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Rock City Gardens Atop Lookout Mountain Near Chattanooga, Tenn Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

Rock City Gardens Atop Lookout Mountain Near Chattanooga, Tenn

Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

Other works by Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

Publication: Rock City Gardens, nd ca 1950, Lookout Mountain

5 1/4" x 7 7/8" in color pictorial wrappers. 36 pp. including wrappers. Inside front wrapper offers information about the Rock City Gardens, a 4000' trail that caries guests through tunnels, over bridges, and down through narrow crevices. This is followed by 20 colorful pictures including a double-page panoramic view from Lover's Leap. More information entitled, "The Story of Rock City Gardens," which explains that at one time Native Americans inhabited Lookout Mountain. Two missionaries went to minister to them, one of them making a note in his journal in which he described "a citadel of rocks" on top of the mountain, and noted the immense size of the boulders. He stated that they were arranged in a way "as to afford streets and lanes." During the Battle of Lookout Mountain during the Civil War, both a Union and a Confederate claimed that seven states could be seen from the summit of the mountain. Garnet Carter's idea was to develop a residential neighborhood on top of the mountain. The neighborhood was to be named Fairyland because of his wife's, Frieda, interest in European folklore. One feature of Fairyland was going to be a golf course, but Garnet decided instead to build a miniature golf course because the original took too long to build. He later franchised his miniature golf concept as Tom Thumb Golf, now recognized as the nation's first mini-golf course. Fairyland was 700 acres and encompassed Rock City. Frieda set out to develop the property into one big rock garden, taking string and marking a trail that wound its way around the giant rock formations, ending up at Lover's Leap. She also planted wildflowers and other plants along her trails and imported German gnome statues and other famous fairy tale characters, set up at spots throughout the trail. Garnet realized that Frieda had made an attraction that people would be willing to pay for to see. Garnet made Rock City a public attraction in 1932. Each page offers a color photograph of various points in the park. Light soiling to wrappers and with light wear to the extremities. Very good.

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