Moccasin Bend National Archeological District

Bird's-eye view of Moccasin Bend from the Ochs Museum, inside Point Park.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Moccasin Bend

Designation:

Archeological District

Moccasin Bend is a peninsula formed by a prominent bend in the Tennessee Rive rand is directly across the river from downtown Chattanooga. The area contains nationally significant archeological sites that chronicle approximately 12,000 years of American Indian occupation. These sites are associated primarily with Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultural periods. The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail follow sthe route of the Brown's Ferry Road that crossed Moccasin Bend and commemorates the forced removal of Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homelands. Important Civil War-era earthworks and associated resources constructed by US forces are located along Stringers Ridge, which effectively screens most of the Moccasin Bend unit from downtown Chattanooga. The 768-acre district became a unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in 2003.