Cedar Grove Community Club is making plans to draw in some of the estimated 30,000 tourists and 10,000 re-enactors expected to visit McLemore’s Cove for the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga. Chickamauga City Manager John Culpepper told club members at a recent meeting that should set up an old general store to sell homemade preserves and food to people visiting the Cove.
In the meantime, the club is working to draw in more local interest as well.
Cedar Grove Community Club president Sam Bowman and vice president Ray Kingsley invite fellow Chickamauga residents to join the free club that meets monthly in the Cove. Forty to 50 members in the club at present are mainly farmers in the McLemore Cove area.
“If you show up, you are a member,” said Bowman. “We have no dues. We have a gun raffle in the fall and a wild-game supper in February. That’s our two fundraisers we use to keep the club going. We partner with the Stocking Full of Love to donate money to needy families at Christmas. We have a Thanksgiving meal here and everyone is welcome too.”
He said the main event for the club this summer is its Fourth of July celebration being held July 6 from 4 p.m. until dark. Club members will serve free hot dogs and hamburgers to everyone who attends.
“We meet the third Saturday of each month at 6 p.m.,” said Bowman. “On May 6 Commissioner Bebe Heiskell will speak here. It’s a communitywide meeting. She will talk about what’s going on in the county. We will serve cake and coffee.”
Kingsley said club members enjoy meeting together. The members discuss their farms at the meeting. For example, Bowman raises 160,000 chickens on his farm and Kingsley raises beef cattle.
“We used to be called the oldest active community club registered in the state,” said Kingsley, adding that the club might still hold the designation. “The club was organized in the 1940s. The first club building was an old World War I barrack moved here from Fort Oglethorpe, but it burned down. This building was built in the mid-50s.”
Bowman said he hopes through club fundraisers that members will be able to update the building.
“We have fellowship and eat at the club,” said Bowman. “It’s potluck. I like the fellowship.”
According to club member John Perra, people that farm stay pretty busy, so the club has become a place to slow down for a little while and gather with neighbors the farmers don’t get to see often.
Country club
Cedar Grove Community Club in McLemore’s Cove is located at 5395 W. Cove Road in Chickamauga. To learn more, call club president Sam Bowman at 423-762-2715.