Grinder's Switch

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Grinder's Switch is a real location just outside of Centerville, Tennessee, which consists of little more than the eponymous railroad switch. It was also the fictional hometown of Minnie Pearl, but those who knew her knew that the characters were largely based on real residents of Centerville.

So much unwarranted traffic to Grinder's Switch looking for the hometown Pearl described was generated by tourists following the road sign that the Hickman County Highway Department was finally motivated to change the designation on the sign to "Hickman Springs Road."

A "Grinder's Switch" theme park for the area has been proposed, with promoters going so far as to move the former railroad depot of Slayden, Tennessee to the area to serve as one of its buildings, but little more seems to have been done in regard to developing the park to this point.