Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park

Braxton Bragg

Bushrod Johnson

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Elizabeth (Lily) Walsh

George Crook

George Thomas

Hans Heg

Hubbard Pryor

A lot of articles have been written about the history of the National Park Service (NPS) arrowhead emblem. Many recycle the same content and outdated information that has largely come from the NPS itself. Challenging the traditional story has revealed new sources of information—and two previously overlooked arrowhead designs—that rewrite the arrowhead origin story.

The park ranger uniform is known the world over. Perhaps the most iconic part of the uniform is the broad-brimmed flat hat. Over the last century, however, many different kinds of hats have been worn by rangers depending on their gender, where they work, the season of the year, and the jobs they do. While a pith helmet may bring up images of Colonial Britain, World War II soldiers, explorers, or people on safaris, for a while it was also be worn by some park rangers.

A partnership between Georgia State University and the NPS Paleontology Program has enabled more focused paleontological resource support in parks in the Southeast Region of the U.S. During the past several years students mentored by Dr. Christy Visaggi have helped to complete paleontological resource inventories in several parks in the southeast region uncovering the fossil records of these parks.

Learn about the experiences of some of the African Americans who participated in the Battle of Chickamauga.

Civil War soldiers faced death on a daily basis. However, they also faced going home with various disabilities. One such disability was partial or complete deafness. Many soldiers were accustomed to temporary deafness from the constant artillery fire in the field. However, illness, the environment, and even the medicine the doctors used on patients could cause a much more permanent hearing loss.

In spite of programs to encourage hiring of individuals with disabilities, it was often others’ misconceptions or discomfort that prevented women with disabilities from getting National Park Service (NPS) jobs. Those hired in the 1970s and early 1980s brought diverse skillsets and new perspectives to the workforce. Like the earliest women rangers in the 1910s and 1920s, they often only had short-term positions. They all challenged ideas of what it takes to be a park ranger.

Although Grant considered the battle at Lookout Mountain nothing more than a small skirmish, the Union victory freed General Hooker to join the main assault on Missionary Ridge the following day and forced the Confederates to retreat to Georgia.

As the sun rose on November 25, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant looked out from his field headquarters on Orchard Knob and saw his plan to take Missionary Ridge and defeat the Confederates at Chattanooga spring into action.