A monument juts toward the sky like a finger, paying homage to the Minnesota troops who stormed up the side of Missionary Ridge 147 years ago.
Two cannons sit nearby, overlooking Chattanooga much like the battery of artillery did on Nov. 25, 1863. Trees block most of the view. A few homes sit nearby.
Several community groups are banding together to try to expand the borders of three National Park Service reservations and one state park atop Missionary Ridge.
"One of the things we want to do is open up the viewshed," said Kay Parish, executive director for the Friends of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
One way to do that is to acquire the land around this stretch of national park property - called DeLong Reservation, Parish said.
She points down the steep ridge toward the kudzu and the trees where the line between national park and private property becomes blurry.
"I don't even know where the national park land ends," she said.
Parish said the idea is to find willing landowners to sell or donate property around Bragg, DeLong and Sherman reservations. Billy Goat Hill, a state-owned park, also has expansion plans, and the hope is for it one day to become incorporated into the National Park Service lands, she said.
But the proposals must go through changes in federal law before that becomes a possibility, she said. Several years ago, the bill that first made the area into a national park also limited what could be done there, saying there could be no expansion, she said.
The park at Lookout Mountain expanded just a few years ago, she said, but any new expansions will be a long, hard road.
"Nobody had to go through what we are looking at now," she said.
The Chattanooga City Council voted 9-0 two weeks ago to urge local federal legislators to push through a bill allowing the Missionary Ridge properties to expand.
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said last week it is certainly a "merited and warranted" proposal, but he said his hands are tied. He leaves office in a matter of months, he said, and it would take too long for him to push a bill through.
"It is a two-year process," he said.
Ultimately, it will be up to his successor to enact anything, he said.
Rick Wood, executive director for the Trust for Public Land, said that's fine. His group is helping line up interested landowners and groups who want to work on the project.
"We will be patient partners," he said.
Sam Weddle, spokesman for the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, said the legislation is key for everything the groups want to do. With legislation, the groups can begin negotiating. Without it, not so much, he said.
"We do not even have the flexibility to entertain any options," he said.
With proper authority, the park and community groups could begin negotiating with surrounding landowners to acquire sites that are historic or land that could help preserve the integrity of the view of the monuments.
Cindy Huth, president of the Missionary Ridge Neighborhood Association, said she does not see a downside to expanding the areas. She said the resolution passed by the council calls for the U.S. Senate and House to pass a bill allowing expansion of the area with landowners being paid at fair market value.
"It's not about eminent domain or the park service taking property," she said.
Driving along North Crest Boulevard every day, she said she sees Civil War monuments and old Civil War cannons amid 100-year-old homes.
"It's an area that really needs to be protected," she said.
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