America's oldest and largest national military park attracted nearly 1 million visitors in 2021, and they spent an estimated $61.2 million at Chattanooga area hotels, restaurants and other attractions while visiting the park, according to a new economic analysis of park visitation done for the National Park Service.
Last year, 945,390 visitors came to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in Fort Oglethorpe and Chattanooga to learn more about the Civil War and some of its biggest battles atop Lookout Mountain and in nearby North Georgia.
Visitation and spending by park visitors last year jumped by more than 50% from the depressed level in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic brought the temporary shutdown of the entire park and longer-term limits on many park activities.
"We've resumed all of our in-person programs, and we're grateful to be back in full operation," Brad Bennett, the superintendent of the park for the past eight years, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "At Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, we are excited to share the story of this place and the experiences it provides. We also feature the park as a way to introduce our visitors to this part of the country and all that it offers."
On the web
For more information about the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, visit www.nps.gov/chch.
Through May of this year, Bennett said, visitation is ahead of any of the past three years and this year could approach the record crowds the park attracted during the 150th anniversary of the battles in 2015.
Chickamauga Battlefield was the scene of the final major Confederate victory of the Civil War. Lookout Mountain Battlefield is the location of the famed Battle Above the Clouds.
"We've conducted visitor surveys that show that our visitors not surprisingly also visit other area attractions like the Tennessee Aquarium, Rock City and Ruby Falls and stay in local hotels and eat at local restaurants," Bennett said.
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. The local park supported 881 jobs last year, according to the National Park Service study.
Chickamauga visitor spending
2012 — $61.2 million2013 — $55 milion2014 — $61.5 million2015 — $63.2 million2016 — $66.2 million2017 — $56.8 million2018 — $65.8 million2019 — $58.1 million2020 — $40.6 million2021 — $61.5 millionSource: National Park Service Visitor Spending Effects
Nationwide, the National Park Service estimates that more than 297 million park visitors last year spent $20.5 billion within 60 miles of one of the 423 national parks spread across the United States. Park visitors helped support a total of 322,600 jobs.
The National Parks Service itself has more than 20,000 employees, including more than 30 full-time and dozens of part-time workers at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
The most popular national park remained Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which attracted 14.2 million park visitors last year who collectively spent an estimated $1.3 billion in local gateway regions. The park service study estimates that spending helped support 18,800 jobs in East Tennessee and western North Carolina.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @dflessner1.
By the numbers
— 1863: Union and Confederate forces fought for control of Chattanooga.— 1890: The national military park was established by Civil War veterans to preserve and commemorate the battlefields.— More than 9,000 acres: Total property in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park at the Chickamauga Battlefield, atop Lookout Mountain, on Moccasin Bend, on Missionary Ridge and Orchard Knob.— 945,390: Visitors to the park in 2021.— 30: Full-time, year-round employees at the park, supplemented with many seasonal workers and hundreds of volunteers.Source: National Park Service