Read more Chattanooga History Columns
- Gaston: Paul John Kruesi was Edison's right-hand man
- Robbins: The old Richardson's house and the Civil War
- Gaston: James Williams was a man of the world
- Raney: Mason Evans, the 'Wild Man of the Chilhowee'
- Gaston: The legacy of Adolph Ochs endures
- Martin: Ed Johnson said, 'I have a changed heart,' the day before his lynching in Chattanooga on 1906
- Thomas: The inventiveness of Judge Michael M. Allison
- Moore: Chattanooga's first Chinese community
- Summers, Robbins: Chattanooga's Tuskegee Airman - Joseph C. White
- McCallie: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says so!
- Gaston: John McCline's Civil War - from slave to D.C. parade
- Raney: Exploring Chattanooga businesses in the Green Book
- Elliott: Remembering the Freedmen's Bureau in Chattanooga
- Gaston: Nancy Ward was a beloved, respected Tennessean
- Martin: Prohibition - the noble experiment
- Elliott: 'A shameful, disgraceful deed': The destruction of the Sewanee cornerstone
- Gaston: Robert Cravens was ironmaster, Chattanooga area's first commuter
- Robbins: Dr. T.H. McCallie's Christmas 1863
- Robbins: Journalist writes of a trip to Missionary Ridge in 1896
- Summers, Robbins: Mine 21 disaster - gone but not forgotten
- Elliott: Collegedale incorporates to avoid Sunday 'blue laws'
- Gaston: 'Marse Henry' Watterson's journalism fame began in Chattanooga
- Robbins: Orchard Knob battle recalled in 1895
- Elliott: Chattanoogans joined in an 'orgy of joy and gladness' on Armistice Day, 1918
- Thomas: Noted service, speakers are marks of Rotary Club of Chattanooga since 1914
- Summers and Robbins: Remembering noted Tennessee author North Callahan
- Raney: 'I auto cry, I auto laugh, I auto sign my autograph'
- Gaston: Sequoyah's alphabet enriched Cherokees
- Robbins: A look at Sam Divine's life during the Civil War
- Robbins: Memories of a Confederate nurse
- Robbins: More notes from Bradford Torrey's 1895 visit to Chickamauga Battlefield
- Robbins: Journalist in 1895 details visit to Chickamauga Battlefield
- Elliott: Telephone exchange firebombing was distraction for grocery store robbery
- Gaston: Worcester brought Christ's message to Cherokee at Brainerd Mission
- Robbins: 1896 travel diary: 'A Week on Walden's Ridge'
- Gaston: Elizabeth Strayhorn, WAC Commandant at Fort Oglethorpe
- Robbins: The history of the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park
- Moore: Do you own a Sears Roebuck home?
- Summers and Robbins: Camp Nathan Bedford Forrest in World War II
- Gaston: Hiram Sanborn Chamberlain remembered
- Elliott: Daisy the center of tile, ceramic manufacturing in Hamilton County
- Gaston: FDR inaugurates the Chickamauga Dam
- Summers, Robbins: Interned WWII Germans had it easy at Camp Crossville
- Elliott: A war correspondent on Lookout Mountain
- Gaston: Chickamaugas finally bury hatchet in Tennessee Valley
- Gaston: Chickamaugas in Chattanooga
- Robbins: The history of the Riverbend festival
- Raney: Sadie Watson, the first woman elected in Hamilton County government
- Moore: Remembering Chattanooga's Hawkinsville community
- Elliott: Welsh coal miners transformed Soddy after the Civil War
- Gaston: Chattanooga's best-kept secret
- Elliott: Cabell Breckinridge loses his horse
- Raney: Martin Fleming is the people's judge
- Gaston: The amazing career of Francis Lynde
- Martin: Hamilton County's Name Sake: Alexander Hamilton
- Summers, Robbins: The crosses at Sewanee
- Bledsoe: The fiery truce at Kennesaw Mountain
- Moore: Talented architect's life cut short by tragedy
- Rydell: Chattanooga's place in soccer history
- Robbins: Tennessee Coal, member of the First Dow Jones Industrial Average
- Raney: In the barber chair
- Lanier: Becoming the Boyce Station Neighborhood Association
- McCallie: John P. Franklin: Living history among us
- Barr: Chattanooga's first railroad: The Underground Railroad
- Summers, Robbins: Charles Bartlett was a Pulitzer Prize winner, Kennedy confidant
- Rainey: 'We have seen it'
- Elliott: Feinting and fighting at Running Water Creek and Johnson's Crook
- Gaston: The Spring Frog Cabin at Audubon Acres
- Raney: Wauhatchie Pike was moonshine motorway
- Robbins: Oakmont was home of venerable Williams clan
- Summers and Robbins: Rebirth of the Mountain Goat Line
- Elliott: Bad investments led to Soddy Bank failure in 1930
- Summers and Robbins: Pearl Harbor attack left football behind
- Gaston: Jolly’s Island namesake had long ties with Sam Houston
- Return Jonathan Meigs, Indian Agent
- Moore: Did you know about St. Elmo's other two cemeteries?
- Summers: Orme - Marion County's almost lost community
- Davis: Spooky revival at Sharp Mountain in 1873
- Robbins: The story of Longholm
- Raney: Women labored to help the U.S. win World War I
- Even in the city, the 'wheel' changed everything
- Murray: Confederate dilemma after Chickamauga
- J.B. Collins — Newsman extraordinaire
- Robbins: The Story of the Lyndhurst Mansion
- Chattanooga artist and wife lost on the Lusitania
- Chattanooga History Column: Battelle, Alabama and the Battelle Institute
- John Ross, a founder of Chattanooga
- Hamilton County casualties in World War I
- Chattanooga Power Couple
- 'Somewhere in France'
- The Ray Moss family
- Battery B from Chattanooga
- Ulysses S. Grant, Clark B. Lagow, and the Chattanooga Bender
- Songbirds Museum Timeline
- Hamilton County World War 1 roster
- The Soddy Girl and the Memphis Belle
- Blues icon Bessie Smith was the Empress of Soul
- Women's Army Corps at Chickamauga
- Emma Bell Miles' life at the top of the 'W'
- The Tivoli Wurlitzer is one of Chattanooga's priceless assets
- Chattanooga in struggle for freedom during Civil War
- October 1918, Chattanooga paralyzed by Spanish flu epidemic
- Eli Lilly and the Ditch of Death
- One hundred years ago, Chattanooga goes to war
- The legacy of Anna Safley Houston
- Harriet Whiteside was ahead of her time
- Southern Adventist University
- Chattanooga native's writings aided Civil Rights movement
- Zion College, Chattanooga's only African American College
- The North Shore's hidden past
- Mayme Martin -- Businesswoman and community leader
- Thomas Sim's epic struggle for freedom
- Top of Cameron Hill was price of rerouting interstate
- Cameron Hill has rich history
- Temperance movement included Harriman university
- The sweetest music this side of Heaven
- Conquistadors at Chattanooga
- Chattanooga and the 'General'
- Chattanooga's first Thanksgiving, 1863
- Chattanooga's greatest flood caught city unaware
- Opening the Cracker Line
- European trip in 1900 enlightens Sophia Scholze Long
- Sophia Scholze Long spoke out when others were silent
- Little South Pittsburg and its big silent movie stars
- Lot attendant recalls hottest job in Chattanooga
- Chattanooga's Forest Hills is final resting place for known, unknown
- Burritt College -- Pioneer of the Cumberlands
- Chattanooga's nicknames trace city's evolution
- The 25th annual meeting of the Tennessee Press Association
- Clemons Brothers Furniture Store
- The Short Life of the USS Chattanooga
- Ellen Jarnagin McCallie lived a truly remarkable life
- Dr. Jonathan Bachman was a revered city father
- Second guessing the Confederate failure on Missionary Ridge
- Nancy Kefauver, ambassador for the arts
- William Gibbs McAdoo kept his Southern roots
- Chattanooga's Secretary of the Treasury
- Howard Baker remembered as a statesman/photographer who snapped history
- Tivoli's last picture show
- The history of one of Chattanooga's oldest businesses
- Chattanooga's roller derby skaters
- Myths of Coca-Cola in Chattanooga
- Chattanooga's neighborhood grocery stores
- The tale of the Scottsboro Boys
- The people's history of Chattanooga
- Howard School is Chattanooga's reminder of Reconstruction
- Elevator operator, painter, mystery man: meet Rice Carothers
- Raulston Schoolfield made enemies amid his rise to power
- Website lets users peer into Chattanooga's past
- The flood of 1917
- Chattanooga's 'wickedest woman' buried at Forest Hills
- History of Cummings Highway
Promoting Chattanooga has been part of its culture for decades. Flyers published by the Chattanooga Automobile Club in the 1920s lured prospective visitors with "SIGHTSEEEING such as you have never enjoyed before awaits you in Chattanooga," "CHATTANOOGA The South's most interesting city" and "See the Scenic and Historic Splendors of the South." In 1925, the Exchange Club promoted "the Honeymoon City" and "Friendly City." In 1992, the Chamber of Commerce's slogan was "Live it. Love it. It's Chattanooga." "Chattanooga Shines" is a slogan of later vintage. A recent brochure endorsed the city as a "fabulous place to live and work" and an area "rich in history, bright in promise."
Over the years, three general labels - "scenic, historic and commercial" - have been used repeatedly to describe the city.
To support its scenic label, letters and articles since its early years have highlighted the area's mountain vistas and sparkling waters. Confederate nurse Kate Cumming wrote in her 1863 journal that the scene from Lookout Mountain was one of the "most beautiful pictures [she had] ever beheld." Early Chattanooga Automobile Club pamphlets and articles proclaimed the "rugged beauty of mountain ranges and peaceful calm of valley lands combine with associations of historic interest to afford the sightseer the most superb scenery to be found anywhere." Chattanooga reigns today as the "Scenic Center of the South."
Because of its strategic importance during the Civil War, Chattanooga became known as the "Gateway to the South." In June 1934, Arthur Snell, executive director of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, called Chattanooga the "Crossroads of the South," recognizing the many roads and railroads that ran through Chattanooga. He estimated that more than 500,000 people lived within a 50-mile radius of Chattanooga. Today, the Chattanooga Convention Center markets the city's central location, noting that "Chattanooga is located within a day's drive from more than half the population of the United States." Many of these travelers come to enjoy the area's scenery.
In support of its history label, Chattanooga has witnessed two monumental events that have been recognized far and wide. Ross's Landing, the site of Indian settlement, is considered to be the major embarkation point of the Cherokee removal in 1838 in the tragic Trail of Tears. During the Civil War in 1863, Chattanooga saw the Battle of Chickamauga, the Siege of Chattanooga, The Battle Above the Clouds, and finally the Battle of Missionary Ridge, which opened the door for Sherman's March to the Sea.
After the war, veterans and scholars clamored for the preservation of the battlefields. That led in 1890 to the establishment of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, now considered one of the top military parks in the country. The mobilization and training of troops at Fort Oglethorpe in 1898, 1917, and 1942 boosted Chattanooga's recognition nationwide. The city's relation to the Civil War and subsequent wars has resulted in effective advertising. Chattanooga became known as the "Scenic Loop City" in the 1930s for its 61 miles of historic battlefields.
Regarding its commercial label, the city has been tagged "Hartford of the South," being the home of several local insurance companies, including Provident Life and Accident Insurance Co. (now Unum Group), Volunteer State Life Insurance Co. (now a Transamerica company) and BlueCross Blue Shield of Tennessee. Chattanooga's many factories led to several nicknames including "Industrial Center of the South" and "City of Diverse Products." Tennessee Electric Power Co.'s introduction of electric power in the early 1900s facilitated the growth of a number of industries, including drilling machinery, enameled ware, cast iron pipe, plumbing supplies, furniture, refrigerators, saddles, candies, glass bottles and medicines. In 1913, Chattanooga took on the moniker "Dynamo of Dixie," a popular reflection of Chattanooga's industry and its people. The Chamber also marketed Chattanooga as the "City That Pays Dividends." Chattanooga's current tag as "Gig City" recognizes its leadership in the innovation economy.
Chattanooga's titles have sometimes come by vote, one in 1964 being "All-America City," which honored citizen participation in community development projects. Outside Magazine's 2015 Best Town Ever Award recognized Chattanooga's access to trails and outdoor activities along with thriving neighborhoods and restaurants.
The city has embraced its scenery, history and industry throughout the years to become, as another early slogan cheerfully concluded, "A Wonderful Place to Visit - a Better Place to Live."
Suzette Raney is the archivist at the Chattanooga Public Library. All details were taken from the vertical files of the local history and genealogy department. For more information, call 423 643-7725, visit the library or visit Chattahistoricalassoc.org.