Lookout Mountain Battlefield and Point Park is located on top of Lookout Mountain. Point Park was built in 1905 to commemorate the "Battle Above the Clouds". What is interesting to note is that most of the Civil War fighting occurred on the side of the mountain and not inside the Park. The Park has a lot of monuments of the soldiers who died in the area. There is also a New York Peace Memorial that has a union solder and a confederate one shaking hands. Also, the Ochs Museum, in the park, possesses Civil War memorabilia from the surrounding area. It has a soldiers exhibit that is pretty intriguing and an exhibit that shows the dedication of this National Military Park. Lastly, the Craven House (it was used by both sides as a lookout and headquarters, during the Civil War) is part of this park. This is where most of the heaviest fighting happened.
My partner, Sharon, and I liked the visitor’s center the most. It had some interesting things to do there. One of these was being able to view James Walker’s painting, "The Battle Above the Clouds", and then listening to an audio program that describes it. The painting was marvelous in displaying the reality of the war (it displayed the band of mist and fog that was around the mountain,which assisted the Union Army to drive the Confederates from their position and then the Union Army gained control of the city). It was Walker's eyewitness account of this battle.
Point Park has also several trails to hike or walk. They vary in being easy to extremely difficult. They also vary in time it takes to hike or walk it (from 1-3.5 hours). It doesn’t matter what trail you take because you will have fantastic beauty to inhale and a lot of wildlife to see. You can also purchase souvenirs here. There are a variety of shops to do so.
When we were here, we were fortunate to view a reenactment of how a solder’s life was during the Civil War. There were men and women dressed in the style of the Civil War era. We took some pictures of this. They showed us items such as cooking utensils they had back then and what personal items the soldiers would have with them. They also shot off the vintage guns that had the rancid smell of gun powder.
The cost to get in the park is $3. I highly recommend this park for everyone. The Civil War enthusiasts will devour the history here, the nature enthusiasts will adore the wildlife viewed here, and the people who like to hike will enjoy the terrain to hike here.