Chickamauga and Chattanooga Administrative History

CHAPTER II:
WAR DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION (continued)

C. Land Acquisition

Between 1890 and 1933 matters of land acquisition persisted. Additions and adjustments to the original tract encompassing Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park were made often and were viewed as paramount to development. As previously indicated, the proposed park tract was reduced as a result of preliminary surveys. [79]

This property constituted only the Chickamauga Battlefield portion of the park, as well as some acreage along Missionary Ridge, although congressional appropriations later provided for purchase of an area on the north end of Lookout Mountain. By 1896 total park holdings stood at 5,568.25 acres out of the approximately 8,000 acres specified in the enabling act. Lookout Mountain Battlefield was added in 1897 at a cost of $22,065, while Point Park was not purchased until the following year for $35,000. [80] The latter tract included about sixteen and one-half acres and was acquired from the Lookout Mountain Company, a private enterprise. [81] Three acres purchased at the north end of Missionary Ridge virtually completed acquisition in the Tennessee portion of the park, although the 1899 widening of Crest Road along the ridge necessitated acquiring through donation several strips of property bordering privately-held tracts. [82] In addition, landowners in the Georgia division voluntarily ceded parts of their property along the Crest, Lafayette, and Ringgold roads to improve the right-of-way. [83]

Further additions to park holdings were completed through purchase or donation during the early 1900s. Small tracts acquired in this period, such as those at the junction of Jay's Mill Road and Reed's Bridge Road, improved the right-of-way and the park's maintenance capability. Some right-of-way deeds were negotiated so that new roads could be built, such as the Glass Mill Road between Crawfish Springs and Glass Mill on Chickamauga Creek. And in 1905 right-of-way between the park and Rossville, along Lafayette Road, was obtained. But many landholders adamantly opposed further concessions to the park. Wrote Boynton: "[They] appear to feel that they have the road which the Government has built and is maintaining, and they need not concern themselves further." [84] Furthermore, many landholders, cognizant of the use of the park for military maneuvers, raised prices for their property. In 1903, to forestall this trend, the War Department purchased a block of 793 acres at the north end of the park for $32,574. Primarily to be used for military purposes, the tract was also viewed as necessary for the establishment of the national military park. Fort Oglethorpe was built on a large section of this acreage. [85]

By 1908 total park acreage stood at 6,876.95. Total cost of the property acquired thus far was $314,990, with an average cost of $45.80 per acre. Appropriations continued. In fiscal 1909 more than $88,000 was advanced for purchasing several small tracts previously authorized, for road improvement, for fencing the south and east boundaries, and for repair of buildings damaged by a tornado in April, 1908. [86] Most remaining land problems lay in obtaining strips of property along Lafayette Road to complete a fifty-foot right-of-way for its length. Between 1913 and 1918 some 330 acres of this land came under Government control. [87]

A 1916 synopsis of park holdings appeared as follows:

This park is situated in Walker and Catoosa Counties, Ga., and in Hamilton County, Tenn., and contains an area of 6,541.64 acres, more or less. That part of the park located in the State of Georgia embraces the park proper, containing an area of approximately 5,562.78 acres, and Fort Oglethorpe, containing an area of 813.42 acres. The area in Tennessee is approximately 165.46 acres, and includes Lookout Mountain, containing about 102.56 acres; Orchard Knob, 7.37 acres; and the reservations on Missionary Ridge known as Bragg's Headquarters, about 2.5 acres; De Long's Place, 5.25 acres; Sherman Heights, 46 acres; the Ohio reservation, 1.74 acres; the site of the Phelps monument, and the site of the monument to the Nineteenth Illinois Regiment. [88]

Park acreage, exclusive of rights-of-way along entrance roads, remained fairly constant throughout the 1920s. Excluding the Fort Oglethorpe Reservation, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park ground embraced 5,733.11 acres as of 1926. [89] In 1930 a small addition was sought on the west slope of DeLong Point on Missionary Ridge, but owners were asking an excessive $5,000 for this land. [90] In 1932 civic-minded residents of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, donated approximately two acres to the Government for the purpose of establishing Signal Mountain Park some nine miles northwest of Chattanooga in the suburb of Waldens Ridge. This tract measured roughly 100 feet by 250 feet total area. [91] The Signal Mountain addition constituted the final acquisition under War Department administration. [92]

D. Boundaries

Early marking of the boundaries in the park fell to army survey parties who undertook the initial work in 1890 and 1891 under direct supervision of Commissioner Kellogg. In 1892 Betts resurveyed the proposed tract as land acquisition proceeded and made special note wherever inaccurate corner markers needed correction. [93] Marking of boundaries was a specific duty required of the War Department under terms of the enabling act once "perfect titles have been secured to the . . . lands and roads . . . . " [94]

By the 1895 formal dedication of the park, Henry V. Boynton described the legal boundaries thusly:

An east and west line, crossing the La Fayette Road at a point about 600 yards north of the Cloud House, and extending from the McFarland's Gap road to the Chickamauga River, forms the northern boundary. The Chickamauga River bounds it on the east, the road from Lee and Gordon's Mill to the Crawfish Springs road is its southern limit, and the Crawfish Springs road from the Lee and Gordon's Mill road to McFarland's Gap is its western boundary. . . . [95]

Periodically the park was resurveyed to check for encroachment of fences and other privately-owned appurtenances. [96] Disputes occasionally arose between park authorities and private landholders, as in 1912-14, when the Government sought to resolve an issue of relief to property owners whose walls encroached on the right-of-way along Crest Road on Missionary Ridge. Concerned landholders were allowed to apply for revocable permits to retain offending walls, although no new walls could be erected. [97]