DANDRIDGE, TN - Author Joe Tennis is signing copies of his book featuring the Lost State of Franklin on Saturday, May 2, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Perkins Restaurant of Dandridge, Tennessee.

In Finding Franklin: Mystery of the Lost State Capitol (Backyard Books, $6.99), the Bristol author takes readers on a journey of history and mystery with a comical plot set in Dandridge as well as Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, Greeneville and other parts of East Tennessee.

"Finding Franklin" contains an essay on the history of the State of Franklin plus 20 illustrations. The 96-page book also has six different endings “so it becomes a funny maze,” said Tennis.

The State of Franklin existed from 1784 to 1788 and included what later became Jefferson City, Dandridge and Blount County. It took its name from senior statesman Benjamin Franklin. Jonesborough served as the short-lived state's first capital. By 1785, the capital had moved to Greeneville.

"Finding Franklin" is based on the real-life mystery of the State of Franklin’s capitol building that was torn down in Greeneville in 1897 but somehow got lost while in Nashville. “And the characters think there’s a fortune to be found,” said Tennis, 46.

One plot twist finds the young boys of the book exploring Tennessee's Douglas Lake in a submarine, just outside of Dandridge, while another sends the characters searching for the "silver dollars" of the old Silver Dollar City at Dollywood. The characters also kneel at John Sevier’s final resting place in downtown Knoxville, looking for answers – after, first, getting sidetracked at the World’s Fair Park.

"It’s a crazy farce,” said Tennis, a features writer for the Bristol Herald Courier. “This was written for kids, age 10 or 11, but a lot of adults like the story and all the history in the plot."

The author's other books include "The Marble and Other Ghost Tales of Tennessee and Virginia," "Haunts of Virginia's Blue Ridge Highlands" and "Virginia Rail Trails: Crossing the Commonwealth.

On Saturday, May 2, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Tennis is signing copies of his books at the Dandridge Perkins, 501 Patriot Drive, just off I-40 Exit 417.