by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“Inholdings and edge holdings in the state parks are not at all uncommon,” said Friends of the Parks Executive Director Ned Murray. “All of these parks are typically multiple acquisitions over time. Savage Gulf was around 20 acquisitions over 20 years.” Murray explained an inholding owner may want to continue to use the land, perhaps to hunt there, or believes the land may have value one day, or does not trust the state; other times multiple names on a deed create complications. Park officials were aware of a small inholding at Grundy Lakes Park in Tracy City, slightly less than an acre within the park’s 162 acres. For a number of years, though, no one gave the heretic tract much thought.

That changed when a man who claimed he purchased the property confronted a park ranger as he was locking the gate for the evening at Grundy Lakes. According to George Shinn, manager of Fiery Gizzard State Park which includes Grundy Lakes, the alleged purchaser insisted, “I don’t want anybody on my property. I’m gonna need keys. I intend to build a pavilion.’”

Panic ensued. “That property doesn’t need to be in private hands,” Shinn said. “This cannot happen. That will ruin our whole experience for visitors and the historic value.” Significantly, the small tract includes the site of the former Lone Rock Stockade which from 1883-1896 housed convict laborers leased from the state for the lucrative Tracy City coal mining and coke oven operation. In 2019 University of the South archeologist Camile Westmont undertook excavating the Lone Rock Stockade site, opening the door to a little-known chapter on Tracy City’s past.

Grundy Lakes is part of the newly formed Fiery Gizzard State Park officially christened in October of 2025, state park holdings formerly grouped under the name South Cumberland State Park. But Grundy Lakes origin story long proceeds the rebranding. Created in 1978, South Cumberland State Park included Grundy Lakes Park, earlier known as Tracy Lakes. In 1935, the Tennessee Consolidate Coal Company donated 154 acres in Tracy City to the state, the former site of the massive coal mining and coke oven operation. Tasked with reclaiming the land, the Civil Conservation Corp created the lakes, planted trees and foliage, and constructed recreational facilities.

In 2011 Tracy City resident Abrey Hale purchased an acre of land within the Grundy Lakes Park from Sam Creighton, a Coalmont store owner. Creighton acquired the property in a delinquent tax sale. After Hale had the property surveyed, he contacted the park service. The park official Hale spoke with encouraged him to get back in touch if he ever decided to sell the property.

Administrative hurdles can make land acquisition a lengthy and burdensome process for the state, observed Ralph Knoll, a land acquisition consultant to the nonprofit Tennessee State Parks Conservancy. Hale was in no hurry to sell the property and Tennessee State Parks had no urgent need to purchase the small one-acre Grundy Lakes inholding until a Washington D.C. realtor contacted Hale wanting to buy the land. “They could have messed things up there, put up rental homes. It’s beautiful property,” Hale said. Anxious about selling the property to the Washington D.C. buyer, conversation ensued between Hale and the park service about a different path forward. Hale confirmed the property had not actually sold yet, but he was selling it.

“They [the park service] were very interested,” Hale said. “I’d rather work with you, I told them.”

The park service reached out to the Friends of the Parks and the Tennessee State Parks Conservancy about acquiring the land and transferring ownership to Tennessee State Parks. For NGOs (non-government organizations) to take the lead in parks acquiring private land is common practice. “The nonprofit world can act quicker and the process is less complicated,” Knoll said.

The price offered by the Washington D.C. realtor set the purchase price, according to Hale. “The state is limited to not paying more than the appraised value for property,” Murray commented. This prevents sellers from demanding excessively high prices. In the case of the Hale property, though, the price was in keeping with the appraisal. The partnership between the Conservancy and the Friends led to the Dec. 16 purchase of the Hale property, with the two NGOs sharing the cost 50:50. In February, Shinn will give a presentation to the state land’s acquisitions committee to explain why the state needs to own the land and urge them to buy it from the Friends and Conservancy. “The Friends group is awesome,” Shinn said. “They go into these deals knowing they may not recoup any money.”

“The land will be preserved for all time where it needs to be,” Hale stressed. But the question remains, why was there an acre of privately owned land within the tract gifted to the state by the Tennessee Consolidate Coal Company?

The likely answer: in 1896 the state of Tennessee ended the practice if convict leasing.

In the wave of rebellions at Tennessee coal mines in the late 1800s protesting convict laborers taking miners’ jobs, six stockades were burned in two years, including the Lone Rock Stockade. The Tracy City miners put the convicts on a train and sent them back to the penitentiary. But at many other mines, the convicts were set free. Historical archaeologist Westmont argues the $25 bounty offered for escapees proved the system’s downfall. The Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company (TCIR), owner of the Tennessee coal mines, refused to pay the $25 bounty and rather than being stuck with the bag, in1896 the state stopped leasing out convicts, the first state in the nation to do so.

Up until then, two-thirds of the laborers at the Tracy City mines and coke ovens were convicts leased from the state of Tennessee. The cost per day of each convict was less than half the cost per day of each free miner. Without convict laborers, the lucrative mining operation became far less lucrative. TCIR shifted operations from Tennessee to Alabama where they could still use convict labor.

In 1900, with no need of a place to house convicts, TCIR deeded the stockade and stockade property to Gabe Hunter, but surface rights only, not mineral rights. In 1904, TCRI closed its Tracy City office. The newly formed Tennessee Consolidated Coal Company operated the Tracy City mines until 1935 when TCC donated the property to the state. A history of mortgage default and delinquent property taxes followed the acre of privately owned land within the mining company land TCC gave to the state, but that acre of land remained in private hands until the Dec. 16, 2025, purchase from Aubrey Hale.

Hale owns another small tract near the Fiery Gizzard trailhead, with conversation underway about possible acquisition of the land by an NGO which would in turn transfer the property to Tennessee State Parks.

What is the lesson in this story? “We need to be more proactive in conservation,” Murray insisted. “Friends of the Parks is proud to partner with the State Parks Conservancy to protect this critical site in perpetuity. We are grateful to the Hales for their vision and willingness to help us protect it.”

Note: In addition to those mentioned above, special thanks to Gayle VanHooser, Grundy County Register of Deeds, for researching land ownership for the stockade tract. If you have knowledge about how Gabe Hunter used the property, please contact Leslie Lytle at <sllytle@benlomand.net>.