December 16, 1994
Bend Amphitheater Plans Withdrawn
AFTER FACING OPPOSITION FROM VARIETY OF GROUPS
Bend Amphitheater Plans Withdrawn
By John Wilson, Free Press Staff Writer
County Executive Claude Ramsey said, "This project has enormous potential for tourism, and a new site will be sought for the amphitheater."
Native Americans, Civil War Roundtable members, the Chattanooga Regional Anthropological Association, preservationists and the National Park Service had reiterated disapproval of the site at a hearing last Tuesday.
John Ogden, of the Atlanta office of the federal Economic Development Adminstration, had indicated after the session that he would recommend disapproval of a federal grant request for the Moccasin Bend site.
EDA had been asked to provide a $1,275,000 grant toward the $2,125,000 project. Other funding was to come from the city, county and state.
Bob Willie, TODA president, said, "There were many expressions of support for the outdoor drama project. We will be evaluating other sites."
He said the group plans to ask the county "to reapply when another site is identified."
Supporters say the outdoor drama will "tell the real story of Chattanooga's families during the Civil War" and have an economic impact in excess of $20 million annually.
Scott Parker, of the National Institute of Outdoor Drama, said, "Few projects appear to have such high prospects for success as does that for Chattanooga-Hamilton County. Its merit and potential for artistic, cultural and economic prosperity are very high."
The proposed amphitheater site was on state-owned land near Moccasin Bend Psychiatric Hospital.
County commissioner Ben Miller recently proposed that government-owned land at Moccasin Bend be given back to the Indians.
- Chattanooga Free Press, Friday, December 16, 1994 - Blue Streak Final A1-A2
See AMPHITHEATER, Page A2 Amphitheater: Nixed - continued from Page A1
No amphitheater on Bend
Group to seek new site in county
By Brian Hicks and Candace McRae The Chattanooga Times
The Tennessee Outdoor Drama Association has drawn the curtain on its plans for an amphitheater on Moccasin Bend.
But for Act II, the group hopes to build the amphitheater elsewhere in the county.
Bob Willie, chairman of the Tennessee Outdoor Drama Association, said concerns of local citizens about their choice of sites led the association to scrap its plands to build on the Bend. County Executive Claude Ramsey said Friday that he has withdrawn the county's preapplication to the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
"As a result of overriding concern over the development of historic Moccasin Bend, Hamilton County government in concurrence with the Tennessee Outdoor Drama Association has decided to temporarily withdraw its preapplication," Ramsey told regional EDA director Charles Oxley in a letter this week. "This project has enormous potential for tourism, and a new site will be sought for the amphitheater."
The Outdoor Drama Association was trying to secure a $1.2 million federal grant to build the 1,800-seat amphitheater where Civil War and American Indian historical dramas would be depicted.
Tom Kunesh, spokesman for the Chattanooga Inter-Tribal Association (CITA), said his organization has fought against the project for months, fearing the project would lead to the commercialization of Moccasin Bend. CITA had joined forces with a number of groups opposed to the project, including the Civil War Roundtable and the Chattanooga Regional Anthropological Association.
"We would like to believe that Native American contributions and the efforts (of other groups) to save the Bend made a difference. We would like to help them find another location for the amphitheater, and we're looking now at what can go out there (at Moccasin Bend)" that would be a suitable use of the land, Kunesh said.
Officials with the county and the Outdoor Drama Association said there are no other specific locations under consideration. Some officials met Friday with representatives of the Regional Planning Commission to discuss possible alternative locations for the project.
Site selection will be based on dozens of factors, including noise, ambient light, historic relevance and natural contour. Outdoor Drama Association Project Director Meg Beene said the group has identified about eight different sites as possible alternatives, but few of them are secluded enough for their needs.
"What we want to provide for people is a chance to go back in time, and you can't do that with trains roaring and planes flying overhead," Ms. Beene said.
- The Chattanooga Times, Saturday, December 17, 1994 B1-B3