Is Chattanooga the Center of the World?

“Chattanooga is the center of the world…someday 200,000 people will live here.”

- Benjamin Rush Montgomery

Do you like bacon? Everyone nods when I say that, whether they eat it now or not. But did you know that Chattanooga was a part of the first contact in North America with Europeans in the 1500s and that bacon is also a part of that story? These questions brought predictable responses from students and adults alike during the National Park Partners partnership with the “Wayne-O-Rama” exhibit at the Chattanooga Public Library.

Chattanooga’s Libraries are a door to the city and a world of information and history, with connections to primary source documents like journals from the explorations of Hernando de Soto and Juan de Pardo visiting Moccasin Bend in 1540, to books, tickets to local experiences, power tools, musical instruments, a sound studio, classes, and so much more.

All available with your library card.

Journals, maps, newspapers, and historic photographs are all examples of primary sources and part of the treasure trove that are our libraries and a trusted way to learn about the past, the present, and what might be the future. An understanding of ‘trusted sources’ is a critical part of what elementary school students learn in social studies classes across America. Students from around Hamilton County visited this exhibit, were inspired to learn about their history, and proud to say that their teachers had taught them about trusted sources, scoffing at today’s clickbait news trends.

Journals from members of the Hernando de Soto and Juan de Pardo expeditions reflect that they visited here, landing at a site, “Hampton Village” on the west side of Moccasin Bend during their search for gold, people, and lands to conquer. Along the way, they brought pigs and horses, introducing them to North America along with diseases and germs that decimated the Coosa Chiefdom, among other native tribes around the Southeast. Chattanooga is as much a part of that story as St. Augustine is and the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District is a place where it can be honored and appreciated.

Several hundred years later, after the Cherokee had established a stronghold here, Chief Dragging Canoe and his cousin Nancy Ward became a part of American history at opposite ends of the Revolutionary War. Chief Dragging Canoe and his Chickamauga warriors fought alongside the British, not out of loyalty to the Crown but borne of hatred for the people taking their lands. His cousin, Nancy Ward, had fought alongside her husband as a young wife and mother, chewing his bullets to maximize their damage to the enemy. When he fell in battle, she picked his rifle up and led the Cherokee warriors to victory, becoming the Beloved Woman, a leader in her nation. She allied with the Patriots and is known to have warned them about impending Chickamauga attacks. The understanding that they both learned at the feet of Dragging Canoe’s father, Chief Attakullakulla, one of seven Cherokee chiefs who traveled to London in 1760 to plead with England’s King to spare them from the British colonists taking their lands adds a unique local nuance to how they each translated his teachings into their actions.

In the early days of Chattanooga, Benjamin Rush Montgomery, a lawyer who came here from Virginia, was said to have argued with Colonel Whiteside and local leaders about the location of the center of the world, vehement that it was not in New York, Baltimore, or Washington, but right here, at the pond at 9th Street, an area we now know as Downtown, Chattanooga. An enthusiastic booster, he was known to mount a stump near the river, with merchants and customers leaving the stores to listen as he proclaimed that someday Chattanooga would have 200,000 people. Then his remarks caused “people to shake their heads wondering how anyone could believe such predictions.” Today’s Main Street, a thriving thoroughfare of arts and culture, was originally Montgomery Avenue, named for him, and while it has changed, Chattanooga is still a place where history continues to be made.

Jennifer Crutchfield is an author, educator, and Talk Radio 102.3 guest host. Manager of the Open OutDoors for Kids National Park Foundation project with National Park Partners, she is leading weekly after-school lessons at City of Chattanooga Community Centers this Spring and Summer.