The Foothills Parkway in East Tennessee is a beautiful two-lane scenic highway skirting near the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The legislation for the Foothills Parkway, Public Law 232, was approved and passed by Congress on February 22nd in 1944. The entire 72-mile road was originally intended to stretch from Exit #443 off Interstate 40, near Cosby and Newport, TN, to US Highway 129 near Tallassee and Maryville, TN far to the west. Originally, plans for the Parkway were laid out in eight distinct sections but construction didn’t begin until the 1960s and, to date, the full parkway is still not complete. Of all the seven different U.S. Congressionally Mandated Parkways, the Foothills Parkway is the only one yet to be finished.
The first section of the Parkway to be completed (Section H) was the west end from US Highway 129 at Tallassee to U.S. Highway 321 at Walland, which lies between Maryville and Townsend. 
Due to funding difficulties in the 1970s, erosion and environmental difficulties, the continuing sectional pieces from Walland to Carr Creek (6.1 mi) and Carr Creek on to Wears Valley (9.7 mi) weren’t totally completed and opened until 2018, fifty-two years later. In between these years, the east end of the parkway (Section A) from Interstate 40 to Cosby, a 5.6-mile stretch of roadway, was completed in 1968, but the proposed parkway sections from Cosby to Pittman Center (14.1 mi) and on to U.S. 441 (9.6 mi) have never been started nor has the additional 9.8 mile section of the parkway to Wears Valley.
In actuality the Parkway has been in the works, since its legislation date, for over 75 years, and it will probably be another 20 years or more before all the missing sections are completed. The right-of-way for constructing the remaining sections has been purchased by the National Park Service, which is a plus, but funding is not in place for the work to be done at this time. According to the National Park Service, the next section proposed for completion is section 8D between Wears Valley on US Highway 321 and the Spur on US 441/321 near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Since the completion of the new stretch of parkway, traffic on Wears Cove Road and Line Springs Road to Metcalf Bottoms is now exceeding design capacity and safety concerns have pushed completion of this parkway section to the forefront.
Parkway background and history aside, traveling the completed sections of the Foothills Parkway is a pleasure at any time of the year, but it is especially beautiful in the fall. Many travelers to the Smoky Mountains know little about the Parkway but locals love it as a place to travel to enjoy views of the mountains, generally without the crowds and traffic found within the National Park. Many websites call the Parkway “The Unfinished Dream” and sing of its beauty even as it is.
This week we traveled across all three sections of the Foothills Parkway to see the fall colors beginning their annual show in East Tennessee. Our journey started on the west end of the Parkway where the road begins at Highway 129. Across the street from the entrance is Chilhowee Lake, created in 1957 when the Chilhowee Dam was built. Nearby on the highway are pull over spots to see the lake more clearly or to put in a boat or fish. About a block south of the entrance Happy Valley Road winds between Chilhowee Mountain and the Smoky Mountains to Abrams Creek Campground in the Smokies. A narrow road leads to a ranger station, parking spaces, and the small campground and to several fine hiking trails. J.L. and I love to hike here and especially love the Cooper Road Trail which winds out of the back of the campground toward Cades Cove.
The Foothills Parkway rises from the road’s entrance sign gradually uphill to Look Rock with several pull-over spots along the route up. Plan to stop at the large parking lot as the road reaches its high point on Chilhowee Mountain to enjoy the rock observation deck with views toward the Smoky Mountain range. 
Across the street from the parking lot, you can also hike the paved one-half-mile trail to Look Rock Tower. The path is steep but there are several rest stops along the way. At the tower, you can walk up the ramp to the railed observatory area, which offers a 360-degree panoramic view of the mountains. Signs around the deck tell you the names of the mountains and ranges you can see in the distance … and the tower, with visibility 20-miles or more on a clear day, is a great spot for photos.
A side road beyond the observatory and hiking trail leads to the pretty Look Rock Campground which is, unfortunately closed at this time—and has been since 2016. However, the picnic area recently reopened and plans are in place to hopefully update and reopen the campground and its sites in the future. After passing this point, stop at several other scenic pull-overs as the parkway descends to enjoy views across the mountain ranges to the south and to catch panoramic views of Maryville and the valley below the Chilhowee Mountains to the north.
At the end of this 18-mile stretch of parkway, you can exit onto Hwy 321 for fuel, food, or a rest stop, or continue into the newly completed 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway ending in Wears Valley. We continued on, following the Parkway as it rose from the gap at Walland to wind up hill along Raven Cliff Ridge and Bates Mountain to the high Chilhowee Mountain range again. We stopped often to take photos and enjoy the fall colors along the way. As this section of the Parkway rises high on the mountain, pull-overs offer stunning views toward the Smoky Mountain ranges. Where the ridgetop crests a wide pull-over yields especially fine vistas. 
At these high points you will also catch views of the bridges spanning the mountain ridge tops, which were an ongoing challenge to build on this Parkway and held up completion of the road many times. As the two-lane road winds downhill scenes of Wears Valley and the ridges and around it appear until the Parkway finally ends on Hwy 321 in Wears Valley. Turning right at the Parkway’s end, the highway winds its way back for 15 miles to Townsend or the road leads east for 10 miles to Pigeon Forge.
From the Foothills Parkway sections, completed on the west end, to the finished section of the Parkway on the east end near Cosby and Newport is about a 45 minute to one hour’s drive, depending on the route chosen and the tourist traffic. We drove and explored the eastern piece on a separate day, traveling from Knoxville (where we live) on Interstate-40 to get off onto the Parkway at Exit #443. 
This piece of the parkway, although short, also has several lovely pullovers with views to the Smoky Mountains. At one pullover you can see north to English Mountain and at another south to Mt Cammerer, Mt Guoyot and Mt. LeConte. The mountain town of Cosby, the Cosby Campground, picnic area, and a number of fine hiking trails are not far from the west end of the Parkway, and visiting around the area makes the trip more fun. We often take a hike after driving the parkway and make a side visit to Carver’s Orchard on the Cosby Highway, for fresh apples in the fall.
If you have never taken time to drive the three completed sections of the Foothills Parkway while in the Smoky Mountains, you might want to put them on your “to do” list for a coming visit. We love the Foothills Parkways in all seasons—in fall when the colors are a glory, in winter with snow on the high mountain ridges, in spring as the new green of springtime touches the hillsides, and in summer when the rich greens of the landscape sooth the soul.
Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
As fall arrives I keep an eye on the trees in East Tennessee, looking for the first changing leaves, wondering when the autumn colors will begin to pop out in our neighborhood, along the highways, and in the Smoky Mountains. As the chlorophyll production, that causes the leaves to stay green, stops, the actual hidden colors of the leaves appear—the oranges, reds, yellows, and golden browns—giving us a glorious show before the leaves finally fall. The longevity and beauty of the fall colors every year are affected by temperature, rainfall, frosts, winds, storms and other natural factors. But generally, the trees in East Tennessee begin to change color by mid to late October, and into early November, so that by Thanksgiving most trees, except the evergreens, are bare.
Trees remind us that all big and beautiful things in the natural world begin small. They show us the hidden potential in ordinary things, and the importance of steady, constant growth. Growth always takes time and ongoing patience, a lesson we can learn from in a world that is often pushing, rushing, and marked by impatience. Trees remind us, too, that we need to grow deep roots before reaching further upward.
Strong, deep roots help trees—and us—weather the inevitable storms of life. When difficulties and tragedies come to trees, breaking their branches, stripping their leaves, bringing hardship, they stand strong and patient through it all, gradually recovering and continuing to grow and flourish and fruit. They adapt to the problems and seasons of life that come their way with a calm strength we can learn from.
“Trees represent life, growth, peace and nature—with over 60,000 different types of trees.” [Laylee Brensenaki]… Except in fanciful storybooks, no tree yearns to be like another tree or envies another. Each is what it is, true to itself, growing to its best self and type. Trees show us the beauty of diversity and teach us that we are each meant to be unique and not all the same. We need to remain always true to ourselves, fulfilling our own unique purpose to the best of our abilities, like the trees do.
Trees are givers. They provide beauty to the earth, inspiring us, and they work in many ways to make the world better for others beyond themselves. Birds nest in their branches, and many animals live in, on, and around trees and depend on them to survive. Trees give shade freely, provide fruit, nuts, or flowers according to type, showing us a giving role model. In a world in which most are “all about themselves.” trees show us the goodness of sharing and of living in community wisely, contributing to the good of others as well as growing to become the best they can be.
In the Fall trees display glorious beauty even during a time of hard change. In the quiet and cold of winter, trees rest and put down deeper roots. In the Spring, they burst forth with newness, budding with new growth, freshness and joy. And in the deep of Summer, they grow rich, abundant, and warm with life. We pass through our seasons of life, too, not only broadly over our lifetime from birth to death … but in an ongoing manner as the days and seasons we live through ebb and flow, one into another. The trees teach us how to change, and move through the seasons of life with grace and a positive and right attitude, growing and becoming better and stronger, seeing the beauty and possibilities in each season and time. Trees never get stuck in one time or season either and they never retire from the wonder of life.
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers,” Herman Hesse wrote. “Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.”
September 7th is Grandma Moses Day. Reading about her life was a positive story reminder to me that it’s never too late to pursue dreams and goals, never too late to learn, and never too late to create a life you love.
Emma Gatewood had known a rough life before this date, raising eleven children, enduring an abusive marriage and harsh poverty. When she set out that spring of 1955, she told her children she was “going on a walk,” never offering them any particulars. You can read her remarkable story of that “walk” and her many hikes after in Ben Montgomery’s book Grandma Gatewood’s Walk. Her story shows again what is possible, no matter your age.
I love Harlan David Sanders story. As a young man he did a little of everything—farmer, pilot, salesman. He loved to cook, too, and at mid life opened a restaurant, which failed, leaving him bankrupt. But he didn’t give up his dream or his belief in a fabulous chicken recipe he’d discovered. At 65 years old he used his first Social Security check of $105.00 to begin again and to found the Kentucky Friend Chicken Company, becoming a multimillionaire before he died. He once wrote: “Every failure can be the stepping stone to something better” and he proved that belief to be true.
Albert Einstein is another man who bloomed into greatness in latter life. He was born in Germany in 1879 and considered slow in development and learning as a boy. A late bloomer, he taught himself calculus and geometry and loved physics. He failed the entrance exam for the Federal Polytechnic Institute the first time but tried again and passed later. Einstein struggled in his early adult years, taking menial jobs to get by, and in the scientific field later, people had trouble understanding the importance of his work. He wrote: ‘The ordinary adult never bothers his head about the problems of space and time… but as a child I developed slowly and began to wonder about this.” Einstein’s wonderings, study, and work led to his discovery of the mathematically complex Theory of Relativity in his mid life. His name became synonymous with brilliance and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921 for his services to Theoretical Physics.
I think both these men’s stories show that people don’t always understand the dreams or talents of others. None of these people had an “easy” life either. A common misconception is that talents, production, and intellectual development peak in young adulthood and decline with age, but this has been disproved time and again by research and by countless individuals who didn’t find their deepest talents and abilities until later in life or who didn’t get the time or life breaks to pursue them earlier in their lives.
In all instances, change is hard and never easy. It’s risky. Change forces people to leave “the comfort zone” of their present life and its familiarity. It demands overcoming fears and self-doubts. It requires self analysis and the courage to change in all the ways needed to pursue something “new” and different. Change demands discipline, hard work, and persistence. It also pushes against the innate nature of people to remain comfortably or uncomfortably as they are. Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion reminds us that: “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.” People are governed to a great extent by this law, and it takes a “push” or a “force” from within or without to propel most people into a new path. However, on the positive, Newton’s Law also states that: “a body in motion tends to stay in motion.” So once factors from within, or without, push a person to change – and they get past that first stage of fear, anxiety, and resistance—a move in a new direction may prove very positive and productive indeed.
I hope you can see more now that Late Bloomers are individuals with the zeal and courage to bloom a little later than at the expected time in life … and often in a way no one would have ever expected. Late Bloomers may achieve recognition and success or they may simply find joy in discovering new, rewarding, and useful works and interests. Can you bloom late? Yes! People are living longer and stronger today, and a “wide open” new life period exists for people at mid life who want or need to change direction and for those beyond sixty-five to pursue new interests, new careers, and new pursuits. Be assured, you CAN BLOOM beautifully and bloom well even in midlife or late life. Don’t let anyone convince you that you’re “over the hill” and that it’s “too late to pursue new dreams.” Success and joy in work can happen at any time and at any age … and there are more late bloomers out there than you may think. …I’m one of those Late Bloomers myself and blooming more joyfully every day.
August 17th is “National Thrift Store Day” … so I decided to write my August blog post about thrift shopping. Because we all know people who love to go to Garage Sales or Thrift Stores to find bargains, we tend to think of “thrift shopping” as a norm in our world. However, “repeat sales stores” and “garage sales” are actually a relatively new phenomenon in our world and not everyone loves bargain hunting. A recent research firm found that only about 16-18% of Americans will shop at a thrift store during a given year, and yet resale is a multi-billion dollar industry today—not even considering garage and charity sales. The demographics of thrift store shoppers have changed over time, as well, with a decreasing “stigma” about thrifting. In fact, lower-income shoppers no longer represent the major face of thrift shopping any more, with middle and high-income shoppers now equally drawn to thrift and bargain hunting.
Looking back at the history of garage sales and thrift stores is interesting. Most sources suggest the first garage sales branched out of “rommage” or discount ship cargo sales in Europe in the 1800s, with charity sales later emerging in the churches. Churches and women’s groups later held many early bazaars and rummage sales in Europe and in the U.S. but actual thrift stores didn’t really evolve much until the 1900s. The first thrift stores had their origin through Christian organizations like the Salvation Army, but it wasn’t until the mid to late 1900s that thrift stores and garage sales began to gradually pop up around the U.S. Growing up in South Knoxville, Tennessee, I don’t remember seeing or hearing much about either in the 1960s or 1970s, but by the 1980s both thrift stores, charity sales, and neighborhood garage sales began to become more common.
The “why” is probably because more and more mass-produced disposable goods evolved—and people had more consumer goods to “cast off” or resell. Previously, people bought less household items and clothing goods and passed them down within the family, among neighbors or friends, or donated them to charities. In addition, early resale stores were not attractive or appealing to the general public. Today many thrift stores are cleaner, neater, and more appealing to shop in, often arranged to emulate department stores in design.
I began “thrift shopping” in my early-married years in the 1970s when setting up house in our first home and when our children were babies. My parents started “thrift shopping” in the same time period—helping to look for items for their grandchildren and discovering the bargains on clothes, home goods and home furnishings they could find. Mother delighted in finding fabric and notions for sewing and dad tools for his shop. Our family never embraced the “stigma” that enjoying someone else’s cast off home items or wearing someone else’s cast off clothes diminished our worth in any way. To us shopping at “thrift stores” or “garage sales” was simply “smart shopping” and fun. Knowing good clothing and household brands and names, we knew what to look for and what to avoid. For me thrift shopping in those early married years, when our children were small, enabled me to stay home with my children through most of their preschool years. 
One thing that is a “given” about small children is that they always “grow fast,” outgrowing clothes and shoes faster than they can wear them out. This meant that the garage sales and thrift stores were full of quality, little used children’s clothing, shoes, baby needs, strollers, car seats, toys, books and other items at a quarter or less of the price of those same items in the store. Saving on these items left more income for fun outings, vacations, pool memberships, and summer camps.
As young marrieds, furnishing a new home, we found many choice items for our house at the garage sales and thrift stores. It didn’t take us long to discover either that we could also find quality clothing items for ourselves—some with the sales tags still hanging on them or barely worn—and often with brand names not readily affordable for us otherwise. I also found wonderful art supplies, puzzles, and family games at garage sales and thrift stores, plus books from 25 cents to a dollar each.
Also, it is J.L.’s and my belief that any money we have or any financial blessings we enjoy are God’s first and not ours. So if we save, there is more to give as God directs—and when we save, we are prudently saving and wisely spending the resources God has given us. J.L. and I always pray, too, before shopping for anything, and we have found that God often leads us to exactly what we need at a bargain value and price from either an excellent used car, to a winter coat, to a great pair of hiking boots.
Life is a lot like a trip or a journey. As we travel through the years of life we all grow physically every year and we learn by the experiences we pass through. Growth simply happens to us in many ways. We can aid our own personal journey as we grow if we will—physically, mentally, and emotionally—making our life a better and more positive one. Our “Faith Journey, ” however, follows a different road. It is a heart chosen journey. The general journey of life happens to us all, but the faith journey happens only to those who decide to seek and walk it. As A. W. Tozer once wrote: “Faith is not merely a journey for the feet, but it is a journey for the heart.”
To understand anyone’s faith journey better, you need to look back at his or her early life. For myself, I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but my family moved to Knoxville shortly after—so all my childhood memories are of Knoxville. I grew up in a rural suburban area of South Knoxville in a pretty Dogwood Trails neighborhood, where quiet streets wound in and out among small well-kept homes with spacious yards, shady trees, gardens and flowers. As soon as I was old enough, I walked and biked those streets and explored the nearby countryside, parks, and mountain trails. My father was an engineer, my mother a home economics teacher before staying home with my brother and me. Mother’s domestic arts continued at home; she sewed, gardened, grew flowers, and worked in church and civic groups. Dad, a skilled handyman, enjoyed his shop, our yard, garden, and property.
My parents were good, moral, Christian people. They instilled strong values, a good work ethic, and a value for education in my brother and me. Our journey in life is always impacted by those who guide and lead us—by families, schools, neighbors, community, local and national government, and our country’s broader social institutions. I was blessed to grow up in a value-laden home, a wholesome neighborhood and time. I believe our society is not as healthy in that way now as when I was a girl.
Mother read me stories of faith at home; I went to Sunday School and Bible School where I learned more. Morals, respect for faith and country, were an integral part of community and school and the lives of our neighbors and friends. I attended a series of Communicants classes, joined the church, and had my first disappointment in the ritual of faith. Somehow, it seemed that joining the church and making a commitment of faith should have changed me or made a difference. It didn’t. In Sunday School and at home I began to ask questions but the answers I got were not satisfying. I was hungry for something deeper and stronger, but I didn’t know how to find it. Everyone else around me seemed content where they were.
These feelings intensified through junior high and high school. My father had been transferred to North Little Rock, Arkansas. We moved to a more city environment and I went to bigger schools. I missed Tennessee and all my friends—and I wasn’t happy overall in those years. I felt I had journeyed into a foreign land I didn’t belong in. I looked forward to college and a change, but looking back, I know I was seeking and searching for something deeper in those years. After leaving home, I wandered down a lot of pathways that taught me various lessons, not all good, but underneath an inner discontent always lurked. Like the old Peggy Lee song “Is That All There Is?” I felt like I was missing something vital. And I was.
J.L. and I met at the University of Tennessee and married after he graduated, while I finished college. We’d known a similar childhood and upbringing. In J.L.’s hometown of Athens, he attended high school with the friends he’d known all his life, creating a happier school experience for him. He had been raised, too, in a Christian home, with church and faith a big part of his life, but like me he’d grown discontent with church and the aspects of faith it presented. We married in church in Knoxville, and we attended church after we married, but we couldn’t see much difference in the lives of those we knew within the church and those we knew, un-churched, in the world. Church to us was, quite frankly, boring. We were not growing spiritually in any way from what we received there.
J.L. and I had not grown up in families that prayed together, except a rote prayer or blessing at dinner, but we said a first prayer together that night, letting God know we planned to start seeking for a real and strong faith to live by and to raise our children in. We asked God to help us find a faith like Abraham’s that was real, vital, and strong.
In a season when we were renting an old farmhouse near the Smoky Mountains between homes, J.L. traveling a lot with sales and me home with our first baby, we were still seeking. J.L. and I had read by that time accounts of several evangelists and men and women of faith who all talked about a pivotal change moment in their lives when they were “saved” or “born again” and truly found the Lord. It seemed that every person with a strong faith we read about had experienced this moment—moving from just believing to coming into something deeper and real, into a relationship with God and into change and newness. We wanted this and we began to seek and pray for it, but we couldn’t figure out what to do to “get it.” Church people, our family, told us we were Christians and already “had it.” They were wrong again. As J.L. said, “if you have an experience you ought to know it.”
It got to be almost a joke with us, trying to figure out how to get this experience of being “saved” or “born again.” J.L. was traveling a lot at that time with his work and when he came home after trips, we’d ask each other: “Well, did you figure out how to get born again this week?” One time when J.L. came home, he said: “Yes, I did.” I could tell from his face and his excitement that he had, too. He’d prayed with an evangelist on television who’d led him in a prayer to get saved. Amazing—that the answer was just a heartfelt prayer. J.L. shared the words he remembered praying. Very little Christian television existed then, but I went out in the field not long after and prayed that prayer for myself—asking the Lord into my life, giving myself and my life to Him. A beautiful knowing and sense of God swept through me as I did. I knew-that-I-knew-that-I-knew that I was changed in that moment and made new, that God had moved into my soul and life and being.
We began to get books and tapes from different ministries to help us grow richer and deeper in faith. Churches often criticize television ministries but I think people wouldn’t reach out to them so much if the church was doing what it should be to grow people in faith within its doors. In the churches we attended, including several denominations, we could not get the answers we needed. We could not find the vital faith and relationship with God we were seeking. I could have sat on one pew or another, in one church or another, and never found the truth I needed or been taught how to grow in faith after I did. I’m not saying there weren’t people in the churches we attended who had a real and vital faith, but they did not communicate it to me or to J.L. in a way for either of us to find it, too. And that’s sad to me.
In the world, we grow in many ways physically and intellectually whether we like it or not … but I learned that the “Journey of Faith” is different. It is “chosen.” We get to choose whether we come into the Family of God, into living in the rich Kingdom of God every day, and into relationship with God or not. At every step, how far you go in faith is due to your own “choice”… your own hunger and desire for more, your willingness to journey on, to seek, to want to grow. Romans 10: 17 advises, too, that “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”. Once into relationship, you can seek and grow through studying and reading the Bible, or the Word of God, daily or stagnate in place in your journey. Faith won’t simply happen to you. It won’t fall on you like rain. It comes from your efforts, your seeking, your study, your reaching out to God daily, your wanting it. God may stand at the door and knock, but you have to open that door and invite Him in, not only once, but every day. You have to seek, to ask, to want more of God and of faith to find it. Either you are moving forth in that journey by daily effort, by ongoing seeking, study, prayer and a hunger for more. Or you’re not.
day. I hope, too, that your church pastor or pastors’ personal zeal and joy in the journey, and that their vital life of daily faith, constantly makes you want what they have. However, regardless of your life or church experiences, the Journey of Faith is yours alone to make. No one is keeping you from a deeper place in God but yourself even if no one encourages you to go there. We all know you have to study and work in any subject area that we want more of in order to grow in that area of knowledge, skill, or expertise. Faith is no different. If you spend any time with J.L. and me you will quickly see that we keep journeying on every day in our Faith Journey. We’re always reading and learning and sharing. We’re always hungry for more and excited every time we learn new things of faith. Like a couple of kids at Christmas we can’t wait to see what’s next on this journey.
My closing word to you is: If you have not found an exciting, vital faith to satisfy your soul, if you’re not living a rich, abundant life, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God, if He doesn’t talk with you and walk with you, then DON’T let anyone talk you out of seeking for more—or convince you there isn’t more. If no one goes on in this journey with J.L. and me, if no one encourages us or celebrates with us the milestones of growth in the journey, we’re still moving on. Together we explore, travel, and hike a lot in the natural—but no adventure has ever matched the Journey of Faith.
Taking a long walk along the Tennessee River this week, I realized again how beautiful it is and how grateful I am that it flows right through Knoxville, my hometown city. I think sometimes we forget to notice the beauty of our rivers and forget to realize how they bless us. Rivers carry needed water and nutrients all over the earth and provide homes for fish and other wildlife. Rivers are highways for transportation and joyous places for recreation, boating, fishing, and water play. Rivers can teach us lessons, too, and I love those “Advice From a River” posters and signs that counsel us to slow down, flow more naturally and freely through our days, stay current and constant, and not let obstacles stop our goals or journey.
Deciding to write my blog about the Tennessee River, I looked up rivers in general to see how many are in the world. Most sources cited tens of thousands, stating the exact number is not actually known. In the United States, though, there are 250,000 rivers and the Tennessee is one of the three largest and longest rivers in the state, along with the Mississippi and the Cumberland. The Tennessee River’s name originally came from the Tanasi Cherokee Indian Village often spelled in earlier times more like the spelling of Tennessee, as in Tinassee and Tennassee. On an old 1755 British map the river is even termed “River of the Cherokees.” The Tennessee River long ago could only be navigated by flatboats, due to shoals, rapids, and shallow areas. Muscle Shoals in northern Alabama was especially treacherous.
I began hearing and learning about rivers earlier in life than many because my father was an engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey, Ground and Surface Water division. Part of his job when I was a girl was traveling into the field to collect data and take measurements of the rivers and larger streams around our area. His division of the USGS monitored and accessed ground and surface water at different seasons, and in particular weather conditions like in storms and droughts. I remember lessons Dad often taught me about stream flow and patterns, rivers, wells and ponds, and concerns with flooding, erosion, and pollution. He shared a lot of interesting stories, too, about water in caves, hidden underground streams, boat and barge wrecks, destructive floods, fatal drownings, and angry land and water disputes. When we traveled around the East Tennessee area, he often detoured off our main route to show us gage stations and spots where cable lines spanned the river. Dad would ride part way across the river to measure stream flow in a metal box running along the cable line. In inclement storms this was a dicey affair!
When J.L. and I traveled on vacations after we married and while working on our Tennessee state parks guidebook, we visited other dams and sites along the Tennessee River, like Pickwick Dam and Guntersville Dam in Alabama. The Wilson Dam near Scottsville, Alabama, was built between 1918 and 1924 before TVA was established in the 1930s, to free up navigation and commerce problems in that area and provide hydroelectric energy. A huge dam, at 5,451 ft across and 137 ft high, Wilson Dam can really pump out the power! The first dam TVA built was Norris Dam on the Clinch River to control flooding in the Tennessee Valley. It opened in 1936 and the photo above is one we took at the dam when visiting not long ago.
In early days in Tennessee, with slow and limited land transportation, towns and cities grew up close to the river—like Knoxville did. I always enjoy visiting the historic spots along the Tennessee River in downtown Knoxville like the James White Fort and Blount Mansion. Later recreational parks grew up along the rivers, too. Several in Knoxville near my home are Lakeshore Park, and the Carl Cowan and Concord parks. Downtown in the city is the Volunteer Landing Park and on the south side of the river is the 315-acre Ijams Nature Park, a lovely park to explore, and further east in the Forks of the River area is the new Seven Islands State Birding Park. We love walks at these parks and looking out over the Tennessee River at each one.
When growing up, my family traveled from South Knoxville across the Henley Street Bridge over the Tennessee to get downtown or to travel to north, west, or east Knoxville. To me, as a child, that bridge seemed huge whenever we crossed it. Sometimes when I pushed to do something my friends did that Mom knew unwise, a favorite phrase of hers was: “If your friends jumped off the Henley Street Bridge, would you do it, too?” The idea was that just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean you should. But I often thought about that, driving over that bridge, as it was a spot where suicides did occur—and where people often did jump off the Henley Street Bridge. Although there have been some suicides off that bridge, most deaths on the Tennessee River are from drowning accidents, while swimming or boating. I think we often forget that water, although beautiful, is also dangerous.
To close on a happier note, a number of songs have been written about the Tennessee River like the classic Country song “Tennessee River” sung by Alabama. As a Bluegrass lover, I also like the lively number by The Bluegrass Situation called “She Took the Tennessee River. ” Another is Darryl Worley’s Country song “Tennessee River Run” and a little known song is “Tennessee River Runs Low” by The Secret Sisters. The sisters, Laura and Lydia Rogers, sang that if they could be a river they’d want to be the Tennessee! So would I! … Hope you enjoyed the pictures I snapped and the memories of the beautiful Tennessee! Be sure to get out to enjoy some times on the rivers near your home now that warm weather is here.
Lin Stepp 