The recent challenges to ‘Save the Bend’
(Editor’s note: Second of two parts)
Several attempts were made over the last century to set aside a park at Moccasin Bend. A 1944 Chattanooga Times editorial affirmed that a park on the Bend could be as great an asset as Central Park for New York City: “Hyde Park for London, the Champs Elysees for Paris, the Prater for Vienna, the Cascine for Florence, the Corso for Rome, or the Prado for Madrid.”
Two attempts were made over the last several decades to establish a national park there. In 1950, Congressman J.B. Frazier successfully sponsored legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives authorizing the addition of up to 1,400 acres at Moccasin Bend to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. But in January 1953, Gov. Frank Clement refused to allocate the necessary $100,000 to implement the park, and the initiative failed.
In the late 1950s, various community leaders came to agree that the Bend should be kept for public use, and Dr. Joe Johnson led an effort to construct a state mental health hospital on the toe of the Bend. In 1965, 180 acres were leased for the popular Moccasin Bend public golf course.
In 1982, the city and the county again focused on the uniqueness of the peninsula and authorized the Moccasin Bend Task Force to study the best uses of the undeveloped acreage on the Bend. Its members included Sally Robinson, Jack McDonald, Rick Montague, Paul Nolan and Bob Mayville. The group made no final decision about the Bend but went onto make recommendations that led to several highly successful public/private projects, including the Tennessee Aquarium, Coolidge Park, Ross’s Landing and the Passage.
The second attempt started in 1995 when members of the board of Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute recommended the formation of the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park, which met with U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp and received his enthusiastic endorsement for park protection. Wamp sponsored legislation that passed and created the Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District as a a unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
Subsequently, the city of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and the state of Tennessee donated the initial acreage that made the beginnings of this new park possible. (Today National Park Partners carries on the work of the Friends of Moccasin Bend with a goal of preserving the features of our unique national park units in the area, promoting events and learning opportunities, and enhancing guest experiences.)
Should the hospital move to a new location as proposed and should the state donate the hospital grounds for inclusion in the adjacent Moccasin Bend park, the National Park Service would initiate a new round of consultations with the 23 federally recognized American Indian tribes whose ancestry traces to the Bend. Fresh public comment would be sought on how best to align this new opportunity for preservation, interpretation and recreation with the park’s existing longterm management plan completed in 2017.
Many possibilities for the new park acreage come to mind: easy trail access to the Union artillery placements atop the southern tip of Stringer’s Ridge, an opening of trails along the Tennessee River with their beautiful vistas of Lookout Mountain, and additional acreage for rangerconducted programs and hikes to the park’s archaeological sites. Partnering with UTC’s Institute of Archaeology would lead to programs on traditional Native American hunting, farming, and cooking practices.
If the hospital moves to a new location and the park becomes fully developed, studies project an estimated 250,000 annual visitors to Moccasin Bend and an additional $15 million in economic benefits for the greater Chattanooga area. This would provide new value on top of the existing $60 million that nearly one million visitors to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park already spend each year on area hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and other tourist attractions.
Now is the perfect time to honor the generations of Tennesseans who sought to “Save the Bend” and to implement the vision of the local-state-tribal-federal coalition that supported the 2003 legislation. Expanding this fascinating and beautiful national park at Chattanooga’s doorstep will enhance the quality of life for local residents and raise the profile of Chattanooga in the eyes of visitors who come from throughout the U.S. and overseas.