Chattanooga 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. Chattanooga's official nickname is the "Scenic City".

History

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

Chief John Ross was said to have stated that Chattanooga was Cherokee for "The Big Catch" because of good fishing on the Tennessee River.

A late 19th century history recounted: Quote: 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. In 1816 John Ross, who later became Principal Chief, settled here and established Ross's Landing. It became one of the centers of Cherokee Nation settlement, which also extended into Georgia and Alabama.

In 1838 the US government forced the Cherokees, along with other Native American Indians from southeastern U.S. states, to relocate in Oklahoma. Their journey west became known as the "Trail of Tears" for their exile and fatalities along the way. The US Army used Ross's Landing as the site of one of three large internment camps, or "emigration depots", where Native Americans were held prior to the journey on the Trail of Tears. The other two were Fort Payne, Alabama and the largest at Fort Cass, Tennessee.Fact: date=May 2008