Chattanooga

Beautifully situated on the Tennessee River between the Cumberland

Plateau and the Great Smoky Mountains, Chattanooga has a history as

fascinating and diverse as it is long. Chattanooga began as a river landing,

and when residents of the small frontier settlement of Ross's Landing

met in 1838 to decide upon a new name for their community, they could

not have foreseen the changes that would affect the community they

named Chattanooga.

Within a few years of the 1849 arrival of the first train of the Western

and Atlantic Railroad, Chattanooga became an important communications

crossroads: the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary

Ridge were fought in 1863 to determine control of this strategically crucial

location. If these conflicts played a part in deciding the fate of the nation,

they also decided the future of Chattanooga. Although the war ravaged

the countryside and destroyed city buildings, it also brought new life:

Union soldiers and entrepreneurs alike recognized the economic potential

of the area and not only rebuilt Chattanooga and Hamilton County, but

transformed the region into a progressive industrial center of the South.