Forever Moccasin Bend

“Where the river, mountains, and plains meet, there the people will gather.”

We established the Forever Moccasin Bend campaign to raise awareness and dedicate funding toward the following objectives:

  • Highlighting Moccasin Bend’s 12,000 year Indigenous history and significance as the only National Historic Landmark in Hamilton County and the first (and only) National Archeological District in the country.

  • Celebrating the community-wide preservation efforts that began more than a century ago and protecting Moccasin Bend’s culturally sensitive resources from continued threats.

  • Partnering with the National Park Service to develop visitor amenities that welcome the public to learn, experience, reflect, and connect across this iconic landscape.

Save The Bend: Our Position Statement.

Concerning the Rebuilding of the State of Tennessee Mental Health Hospital on Moccasin Bend

Chattanoogans and all Tennesseans face a once-in-a-generation chance to see Moccasin Bend grow into the national park and archaeological preserve as intended by the people of the region and by Congress (signed into law 20 years ago). As the State of Tennessee looks to invest CARES Act funds into improving mental health care services, National Park Partners believe its possible to achieve two major initiatives in the near future: a new, modern mental hospital that meets the growing needs of our residents; and a fully expanded Moccasin Bend National Archeological District within minutes of downtown Chattanooga.

Though opportunities have been missed in the past, we now have a chance to make a fully realized and interpreted National Park site - and the tremendous annual economic benefits associated with such places - a reality.

National Park Partners calls for a way forward that fulfills the commitments made by Tennessee officials twenty years ago to remove the nonconforming uses and for the state to build the new mental hospital elsewhere. Tennesseans deserve a transparent public process resulting in a better-informed and thoughtful land use decision, one that respects the past, meets the needs of the present, and is defensible to future generations.

New non-federal construction directly threatens the integrity of culturally sensitive resources protected by the National Park Service. Therefore, we do not accept the State of Tennessee’s proposal to build the new mental health hospital on its current campus, which lies within a National Historic Landmark boundary and is completely surrounded by a National Park site meant for public benefit.

While a state legislative committee approved the concept of new construction on Moccasin Bend to rebuild the now 61-year-old hospital, that decision can and must be reversed. The City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County, as well as voters, express support for a new state-run hospital but not on the same iconic Moccasin Bend landscape that generations of Chattanoogans fought to preserve for its incredibly rich history and sacred Indigenous resources.

Open the Gateway: Creating a Visitor Orientation Plaza

For the first time, a new visitor orientation plaza will create a welcoming entrance for the public to experience Moccasin Bend National Archeological District. Along with a new programming pavilion and accessible walkway near the Tennessee River, visitors will enjoy a parking area, restrooms, and an interpretive display with trail maps and highlights of Moccasin Bend's 12,000 years of history.

Environmental landscaping improvements include a bio-swale feature to provide animal habitat, allow for natural stormwater drainage, and encourage native plant growth. Thanks to your support, we raised the required 50% local match for the federal Centennial Challenge grant! As of September 2024, the National Park Service is working through the last steps before putting the project out to bid and we hope to invite the public to a groundbreaking ceremony very soon!

Know the Facts

Commonly Repeated Misconceptions about Moccasin Bend

  • Fact: Designs for a new visitor orientation plaza at the Hamm Road "Gateway" entrance to Moccasin Bend passed final approvals earlier this year. The project is expected to be contracted out within the coming months and possibly completed as early as Fall 2024. The 1:1 public-private partnership matched grants and donations from more than 140 area businesses, individuals, families, and foundations with federal funding from the Congressional Centennial Challenge grant. Learn more at forevermoccasinbend.org

  • Fact: The City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County continue their efforts to remove the jointly operated police firing range from Moccasin Bend for decades, and to provide law enforcement agencies with a new facility that meets modern standards (sound familiar?). Building a new firing range on the same campus is not even an option as the City, County, and State of Tennessee all committed to removing nonconforming uses at the earliest opportunity. The golf course lease is ongoing until the other pieces fall into place, then that will revert to National Park land as well. The firing range and the golf course could both be gone in ten years or less; building another hospital commits the State to being there for another 60+ years or more.

  • Fact: Other sites were determined to be viable and - they just decided to build on a smaller piece of the Moccasin Bend campus.

  • Fact: The City, County, and National Park Partners will gladly figure out picking up that cleanup cost.

  • The entire Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute campus is within the National Historic Landmark and legislation is in place to allow that land to be admitted into the National Archeological District boundary. In 2024, a Phase 1 archaeological survey of approximately 13 acres of the proposed new construction site is being conducted. Funding for construction of new hospital facilities is time limited, and the State is squandering time and resources that could be spent on seeking another site. The lack of transparency in this entire process to date gives the public no confidence in the results of the Phase I archaeological survey being thorough, or transparent.

  • The citizens of Tennessee are the owners of this public land, and the 23 Tribes with ancestral ties to the land are stakeholders as well. No public input or Tribal consultation went into this proposal to rebuild on the Bend.

  • Fact: Modern facilities are designed to be calming environments and can be landscaped to reflect a natural setting regardless of where they are. The downsides to this isolated natural setting must be considered as well: Moccasin Bend is not on any public transportation routes and provides only one road in and out for emergency vehicles. The isolated location upholds outdated systemic biases of keeping mental health patients out of sight. Additionally, the existence of a National Park site on Moccasin Bend, along with many other uses with Moccasin Bend in the name, causes confusion when a simple Google search comes back with multiple numbers. The unnecessary delays from calling wrong numbers to find the hospital is stressful for patients and their families seeking urgent mental health care.

  • Fact:

    - Founding of the ongoing Moccasin Bend Lecture Series in 2006

    - Creation of a new public trail at the the Brown's Ferry/Old Federal Road Trace site in 2013

    - Completion of a Moccasin Bend Cultural Landscape Assessment by the National Park Service in 2014

    - Completion of a General Management Plan Amendment for Moccasin Bend by the National Park Service in 2017, laying out the plan for developing and interpreting the site through public input sessions and Tribal consultation

    - Several rounds of streambank stabilization in conjunction with the US Army Corps of Engineers

    - A successful public-private partnership to raise funds for a new Visitor Orientation Plaza at the Hamm Road "Gateway" entrance to the National Archeological District. More than $1.2m was raised with a 1:1 federal to local match and construction is slated to begin in 2024.

    - The National Trail of Tears Association Conference will be in Chattanooga in October 2024, hopefully coinciding with the ribbon cutting on the new Visitor Orientation Plaza. National Park Partners is partnering with the ToTA to plan activities commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 2004 land donation that established the National Archeological District. We've received a $50,000 grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation towards the commemoration activities and the City of Chattanooga Department of Parks and Outdoors is making Ross's Landing, Coolidge Park, and Renaissance Park available as an in-kind donation of venue space.

  • Fact: No one thought the State would go back on their commitment to the Tribes and the National Park Service to relocate the hospital at the earliest opportunity. The message for years has been that the hospital is moving and the State is assessing other sites; remaining on Moccasin Bend was believed to not even be an option. National Park Partners was told as recently as late May that the decision was down to two alternate sites; then with no warning, we were alerted by the media that the State instead is proposing to remain on Moccasin Bend and rebuild on a smaller footprint. This is being billed as a "compromise" but instead it was a unilateral decision made behind closed doors and without stakeholder input. Had we the slightest idea that remaining on Moccasin Bend was possible, we would have come forward years ago with all of this information - we never imagined the State would go back on the commitments they made 20 years ago.

National Archeological District

DESIGNATED IN 2003, MOCCASIN BEND NAD IS THE COUNTRY’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONAL ARCHEOLOGICAL DISTRICT, AND FOR GOOD REASON.

Signing documents to create Moccasin Bend National Archeological District

The "Open the Gateway" phase of our Forever Moccasin Bend campaign will create a welcoming entrance to the country's only National Archeological District.

Along with a new programming pavilion and accessible walkway near the Tennessee River, the project establishes a parking area, restrooms, and an interpretive display with trail maps and highlights of Moccasin Bend's 12,000 years of history.

Environmental landscaping improvements include a bio-swale feature to provide animal habitat, allow for natural stormwater drainage, and encourage native plant growth.

We are 90% of the way to fully funding the project, and we need you to get us to the finish line! Help us Open the Gateway and create this great new great outdoor space for you and future generations to enjoy.

Moccasin Bend is the only designated National Archeological District in the entire National Park System. Archaeological studies conducted across the National Historic Landmark peninsula revealed evidence of human activity dating back to 10,000 B.C. as the earliest Paleo-Indians hunted and gathered here; continuous habitations followed through the Archaic, Mississippian, and Woodland periods. Places where the plains meet rivers and rivers meet mountains are magnets for humans, drawing us in since time immemorial.

Such gravitational forces are evident today as the seals of the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County bear the image of the timeless Moccasin Bend landscape formed where the Tennessee River met the immovable force of Lookout Mountain.

Public support for preserving Moccasin Bend nearly resulted in National Park status in 1950 as President Truman signed legislation approving its inclusion; an indefensible failure of vision on the part of Tennessee Governor Frank Clements in 1953 let that opportunity for a world class park mere moments from Chattanooga’s downtown slip away.

Another 50 years would pass before the Moccasin Bend Task Force studies, originally focused on economic development of the remaining land on Moccasin Bend, instead recommended against the continuing desecration of its nationally significant, culturally sensitive, and irreplaceable historic resources. The 23 American Indian Tribes whose ancestors inhabited Moccasin Bend for millennia were engaged in the planning and recognized as stakeholders in all future land use decisions. Ultimately, elected officials at every level – local, state, federal, and tribal – agreed in 2003 to preserve more than 750 acres on Moccasin Bend through the National Archeological District designation, and to remove nonconforming uses (including the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, built in 1961) at the earliest opportunity.

Moccasin Bend in the Media

  • “Rhetoric Over Proposed Replacement Mental Hospital on Moccasin Bend Heats Up”

    by Ben Benton, Times Free Press, April 21, 2024

    Read More

  • “Opinion: Transformation of Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital sets benchmark for Chattanooga’s Moccasin Bend”

    by Clint Cooper, Times Free Press, April 20, 2024

    Read More

  • “Rebuilding The Mental Hospital On Moccasin Bend Would Be A Huge Mistake”

    by Fred Robinson, Chattanoogan.com, April 18, 2024

    Read More

  • “New Cry Of "Save The Bend" Goes Up At Ruby Falls Rally”

    chattanoogan.com, April 11, 2024

    Read More

  • “Chattanooga developing plan to preserve Moccasin Bend”

    by Timbrel Williams, WDEF Channel 12, April 12, 2024

    Read More

  • “Advocates Work to Conserve Moccasin Bend, Seek to Move Mental Health Facility”

    by Jaclyn Davis, News Channel 9, April 11th 2024

    Read More

  • “Moccasin Bend Public Forum Seeks Transparency, Preservation”

    by Ben Benton, Times Free Press, April 9, 2024

    Read More

  • “Public Invited to Moccasin Bend Public Hearing on Thursday”

    by Courtney Goins, WDEF Channel 12, April 8, 2024

    Read More

  • “Moccasin Bend Public Forum is Thursday”

    chattanoogan.com, April 8, 2024

    Read More

  • “Moccasin Bend Faces Potential Construction for Mental Health Hospital”

    by Germyah Batey, Local 3 News, Apr 11, 2024

    Read More

Indigenous Ties

12,000 Years, 23 Tribes

“Reproduced with permission from the artist. Copyright 2024, Maria Willison”

 The proposal to rebuild on the current hospital campus revokes prior public commitments to move off the Bend at the earliest opportunity; furthermore, despite the significance of this generational land use decision, State officials failed to engage the 23 federally-recognized Native American Tribal Nations associated with Moccasin Bend, the National Park Service, and the Tennessee residents who own this public land. The so-called “compromise” of building on a smaller footprint of the same campus was not a compromise at all, it was a unilateral decision made with no transparency, no public input, and without the common courtesy of opening a dialogue with the hospital’s long-time partners on Moccasin Bend.

For the Tribal Nations and the National Park Service to find out about the proposed rebuild on Moccasin Bend from the news media – after being told for 18 months that dozens of alternate sites were under consideration – is completely unacceptable, especially in this day and age when transparency is crucial to maintaining public trust. Officials made this decision behind closed doors, without consulting stakeholders or their constituencies, and the more we find out about the process, the more questions arise.

From the National Park Cultural Landscape Report:

American Indian use and occupation of Moccasin Bend for approximately 12,000 years make this place a nationally important archeological resource. Moccasin Bend contains portions of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, which commemorates the 1838 forced removal of the Cherokee Indians from their homelands by the U.S. government. Additional historic resources include important Civil War earthworks and campsites concentrated along Stringers Ridge. In 1986, out of recognition for the national significance of its cultural resources, 956 acres of the Bend received designation as the Moccasin Bend Archeological District National Historic Landmark. In 2003, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (NMP) added 755 acres of the Bend as the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District unit of the park.