NIOTA, Tenn. — The Niota train depot is the first site in Southeast Tennessee to receive a Civil War trail marker, Mayor Martha Walden said.

“This is important to us,” Ms. Walden said before the maker was unveiled Wednesday.

Ms. Walden and others are trying to get matching grant money to renovate the depot. They hope the trail marker will draw support for the work.

Niota was originally known as Mossy Creek and is home to Tennessee’s oldest railroad depot. Built in 1854, it now houses Niota City Hall.

Cindy Milligan, of the Southeast Development Agency, said the brick depot had two sections: a ticket booth, office and customer seating area and a large, open warehouse for freight. Federal forces who occupied Mossy Creek during the Civil War knocked out bricks from the warehouse walls so they could fire on Confederate troops.

The Tennessee Civil War Trails program is part of a larger effort that includes Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia, according to the Web site. Tennessee boasts more than 30 Civil War Trail Markers, but Niota’s is the first in Southeast Tennessee.

“Plans are for markers in Charleston, Cleveland, and as many as 10 in Chattanooga,” Ms. Milligan said. She said the program helps tell the story of the Civil War and benefits towns and communities through heritage tourism.

The program is made possible through a federal grant program administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

Ms. Milligan said work done by Mrs. Walden and McMinn County Mayor John Gentry was vital in obtaining the marker.