The Grand Divisions are geographic, cultural, and legally recognized regions, each constituting roughly one-third of the State

United States

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

 of 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...

. The Grand Divisions are represented prominently by the three stars on the flag of Tennessee

Flag of Tennessee

The flag of the state of Tennessee consists of an emblem on a field of red, with a strip of blue on the fly. The emblem of the middle consists of three stars on a blue circle. The flag was designed by Colonel LeRoy Reeves of the Tennessee National Guard. The Tennessee State Legislature officially...

. The earliest reference to the Grand Divisions is in The Acts of Tennessee 1835-1836 Chapter 3, "An Act to establish a Supreme Court in pursuance of the 2nd sec., art. 6, of the Constitution of the United States", at which time the boundaries were roughly the same as they are now.
The three grand divisions, East

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

, Middle

Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....

, and West Tennessee

West Tennessee

West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the State of Tennessee. Of the three, it is the one that is most sharply defined geographically. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River on the west and the Tennessee River on the east...

, are geographically and culturally distinct.

East Tennessee is dominated by the Appalachian mountain chain, including the Great Smoky Mountains

Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the...

 on the eastern border of the state, the ridge-and-valley

Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from southeastern New York through northwestern New...

 region where East Tennessee's principal cities are located, and the rugged Cumberland Mountains

Cumberland Mountains

The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains...

.