The community is invited to attend an Open House and Ribbon Cutting for the Sewanee Welcome Center. The event will be from 2–4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 17 Lake O’Donnell Road, Sewanee. Remarks will begin at 3 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP by Monday, Sept. 22 via the link at <https://sewaneecivic.org;. This event is co-hosted by the Sewanee Civic Association, the University of the South, the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance, and the Sewanee Business Alliance.

Currently, the site serves as the trailhead for the Mountain Goat Trail in Sewanee, a new Welcome Center, and headquarters for the state park rangers of Tennessee’s newest state park. The building is the old freight depot for the NC&StL railroad, then the L&N railroad, known as the historic Mountain Goat railroad. The building was remodeled in 2023-2024 as a project with the Sewanee Civic Association, the University of the South Economic Development office, and the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance (MGTA). Funding for the project came through grants from the South Cumberland Community Fund, Sewanee Community Council, Mountain Goat Trail Alliance, University of the South, and a reunion gift from the Class of 1973.

The Center’s purpose is to inform both community members and visitors of the historical and current assets to be enjoyed in our area. The most important result will be fuller participation in community and regional life by both full-time residents and visitors across an array of interests: more MGT users, Perimeter Trail hikers, students of local history — including the 19th-century coal economy which created the Mountain Goat Railroad — and the seven towns along it, as well as the University, more patrons of local restaurants and shops, and more visitors to our entire area.

In May 2023, the Sewanee Civic Association entered an MOU with the University to utilize the exterior premises of the building, as the Mountain Goat trailhead and an information center, known as Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2 of the project renovated the interior and includes an ADA compliant restroom.

The first Sewanee depot was constructed in 1860. Both the freight and passenger depots stood on the north side of the railroad tracks, which is now the middle of Highway 41A. This was part of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad and transitioned to Louisville & Nashville Railroad ownership in 1957. The current building was constructed when both the passenger and freight depots were razed for the bypass around the University in the 1960s. This depot, which was placed on the south side of the railroad tracks, opened in 1964. It currently stands on the southeast corner of US Highway 41A and University Avenue.

By the 1970s, the depot was under-used. Since it was no longer being used for railroad purposes, the building reverted to the University. The railroad, which at its height ran 3-4 trains a day with both coal and passenger cars, stopped running freight trains in 1984 and this branch line was officially abandoned on May 1, 1985. In 1986 the tracks were removed, leaving the stone building as a depot without a rail line. The building was used as a bait shop, the Sewanee Drug Company, the Sewanee Pharmacy, and finally the Hair Depot.

The Mountain Goat Trail in Sewanee would be developed starting in 2000 where the tracks had been through a Transportation Enhancement and Transportation Alternatives Program Award of $40,000, spearheaded by community member Ian Prunty, former Franklin County Mayor Monty Adams and former Franklin County Commissioner Louise Irwin.

The Mountain Goat Trail Alliance (MGTA) officially formed as a nonprofit in 2006. The MGTA is a rail to trail community outdoor recreation project to convert the route of the Mountain Goat Railroad into a multi-use recreational corridor between Grundy and Franklin Counties on the South Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee. Currently, 14 of the 40 miles of the trail are completed. This trail incorporates the Mountain’s history while providing progress for the future. <https://www.mountaingoattrail....;.

Since 1908, the Sewanee Civic Association’s primary purpose was to raise money the town could not raise in taxes, because it was unincorporated, in order to make municipal improvements. The purpose of the SCA is to foster a well-informed, harmonious and dynamic greater Sewanee community by providing a forum for community issues and social interaction, by managing the Sewanee Community Chest and the Sewanee Classifieds, and by sponsoring projects deemed by the membership to be beneficial to the community. <https://sewaneecivic.org/>;.

The rangers for Tennessee’s newest state park are using part of the Sewanee Welcome Center as their headquarters until their visitor center is built. Currently managed as part of South Cumberland State Park, the newest state park is 4,258 acres located in Franklin County containing the headwaters of Crow Creek. This park joins together the following four state natural areas to provide more and better outdoor recreation opportunities:

Sherwood Forest State Natural Area is a 3,075-acre parcel in Franklin County that protects the federally-endangered Morefield’s Leather Flower and the federally-threatened painted snake coiled forest snail, in addition to several other state-listed plant and animal species.

The Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lee Carter State Natural Area is a 931-acre natural area with a significant cave system extending from Lost Cove to the head of Crow Creek. The stream systems draining into Lost Cove disappear and travel underground for over a mile, emerging at the main entrance of Buggytop Cave.

Natural Bridge State Natural Area is a one-acre natural area with a 25-foot high natural sandstone arch spanning 50 feet that provides a scenic overlook of Lost Cove. There is a wet weather spring associated with a rock house located behind the natural bridge.

Hawkins Cove State Natural Area is a 249-acre natural area located in Franklin County. It was originally acquired by The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee and then sold to the State to protect a population of Cumberland rosinweed. Cumberland rosinweed is a type of sunflower found only on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee.

For questions, contact <sewaneecommunitychest@gmail.com>.