Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Will Increase Entrance Fees at Point Park Beginning June 1

Date: May 18, 2015
Contact: Kim Coons, 423-752-5213 x139

Lookout Mountain, TN: Starting Monday, June 1, 2015, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will increase visitor entrance fees to Point Park in order to fund important maintenance and improvement projects within the park. Entrance fee and annual pass increases are represented in the chart below.

	Entrance Fee (Age 16-Over)	Annual Point Park Pass
Current Fee –Point Park	$3.00/person –Valid for 1 day	$20.00/Year
New Fee –Point Park	$5.00/person –Valid for 7 Days	$30.00/Year

"This modest increase in fees will allow us to continue to protect, preserve and share the special places here at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park with current visitors and future generations" said Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Superintendent Brad Bennett."After carefully considering the impact of a fee increase on visitors and community members, we came to the conclusion that this is the right course of action to improve facilities and services important to visitors."

Entrance fees have supported a wide range of projects that improve the park and visitor experiences, including producing the park orientation film, rehabilitating the Point Park Visitor Center and museum exhibits, restoring portions of thehistoric Lookout Mountain Battlefield landscape, and creating new outdoor exhibits on Orchard Knob.Current projects include restoring mountain-top vistas and repairing the iconic New York Peace Monument at Point Park.Additional revenue from this fee increase will be used to expand visitor programs and services, restore additional portions of the 9,000-acre national park, and produce new, permanent exhibits at the Ochs Museum in Point Park.

In the fall of 2014, the National Park Service conducted a nationwide review of entrance fees.To solicit public input, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park launched a civic engagement campaign in December.

During the public comment period, the park received 36 formal comments and numerous comments via Facebook.While some commenters supported the full increase, others were opposed or suggested a partial increase.