The mystery of the desert in the river

By Jennifer Crutchfield

There is a wild, lush, wooded 18.8 acres in the middle of the Tennessee River, and it exists today very much like it must have been since the last Ice Age, when modern man began walking in our valley. Maclellan Island, now spanned by Veterans Bridge downtown, has been the site of archeological digs producing relics that date man’s history on that island back to 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.

The Cherokee, following the tradition of their “Long Man,” whose head lay in the mountains and whose thoughts spilled from it like water, chose to settle on the banks of flowing water and in the valleys of majestic mountains. Cherokee history is etched into the island, seasoned with the flavor of those who followed. Hernando DeSoto’s soldiers traveled from Chattanooga to Guntersville, Ala. in 1540; French merchants used the Tennessee River Gorge, our Grand Canyon, as a trade route from Mississippi to Charleston, S.C., making their mark on the valley in the 1600s.

Then the island was dominated by warring tribes and visited by hapless pioneers, victims of the river’s powerful, raging waters known as the Suck, the Skillet, the Frying Pan and the Boiling Pot. Those brave travelers who survived were wary of the screams of warriors, bloodthirsty and vengeful.
Later, the hardwood trees, vines, river cane and wildflowers of Maclellan Island would serve as refuge for runaway slaves, free hearts traveling an underground railroad to a land where neighbors might call them brother and equal.

The rain shadow desert

Today’s visitors to Maclellan Island can see a natural anomaly not present during the land’s history, a rain shadow desert. This phenomenon is normally seen in areas that lie in the shadows of mountain ranges, receiving little precipitation. Some of the most famous examples are Death Valley, which lies in the shadow of the Sierra Nevadas, and Argentina’s Patagonian and Monte Deserts, formed in the leeside of Chile’s famous mountain range, the Andes. Typically, as air ascends on one side of a mountain range, it releases the moisture that it is carrying and descends, dry, on the leeside. In sight of the mountain receiving the rainfall, a desert forms in its shadow.

In Chattanooga, a single steel girder bridge performs the work of a mountain range. Built in 1984 and with a main span of 420 feet, Veterans Bridge is the widest of the four bridges that cross the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, connecting Georgia Avenue downtown with Barton Avenue and Hixson Pike on the North Shore.

Veterans Bridge spans about a third of Maclellan Island, and the bridge’s shadow has created a narrow strip of rain shadow desert in the unlikeliest of places—a lush haven for plants and birds, made possible by the Audubon Society and the generosity of Robert J. Maclellan, a man with an eye to the future.

Early environmentalist

Known affectionately to his friends as Bob, Maclellan was the son of a devout, prescient Presbyterian named Thomas Maclellan, whose faith was so strong he is said to have made a covenant with God before moving his home from Scotland to Chattanooga. In 1887 Thomas Maclellan founded Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company, which a century later would become UnumProvident Corporation, the largest disability insurance firm in the nation. His faith and spirit resound in the works of his progeny through, among other efforts, the Maclellan Foundation.

The Maclellan family’s charitable giving has supported McCallie School, Chattanooga Christian School and the Character Education Program in public schools. In 1954, Robert J. Maclellan’s philanthropy blended education and environment: He gave the island in the downstream third of the Tennessee River to the Audubon Society so that the land might be preserved and shared.

Bob Maclellan was one of eight men in Chattanooga who were colloquially referred to as the “Guinea Table.” They met at the iconic Mountain City Club to share fellowship and ideas for the city’s future. Leaders in their families, community and corporations, these men were protective of their city—philanthropic but also fearful, worried that too much progress might hurt their businesses and the local economy that depended on them. Credit for Chattanooga’s progress is most often given to their sons and daughters, whose efforts can be seen in the changed landscape of our city.

But in his gift of the island to the Audubon Society, Bob Maclellan was prescient, recognizing the value of Chattanooga’s unique green spaces, a concept that would become a guiding principle for our modern vision of progress.

New visionaries

The skies were gray in 1984 when the next generation of city leaders formed the nonprofit Chattanooga Venture, inviting their neighbors help them plan the city’s future. Vision 2000 was a public participation program designed to give citizens a voice in the changes in their community.

Chattanooga Venture is at the heart of Ross’ Landing, the Aquarium, and the revitalization that has spread from the riverfront to the creative collectives on the emerging Southside and Main Street to the re-energized North Shore, bolstered by the frolic and fresh beauty of Coolidge Park and the dynamic spirit of Frazier Avenue.

Vision 2000 involved over 1,700 people, and it is lauded around the country as one of the first and most successful examples of public-private partnerships working toward a common goal. Now new generations of Chattanoogans continue the work of these hard-working philanthropists, organizers and community leaders who toiled alongside citizens of all kinds to build a common vision. That vision includes protection of our green spaces, from manmade ones like Coolidge and Renaissance Parks to natural ones like the Tennessee River Gorge and Maclellan Island, our “desert island” in the middle of downtown.

“Desert island” preserved

Today we can enjoy the wonders of our own “Grand Canyon” aboard the Aquarium’s new River Gorge Explorer, which tours some of the 16,000 acres of land protected by the Tennessee River Gorge Trust, home to 1,000 varieties of plants and hundreds of animal species.

We can also board one of the Chattanooga Ducks’ authentic World War II amphibious vehicles, riding in the same seat from the riverbank to the boat dock on the downstream end of Maclellan Island. For those who want to explore the 18.8-acre island and get a close-up view of the rain shadow effect, a 2-mile hiking trail loops around its perimeter. On the island’s upstream end, a blue heron rookery with an observation platform offers the opportunity to watch the beautiful birds that have watched Chattanoogans come and go for thousands of years.