(Editor’s note: First of four parts)
On Thursday, April 30, 1945, the Robert Sparks Walker Audubon Society announced that it was developing the Walker Farm near Brainerd. The resulting nature preserve was christened the Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary. Sarah Key Patten, chair of the project, stated that one of the first actions would be preservation of the old “Indian cabin,” believed to have been the birthplace of Too-an-tuh, the famed Cherokee naturalist known as “Spring Frog.” Robert Sparks Walker speculated: “The Indians loved beauty of scene and must have chosen this homesite because of the blending of the green of the pines, the deep brown of the gums, the gold and red of the maples and sumac and the sapphire of the beautiful little river.”
Work began immediately on two projects: a stone gateway arch to the sanctuary, which would have Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary “engraved” upon it, and a “suspension foot bridge across the Chickamauga Creek on a steel cable 200 feet long.” Chicago architectural firm Vitzthum and Burns, recognizable to local citizens as the architects of the American Trust and Banking Company building in downtown Chattanooga, had been awarded the contract for the stone entrance. The firm’s principals assured the board that the arch “will be one of the most imposing stone entrances to any park or special grounds” in the region.
With plans for the farm to become an educational site for families, Hamilton County students and other visitors, library committee chair Gertrude Andrews encouraged donations of books to create a “nature library” at the sanctuary. One hundred and twenty books were collected, but more were needed. Miss Raymo, Chattanooga Public Library staff member and wildlife sanctuary volunteer, suggested copies be delivered to the nature library. She processed the donations.
The Walker farm also was known as the site of Chief Little Owl’s village. Little Owl was the brother of Dragging Canoe, the Chickamaugan warrior who resisted settler intrusion into Cherokee land and fought to negate the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, which sold thousands of acres of land controlled by the Cherokee to the speculative Transylvania Land Company. Interestingly, there is now some question about whether the site was, indeed, one of the Chickamaugan towns. Documentary evidence from the 16th century Tristan de Luna expedition strongly suggests that it was the location of an earlier Napochi Indian village.