by Melanie Harless
The growing city of Cleveland, Tennessee has a population of over 38,000. In late 2007, it was ranked nationally as one of 50 best places to raise a family by BusinessWeek.com. Also, Forbes Magazine found Cleveland to be one of the top communities in the nation to do business.
While a good place to do business and raise a family, it would hardly seem to be a destination for history buffs, but the town has made preserving history a priority.
When I visited, I headed first to The Museum Center at Five Points, a regional history museum with exhibitions, a store, and programs related to the history of Cleveland, Bradley County, and the Ocoee Region of Tennessee. The museum is located at 200 Inman Street East. The core exhibition uses the theme, River of Time, to trace the history of the area. This theme signifies the importance of the Ocoee, Hiwassee and Tennessee Rivers to the region.
According to Museum Director Lisa Lutts, the name Five Points came from the museum’s location. The Five Points District is a place where five streets converge. It was a secondary shopping area for Cleveland and had several factories. In recent years, with the opening of the Museum, there has been a resurgence of development in the area with interesting shops and a Creative Arts Guild.
Glass etchings in the lobby depict visual images of living history characters that visitors may watch on videos while walking through the displays. These characters introduce seven time periods, from Coming to the Land (Prehistory-1804) thru Paths to the Future (1979-Present,) while artifacts represent the different times. A real wagon that came to Bradley County with settlers in 1839 can be seen as well as a kayak from the 1996 Olympic Canoe and Kayak Competition on the Ocoee River. There are also hands-on stations throughout for kids to enjoy.
In addition to the core exhibit, the museum has additional exhibits and programs. They are having their annual quilt show through March 12 and then their regional artists from the Tennessee Watercolor Society show March 25-May 20.
The Museum Store carries one-of-a-kind works created by recognized craft artists in Cleveland and a surrounding 250 miles radius of the southern Appalachian Mountains. You can find blown glass sculptures, hand-crafted jewelry, hand-made dolls, and more.
At the museum, they gave me a guidebook for the Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Cleveland and recommended places I might eat lunch while on the tour. The Museum was number one on the walk, so I had to walk only a few short blocks to see the next four attractions and to stop at number six, “The Spot,” at 45 Ocoee Street, for lunch.
At stop number five on the tour, Johnson Park, I found the Cherokee Chieftain, carved from a local tree by artist Peter Toth in 1974. It serves as a reminder of the region’s significant Cherokee heritage.
Most of the tour is on Ocoee Street. There are many architecturally interesting buildings, including beautiful historic churches. One highlight is St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1872. The Mausoleum behind the church is the subject of Cleveland’s most famous ghost story, “Stains on the Mausoleum.”
The Cleveland Public Library is housed in a home built in 1883. Originally about two-thirds the size of the present residence, the house was bricked and remodeled in 1940. In 1987, it became the library. A 5000-square-foot expansion began in 2001. Next door is the Carmichael Library Addition, another historic home recently donated to the library.
Lee University is number thirty on the tour. The site was Centenary Female College from 1885 to 1929. Bob Jones College purchased the property in 1933, and Billy Graham, their most famous student, was enrolled there for a short time. In 1947 the Church of God purchased the campus. It achieved university status in 1998 and is the second largest private university in Tennessee. The Lee Admission office is a beautiful old house, circa 1897.
After Lee, most of the stops on Ocoee are private homes, so I began the walk back to the museum down Broad Street which has a few more stops. The approximate length, round trip, of the walking tour is 2.5 miles.
I plan to return soon to visit other historical places mentioned in the guide that are not on the Walking Tour, especially the Red Clay State Historical Park where the Cherokee were notified of their tragic journey ahead, the Trail of Tears.
If You Go:
The City of Cleveland is the county seat of Bradley County, Tennessee, located in the extreme southeastern corner of the state. Cleveland is located 28 miles northeast of Chattanooga, 82 miles southwest of Knoxville, 124 miles north of Atlanta, 172 miles north of Birmingham, and 181 miles southeast of Nashville. It is located on Interstate 75, US Highways 11 and 64, and State Routes 60, 74, 40 and 2.
The Museum Center at Five Points hours are 10-5, Tuesday-Friday; 10-3, Saturday. It is closed on Sundays, Mondays and holidays. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 seniors and children, (under 5 free) The first Saturday of every month is free for everyone.
About the author:
Melanie Harless, from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, retired from her position as a school library media specialist in June 2006 and began pursuing a second career in freelance writing. Her first publication was a memoir in the Knoxville Writers’ Guild Anthology, A Knoxville Christmas, 2007. Subsequently, she was anthologized in A Knoxville Christmas, 2008 and in Motif: Writing by Ear. Last year, she wrote a travel column called Easy Getaways for a local news magazine, Anderson County Visions. She also writes a newsletter for a local educational service organization in which she serves as co-president.
All photos are by Melanie Harless.
The land that forms the town was originally part of Spencer County, North Carolina, and then it became part of the state of Franklin, then went back to North Carolina, and finally became part of Hawkins County, Tennessee. During the time Hawkins County was being shifted from one state to the other, it was for a while part of the Territory South of the River Ohio, and in 1791 the first newspaper in the Territory was printed. It was called the Knoxville Gazette and in 1792 was moved to Knoxville, the new capital of the Territory. Rogersville’s Tennessee Newspaper and Printing Museum reflects the area’s long involvement with the printing industry. It is located in the Southern Railway Train Depot. The Depot was built in 1890 and also houses the offices of the Rogersville Heritage Association. A centerpiece of the museum is the last linotype machine to be used to set type for a newspaper in Tennessee. It came from the Rogersville Review where it was used until l982. Many newspapers from Rogersville’s history, some original copies, some photocopies, are also on exhibit. The museum, at the corner of Depot and Broadway, is free but it is currently open limited hours and by appointment (423-272-1961).
The Town Square is the center of downtown Rogersville and each corner of the square is a historic site. The Hawkins County Courthouse, built in 1836, is the oldest original courthouse still in use in the state. Just across from the Courthouse is the Masonic Temple, site of the oldest continually operating lodge in Tennessee, chartered in 1805. Overton Lodge #5 was named for Andrew Jackson’s law partner, John Overton. The building was built in 1839 as the first branch of the Bank of the State of Tennessee, which failed just after the Civil War because all its assets were in Confederate bonds and money. Kyle House and Hale Springs Inn are on the other corners of the square. The Kyle House was built in 1837 as a 22 room mansion for William Simpson. During the Civil War, Confederate officers and soldiers were housed there. Just across Main Street, Union officers and soldier were housed in the Hale Springs Inn.
The location of Hale Springs Inn has been the site of a public house since Daniel Hamblen purchased the lot in 1790 for helping Joseph Rogers lay out the town. On it he built a home which also served the fledgling town as a tavern. In 1824, John A. McKinney purchased the property and built a large brick building designed by John Dameron, also the architect of the Courthouse. The building included both a store and a hotel and became known as McKinney’s Tavern. The Inn changed hands and names several times through the years, and before it closed in 1999 was the oldest continuously run Inn in Tennessee. In 2003, the Rogersville Heritage Association bought the hotel and completely renovated it, keeping the original heart pine floor throughout and furnishing each room with colonial and American empire pieces, some original to the Inn. The inn has three presidential suites all named after presidents which have been previous guests: Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk. McKinney’s by Troutdale, the Inn’s dining room, serves contemporary southern cuisine and is open to the public for dining Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday brunch on holidays.
After lunch, I visited the Local Artists Gallery on Main Street. They have items for sale by local artists and craftsmen and next door is Mountain Star Mall which has primitive country décor, antiques, and gift items. I then drove about five miles northeast of Main Street to Amis Mill Eatery on Bear Hollow Road. I had heard that there was a waterfall across the road from it and knew that it was an on-site re-creation of the original facility built by Captain Thomas Amis. Amis built a fort, mill and dam in 1781 at Big Creek on the Great Indian Warpath Trail (later Old Stage Road) with the assistance of his friend and fellow Scots-Irishman John Carter. He then built a trading post, blacksmith shop, forge, distillery, tannery and eventually his home, which was used not only for his family but also to board and feed settlers and travelers. This was the last roof one could sleep under before heading into the wilderness and on into Kentucky. Daniel Boone frequented Amis while blazing the Cumberland Gap trail. One can see part of the stone foundation of the original Amis Mill beside the creek.
Baffin Island is part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut (formerly Northwest Territories) which is situated in the northeastern Arctic region of Canada. It is the fifth largest island in the world and is one of the least occupied places on earth. It is divided into North Baffin, Central Baffin and South Baffin. My journey includes Pond Inlet in North Baffin, Pangnirtung in Central Baffin and Iqaluit, the capital, in South Baffin. In this journal, my focus will be Pond Inlet, North Baffin.
My first encounter with the Inuit was a telephone conversation with my guide-to-be, Josh. I asked him what the temperature would be. He said, “Not very cold,” but I suspected our definition of “cold” might be quite different. Josh explained that as numbers do not mean much to them, the Inuit tend not to use degrees as a measure of cold. I would later find out from my travel guide book that the temperature in April usually ranges from –25 C to 0 C and that’s what Josh describes as “not very cold!” I then asked if he needed me to bring him anything from “Down South.”
Pond Inlet is the biggest community in North Baffin with population of 900. Its rugged and mountainous coast is deeply carved by picturesque fjords, providing spectacular scenery. Pond Inlet has a school, a clinic, an Anglican church, a RCMP outpost, a co-op store (main grocery store in town) and a historic Hudson’s Bay Company site which serves as a vivid reminder of Canada’s rich fur trading heritage.
My first excursion was a dog-sled ride across the frozen sea to Bylot Island in the north. My Inuit guide, Peter (Josh’s uncle), a very quiet man. Spoke only Inuktitut (the language of the Inuit). We managed to communicate through body languages. Most of the time, we enjoyed each other’s company and the pristine and desolate environment in silence.
During our journey, we got out of the sled to take pictures. Then the huskies would run off on us, pulling the sled and our supplies away. The thought of my mortality hit me hard and I was haunted by the fear of being stranded in the Arctic without any supplies. Peter looked unbelievably calm and completely undisturbed. He gave me a big smile and whistled to his dogs. Enjoying their game, the huskies stopped a little distance away and waited for us to catch up.
Every day I walked around town, chit-chatting with locals, playing with kids on the streets, visiting the co-op store, the school, the church and even the RCMP outpost and most of all, watching the Inuit do their daily chores. At that time, the major task was the repair and packing of sleds for the spring seal and caribou hunt. The caribou remains the most important land animal to the Inuit, providing fresh meat and a hide that insulates against the cold better than any other known material.
While visiting there, I had the privilege of trying several home cooked Inuit dishes. I sampled caribou, arctic char and muktuk (the thick skin of a whale – otherwise known as whale blubber!) – both cooked and raw. It is a daring eating adventure, definitely not for the faint-of-heart – or stomach.
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