Native Americans and Lookout Mountain The
Chickamauga people, a branch of Cherokee
Native Americans, lived in the Chattanooga area. The Chickamauga called the mountain Chat-a-nu-ga; hence the name of the city. Research suggests the mountain was inhabited, although no physical evidence has been found. On top of the mountain, the pattern of boulders suggest lanes or walls were once there.
Revolutionary War and aftermath During the
Revolutionary War, a battle between forces of
John Sevier's
Washington District Regiment and those of Chief
Dragging Canoe of the
Chickamauga Cherokee, may have taken place on Lookout Mountain on September 20, 1782. Archaeologist and ethno-historian, Raymond Evans, has asserted that such a battle could not have taken place. However, a battle between militia forces under
Joseph Martin, at the time Superintendent for Indian Affairs for both
Virginia and
North Carolina, and those of Dragging Canoe did occur there in August 1788.
Settlements It was reported that on August 28, 1823, Daniel S. Butrick and William Chamberlain arrived at Lookout Mountain to perform missionary work with Native Americans. After the
Trail of Tears, land taken from the
tribes was purchased by the highest bidder without a lottery of land parcels. This method of distributing land caused much of Lookout Mountain to be owned by a few wealthy Chattanooga families. The aptly named Summertown, on top of the mountain, was barely accessible from a small rutted turnpike which had been built in 1852 by Colonel James A. Whiteside. Whiteside, a native of
Danville, Kentucky, owned a summer home which he converted into a hotel with several cottages. Naturalists who came to the area and visited the summit, such as
Bradford Torrey, thought the cottages spoiled the environment and made it look like a cheap resort. Whiteside had purchased much of the land on the mountain's summit. Another wealthy Chattanoogan, Robert Cravens, had purchased most of the land on the side of the mountain. Cravens was also instrumental in developing the area, and moved into the house he built (the Cravens House) in 1855. Within a few years, about 25 families regularly summered on the mountain. Lookout Mountain's Sunset Rock was once the home to the photo shop of JB Linn. After the Union forces under Major General
Joseph Hooker took over the mountain, Linn gained access to Sunset Rock (then called Point Lookout). He built a small shack there and named it "Gallery Point Lookout". In December 1863, he and his brother began taking photographs of many war commanders and officers, as well as wealthy civilians in the area. They became very successful with these pictures. The Gallery Point Lookout House is no longer in existence, but many of Linn's photographs still exist.
Civil War On November 24, 1863, the Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought on the slopes of the mountain. The majority of hand-to-hand combat took place near Cravens' house (about halfway to the summit). Lookout Mountain's shape and location can in some conditions cause a unique weather phenomenon in the area: after dawn, fog will sometimes descend from the cooler mountaintop and stop about halfway down. Such an event took place the day of the battle and is the reason for its romanticized name, the "
Battle Above the Clouds". The battle was won by
Union forces, enabling them to lift the
Confederate siege of Chattanooga.
After the Civil War Yellow fever epidemic When cases of
Yellow fever began to increase in the United States, the Chattanooga population believed that the city was immune to any possibility of an epidemic because of its mountain climate. In 1878, two local residents died of the disease, throwing the city into a panic that led some 12,000 people to flee. Many of these went up the mountain, believing the climate would offer some protection against the disease. After the epidemic passed, many people complained about the inconvenient and complicated travel up the mountain, and the St. Elmo Turnpike (Ochs Highway) was created to help with access to the mountain. Early in the 1900s, Lookout Mountain was incorporated as a town.
Twentieth-century tourist boom The twentieth century saw some wealthy businessmen settle permanently on the mountain, but its attraction as a tourist destination also grew.
Entrepreneurs — among them
Garnet Carter, J.B. Pound, O.B. Andrews, and Leo Lambert — began developing, improving, and marketing attractions in the 1910s and 1920s. Today, tourist attractions include: •
Battle of Lookout Mountain Museum: soldier figurines and topographical maps. •
Lookout Mountain Incline Railway: a National Historic site, the railroad has an incline of 72.7%. •
Rock City: trails laid of rock with various attractions, including Lover's Leap, Balanced Rock, and Fat Man's Squeeze. •
Ruby Falls: a cave with a 145-foot waterfall deep inside the mountain. ==References==