Celebrating the Crown Jewel and its “Save the Bend” Champions
Many years ago, Dalton Roberts had a vision. The former county executive looked into the future and saw a string of parks along the Tennessee River, dazzling and inviting, where Hamilton County residents could play, reflect and commune.
He compared this string of parks to a necklace with pearls on it.
And the crown jewel?
“Moccasin Bend,” Jeannine Alday said.
On October 14, as a fall wind blew along the riverfront under the clearest of blue skies, Alday stood before a grateful crowd, as 250-plus gathered at the Tennessee Aquarium plaza to honor the crown jewel.
A special “welcome home” on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Designed as a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Moccasin Bend formally becoming a National Archeological District, the day became a celebration. A family reunion. A “welcome home” to the visiting National Trail of Tears Association conference attendees on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
For 90 minutes, local and national leaders reflected and reminisced on the decades-long journey of preserving and protecting - not once, but twice - Moccasin Bend. It was Alday, though, who reminded us of the power of storytelling and perspective. As Roberts, who died in 2015, continued to share his vision, folks in the county began to see and view the land in a different way.
“A far more important way,” said Alday, who served as chief of staff to both Roberts and the late Mayor Claude Ramsey.
The story of Moccasin Bend is a tale of never-quit endurance, devoted vision and the illuminating power within grassroots, civic action. In a city known for public-private partnerships, the ongoing fight to “Save the Bend” represented “quite possibly the most partner-y thing ever to happen” in Hamilton County, declared Tricia King Mims, executive director of the National Park Partners.
In 2004, the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District became the only of its kind in the United States.
The backstory? Fighting to preserve and protect and #SaveTheBend has taken the ongoing work of the city, county, state, nation and tribe.
“Collective action still matters in this country,” declared Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.
Earlier this year, Gov. Bill Lee suggested the state may renovate the current mental health hospital at Moccasin Bend, opening up a maelstrom of confusion and anger; across the county, folks returned to their (grass)roots: making plans, taking action.
“We decided to fight like hell,” Mims told the crowd.
Hoskins’s collective action still matters echoed anthropologist Margaret Mead. Years ago, she declared: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.
“In fact, it is the only thing that ever has,” former US Congressman Zach Wamp said, reciting Mead.
In September, preliminary results of an archeological study found evidence of Woodland period activity on the proposed building site. The state backed off its plans, announcing the mental health hospital would be built or relocated elsewhere.
It is impossible to measure or grasp the volume of people who banded together over the years and decades in support of The Bend.
For Mims, the lineage is clear between rejoicing today and the earliest of civic actions.
Tricia King Mims welcomes 300+ attendees to the Aquarium Plaza.
She thought back to 1966, when Sophia Long - “a little old lady in tennis shoes,” Mims recalled - stood up at nephew Mickey Robbins’s engagement party. Folks thought she was offering a wedding toast. It was … until Long detoured into a rousing speech that became a call-to-action and warning bell to save Moccasin Bend.
“Probably the first one ever recorded,” said Mims.
In the 1970s, a young Chattanoogan named Ron Littlefield began working with others on a visioning process: what is the best use of the Moccasin Bend land?
The land’s history dates back millennia.
“Mine only goes back to the 1970s as a young planner,” Littlefield told the crowd.
Part of a civic group rethinking best-use ideas for Moccasin Bend, Littlefield remembers all sorts of ideas floated: a major brewery, an asphalt plant, the relocation of the Chattanooga Zoo, a theme park.
Even today, a firing range remains on site. Littlefield mentioned his own personal bucket list.
“I’m 78,” he said. “Still way at the top of the bucket list is Moccasin Bend … moving the firing range. It is one of the last elements that is most inappropriate.”
The Moccasin Bend Task Force of the early 1980’s recommended preservation rather than development, and from there, a movement began. Volunteers handed out bumper stickers - the now iconic green Save The Bend - at early Riverbend Festivals. The Friends of Moccasin Bend formed in 1995; Wamp lovingly called it a “fringe group.”
““We had to save the bend twice, y’all,” he said. “I’m here to tell you today, if we have to do it again, we will. It’s worth saving.””
That fringe group would unite city, county, state, national and tribal partners in ways no other movement has in this region. Jack Baker with the National Trail of Tears Association shared fond memories of the organization’s involvement in the collaborative efforts to achieve National Park status for Moccasin Bend.
The Oct. 14 event served as a large standing ovation to so many: Honorees included the late Shelley Andrews, first executive director of the Friends of Moccasin Bend; along with Mickey Robbins and Jay Mills, the inaugural board chair and vice-chair, respectively.
Left to right: Zach Wamp, Becky Browder, Tricia Mims, Sally Robinson, Troy Poteete, Mickey Robbins, Jay Mills, Greg Vital, David Bowman, Don Andrews.
Mims highlighted the continued dedication of Wamp, who authored and passed the 2003 legislation authorizing the national archeological district. Summarizing his contributions as the “master of the political,” Mims credited Wamp’s relationship savvy and ability to call up decision makers directly as crucial to NPP’s success in reversing the state’s decision.
Greg Vital - current state representative - contributed immeasurable support of the National Archeological District since its creation, including funding of the annual lecture series that began in 2006 (now named the Rita Vital Memorial Moccasin Bend Lecture Series). Mims noted the outpouring of grassroots community support for Save the Bend, despite the campaign being a potential “political hot potato,” from local conservationists like Jim Johnson and Mark McKnight.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. of the Cherokee Nation spoke eloquently about defining the Cherokee legacy and the continuing need for partnerships.
"At the Cherokee Nation, we are very much focused on and orientated toward our future, and we're building toward a bright future, and we're building toward that great Cherokee society that our ancestors always strived for," Hoskin said. "But we cannot be future-focused if we don't tend to our past, those trails that got us here, all of them. And we can't do it alone.”
Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.
He gave a rousing speech, a heartening challenge to continue to fight and unite.
“That dude will light up a room,” said Wamp, as he took the podium.
Wamp, equally rousing, began by remembering a 2005 speech from Cherokee leader Michell Hicks.
"'This is a Cherokee place. It is not an Eastern Band, Western Band or a United Keetoowah place,'" Wamp said, quoting Hicks. "'This place remembers before we were divided, when we were one great nation, the Cherokee Nation. The water holds our tears of joy and sorrow. The rocks hold the sounds of our great Cherokee language. This soil has absorbed our blood and continues to clutch our footsteps. No amount of removal or federal policy can strip this land of the memories it embraces. We have traveled today from all different directions, but we can know Chattanooga today as our home.'"
Earlier this year, Wamp and an “ad-hoc” strategy team - Wamp, Mills, Mims, Robbins and longtime FOMB/NPP board chair, Dan Saieed - began meeting once a week for 14 months in response to the state’s suggestion it may renovate the mental health hospital.
Then, last month, Lee announced the state would end its ideas for renovation after receiving the results from a recent archeological survey, proving (again) the existence of human remains at the Bend dating back 12,000 years.
Congressman Zach Wamp visits with celebration attendees.
“It is a holy place,” Wamp said.
“The color green was born here,” declared poet Erika Roberts.
The work continues. A groundbreaking for a new Visitor Orientation Plaza at Moccasin Bend is promised for 2025, according to remarks from NPS Superintendent Brad Bennett. Jennie Veal with Tennessee Tourism says her department is ready and willing to assist in making Moccasin Bend National Archeological District a destination point for all types of visitors.
The firing range has yet to be moved; however, the leadership of the Chattanooga and Hamilton County county parks departments, with Scott Martin representing Mayor Tim Kelly and Matt Folz representing Mayor Weston Wamp, pledged renewed commitment to that now 20+ year old promise.
“We should never go this far and not finish the journey,” Wamp said.
Then, as the wind continued to blow off the river, the sun moved west across the afternoon sky, its light dazzling across the riverfront, one gorgeous park in a string of parks, all flowing to the crown jewel.
Wamp felt it. The “fight like hell” crowd of friends and supporters felt it.
“We had to save the bend twice, y’all,” he said. “I’m here to tell you today, if we have to do it again, we will. It’s worth saving.”