PROTECTING AN ARTIST’S VANTAGE James Walker, The Battle of Lookout Mountain, 1864.
Lookout Mountain looms large over Chattanooga, its face so steep that the funicular climbing the eastern side tops out at a stomach-wrenching 72.7 percent grade. It was on this mountain that Major General Joseph Hooker’s Union army won the 1863 “Battle Above the Clouds”— the subject of a 13-by-30-foot painting that is now the centerpiece of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park’s visitor center on the mountain. Artist Joseph Walker observed the battle in progress. “That rise was Walker’s vantage point,” says park historian Jim Ogden, indicating a point on the landscape that has recently been added to the park with help from The Trust for Public Land. Protecting Walker’s vantage point is the latest in a string of conservation projects completed by TPL to help build the nation’s oldest and largest national military park. Created at the request of Civil War veterans in 1890, the park protects important Civil War sites on
Courtesy of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park
Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Moccasin Bend, and the Chickamauga Battlefield south of the city. With the support of the Tennessee congressional delegation and the National Park Service, and using appropriations from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and other funding, TPL since 1999 has helped add 900 acres in 14 projects to the 9,000-acre military park—part of Chattanooga’s enviable network of open space. TPL-protected lands include Billy Goat Hill, where Union general William T. Sherman camped before the Battle of Missionary Ridge; the Moccasin Bend Archeological District, which interprets Civil War and Native American history; a portion of the Wauhatchie Battlefield; and nine projects on Lookout Mountain, including James Walker’s viewpoint for the battle. “It’s an important acquisition,” Jim Ogden says. “Having it protected lets people put the painting—and the battle—into geographical perspective.”
Chattanooga’s “vision of a clean, healthy city along with the protection of its natural beauty.”
PROTECTING STRINGER’S RIDGE Carla Askonas, The Trust for Public Land’s former associate director of philanthropy in Chattanooga, calls the overlook on Stringer’s Ridge “the million- dollar view” because of the inspirational effect it has on donors.
The iconic ridge—four hilltops totaling 92 acres
of undeveloped forest—dominates the city’s northern viewshed, providing a green backdrop for downtown. In 2007 the most recent of several development plans called for six-story condos lining the ridgecrest. After strident opposition from Chattanoogans shut down the proposal, TPL stepped in at the city’s request to raise funds for the land’s protection. One key strategy was to conduct tours of the ridge for potential contributors, always stopping at the