Pinson, Tennessee  Pinson is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Tennessee. It lies along U.S. Route 45 between Jackson and Henderson, just north of the Chester County line. State Route 197 also passes through the community. It is included in the Jackson, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is most noteworthy as being the site of the Pinson Mounds, the largest Middle Woodland period Indian mound group in the United States, and the Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park dedicated to their study. Circa 1820, a group of five surveyors, including Joel Pinson and Memucan Hunt Howard, discovered a platform mound while surveying land grants for Colonel Thomas Henderson. The surveyors dubbed the mound Mount Pinson. The complex, built about 500 CE, contains 17 mounds, an earthwork enclosure, and habitation areas. Circa 1866, the town of Pinson was founded near the site of the mounds on land originally belonging to A. S. Rogers. The town was hit by a devastating tornado on March 11, 1923, which destroyed about 50 homes and killed at least 18 people. It has been estimated that the tornado was an F5 on the Fujita scale based on damage reports. The former Pinson High School was one of several consolidated into South Side High School (Jackson, Tennessee) in 1956.