Chattanooga, "the Scenic City", is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee (after Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville), and the seat of Hamilton CountyGR: 6, in the United States of America. It is located in southeast Tennessee on Chickamauga and Nickajack Lake, which are both part of the Tennessee River, near the border of Georgia, and at the junction of three interstate highways, I-24, I-75, and I-59.

The city (downtown elevation approximately 685 feet), which lies at the transition between the ridge-and-valley portion of the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau, is surrounded by mountains and ridges.

History

The first inhabitants of the Chattanooga area were Native American Indians with sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period, showing continuous occupation through the Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian (900-1650 AD), Muskogean and Cherokee (1776 - 1838 AD) periods.

Chief John Ross has been quoted as stating that Chattanooga was Cherokee for 'The Big Catch' because of the fishing on the river. In the 1875 publication 'History of the Army of the Cumberland' by Thomas Budd Van Horne and Edward Ruger on page 407 this is related:"Historians have made effort to transmit to the future the significance of the names which distinguish the natural features around Chattanooga. It is no pleasant task to leave groundless the many pretty conceits which have so long passed for facts; but he who would write the truth, must not hesitate to dissipate a myth or disclose a false hypothesis. With only occasional allusion to the various interpretations of Cherokee names, which have so long been accepted as true, their actual meaning, as derived from John Ross, the celebrated Cherokee chief, and from Lewis Ross, his brother, are here given. "Chattanooga," originally was the name of a small Indian hamlet, situated near the base of Lookout Mountain, on the bank of Chattanooga creek. It means, in the Cherokee language, " to draw fish out of water," and hence was applied to the collection of huts, which were occupied by Indian fishermen. The humble hamlet disappeared, and its name, at first suggestive and appropriate, was inherited by the town of the white man, with meaningless application. A somewhat similar name was applied by the Cherokees to the cliffs, rising boldly from the river above the town, which was derived from "Clanoowah," the name of a warlike but diminutive hawk, which was supposed to embody the spirit of the tribe. These cliffs were the favorite nesting- place of the bird, and hence a name was given which expressed this fact, and which, perhaps, has suggested the myth, that 'Chattanooga' means 'eagle's nest.'"

The earliest Cherokee occupation dates from Dragging Canoe, who in 1776 separated himself and moved downriver from the main tribe to establish Native American resistance (see Chickamauga Wars) to European settlement in the southeastern United States. Occupation of the area by members of the Cherokee Nation dates from 1816 with the establishment of Ross's Landing by later tribal chief John Ross and ended with the forced relocation of Native American Indians from southeastern U.S. states to Oklahoma in 1838. Ross's Landing was one of three large internment camps, or "emigration depots," along the Trail of Tears, the other two being Fort Payne, Alabama and the largest at Fort Cass, Tennessee.Fact: date=May 2008