We had heard that parking could be scarce in this lot, especially on weekends, so we tried our luck with the smaller lot just downhill from the house. After the war, the first debates about what should become of the Bend began to surface. At this point in time, citizens in Chattanooga were only beginning to understand the impressive cultural and historical significance of the land. So there’s today’s history lesson, courtesy of an interpretive plaque by the National Park Service and a few pages from Shelby Foote’s excellent The Civil War: A Narrative. This trail existed before the Bend's designation as part of a National Park.

This was developed in 1961 and remains in constant use today. As we've learned, history wasn't always kind to the Bend's original inhabitants and their descendants. This area contains two Late Mississippian towns that were perhaps visited by Spanish explorers, as revealed through the presence of Spanish artifacts. Meet and park at the Moccasin Bend Gateway Site at 10 Hamm Rd. As you roll past the golf course, along the shaded pavement through the woods and finally up to the grounds of the hospital, the chances are good that you will see deer, turkey, and perhaps a groundhog or two. The Moccasin Bend Task Force teamed up with the Chattanooga Regional Anthropological Association. There are a couple of signs identifying areas where the Confederates cleared away brush and timber to improve their firing lines, so the pits are probably somewhere between those signs. As with the other sites, the archeological site is not currently visible. The Archeological District is located in a far more industrial area well on the way to Chattanooga and falls short of conjuring images of the Native Americans that once lived there. The Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Facility is in very close proximity to the golf course and is a 184-acre tract of land.

The house wasn’t open yet, but a ranger was giving a talk on the battle next to some cannons. Prior to the federal governments acquisition of this land, the Blue Blazes Trail, established by members of the Sierra Club, was under city/county management. The 956-acre (387 ha) area is located directly across the Tennessee River from Lookout Mountain, site of an American Civil War battle. Local architect Mario Bianculli, considered "Chattanooga's First Modernist," designed the majority of the institution's five buildings. Dogs on leashes are allowed on the Blue Blazes Trail. These mounds are attributed to burial practices of the Late Woodland period. Others wanted the land to be used for industrial development. For information about public programs at Moccasin Bend National Archeological District, visit https://www.nps.gov/chch/learn/historyculture/moccasin-bend-national-archeological-district.htm. To combat this, in that same year the Moccasin Bend Association revived efforts to involve the National Park Service in the management of the land. And even the staunchest birdie-seeking golfers will look up from the tee box once in a while to marvel at the unique angle of Lookout Mountain stretching off into the distance, or to watch the fearless packs of deer and turkey that frequent the fairway. There is public access to the trails through the trailhead, adjacent to a gravel lot.

And so, the period from the 1950's to the late 1980's can generally be characterized as a bureaucratic back and forth—or perhaps more accurately, as a "one foot forward, two steps back" sort of scenario for the preservationists at least. In 2004, the Archeological District was officially established after the state and local government donated 672 acres of public land to the federal government (the boundaries of the park excluded already existing facilities: Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, Moccasin Bend Golf Course, the WDEF radio tower, the Hamilton County firing range, and a model airplane facility).

Then, in 1994, a new group called the Friends of Moccasin Bend arrived on the scene just as the City of Chattanooga was beginning its now well-documented renaissance. Instead, it was the Union troops marching into Lookout Valley through Running Water Creek Gap, a few miles to the southwest, across Lookout Creek, that confirmed reports that Fighting Joe Hooker was nearby, and an assault on Confederate positions on Lookout Mountain might be happening sooner than later. Within easy range of downtown, Red Bank, and the trendy North Shore, the Moccasin Bend Loop can be ridden by anyone who can tolerate the occasional passing vehicle but it's more often a playground for jerseyed cyclists riding fast and free. Bragg ordered Longstreet to attack, in an attempt to hold on to Lookout Valley, and the next night the armies clashed at the battle of Wauhatchie at a rail junction in the valley. This trail is also open to the public and can be accessed through a parking lot located on Moccasin Bend Road.[8]. The 12,000 years of human inhabitation have left a number of rare artifacts that contribute to this sites importance. As advocates for the creation of a park who opposed industrialization and development on the land sought out the NPS's assistance with increased urgency, the park superintendent at the time, John Cook, dismissed their claims, arguing that the Bend "has lost its historical significance and part of its natural beauty," which decreased its value as an asset for the National Park. The lower lot can hold about eight vehicles, and overlooks a monument to soldiers from Iowa.

The Friends continued to be advocates for establishing the area as part of a National Park. Today, an 18-hole municipal golf course sits on the fields that were once so ripe with corn and squash. This is easy walking; in fact, it’s easy biking too as we met a handful of them on this section of trail, one of four trails in the park designated as a bike trail. Yet amazingly, surrounding these comically eclectic little pockets of fragmented property lies roughly 1,000 acres of public land that has been inducted into the national park system. This organization was established in 1994 to serve as an advocacy group for the adoption of Moccasin Bend into the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. To put this enormous timespan in quite marginal and condensed perspective: when the wheel was invented, Paleo-Indians were roaming the Bend.
It really depends on how far you want to go, but the roads are flat, smooth, and easy, so it's easy in that regard. Many cyclists park on Hamm Road across the Friends of the Festival office, a half mile from Moccasin Bend Road, although you can also start your ride from anywhere on the North Shore.

With four long periods of Native American inhabitants, visited first by Spaniards and then Americans during the Civil War until today, the bend has experienced incredibly different cultures … At about .6 miles from the junction we spotted a small rock-lined spring on the side of the trail. We only covered about 10% of the trail system, so there are plenty of other discoveries waiting for us. As always, we’re amazed by the enduring work of these men, who built the majority of the trails in the park. It was the more than 30 miles of trails on the sides and top of the mountain that piqued my interest, so we picked out a short loop of trails and headed on up to I-24 and Lookout Mountain, just southwest of Chattanooga.
Learn how your comment data is processed. Aside from the plethora of industries in the area, the land on Moccasin Bend is used for a number of other amenities. The main environmental issues facing Moccasin Bend today are the odor pollution from the sewage treatment plant and the presence of the current manmade structures on what is now a protected archeological park. It was a crisp fall day, with the ridges painted scarlet and gold, but the autumn leaves were not the subject at hand. In 1964, to allow more room for barges to round the contour of the Bend, the Baner Dredging Company cut a strip off the southern 'toe' of the moccasin and consequently pumped tons of ancient Indian artifacts and human remains through underground pipes into the heart of the Bend.


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