Chuckey is an unincorporated community in Greene 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...

. It is located on the Nolichucky River

Nolichucky River

The Nolichucky River is a major stream draining the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee. The river is long.-Hydrography:...

, from which its name is derived. The community is the site of a 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...

 and is assigned 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...

 37641.

The defunct East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad formerly had a station in Chuckey. The current brick train depot, built by the Southern Railway

Southern Railway (US)

The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...

 in 1906, is listed 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...

. Several farms in Chuckey that date from the community's earliest settlement in the 18th century are included in the Earnest Farms Historic District

Earnest Farms Historic District

The Earnest Farms Historic District is a historic district consisting of four historic farms and associated structures near the community of Chuckey in Greene County, Tennessee, USA...

, also listed on the National Register.

The first U.S. truffle orchard to successfully produce commercial quantities of culinary-quality black Périgord truffles is located in Chuckey. Tom Michaels, who had written a Ph.D thesis on truffle cultivation, started cultivating truffles in the area in 2000 after observing that the area's limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 soil was similar to the soil of the Périgord

Périgord

The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...

 region of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where black truffles are native. In 2007, the first year that truffles were harvested from the orchard, it included 2,500 hazelnut

Hazelnut

A hazelnut is the nut of the hazel and is also known as a cob nut or filbert nut according to species. A cob is roughly spherical to oval, about 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm in diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell. A filbert is more elongated, being about twice...

 trees growing on 20 acres (8 hectares) of land. Thirty pounds (14 kilograms) of truffles were produced in the first year.

In the 1890s and early 1900s, Chuckey was home to aviation pioneer Edward Chalmers Huffaker (1856–1937). Trained as an engineer, Huffaker's 1895 paper, "The Value of Curved Surfaces in Flight," gained the attention of aviation enthusiast Octave Chanute

Octave Chanute

Octave Chanute was a French-born American railway engineer and aviation pioneer. He provided the Wright brothers with help and advice, and helped to publicize their flying experiments. At his death he was hailed as the father of aviation and the heavier-than-air flying machine...

, who helped Huffaker secure employment at the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. Huffaker worked with the Wright brothers

Wright brothers

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...

 at Kitty Hawk

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,000 at the 2000 census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk....

in 1901, but left after only one month due to consistent disagreement.