CORNERSVILLE, Tenn. — When Dolly Parton’s Tennessean Travel Stop opened its doors June 24 along a stretch of Middle Tennessee highway, the first thing visitors saw wasn’t the on-site restaurant or the dog park or the gift store. It was Britt Flood’s mural — nearly 40 feet wide and more than 13 feet tall — wrapping the space in two Tennessees at once.
On one side: the rolling pastures and wide-open sky of Middle Tennessee horse country. On the other: the ridge-line silhouettes of the Great Smoky Mountains, the landscape Parton herself came from. At the center, a butterfly — what Flood describes as “joyful, generous, tough and tender” — holds the two worlds together.
Flood, a Southern painter who earned her BFA from Appalachian State University and has spent years hiking and painting the mountain landscapes of the region, said the mural is designed to feel participatory.
“The mural comes alive when someone steps into its center, held and enveloped within the wings, the mountains and the rhythm of the piece — an open embrace for all of us just traveling through,” she said
The commission was organized by DMA-events, a Tullahoma-based nonprofit that has placed more than 80 large-scale murals in rural Southern communities since 2018. For DMA president and co-founder Kristin Luna, the project carried personal weight.
“As a Tennessee native, Dolly has always played a huge role in my cultural identity,” Luna said. “Being so closely involved with this project was a pinch-me moment indeed.”
The travel stop itself — billed as a flagship location — is designed as something more than a fuel stop. The facility includes a restaurant, coffee shop, gift store, dog park and lawn games, part of an effort to create what the developers describe as a destination for both professional drivers and road-tripping families.
DMA-events has operated since May 2018 as a 501(c)(3) with a focus on bringing free public art to rural communities across the South. In 2021, the organization’s Walls for Women program received the Daughters of the American Revolution’s state public relations and media award.
Cornersville is located in Marshall County, roughly 43 miles west of Lynchburg on U.S. 31. •
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