The findings from a state-ordered archaeological study will be the stated reason going forward that a new mental health hospital will not be built on Moccasin Bend, but a groundswell of opposition to construction on land that had been promised to become part of a national park unquestionably played a part.
Outside of Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Marie Williams, Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute employees and reluctant Hamilton County legislative delegation members, who apparently felt pressure to support the decision, the effort to rebuild on the culturally historic peninsula was highly unpopular.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee originally set aside $260 million for a hospital renovation in 2021, but that plan faced immediate opposition from elected officials and the public who said other sites should be examined. By 2022, state officials said they were open to looking at other sites, and dozens of locations off the bend reportedly were scouted and supposedly found wanting.
Finally, in 2023, in a letter to Lee, the county delegation said they unanimously “endorse and encourage the construction of a new facility on the 13-acre site” on the state campus, formerly the site of the hospital’s Winston Building. A year ago last month, the Tennessee State Building Commission gave the go-ahead for the project and approved proceeding with the selection of a designer. But Williams, in a surprise to many who knew she favored the rebuild on the bend but perhaps in deference to the experts who kept pointing out the site’s cultural resources, said an archaeological survey would be done on the parcel.
Even then, archaeological officials were wary, because surveys can vary on what is found depending on the depth dug. Cultural artifacts, which archaeologists knew the 13-acre plot to have, might not be found if the survey didn’t go deeply enough.