Just wanted to let y'all know about an excellent group of people, The Signal Mountain Genealogical Society. The planned a "history tour" or Signal Mountain for today, not knowing if there would be any interest. In reality, they had to expand it to two(!) tours as over 80 people signed up including my family. We had a delightful morning touring various Signal Mountain spots. We started At Bachman Community Center with a brief overview and powerpoint by Mrs. Jolley talking about the early history of Signal Mountain and the surrounding area (ie, starting at 15,000 BC!). We then boarded an air-conditioned bus for the tour. First stop was the Conner Toll House. This oldest building on Walden's Ridge (part of the Cumberland Plateau) is now owned by the Chattanooga Regional History Museum and has been upgraded and has some displays and various artifacts in it.
Here are MaryEliza and Nathaniel in the upstairs bedroom at Conner Toll House.
Conner Toll House
Next we went out Taft Highway to Lone Oak and then returned for a drive down Fairmont Road and a discussion of the earliest days of the area when Fairmount Academy was the first school in the area. After talking about the Mountain Opry and Summertown, we went to Signal Mountain Old Towne, Alexian Village (formerly Alexian Inn), Signal Point and then followed the route of the old trolley. After about 2 1/2 hours we returned to our starting point. Our tour guide was James L. Douthat, well known around here for his many books on the local area. The Society is thinking of doing more tours in the future and if they do, I would strongly urge everyone to go and take their kids so they can learn the history of their home town.
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