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Smith-county-courthouse-tn1Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0
COutdoors
Outdoors in Carthage

96% of residents live within a half mile of a park in Carthage

0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Carthage. 18 acres are parks and preserves, 7.5 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Conserved land
under 1%
8 acres · of 2.9 sq mi of land
Trails
0.1 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
18 ac
7.5 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
96%
of residents within ½ mile
Bike routes
0.4 mi
0.4 mi paths

What kind of outdoors town is Carthage?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Carthage have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Carthage is ahead of 32% of U.S. towns. The share of residents near a park holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.

C
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Carthage’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 32%
LessMore

Few Tennessee towns conserve much land (a typical one, 1%; the U.S., 4%), so Carthage’s under 1% is ahead of 19% of Tennessee towns, while its trails per square mile lead 20% of them.

NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Carthage. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C+. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Who protects it

8 conserved acres

under 1% of Carthage’s land. Who manages Carthage’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Town or city8 ac
Local Park · 8 ac
The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Carthage City Park
Local Park
Town or city5Open
Carthage Boat Ramp Park
Local Park
Town or city3Open
Things to do

1 places to go in Carthage

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Playgrounds in Carthage

1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.

Biking & sports

0.4 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

0.4 mi
off-road bike paths
Courts & fields
3Baseball
2Basketball
1Football

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

6 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Smith County CourthouseBuilding · listed 1979
About it
Cullum MansionBuilding · listed 1983
About it
Davis-Hull HouseBuilding · listed 1983
About it
Carthage United Methodist ChurchBuilding · listed 1985
About it
Fite-Williams-Ligon HouseBuilding · listed 2003
About it
Hull, Cordell, BridgeStructure · listed 2009
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Carthage: April and May

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.910.811.913.114.114.614.413.512.411.210.29.7
High (°F)485361727986908983736151
Rain (in)4.54.95.04.74.84.84.83.93.63.43.85.2

October is the driest month (3.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 90 °F). 5.2 inches fall in December, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 90 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Carthage →

Questions about parks and trails in Carthage

How much of Carthage is conserved land?

under 1% of its land, against a typical 1% for a Tennessee town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Where can I bike in Carthage?

0.4 miles of bike routes are on the map: 0.4 of off-road paths.

Is there public land near Carthage?

1,655 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Carthage or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 18 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Carthage have?

Ahead of 32% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Carthage neighbors.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →