Orleans built a trading post on a low hill near present day Nashville. In time, others came. Considerable business was conducted with the Native Americans of the region, but by 1740 neither the trading posts nor the Europeans remained. The French had named the area “French Lick.”

A French-Canadian hunter named Timothy Demonbreun built a cabin in the area in 1769. Due to a nearby sulphur spring, the area became known as “Sulphur Dell.” Demonbreun used this cabin as his base of operations when he was trapping fur in the area. At that time, Tennessee was a county in North Carolina.

Ten years later, in 1779, two-hundred settlers, led by James Robertson and John Donelson, arrived from Watauga, North Carolina to establish a settlement and fort on the Cumberland River. These families constructed Fort Nashborough, named after Revolutionary War hero, Francis Nash. In 1784, the settlement was renamed Nashville and was incorporated as a town by the North Carolina legislature.

In 1796, North Carolina ceded Tennessee to the federal government and it was admitted into the Union as the state of Tennessee. In 1806, Nashville was chartered as a city. On October 7, 1843, it was selected to be Tennessee's permanent capital.

In 1814, John Donelson's son-in-law, General Andrew Jackson, led a force against British troops at New Orleans and won. He was later involved in politics and became the 7th president of the U.S. He owned a plantation, the Hermitage, from 1804 until his death in 1845.

Tennessee joined the Confederates States of America on June 24, 1861. It was the last southern state to secede from the Union. Nashville immediately became a primary target due to its importance as a shipping port on the Cumberland River and the importance of being the state capital. On February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson fell to Union forces. Before the end of the month, Nashville was occupied by the Union.

On December 2, 1864, the Confederate Army arrived south of Nashville and set up fortifications. On December 15, the larger Union force attacked the Confederate force, sending it southward toward the Tennessee River.

NOTE: During the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Nashville. He was lodged at the Maxwell House Hotel, one of the finest hotels in Nashville. The owner, Joel Cheek served his own special blend of coffee to his guests. After finishing a cup of Cheek's coffee blend, the president remarked that it was "good to the last drop!" In time, Cheek sold his coffee blend to General Foods, who took note of the president's words.

The worst train wreck in America's history occurred at Dutchman's Curve, near Nashville on July 9, 1918.

By 1925, Nashville already had a thriving publishing industry when the WSM radio station’s Barn Dance was first aired on October 18, 1925. It was a 60 minute show. Under its original name, Barn Dance, the Grand Ol' Opry had arrived and the future of Nashville was expanding again.