It is also home to the Northwest Correctional Complex, a maximum security prison, known for once housing mass murderer Jessie Dotson.

[1] Tiptonville was the scene of the surrender of Confederate forces at the end of the 1862 Battle of Island Number Ten in the American Civil War.

The monument for this battle is located on State Route 22 approximately three miles north of Tiptonville, since the island itself, the focal point of the battle, has been eroded by the flow of the Mississippi River and no longer exists.

Whites speculated that the blaze, which burned 30 buildings and residences, including all of the stores on the main street, had been deliberately set by African Americans in reprisal for Fitzgerald's lynching.

This line connected Dyersburg to Hickman, KY, via Tiptonville, and began operating in 1910.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2), all land.