Moccasin Bend is not just another piece of pretty land. And when the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District finally gets its gateway, full visitor’s center and story told in interpretive exhibits, it will be more than just another park site. It will be an amazing national park site in the heart of Chattanooga’s city limits.
On Thursday, at long last, making our long-planned $1.1 million park a reality got a kick start with the National Park Service’s announcement of a $250,000 “Forever Moccasin Bend” fundraising campaign to open the park’s gateway with a visitors kiosk, restrooms, interpretive pavilion and parking area. Foundation grants and federal funds already have bridged the gap between that fundraising goal and the $1.1 million park price tag.
Moccasin Bend tells a story unlike any other. It tells a story – with American Indian mounds and village sites, a Trail of Tears route and Civil War cannon mounts – of 12,000 years of human life in the spot that became Chattanooga.
As former U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, long instrumental in the park’s slow but steady progress, explains, Moccasin Bend “is a legacy like no other. It keeps Chattanooga Chattanooga. This is who we are. Moccasin Bend is our history, it’s our heritage, it is our DNA, and it’s buried about 20 feet deep right out here in Hampton village.”
* From 10,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C. nomadic Paleo-Indians, some of the first peoples to enter the Americas after the Ice Age, moved to the region and Moccasin Bend because of the rich resources in what is now the Tennessee River Gorge and Chattanooga area.