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University of Tennessee has a Body Farm, but what actually happens there? | Know Your Knox

In 1994, when Patricia Cornwell published her best-selling mystery novel "The Body Farm," few people outside Tennessee had ever heard the term, let alone knew what a "body farm" was.

The Body Farm − the name commonly used for the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility − was the first of its kind to permit systematic study of human decomposition and had been in existence for just 13 years.

The facility initially wasn't greeted with public approval, sparking a brief protest in Knoxville in 1985 when the public discovered that human remains were being studied there.

"A curious child could get in there and see the bodies and have nightmares for months," one protester complained to a Knoxville News Sentinel reporter. "Moreover, who is to say a fly won't go from here to your sandwich?"

These days, of course, UT's Body Farm has been enshrined in the public's imagination, and not just as the location where Cornwell's detective Kay Scarpetta discovers the truth about a murder victim. It has been featured prominently in innumerable novels and TV series.

And the Anthropology Research Facility's mission now has been replicated by multiple universities across the country and internationally.

Inside the 'Body Farm': Forensics professor's Body Farm work is 'way grosser' but meaningful

What actually happens at the Body Farm?

The Body Farm consists of a couple of fenced South Knoxville acres where donated bodies decay under controlled situations that often mimic the fate of crime victims. A body might be buried in a shallow grave or put in a vehicle. Scientists study how bodies decompose and train law enforcement officers about situations they could see on their jobs.

"Knowing how a human body decomposes allows us to estimate how long someone has been dead," the center's website says. "Time since death is one of the first things an investigator tries to figure out since this helps in identifying the possible perpetrator and victim."

The FBI has trained agents at the Body Farm for nearly 25 years in order to better understand the intricacies of investigating outdoor crime scenes.

Sifting for evidence: FBI trains at UT ‘body farm’

After a body has decomposed, its bones remain. That's when the skeleton is cleaned, inventoried and labeled. It’s packed in a 3.5-foot-long cardboard box and moved to the  W. M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection  at UT’s Strong Hall.

Who founded the Body Farm and why?

As the founder and driving force behind the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Bass is renowned for developing evidence-based techniques that have helped solve thousands of cases.

When Bass came to UT in 1971, forensic science was a relatively new field. Not long after he arrived at UT, Bass was asked by Shelby County Medical Examiner Jerry Francisco to serve as a state forensic anthropologist consultant.

“I began to get dead bodies and there was nowhere to put them,” he told Knox News, remembering when a patrol vehicle arrived with the first human body. Some space was eventually found at the UT Holston Farm in East Knox County, where bodies were placed for study in decomposition to help in both academia and crime investigations.

Bass and his graduate students in 1981 built the world’s first outdoor research facility to study what happens to human bodies after death. The site behind UT Hospital sparked protests from a group calling itself SICK (Solutions to Issues of Concern to Knoxvillians) when became publicly known in 1985. The Forensic Anthropology Center was opened at the farm in 1987.

Bass has written a series set there with the help of journalist Jon Jefferson. The two men, writing under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass, created a crime fiction series featuring anthropologist Bill Brockton that is 12 novels strong.

Why did Patricia Cornwell choose to feature the Body Farm in her mystery series?

Cornwell wrote in a foreword to a new edition of "The Body Farm" that her character, Kay Scarpetta, created a whole new genre of crime fiction: the forensic thriller.

"I knew about the Body Farm ... long before I wrote about it," Cornwell said in the foreword. "I had heard about this unique decay research facility back in the '80s when I was still working for the Virginia Medical Examiner. I actually conducted an experiment at the Body Farm to determine a possible and unusual post-mortem change to a dead body."

That experiment, she said, ended up as a plot point in "The Body Farm."

Cornwell came to the Body Farm in July 1993 as part of her research for the novel, getting a guided tour of the facility from Bass.

"Knoxville will be the setting for my new book," she told a News Sentinel reporter, adding that Scarpetta "will be making her pilgrimage to this mecca."

Can the public visit the Body Farm?

The Body Farm does not offer tours to its research facility.

"If we honored all requests for tours, we would be unable to conduct any research," the Body Farm's website says. "Also, having too many visitors would compromise the research we do conduct."

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Where do the bodies come from?

Until 2010, the program took unclaimed bodies donated by medical examiners. Now, all bodies are donated. Some people sign to donate their bodies upon their death and thousands of "pre-donors" are on that list. Other times, families donate a relative's body.

How can you donate your body to the Body Farm?

The Department of Anthropology receives more than 100 body donations a year; all donations are placed at the  Anthropology Research Facility , with the remains eventually stored in the  UTK Donated Skeletal Collection .

When someone seeks to donate a body, preregistration and infectious disease status are checked first. Then the center places calls to doctors and hospitals to request medical records. If everything checks out, a two-person team of graduate students drives to retrieve donations within 100 miles of Knoxville.

The Forensic Anthropology Center's website has an entire section on how to donate bodies , including frequently asked questions.

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The Body Farm: What the Bones Reveal

Evening lecture/seminar, select your tickets.

A student excavates a shallow grave at the body farm in Knoxville, Tennessee

Please Note: This online program will not be recorded. It also has a rescheduled date (originally August 24, 2023).

To many people, a skeleton is just a hopeless pile of bones. But to a forensic anthropologist, skeletal remains pulled from a forest or desert or out of mass graves are the key to identifying a unique individual and even how and when they died. And nowhere else do they get a better sense of the whys and hows of decomposition than at the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, aka the body farm. It is here that donated bodies decompose under every imaginable circumstance: left in the open air, the woods, or shallow graves submerged in water; locked in the trunks of cars; and concealed beneath concrete. The purpose is straightforward: to allow scientists to determine exactly how and when a real-life murder victim died. The database created from this research is an invaluable tool for law enforcement officials.

Dawnie Wolfe Steadman , the director of the Forensic Anthropology Center, digs into how forensic anthropologists from around the world study these bodies.

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The Body Farm

Atlas obscura.

Calling William K. Bass's center for forensic observation a "farm" is, in a lot of ways a bit of a misnomer. Rather than growing any particular product, this farm is focused on how organic materials break down and decompose. Specifically, human cadavers.

Behind the University of Tennessee, a little outside of Knoxville, there's a 2.5 acre plot of land surrounded by a razor wire fence. This is the body farm, where forensic scientists and researchers learn about human decomposition. When William K. Bass first opened his center to study human remains in 1981, he had one dead body and a 16 square foot cage. By 2007, the farm had over 150 decaying specimen - many donated to the farm by interested volunteers. The bodies are placed in a range of scenarios to simulate various crime scenes. Clothed dead bodies, naked dead bodies, dead bodies underwater, dead bodies in cars, the list goes on. Bass's work on the Body Farm has revolutionized the field of forensic anthropology.

In addition to the extensive, ever-growing research, the Farm also possesses one of the largest collections of modern skeletal remains in the world, with over 700 in total and an additional 1000 future bodies willed to the project.

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Visiting Tennessee's 'Body Farm'

Peter Breslow

At the University of Tennessee there is a patch of land where human bodies are allowed to decompose in the open air for the sake of science. It's called The Body Farm and the man behind it is a jovial 75-year-old professor named Dr. Bill Bass, who has recently published a book about his exploits called, Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab, The Body Farm, Where the Dead Do Tell Tales , co-written with Jon Jefferson. NPR's Peter Breslow profiles forensic anthropologist Bill Bass and the University of Tennessee's forensic program.

Dr. Bill Bass, the man behind the University of Tennesee at Knoxville's "Body Farm." Peter Breslow, NPR hide caption

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Tennessee's Body Farm: A Journey to the Forensic Land of the Dead

The dead do tell tales...

• Photo Credit: Fuatagabey / iStock

What happens when we die? While the metaphysical version of that question may still be up for debate, we now know a lot more about the practical, physical aspects of what happens to our bodies after death, thanks to so-called “body farms” like the one in Knoxville, Tennessee, officially known as the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Center.

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What is the Body Farm?

• Photo Credit: FBI / YouTube

Simply put, a “body farm” is a research facility where human bodies are left out in the open to decay under natural circumstances. Forensic scientists and anthropologists can then study the process of decay in order to provide better scientific insights into what happens to our bodies when we die , in what order, and under what conditions.

This has obvious benefits in helping police solve homicides. Thanks to body farms like the one in Tennessee, coroners are better able to establish time and even cause of death, but solving crimes isn’t the only way that body farms help the living.

Related: 9 Engrossing Books About the Science of Death  

As a result of insights gained from observing human decomposition under a variety of conditions, we can also better date historical finds, which has led to improvements in forensic anthropology and archaeology. Body farms have helped us to identify the victims of genocide, to verify historical sites, and even find bodies of missing persons.

It turns out that, when a body decays, it creates what’s known as a “necrobiome”—a sort of short-term food chain in which the bacteria that feed upon the decaying body are, in turn, fed upon by insects which become food for mice which attract snakes and so on. Decaying bodies also produce certain chemicals in a certain order, and so finding those chemicals can help searchers to locate bodies.

How did the Body Farm get started?

The origin of the Body Farm in Tennessee traces back to one Dr. William Bass. In 1977, Dr. Bass of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville was called in to consult on a peculiar case. It seemed that the grave of a Civil War-era soldier, Col. William Shy, had been disturbed. Police found a headless body, dressed in a fine suit, sitting on top of the colonel’s iron coffin. At the top of the coffin was a hole, and the colonel’s body appeared to be gone.

Related: Necromancy: The Dark History of Raising the Dead  

Dr. Bass wasn’t particularly surprised by this, as the grave was more than a hundred years old, and bodies this old that are buried in the Tennessee soil tend to be reduced to nothing more than a “layer of goo.” The extra body that was found on top of the coffin, on the other hand, was decayed, certainly, but some of the flesh was still pink. Dr. Bass concluded that the body had been dead for no more than a year.

The initial assumption was that someone had attempted to hide a fresh body in the grave of the Civil War hero. There was only one problem—further tests indicated that this “fresh” body was, in fact, that of Col. William Shy, a man who had been dead for more than a century. So, what was the explanation?

Because of his wealth and status, Col. Shy had been embalmed upon his death, that was step one. Step two was the iron coffin, which had effectively sealed the body in and the elements out, preventing the worst of a century of decay. It wasn’t until grave robbers disturbed the corpse that much of the damage was done.

Related: 13 True Crime Books for Fans of Mindhunter  

There was one mystery solved, but it made Dr. Bass realize that our methods of dating the decomposition of bodies was desperately in need of an update. That’s what prompted him to start the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility in 1981, though he had actually initiated a Body Farm project there years before, in 1972. Dr. Bass has penned multiple books about the Body Farm and his career in forensics, including Death's Acre and Beyond the Body Farm . 

In the decades since, the facility has helped to train members of NCIS and the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team, to name just a few. Since the start of the Tennessee Body Farm, others have cropped up. Seven such facilities exist in the United States, stretching from Colorado Mesa University to the University of South Florida. The largest such facility in the United States is the 26-acre Body Farm at Texas State University’s Freeman Ranch. By comparison, the Tennessee Body Farm is 2.5 acres surrounded by a razor-wire fence.

What happens at the Body Farm?

Prior to the advent of the Body Farm, most forensic research was conducted on pig carcasses. Pigs are physiologically more similar to humans than many other readily-available animals, but the intricacies of decomposition vary considerably from a human to a pig, and there were many things that researchers were unable to learn with access to actual human cadavers.

Related: 15 Ann Rule Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down  

At the Body Farm, human corpses are left out in the elements under various conditions so that decomposition can be monitored and studied. The process varies slightly depending on where the Body Farm is located and what, exactly, researchers are trying to learn, but the gist is almost always the same: A body is brought in, hair and other samples are collected, and then the body is placed somewhere on the farm.

Sometimes, bodies are left out in the elements, while other times they are put in places where homicide investigators are likely to find them—places like water tanks or the trunks of cars. Some bodies are protected from scavengers using wire cages while others are left to the mercy of nature, so that forensic scientists can see the results under all sorts of conditions.

Related: 33 Books About the World’s Most Notorious Serial Killers  

At any given time, the Body Farm in Tennessee may have around fifty bodies in various states of decomposition, left in various places—always at least a few feet from any of the other bodies. Over the years, Tennessee alone has housed more than 1,800 bodies—not to mention an additional 1,700 skeletons.

What happens to the body once it’s on the Farm depends a little on where and under what conditions it has been placed, but the process of decomposition always follows certain patterns. Study at the various Body Farms around the country has allowed forensic scientists to learn a lot more about how and under what conditions this process of decomposition takes place.

How does the Body Farm get bodies?

One haunting question that comes up whenever we think of the Body Farm is: Where do all those bodies come from? The answer is not so creepy, though. They’re simply donated.

Related: 46 Gripping True Crime Books from the Last 54 Years  

Just as people are organ donors on their death, some people—more than 4,000 according to the University of Tennessee—have donated their bodies for forensic study at the Body Farm. Today, most people—roughly 70%—die in hospitals, nursing homes, or care facilities. Those who have donated their bodies for study can be collected quickly by the Body Farm and put to use aiding science after their death.

“The Body Donation Program is the heart and soul of the Forensic Anthropology Center,” as the website for the University of Tennessee points out. “The donation program enables individuals to contribute to science in a direct and meaningful way.” 

Want more forensics and true crime? Sign up for The Lineup 's newsletter and get our most fascinating investigations delivered straight to your inbox. 

Can I donate my body to the Body Farm?

If you’d like more information on how to donate your body to the Tennessee Body Farm once you’re no longer using it, there is contact information and a donation policy helpfully provided on their website . Who knows? Your body might be the one that helps some investigators solve a murder somewhere down the road. 

Watch this video of FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT) members training at the Tennessee Body Farm:

Feature photo: Fuatagabey / iStock ; All other stills via FBI / YouTube  

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Body Farm tours? - Knoxville Forum

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This post was determined to be inappropriate by the Tripadvisor community and has been removed.

As far as I know, members of the public can't take a tour. But have you seen this?

http://www.jeffersonbass.com/tour-the-body-farm.html

It's probably as close as you'll get. btw, my daughter works at UTMed next door and often parks near the Body Farm. She says that if the wind is blowing the wrong way, she knows what's next door.

Thanks - I work for a funeral home & have seen it all, but find it a fascinating science.

No, they don't.

Why was this deemed inappropriate for Trip Advisor? It is pertinent information for those interested in the subject. Totally flabbergasted at your response

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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This Tennessee Urban Legend Will Keep You Awake At Night - Because It's True

Meghan Kraft

Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.

More by this Author

You’ve probably heard terrible stories: teenagers taking a hike in the woods, wandering a lovers’ lane late at night, and stumbling across a meadow of corpses. Dead men and women, rotting and posed, some that appear tossed about or freshly dead. Serial killer? Nah. Body farm in Tennessee? Yep.

It may not seem too believable, but it’s a real thing. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has a body farm that uses corpses as teaching tools for future scientists. There are only three in the country, located in Cullowhee, North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; and San Marcos, Texas. Tennessee boasts the largest body farm in the country, at two and half acres. For reference, when at capacity, we’re looking at a body farm that holds anywhere from 40 to 50 bodies in a variety of different areas and poses to help students better understand the science of a body’s life after death.

The main point is for future forensic scientists to be able to study body decomposition in a variety of elements. It was implemented into UT studies in 1981, with over one hundred bodies donated to the university on a yearly basis. If you’re looking to drive future students for success AND feed the ever true urban legend of a woodland body farm, now you know where to go.

You may not be sleeping tonight… but, don’t worry. The body farm in Knoxville is surrounded by a razor wire fence, so no one is wandering in – or out – unnoticed.

If for some crazy reason you’re interested in visiting the body farm, sorry to say but you’re in for a disappointment. The Forensic Anthropology Center of Knoxville does not offer tours. This place is for research only, and the families of the donated bodies would probably not appreciate their late loved ones being gawked at. Still, the video offers an interesting insight into this place and the important work that goes into training people studying forensics.

You can learn more about this place by visiting the Forensic Anthropology Center website . And if you’re a fan of stories that give you the creeps, we’ve put together an entire list of other urban legends in Tennessee .

OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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Body farm in tennessee.

What are the creepiest places in Tennessee?

In addition to an actual body farm in Tennessee? Well, if learning about creepy places in Tennessee is of interest to you, here are a few more. There is a mansion in Talbott known as the Frightmare Manor. The name sounds a bit cheesy, and it hosts a haunted house that's considered one of the best in the state. That's not what makes it truly creepy, though. Frightmare Manor was the site of brutal murders by one man to his entire family, and the bodies of many others were found there that may have been some of the missing people of the area. It is theorized that they were all killed by the same man, Jeremiah Lexer. Now that's terrifying!

What other some other Tennessee urban legends?

Interested in more unusual legends and folklore from Tennessee? Here's an entire list of them . Many people have heard of a few of them - such as the Bell Witch Cave - but some may be new to you. Have you heard of the tale of Old Green Eyes, a Civil War soldier whose head was the only thing found of his body? What about The Signal Man, a headless train conductor that roams Chapel Hill? These stories are quite spine-chilling to read, whether or not they are actually true or just myths.

What is the most haunted place in Tennessee?

There are a few strange places in Tennessee that are notorious for possibly being a bit... paranormal. In fact, we've put together an entire Haunted Tennessee Road Trip that'll take you to some of the most ghostly places in the state. The route includes everything from a plantation with a huge graveyard to the infamous Bell Witch Cave. Are you brave enough to take this drive?

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"Fascinating forensics!" — Publishers Weekly

"This series ... just keeps getting better." — Booklist

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Travel back in time with two new prequels!

Turn back the clock and see Dr. Bill Brockton at the beginning of his forensic career - his arrival at the University of Tennessee and his creation of the Body Farm - in two exciting prequels: the e-novella Jordan's Stormy Banks (just 99¢ to download to Kindles, Nooks, iPads, smartphones, and tablets) ... and the gripping, full-length novel Cut to the Bone !

Jordan's Stormy Banks

The beginning — and nearly the end — of Dr. Bill Brockton's career...

In the summer of 1990, Dr. Bill Brockton—a bright, ambitious young forensic scientist—is hired by the University of Tennessee to head, and to raise the profile of, the school's small Anthropology Department. Six months later, the ink on his contract barely dry, Brockton is called to a gruesome crime scene in a rural area to identify a corpse and determine how the woman died. But the case—one of Brockton's first murder investigations in Tennessee—could also prove to be his last when he runs afoul of both the county sheriff and an angry mob intent on administering their own swift, rough brand of "justice." With his back to the wall, Brockton is forced to think fast, talk faster, and hope for a miracle.

Release Date: September 3, 2013 Download the eBook Read an Excerpt

Cut to the Bone

The 8th installment in the Body Farm series!

In the summer of 1992, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee senator Al Gore begin their long-shot campaign to win the White House. On a sweltering hillside in Knoxville, Dr. Bill Brockton, the bright, ambitious young head of the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Department, launches an unusual—some would call it macabre—research facility, unlike any other in existence: the Body Farm, a place where nature is allowed to have its way with flesh and bone, under the watchful eye of scientists.

Brockton is determined to revolutionize the study of forensics to help law enforcement solve homicides. But the scientist's plans are derailed by a chilling murder that leaves him reeling from a sense of déjà vu. Followed by another. And then another: bodies that bear an eerie resemblance to cases from Brockton's past.

The police chalk up the first corpse to coincidence. But as the body count rises, the victims' fatal injuries grow more and more distinctive—a spiral of death that holds dark implications for Brockton himself. If the killer isn't found quickly, the death toll could be staggering. And the list of victims could include Brockton... and everyone he holds dear.

Release Date: September 24, 2013 Buy the Book

See All the Jefferson Bass Novels

Body farm videos.

• New Video: The Bone Thief
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The Body Farm

On the campus of the University of Tennessee lies a patch of ground unlike any in the world. The "Body Farm" is a place where human corpses are left to the elements, and every manner of decay is fully explored—for the sake of science and the cause of justice.

And now, a fascinating new fiction series based on reality...

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