At a place where three counties and two sizable rivers come together, three milestone anniversaries will be observed at the Hiwassee Crane Viewing Days next month.
As in the past, the Jan. 15-16 event will have activities at Birchwood Elementary School and the nearby Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and Cherokee Removal Memorial. It officially will be the 20th anniversary of the Crane Viewing Days, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
The TWRA began managing the refuge 70 years ago, as of October, and Birchwood School opened 80 years ago with grades 1-12. The school is in Hamilton County, while the wildlife refuge and adjacent Cherokee memorial area are about three miles away in Meigs County — within sight of Rhea County — where the Hiwassee River flows into the Tennessee River.
The TWRA did not hold the crane days the last two years, for a variety of reasons, but the Meigs County Tourism Council had a small-scale version in November each year and the TWRA had a waterfowl festival at the refuge last December.
“We’re excited to get back into it,” Dan Hicks of the TWRA’s Region III office in Crossville said Wednesday. “Working with the school and the Cherokee Memorial is a natural, celebrating the rich wildlife and Indian heritage in the area.