Moccasin Bend

Moccasin Bend Archeological District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Moccasin Bend, viewed from Lookout Mountain
Nearest city:	Chattanooga, Tennessee
Governing body:	State
NRHP Reference#:	86003510
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	September 8, 1986
Designated NHLD:	September 9, 1996

Moccasin Bend Archaeological District is an archeological site in Tennessee that is included in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

The 956-acre (387 ha) area was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. It is located directly across the Tennessee River from Lookout Mountain, site of an American Civil War battle. The archeological district is significant due to its archaeological resources of American Indian settlement.

A National Park Service description in 1996 read:

This is the best preserved and most important compact, yet diverse, sample of archeological remains known in the Tennessee River Valley, indicative of Chattanooga's pivotal status in trade, communications, economics, and political importance in the interior Southeast. The site includes evidence of occupation by Native American groups of the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods; because of 16th-century Spanish trade and gift items found there, the site provides significant opportunities to study the early contact period in the Southeast. Also included are Civil War earthworks associated with the battle of Chattanooga.

On February 20, 2003, Public Law 108-7 added approximately 780 acres (320 ha) of Moccasin Bend to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park as a new park unit. There are currently no public visitor facilities on this park unit.

External links

• Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park
• Description of the Blue Blazes Trail on Moccasin Bend
• Moccasin Bend Multiple Resource Area, National Register of Historic Places nomination form, prepared by George Fielder, Tennessee Division of Archeology, 1984