When you drive up to Chattanooga, you drive up into the North Georgia mountains. You pass by Summerville, where Howard Fenster used to paint his apocalyptic visions of the locale. You pass Dalton, which was able to convince the State Legislature to build them a public building for carpets. You drive down by Fort Oglethorpe and the Chickamauga battlefield. If you drive up through Highway 27, you really get an idea of what that part of the country was like during the latter years of the Civil War. Chickamauga was one of the first National Battlefields in America. As a result, it may be one of the best preserved. Because it lies south of Chattanooga, separated by mountains, it has escaped a lot of the development on the north and west side of Chattanooga.
However, ultimately, you come down into the valley below, where the oldest part of the city is located along the banks of the Tennessee River. I like Chattanooga. There is a lot of history there. Of course, a lot of it is located on the tops of the mountains which surround it.
For a very long time, downtown Chattanooga was dreary to drive through. About the only thing you could say for it for quite some time was that the Tennessee Department of Transportation had built enough lanes of freeway traffic to move you through it fast. The remnants of industry and developmental blight and urban decay was enough to move you north or south or west and outside the city limits. In a hurry.
But now, they have done a lot of renovation and rebuilding in downtown Chattanooga. The downtown area is quite nice to walk around, particularly around the riverside. It is a fun place to visit. Museums and art and restored houses and places to eat and drink and sleep.
However, I still remember a trip my parents made when we drove up to Chattanooga and visited the Civil War park on top of Lookout Mountain. We got up early at the old Holiday Inn along I-24, visited the Confederama to get a handle on the historical story of the battles around Chattanooga, then drove up the mountain to Point Park, overlooking Chattanooga. I remember the old cannons perched overlooking the city. There was a picture from the time of the battles, in which General Grant stood on the side of the mountain, looking over the city, smoking his cigar.
Other than our visits to the Jefferson Davis State Park in Fairview, Kentucky, and one trip we made to visit the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Park, I think that trip to Lookout Mountain was my first big historical trip. It was fun.
Of course, we moved to Atlanta soon thereafter, where we could visit all of the sites for the Battle of Atlanta, the Cyclorama, Kennesaw Mountain, the General and other places of interest.
It was only later that I would take Kate to go see Chickamauga, Fort Donelson in Dover, Tennessee, the Cumberland Gap National Park, Boonesborough and other places which I think she has tried to forget over the years. Its a shame that most of our trips to historical sites have occurred during the hot time of the summer.
I don't think she will ever forgive me for the bike trip through Chickamauga.
Now, I'd like to go out west.
About Me
- TBAYNHAMIII
- I was born in Kentucky, though my parents had been living in Knoxville before my birth. My mother's mother lived across the street from the hospital in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was convenient. I moved around quite a bit when I was young, but ended up in Georgia. I like to read and write and love food and drink way too much. I have a funny wife and daughter who has finished her batchelor's degree and is living with her grandmother in North Atlanta and studying advertising. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I had not gone to law school. Regrets come and go with the seasons.
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