Cultural Geography of Moccasin Bend

Moccasin Bend has a rich cultural history as it has had continuous human habitation for 12,000 years because of it’s geographically desirable location for many different groups of people. Its’ resource rich, fertile land and strategic location drew different people to it at very different times for vastly different reasons. This background has given it the significance today of a heritage site and is the reason why it’s being adopted today as a state park. Originally in 10,000 B.C. nomadic tribes occupied the bend for its resources, slowly evolving over the next 11,000 years to develop stone and ceramic tools allowing for permanent villages with sedentary agriculture. Over the next 1000 years drastic changes took place with the arrival of Europeans, first the Spanish and then the Union Army whom occupied the bend for it’s strategic location against the Confederate Army and their base on Lookout Mountain.

Postcard showing Moccasin Bend and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield in 1906
Postcard showing Moccasin Bend and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield in 1906
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Postcard showing Moccasin Bend and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield in 1955

Even more drastically, the Native American people who had lived there for almost 12,000 years we’re all deported along the trail of tears in the 1830’s. After a few modern developments since the 1960’s, Moccasin Bend has been in a strange limbo between preservations and development. After 12,000 years of history seeped into the area it is hard to justify mass development while at the same time a golf course, police range and mental hospital already take up some space on the land. The future for Moccasin Bend is unclear leaving it stuck between cultures.

 

Authored By: Simon Swart

Works Cited:

Cline, W. (n.d.). Giant postcard showing view of Moccasin Bend from Lookout Mountain [Photograph found in Digital Collection, Two Dimensional Nonprojected Graphic, Visual Materials, Electronic Resources, Chattanooga Public Library, Chattanooga]. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://catalog.lib.chattanooga.gov/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.5&pos=21 (Originally photographed 1955)

Postcard showing Moccasin Bend and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield [Photograph found in Digital Collection, Two Dimensional Nonprojected Graphic, Visual Materials, Electronic Resources, Chattanooga Public Library, Chattanooga]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://catalog.lib.chattanooga.gov/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.5&pos=20 (Originally photographed 1906)

United States. National Park Service. “Moccasin Bend National Archeological District.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 21 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.