Summer Programs Begin at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Date: May 21, 2014
Contact: Kim Coons, 423-752-5213 x139

Fort Oglethorpe, GA: Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites you to take part in summer programming occurring at Chickamauga Battlefield and Lookout Mountain Battlefield. Programs for the summer begin May 24 and end mid-August.  The Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center will be open from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. There are several different programs to choose from over the course of the summer. 

At Chickamauga Battlefield, visitors can join a park ranger for a hike to Snodgrass Hill or to Battleline Road every Wednesday through Saturday, where they will follow personal stories of the soldiers' during the fighting in September 1863. Visitors are also encouraged to participate in a daily car caravan tour of the battlefield, stopping at various locations to discuss how the battle unfolded around them. Additionally, rangers will be providing special talks focusing on the Fuller Gun Collection and the uses of artillery during the battle of Chickamauga every Wednesday through Saturday at the visitor center. On Fridays and Saturdays, living historians will allow visitors the opportunity to meet a Confederate or a Union soldier at the visitor center to learn about the lives of soldiers engaged in the Battle of Chickamauga. This program will include a firing demonstration of a reproduction rifle. 

For those visitors wishing to hear the roar and smell the smoke of a reproduction Civil War cannon as it is fired by park crew members, they may do so at Chickamauga Battlefield on June 14,  July 26 and August 31. These living history programs will take place adjacent to the visitor center. 

At Lookout Mountain Battlefield, between Wednesday and Sunday, visitors can join a park ranger on a guided tour of Point Park, where they learn about the desperate fighting on the slopes of the mountain. Every Thursday through Sunday, visitors can participate in brief talks focusing on James Walker's impressive painting, "The Battle of Lookout Mountain," and learn about the use of artillery on Lookout Mountain during the Campaign for Chattanooga. Tours of the Cravens House, on Lookout Mountain, are available for visitors to enjoy on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. In addition to touring the house, visitors can learn about the area where some of harshest fighting of the battle took place. 

For those visitors on Lookout Mountain wishing to participate in a program where a reproduction Civil War cannon is fired by park crew members, they may do so inside Point Park on May 24, July 4 and August 16.