Brushy Mountain was the last place you wanted to be – right in the heart of Tennessee's first maximum-security prison, which had been housing the state's most violent murderers, robbers, and rapists for more than a century. Most of the men that came through its gates would never walk out, with some sentences of 200 years or more. Come see for yourself what life was like at the End of the Line for lost souls.

At Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, who was a well-known inmate?

Brushy Mountain has a fascinating history, but it is perhaps best known as the prison where Martin Luther King Jr.'s killer, James Earl Ray, was held. With its days as a prison behind it, the old prison is undergoing a transformation... and it includes whiskey.

At Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, what was filmed?

There were sequences from "The Green Mile," "Walk the Line," and country singers like Eric Church filmed there. The prison was formerly thought to be a filmmaker's dream because of its castle-like structure, but its degradation made it too dangerous for production companies to use.

Brushy Mountain was closed for what reason?

After a walkout by prison guards protesting unsafe working conditions, the jail was closed in 1972. In 1976, it reopened. Brushy Mountain was the state's sole unionized prison. The union collaborated with state legislators to improve working conditions for correctional officers around the state.