Cowan Railroad Museum

Cowan dates from the mid-19th century and grew up mostly as a railroad town — the place where several branch lines met the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway's main Nashville-to-Chattanooga trunk at the western base of the Cumberland Plateau. Because Cowan was the last stop before the steep climb onto the plateau through the important Cowan Tunnel, the railroad based pusher engines here to help trains up the grade, a practice that continues on the CSX line to this day. The town's economy declined along with the railroad's importance after U.S. Route 41A was built in the 1940s, but its 1904 passenger depot survived and was restored as the Cowan Railroad Museum, now a focal point of the downtown area beside the tracks where US 41A crosses the CSX main.