Until Friday, the best way to get a sense of the history of Chattanooga was to have Chattanooga and Hamilton County historian Linda Moss Mines talk for 10 minutes on any of the myriad subjects in which she is steeped.
Now, with the opening of the Chattanooga History Experience, local residents and tourists have a place to go to get a more rounded experience of the region within 3,000 square feet on Broad Street.
(IN THE NEWS: Chattanooga History Experience showcases past stories of city, county)
The city is already fortunate to have other places where people can learn about individual aspects of city and county history — its Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park installations about the Civil War, the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District about what one archaeologist called one of the most culturally significant sites in the country and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and Chattanooga African American Museum about the city’s Black history, just to name three.
But the goal of the Chattanooga History Experience is, as Mines said Friday, to offer the “thread that connects our past with the present and guides us toward the future.”