Arkansas State University
Johnny Cash Boyhood Home tour
Dyess, Arkansas · Mon–Sat, on the hour 9am–3pm · adults $25
A short film at the visitors centre, the colony’s Administration Building, then the farmhouse restored to the 1930s.
Plan a visitHe took down Morse for the Air Force. Tap the key to send his name.
Dyess · Landsberg · Memphis · Nashville · Folsom · 1950s–60s
Johnny
Cash
From a cotton colony to the last stage. Every place on the tape is one you can stand in.
Cotton country
Born in the pines.
Raised on the colony.
Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland on 26 February 1932. When he was three, the family moved to Dyess, in Mississippi County.
March 1935
Load the truck
Kingsland to Dyess, the whole family. Tap each child aboard.
Nobody aboard yet.
- 1932
Kingsland
The town’s water tower carries a silhouette of him, and since 4 January 2025 the post office has been the Kingsland Johnny Cash Post Office.
Old US 79 at Kingsland, Arkansas, 2016. Valis55 · CC BY-SA 4.0 A small town you can drive through any day: look for his silhouette on the water tower and his name on the post office.
Signal log
- 1935
Dyess Colony
Dyess Colony was set up in 1934 as a federal resettlement community for farm families. Ray and Carrie Cash moved there in March 1935 with five children: Roy, 13; Louise, 11; Jack, 5; J. R., 3; and Reba, 1.
The colony’s Administration Building, 2007. Jkschriwer · Public domain Signal log
- 1950
Leaving
Johnny Cash lived in Dyess until he finished high school in 1950. Arkansas State University bought the house in 2011 and restored it to how it looked in the 1930s; the tour also takes in the colony’s Administration Building.
The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, Dyess, 2020. Shobhi28 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Monday to Saturday, tours on the hour from 9am to 3pm, starting at the Dyess Colony Visitors Center, 110 Center Drive. Adults $25; over-65s and military $20; ages 5–17 $10.
The listening post
Landsberg, 1951.
Key it in.
From 1951 to 1954 Cash served at Landsberg as an Air Force Morse code interceptor. His places come in the same way: 13 transmissions, in the order of his life. Tap the key for a dot, hold it for a dash. Get the call sign right and the place decodes.
Why Morse
Frequencies
TX 01DECODED
Decoded KINGSLAND: Kingsland, Arkansas.
Cleveland County, Arkansas · 26 February 1932
Kingsland, Arkansas
Johnny Cash is born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland on 26 February 1932.
When he was three, the family moved to Dyess, in Mississippi County.
A small town you can drive through any day: look for his silhouette on the water tower and his name on the post office.
Signal log
“Folsom Prison Blues”
Written 9,270 km
from the prison.
He saw the documentary Inside Folsom Prison at the base cinema and wrote “Folsom Prison Blues”. Landsberg and the Folsom Prison museum are 9,270 km apart as the crow flies, measured between their mapped positions.
Landsberg am Lech
He bought a guitar in a shop off the base and started his first band, the Landsberg Barbarians.
Stars and Stripes reported in 2018 that the old base was by then a German air force base.
The old town is open to everyone; the air base outside it is not.
Signal log
The Johnny Cash Trail
The City of Folsom opened the 2.5-mile trail on 14 October 2017. It runs between the historic district and Folsom Lake along the edge of the prison grounds, with eight art pieces planned.
Signal log
San Quentin, a year later
On 24 February 1969 Cash played the prison’s north dining hall. He sang a new song, “San Quentin”, and told the men he had been there three times before.
A working prison: not open to visitors.
Signal log
CDCR
Folsom Prison’s Big House Museum
Folsom, California · Weekends 10am–4pm · $2
A volunteer-run museum in an old warden’s house outside the prison walls, reopened in July 2026.
Read the detailsFifth Avenue North
Three nights
at the Ryman.
The Ryman opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, and was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974.
1969–71 · The Johnny Cash Show
He tapes and hosts his television show at the Ryman.
He chose to tape and host The Johnny Cash Show at the Ryman; it ran from 1969 to 31 March 1971.
Tours daily 9am–4pm. Self-guided $25 plus tax; guided backstage $42.52 plus tax.
Signal log
Downtown: the museum
His friends Shannon and Bill Miller opened the museum in downtown Nashville in 2013. It holds things from his Hendersonville home and from the old House of Cash museum.
Daily 9am–7pm. General admission $32.95 plus tax; allow about an hour.
Signal log
Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium tours
Nashville · Daily 9am–4pm · self-guided $25 + tax
Self-guided or backstage, through the hall where he taped his television show.
Book a tourUnion Station Hotel
Union Station Nashville Yards
1001 Broadway, Nashville
The old railway station on Broadway, now a 125-room hotel with its granite walls and arched windows intact. Not a Cash address; a base for the Ryman and the museum. Pictured: the Ryman.
Check roomsContact sheet
Sam, June, the band
and the first fans.
Johnny Cash signing for young fansCash Box · September 1957
Sam Phillips1955
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three1963
Sun Studio, Memphis
Sun Records’ Sam Phillips turned down his gospel songs and told him to come back with a song he could sell. “Cry! Cry! Cry!”, with “Hey Porter” on the other side, came out on 21 June 1955; Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant, the Tennessee Two, played on it.
Open daily for 40-minute guided tours, 10am to 5.15pm. Adults $20, students $18, ages 5–11 $15.
Signal log
Sun Studio
Sun Studio tour
Memphis · Daily 10am–5.15pm · adults $20
Forty minutes inside the studio whose label put out his first single.
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Hiltons, Virginia
5 July 2003.
The last show.
Johnny Cash gave his last public performance here on 5 July 2003. June Carter Cash had died on 15 May 2003; on stage he said her spirit was with him that night.
A.P. Carter’s daughter Janette Carter founded the music centre in 1979; A.P.’s cabin was moved to a spot a few steps from the hall.
Saturday shows, February to November, 7.30–10pm; tickets free to $26 depending on the act. A.P. Carter’s cabin and the Carter Family museum are on the site.
Signal log
The Bristol Hotel
The Bristol Hotel
Bristol, Virginia
A 65-room hotel in a 1925 arcade building on Country Music Way, next door to the Birthplace of Country Music museum; room keys let you in. A base for a Saturday night at the Fold. Pictured: the Carter Family Fold.
Check roomsHendersonville
A fireplace by the lake.
Two graves side by side.
The house on Old Hickory Lake
Johnny and June lived on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville; June called the house their Camelot. Barry Gibb bought it in 2006; on 10 April 2007 it burned down while being renovated, leaving only a fireplace standing.
Private land: not open, and not on the map.
Signal log
Hendersonville Memory Gardens
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash are buried here; so is Luther Perkins. Their markers carry their signatures and a psalm each: his is Psalm 19:14, hers Psalm 103:1.
Open 24 hours. The graves are open to the public.
Signal log
The Hideaway Farm, Bon Aqua
The farm was his private retreat, his hideaway; its present owners bought it in 2015 and restored it. The farm and the general store he owned, a little over 40 miles south-west of Nashville, have been restored.
Saturdays 11am–3pm without booking; Tuesday to Friday by appointment on (931) 996-4336. The Storytellers Museum is down the road at 9676 Old Highway 46.
Signal log
··· –·– End of transmission.
Where it is now
11 places you can visit, and San Quentin, which you can only see from outside. The lake house in Hendersonville was private and is gone: it is named here, not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A small town you can drive through any day: look for his silhouette on the water tower and his name on the post office.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Monday to Saturday, tours on the hour from 9am to 3pm, starting at the Dyess Colony Visitors Center, 110 Center Drive. Adults $25; over-65s and military $20; ages 5–17 $10.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open daily for 40-minute guided tours, 10am to 5.15pm. Adults $20, students $18, ages 5–11 $15.
Old US 79 at Kingsland, Arkansas, 2016. Valis55 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Cleveland County, Arkansas
Kingsland, Arkansas
Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland on 26 February 1932.
A small town you can drive through any day: look for his silhouette on the water tower and his name on the post office.
Signal log
The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, Dyess, 2020. Shobhi28 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Dyess, Mississippi County, Arkansas
The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, Dyess
Dyess Colony was set up in 1934 as a federal resettlement community for farm families.
Monday to Saturday, tours on the hour from 9am to 3pm, starting at the Dyess Colony Visitors Center, 110 Center Drive. Adults $25; over-65s and military $20; ages 5–17 $10.
Signal log
Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, 2006. David Jones · CC BY 2.0 Union Avenue, Memphis
Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue
Sun Records’ Sam Phillips turned down his gospel songs and told him to come back with a song he could sell.
Open daily for 40-minute guided tours, 10am to 5.15pm. Adults $20, students $18, ages 5–11 $15.
Signal log
Stay
A bed near the stage.
A railway hotel on Broadway for the Ryman and the museum; a 1925 arcade in Bristol for a Saturday at the Fold.
Union Station Hotel
Union Station Nashville Yards
1001 Broadway, Nashville
The old railway station on Broadway, now a 125-room hotel with its granite walls and arched windows intact. Not a Cash address; a base for the Ryman and the museum. Pictured: the Ryman.
Check roomsThe Bristol Hotel
The Bristol Hotel
Bristol, Virginia
A 65-room hotel in a 1925 arcade building on Country Music Way, next door to the Birthplace of Country Music museum; room keys let you in. A base for a Saturday night at the Fold. Pictured: the Carter Family Fold.
Check roomsGo there
Walk in.
Dyess, Sun, the Ryman, the museum, the Folsom museum and the farm at Bon Aqua.
Arkansas State University
Johnny Cash Boyhood Home tour
Dyess, Arkansas · Mon–Sat, on the hour 9am–3pm · adults $25
A short film at the visitors centre, the colony’s Administration Building, then the farmhouse restored to the 1930s.
Plan a visitSun Studio
Sun Studio tour
Memphis · Daily 10am–5.15pm · adults $20
Forty minutes inside the studio whose label put out his first single.
Plan a visitRyman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium tours
Nashville · Daily 9am–4pm · self-guided $25 + tax
Self-guided or backstage, through the hall where he taped his television show.
Book a tour
Johnny Cash Museum
The Johnny Cash Museum
Nashville · Daily 9am–7pm · $32.95 + tax
Self-guided, about an hour, with things from the Hendersonville house.
Book ticketsCDCR
Folsom Prison’s Big House Museum
Folsom, California · Weekends 10am–4pm · $2
A volunteer-run museum in an old warden’s house outside the prison walls, reopened in July 2026.
Read the details
The Hideaway Farm
The Hideaway Farm
Bon Aqua, Tennessee · Saturdays 11am–3pm · weekdays by booking
His private retreat in Hickman County, restored, with the farmhouse open to visitors.
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Saturday nights at the Fold.
The stage of his last show still has music most Saturdays until the season ends in November.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Posters, books and records.
An original Fillmore poster from our store, his own book and Hilburn’s, and the two prison albums.
Printed Originals · Our poster store
Johnny Cash — The Fillmore (1994)
An original 1994 Fillmore concert poster with art by Randy Tuten, mint.
Available framed
View poster
Printed Originals · Our poster store
Walk the Line (2005)
An original poster for the 2005 film of his life, art by Shepard Fairey.
Sold out · archive reference
View poster
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Cash: The Autobiography
Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
His own account, Dyess to Hendersonville.
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Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!
Johnny Cash · LP, Sun, 1957
His 1957 LP for Sun.
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At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash · LP, Columbia, 1968
Recorded over two shows on 13 January 1968.
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At San Quentin
Johnny Cash · LP, CBS, 1969
The north dining hall, 24 February 1969.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The full log
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Kingsland, Arkansas
Cleveland County, Arkansas
Born
Johnny Cash is born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, Dyess
Dyess, Mississippi County, Arkansas
The colony
The Cash family moves to Dyess Colony with five children.
Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria
Landsberg am Lech, Germany
The intercepts
An Air Force Morse code interceptor sees a film about Folsom Prison and writes “Folsom Prison Blues”.
Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue
Union Avenue, Memphis
The first single
Sun releases “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Hey Porter”.
The Ryman Auditorium
Fifth Avenue North, Nashville
Backstage
He makes his Opry debut and meets June Carter backstage.
The Johnny Cash Show
He tapes and hosts his television show at the Ryman.
The circle
Johnny and June sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” at the Opry’s last Ryman broadcast.
The Johnny Cash Museum
119 Third Avenue South, Nashville
The museum
Friends open the Johnny Cash Museum in downtown Nashville.
Folsom Prison and its Big House Museum
Folsom, California
At Folsom Prison
Two shows at Folsom Prison become a live album.
The Johnny Cash Trail, Folsom
Folsom, California
San Quentin
Marin County, California
At San Quentin
He plays the north dining hall at San Quentin and sings “San Quentin” to the men inside.
The Carter Family Fold
A.P. Carter Highway, Hiltons, Virginia
The last show
His last public performance, at the Carter Family Fold.
The house on Old Hickory Lake
Hendersonville, Tennessee
The fire
The lake house burns down during renovation.
Hendersonville Memory Gardens
353 East Main Street, Hendersonville
Beside June
Johnny and June Carter Cash are buried side by side in Hendersonville.
The Hideaway Farm, Bon Aqua
Old Highway 46, Hickman County, Tennessee