Park taking shape on Moccasin Bend

On the heels of the seventh anniversary of the establishment of Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District, planning for the long-awaited park is heating up, according to officials.

"Behind the scenes, there are lots of things going on, but there's not much to see out on the site. That's something that frustrates probably all of us, but we know we're getting there," said Sam Weddle, management assistant of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

The Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District, known to most people locally as Moccasin Bend Park, was designated in February 2003 after 50 years of fits and starts to make the historically rich peninsula into a national park. It is a unit of the military park.

Located on a prominent bend in the Tennessee River near downtown Chattanooga, the 755-acre archaeological district contains artifacts from about 12,000 years of human civilization.

Archaeologists have determined Moccasin Bend, situated between river valley and mountain plateaus, attracted nomadic hunter-gathers of the paleoindian period. Seven distinctive projectile points -- arrowheads and spear points -- have been found on there.

Additionally, later period Indian village remnants and trade objects from the period of Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto have been unearthed there.

In the 1830s, the Trail of Tears crossed the bend. During the Civil War, Union gun mounts there harried Confederate defenses on the shoulder of Lookout Mountain, opening the way for arrival of needed supplies and for reinforcements led by U.S. Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

Mr. Weddle and Shelley Andrews, executive director of the Friend of Moccasin Bend, say they and many others are now hard at work doing "the quiet stuff," planning the design of the park, the visitor's center and an upcoming funding campaign.

"Two weeks ago, the park service went to consult with Native American groups in Oklahoma," Ms. Andrews said. "The idea was for the tribes to give input to the process at the front end."

Designers also are thinking about things such as water taxis, outdoor education spaces, outdoor seating, program pavilions and park access from Hamm Road.

Mr. Weddle said riverbank stabilization should begin this summer and will keep land and archaeological resources from washing into the river because of erosion.

Both the funding for the stabilization, about $2 million, and the design planning -- more than a $1 million -- already is in hand, he said.

But money for the actual building of the visitor's center and park still must be raised in coming years.

Ms. Andrews said a capital campaigned spearheaded by the Friends' group will likely be announced later this year.