Moccasin Bend

Moccasin Bend National Archeological District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Moccasin Bend, viewed from Lookout Mountain
Nearest city	Chattanooga, Tennessee
Governing body	National Park Service
NRHP Reference #	86003510
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	September 8, 1986
Designated NHLD	September 9, 1996

Moccasin Bend Archaeological District is an archeological site in Tennessee that is included in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. "On March 13, 2001, Representative Wamp introduced HR 980, calling for the creation of Moccasin Bend National Archeological District to be part of the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park."

The 956-acre (387 ha) area was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. It is located directly across the Tennessee River from Lookout Mountain, site of an American Civil War battle. The archeological district is significant due to its archaeological resources of American Indian settlement. Since Moccasin Bend is located in Chattanooga, it is considered to be a major city that consists of some of the most historical Native American sites in the United States.

A National Park Service description in 1996 read:

This is the best preserved and most important compact, yet diverse, sample of archeological remains known in the Tennessee River Valley, indicative of Chattanooga's pivotal status in trade, communications, economics, and political importance in the interior Southeast. The site includes evidence of occupation by Native American groups of the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods; because of 16th-century Spanish trade and gift items found there, the site provides significant opportunities to study the early contact period in the Southeast. Also included are Civil War earthworks associated with the battle of Chattanooga.

History

Moccasin Bend has been a vital area of archeological resources for thousands of years. American Indians used this land as a place for a home as long as 12,000 years ago. During the Paleo-Indian Period (10500–8000 BC), Moccasin Bend served as a home for Paleo-Indians. These people evidently had a highly mobile hunting and gathering way of life. The artifact markers for this period include a variety of fluted, semi- fluted, and un-fluted lanceolate projectile points. The Paleo-Indian period corresponds to the end of the Pleistocene Era. During the Woodland Period (700 BC-1000 AD,) there were major changes evolving with the needs of the Indian people. The use of bow and arrows became the primary way of hunting and pottery became widely popular throughout the Indian tribes. From the Woodland Period, artifacts have been found on Moccasin Bend. During the Mississippian Period (AD 1000–1630), the American Indians resided on Moccasin Bend in large villages enclosed by corn fields and other agricultural necessities. The Mississippian Period was also the time of interaction with the Spanish to the area, starting with Hernando de Soto's march through the area in 1540. Moccasin Bend was very important area of land at this time.

Another historical site across Moccasin Bend, possibly constructed in 1805, was the USA Federal Road, used to connect Georgia with Tennessee to the north by transiting through the Cherokee Nation. In 1838, the Cherokee Indians were forced out of their national area by the U.S. Government. Moccasin Bend was not part of the Cherokee Nation in 1838 but was crossed by two departing parties on the Trail of Tears.

Moccasin Bend also played a major role in the Civil War. The Union forces took control of west and middle Tennessee, leaving one important place they had not yet conquered. Their next target was Chattanooga. "According to Civil War historian, James McPherson, Chattanooga had great strategic value, for the only railroads linking the eastern and western parts of the Confederacy converged there in a gap carved through the Cumberland Mountains by the Tennessee River. Union forces could divide the eastern portion by penetrating into Georgia via Chattanooga.”

Landscape

On February 20, 2003, Public Law 108-7 added approximately 780 acres (320 ha) of Moccasin Bend to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park as a new park unit. Currently, there are two public hiking trails on Moccasin Bend, the only public visitor facilities on this park unit while the National Park Service prepares a master plan. Moccasin Bend has plentiful natural resources. Moccasin Bend is a 1000 acre peninsula sitting on the edge of the Tennessee River. It contains many new developments as well as land resources like a variety of woodlands and past agricultural areas.

Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute

Moccasin Bend is the site of the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute. It is located on a private area of land on the Tennessee River. It was founded in 1961 by the Tennessee State Legislature. "Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute is a psychiatric hospital in Chattanooga, TN, with 150 beds. Survey data for the latest year available shows that the hospital had a total of 2,340 admissions.". The hospital was built into five different buildings. The first building was built in 1961. "A local architect, Mario Bianculli, designed the majority of the buildings at the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute. Considered “Chattanooga’s First Modernist,” Bianculli was a pioneer of modern architecture in Tennessee and the southeastern United States." The hospital specializes in psychiatric care. They offer services to a variety of people in need of psychiatric help.

External links

• Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park
• Description of the Blue Blazes Trail on Moccasin Bend
• Moccasin Bend Multiple Resource Area, National Register of Historic Places nomination form, prepared by George Fielder, Tennessee Division of Archeology, 1984