Chatt TFP: Protesters, including elected officials hike over rolling parkland preserved "in perpetuity" County Mayor Wamp wants to grade for industrial use
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Residents walk Enterprise South hills where Wamp plans industrial development
12 hours, 33 minutes ago by Siena Duncan
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Bundled in flannels and coats, dozens gathered on a crisp December afternoon for a group hike down the southern slopes of Enterprise South Nature Park — an area that would be slated for industrial use, should Hamilton County officials' plans come to fruition.
Organized by the nonprofit Save Enterprise South Nature Park, about 60 to 70 people found their way to the entrance of the Atlas Trail on Saturday. The group was varied, with conservationists, Ooltewah neighbors, historians and several local politicians walking side-by-side down the dirt trail, all chatting about the county's proposal to carve the parkland out for industrial development.
For some, it was one of hundreds of times they'd been to the park. For others, it was their first. Several brought their dogs to get in their walk of the day.
The proposal, spearheaded by County Mayor Weston Wamp, would take a 500-acre parcel of the park once promised as recreational space in perpetuity and instead earmark it for industry. To gain federal approval of the land use change for the former military munitions site, Wamp is proposing to preserve 1,300 acres of a farm site in Sale Creek.
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Residents walk Enterprise South hills where Wamp plans industrial development
Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter/ Nathan Griffin points to a map of the proposed industrial use area of Enterprise South Nature Park on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025.
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Plans were announced in early October after the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on the potential swap. The idea has gotten significant pushback since then, with a petition in opposition breaching 12,000 signatures as of Saturday.
"If the county is able to basically appeal to the Department of Interior to lift deed restrictions on permanently protected land, then it means they could start doing that for pretty much anything,"
Hadrien Turner, one of the co-founders of the nonprofit, told the crowd on the hike. "We're doing everything we can to make it very clear that forever means forever."
State Rep. Greg Vital, R-Harrison, was in attendance, alongside Collegedale Commissioner Laura Howse, Hamilton County school board member Felice Hadden, R-Ooltewah, and Hamilton County Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank.
Vital put his staunch support behind the organizers of the event as part of some brief remarks to the crowd and asked them to continue reaching out to him, other state representatives and Hamilton County officials about the proposal.
He knows economic development and job creation is needed in the county, but he said the parkland is not the place to turn for it.
"There's plenty of land over there for economic development," he said, referring to the industrial park adjacent to the nature park, where the Volkswagen plant is located. "There are still other places within the county. Yes, it is limited, but quality of life is limited too. And we can't destroy that."
The majority of the area the hikers passed through was within the bounds of the county's mapped out area proposed for industry. The land was covered in a coat of soaring pine trees and muddied by past rain. The dirt path was wide and clear.
It was Sharpe's first time walking the Atlas Trail. What caught his attention while he walked was the topography of the land. He's not convinced it's an area well suited for future industry, he said.
"I wasn't aware of how rolling it is out here," he said. "There's a lot of land out here that, if it were developed, it would take a lot of earth moving. It's certainly much more interesting topography here for recreation."
The hike took the group down the Atlas Trail, winding all the way to a neglected cemetery near Interstate 75 that has caught the eye of local historians worried hundreds of unmarked graves could be impacted by the proposed development.
Wamp spokesperson Haley Burton said no trails or cemeteries will be affected by the county's plans
"No cemeteries or graves within the nature park will be impacted or disturbed by this proposal, as confirmed repeatedly by our office and Parks and Recreation officials," Burton wrote in a text message. "We understand and respect the community's concerns; however, suggesting otherwise misrepresents the facts and unnecessarily alarms the public."
A couple members of the Summit community south of the nature park came to walk the trail and see the cemetery, where their ancestors may be buried. Jared Story, a local historian, said he's been working with members of the Tennessee Historical Commission to figure out how many are buried there, since there are only a handful of legible headstones left.
(READ MORE: Residents speak against Enterprise South, McDonald Farm plans as Wamp watches)
Story has found records that indicate the area was a Black community post-Civil War with schools and churches before the federal government seized the land and gave people 30 days to move out because it planned to build a munitions plant for World War II. The plant became defunct after the Vietnam War, and the area was eventually cleaned up and revamped into the current industrial park and nature park.
Ada Sanders-Nance remembers her grandparents talking about a time when they lived in the area that has now become the nature park. Her father, now dead, and his six siblings lived there until the government forced them to move, she said.
Her great-aunt had seen something about the hike on TV, she said, and urged her to go and see the gravesites.
"I think they were happy here," Sanders-Nance said. "My dad and I would drive by the freeway and he would tell me, 'That's where I used to live.' Just being here where he used to walk around and play is nostalgic, in a way."
As the group passed a pond, she wondered aloud whether her father had gone swimming there as a child.
(READ MORE: Residents weigh in on McDonald Farm-Enterprise South deal's potential impact)
Similarly, Lamechee Jones was told stories about his grandmother owning hundreds of acres in the nature park's area. He's trying to help a few people in his community clean up the cemetery. The county's plans for the area do concern him, he said, when it comes to the gravesites.
But the proposal for industry in the area angers him as a whole, he said. The land was his family's and his community's, he said, and then it was turned into a government plant. Now, it will become another money-making mechanism for people other than those it was originally owned by, he said.
He wants to find some way to get his and others' voices heard, he said.
"It makes you look back and see how generational wealth wasn't passed down," Jones said as he stood beside the cemetery. "I really want to get the community together and take all these teardrops of information and try to put them in a bucket. So somebody can speak solid on it."
Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sdu...@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.
Siena Duncan reports on the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida, where she earned Hearst, Mark of Excellence and Sunshine State awards. When she's not writing, she's attempting to pet her ornery cat Soup or getting lost in the mountains.