The small “Confederate Park” south of Ringgold on U.S. Highway 41 may soon gain an addition, one that memorializes something older than Civil War history.
The park where plaques, markers and a statue commemorate the Battle of Ringgold Gap is located on three acres donated in 1939 by James Evitt Sr., founder of Ringgold Telephone Company, to the U.S Dept. of the Interior.
Evitt stipulated the land – which straddles the federal highway and divides Taylor’s Ridge from White Oak Mountain – be used for a park or monument and that is what exists on the southern parcel.
Jim Evitt Sr.’s granddaughter, Alice Evitt Bandy, said she wants to pursue her grandfather’s intent, as expressed in the 1939 deed, for use of the portion of that property across the road from the Cleburne statue.
She and other Evitt descendants have been communicating with Russ Townsend, the historical archeologist for the Cherokee Nation, about establishing a Cherokee cultural interpretative center on the northern half of the property.