Dayton prepares to celebrate centennial of landmark Scopes trial

DAYTON, Tenn. — The luxuries of air conditioning and automated window blinds are modern features added to the Rhea County Courthouse during renovations in the past year to gear up for the 100th anniversary of the Scopes evolution trial. And the large Bluetooth-enabled speakers placed in the corners of the room for the production certainly weren’t present in 1925.

But through the windows, some original glass and some replaced, the signature summer night sound of katydids and crickets, surely present 100 years ago, can still be heard in the courtroom. And Rick Dye, who plays the passionate defense attorney Clarence Darrow, thinks he hears something else.

“I’ve probably spent more late hours in this building than anyone else. I know I have,” said Dye, president of the Rhea Heritage Preservation Foundation. “If you get in here at the right time and you stand here and you get real quiet, I think sometimes you can hear the words of Bryan and Darrow still echoing in this room. There’s just something magnificent about it.”