Chattanooga’s Moccasin Bend has lost one of its most stalwart champions.
Major Charles Ross McCollough, a native of Chicora, Pennsylvania, and longtime resident of Chattanooga, had a passion for historic preservation that led him in the early 1980s to take on an effort that would occupy him to the end, according to his obituary from Wann Funeral & Cremation Center in Chattanooga. McCollough died May 10 at age 83.
The preservation and protection of Chattanooga’s vast prehistoric and modern archeological resources, especially Moccasin Bend, Williams Island and Brown’s Tavern, were central to the legacy McCollough leaves behind. It stretches back more than four decades, touching generations of history lovers and preservationists in his quest to preserve the region’s ties to thousands of years of human history.
McCollough’s mark is indelible in Chattanooga, according to Tricia King Mims, executive director of the National Park Partners conservation group.
The group and McCollough shared a passion to “Save the Bend,” a campaign revived in recent years as “Save the Bend, Again,” after the state began studying the idea of building a replacement facility for the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute on another part of the hospital campus within a 956-acre federal archaeological district on Moccasin Bend.