These musical syllables mean Rock Coming to a Point, certainly an apt description of the mountain, whether viewed from the territory surrounding Chattanooga or that contiguous to Gadsden. Irving S. Cobb said a few years ago that "Chattanooga" is the most beautiful wordin our language.
Marvelous caves are in the Mountain and it is believed that many chambers and passages run
from the northern point to the southern extremity, with openings at various places along the sides. Rivers stream in the caves; when the Mountain was tunneled by engineers of the Southern
Railway, near Chattanooga, it was necessary to build a bridge across one of the under ground rivers. The underground river has been explored for sixteen hundred feet and a waterfall one hundred feet high has been discovered.
Other unusual physical features of Lookout Mountain are the waterfalls and streams on the top
of the Mountain. Black Creek and Black Creek Falls are near the Southern Point. Lulah River, Lulah Lake, and Lulah Falls are near enough to Chattanooga to provide lure for motorists and hikers. Lulah lake drains through a rock formation, the water falling one hundred and sixteen feet
in a glittering cascade, an exquisite picture in a canyon of beauty.
The loveliness of Little river culminates in De Soto Falls. A dam erected by a power company marred the pristine gorgeous-ness of the great waterfall and the arc of the stone precipice, but the dam formed a five mile lake where boating and swimming are enjoyed by Lookout Mountain campers and colonists.
The name De Soto Falls is misleading, as it is more than probable that De Soto never saw the Falls, or even Lookout Mountain, save to gaze at the green and granite profile, as millions of
men have done since his day. It is quite possible that a small party of his people investigated the mountain, as they went to many places searching for fabled gold, and they may have been the
first white men to see the waterfall. No one knows how long the site has been called De Soto
Falls.
Albert James Pickett, author of Picket's History of Alabama, published in 1851, wrote the following description of the Falls, the caves or rock houses, and the entrenchment lines.
"De Soto Falls is a precipice of solid rock in the form of a half circle. The River falls into a basin and flowing off forms a peninsula. The banks of the River are of the same high, unbroken rock for a distance of two or three hundred feet. Across the peninsula can be traced two ancient ditches which are nearly parallel, about thirty feet apart, in parts of their course, although they begin in ten feet of each other on the upper precipice and run into each other when they reach the lower precipice. These ditches have been almost filled up by time. On their inner sides are rocks piled up and mixed with the dirt thrown up in making these entrenchments which indicate the simplest and rudest Indian origin.
On one side of the bend of the peninsula and about 10 feet below the top of the rock precipice
are four or five small caves, large enough, if square, to form rooms 12x24 feet. They are separated from each other by strata of rock, two of which resemble pillars, roughly hewn. Three of them communicate with each other by means of holes which can be crawled through. These caves open immediately upon the precipice and from their floors it is at least 70 feet down to the surface of the River.
Many persons who have visited this singular place call them 'De Soto's Rock Houses' and have stretched their imagination to such an extent as to assert that marks of De Soto's pick axes can
be seen in the face of the rocks. There can be no question but that these caves have been improved, to a slight extent, in size and shape, by human labor, but it was the labor of the Red People. Occasionally we could see where they had smoothed off a point and leveled the floors
by knocking off uneven places. It was, doubtless, a strong Indian fortification, and long used as a
safe retreat when the valleys below were run over by a victorious enemy. The walls are black
with smoke; and everything about them bears evidence of constant occupation for years. These caves or rock houses constitute a most admirable defense, especially with the assistance of the
walls at the head of the peninsula. In order to get into the first cave it is necessary to pass along a rock passage, wide enough for only one man. Be-low on the right is the awful precipice and on
the left the rock wall reaching far above our heads. A few persons in the first rock house with swords or spears could keep off an army of one thousand men; for only one assailant being able
to approach the cave at a time, he could be instantly dispatched and hurled down to the abyss below."
Many of the rocks of the two lines of entrenchment, so clearly seen by Pickett in 1850, were
used to build the dam; some remain, enough to trace the fortifications. The rock houses, being difficult of access, have not been disturbed.
Many interesting fossil remains have been found on the Mountain, among them the tooth of a prehistoric shark, a monster larger than any shark now known. Myriads of small ocean shells
have been discovered.
There is an Indian village site about four miles south of Lookout Point. The first known trail used
by men on Lookout Mountain was the Great War Path of the Cherokees, which passed over the bench of the Tennessee River, lying between the two tiers of palisades. This trail was followed by the Indians who went to or from the Great Creek Crossing on the Tennessee River, now Guntersville, Alabama.
Bancroft, the historian, visited Reverend Bancroft, in the college on Lookout Mountain and the visit was no doubt the inspiration for his tribute to the view from Lookout Mountain, when he said that there were other high mountains, other mighty rivers, but that nowhere else in the world does a high mountain come to an abrupt end with a city and a river at its foot.
The Lookout Mountain Postoffice was opened July 1, 1867. Charles C. Carpenter, superintendent of the Lookout Mountain Educational Institute, was the first postmaster.
An incline from St. Elmo to the Point Hotel, just below the Point, connected with a narrow gage railroad, which ran around the western brow of the mountain to Sunset Rock. The franchise was purchased by the Lookout Incline Company and later the lines were abandoned.
The Lookout Mountain Incline was built by Jo. C. Guild, Linn White, and J. T. Crass. The first
car was run in December, 1886. The first passenger car was run March 10, 1887.
The town of Lookout Mountain has the distinction of being the first place in the South where
women were permitted to vote. Its charter, granted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, included the provision that women should be citizens and should have the privilege of voting in town elections—not, however, in State or National elections. Mrs. Newell Sanders of Lookout Mountain was the first woman in the South who cast a ballot.
The United States Government purchased the famous Lookout Point for the
Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park. The purchase was made and the transfer was completed August 3, 1898.
Tablets were at once erected giving the story of the Battle Above the Clouds and the Mountain's occupation, first by Confederate soldiers and then by Federal troops. No monument was at first permitted on the crest, but when the State of New York planned a Peace Memorial that site was selected and the Government granted permission for its erection. The seven states which lie within the view were ravaged by War and it is fitting that the tribute to Peace should command the scene.
This is the largest monument in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga Military Park, and it represents an expenditure of more than one hundred thousand dollars. A bronze group, called "Reconciliation/'
by the sculptor, Hinton Perry, crowns the marble shaft. A Federal soldier clasps the hand of a Confederate soldier as they stand beside the Stars and Stripes. On the pedestal are lists of New York troops engaged in the battles of the Chickamauga Campaign. On one facade are the words
of President McKinley:
Columns support the shaft, and the memorial stands upon a base which is fifty feet in diameter.
The monument is eighty five feet high and can be seen for many miles.
The New York Commission which erected the monument included, General Daniel E. Sickles, Chairman; Major Charles A. Richardson, Major General Daniel Butterfield, Colonel Clinton Beckwith, Major General A. S. Webb, Colonel Lewis R. Stegman, Brigadier General Anson G. McCook, and Major A. J. Zabriskie.
It was dedicated November 1, 1910.