Crowds of people take advantage of free admission for President's Day while visiting Point Park.Fee hike
The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park seeks comment about the proposed Point Park entrance fee increase at the website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/chch through Thursday, Jan. 22. Or send comments in writing to: Park Superintendent, P.O. Box 2128, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. 30742.
Point Park at the tip of Lookout Mountain is the only place where visitors pay a fee -- $3 daily and $20 annually -- in the roughly 9,000-acre Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
There's no charge to visit the park's other Civil War sites, such as Craven's House nearby, or Chickamauga Battlefield, itself, or the battle monuments along Missionary Ridge.
Point Park may cost more to visit, though, because on Monday Park Superintendent Brad Bennett proposed to raise the entrance fee to $7 per person -- though that would be valid for seven days, not just one -- and to increase the annual pass to $30.
The proposed fee would only apply to Point Park, which is reached through a stone gate built by the Army Corps of Engineers, not the visitors center outside the park gate, which doesn't charge a fee.
Entrance fee increases at national parks throughout the United States are being weighed, Bennett said, as a way to fund improvements as the centennial of the National Park Service approaches in 2016.
Fees collected at Point Park will help to renovate the iconic New York monument there that's topped with a Confederate and Union soldier shaking hands in post-war friendship.
"We're using these entrance fees to restore that monument next year," said Bennett, who took over in June as park superintendent.
The park also plans to use fee money to install permanent exhibits at the Ochs Museum in Point Park, he said.
The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park collects about $225,000, annually, from Point Park entrance fees, Bennett said, and also has used the money to fund such projects as a new film about the Battle of Chickamauga shown at the battlefield's visitors center.
Lookout Mountain, Tenn., Mayor Carol Mutter wasn't happy about the proposed Point Park fee increase.
"Obviously, I'm not pleased with the idea," Mutter said. "To go from $3 to $7 -- that's quite a bit. I just thought that was very substantial."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomar zu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.