Destroyed Graveyards: Ashes on the Trail

A light, almost eerie mist was falling as I hiked through Land Between the Lakes this morning. Treading through the wet leaves on the packed trail-ground, a figure caught my eye that didn’t belong among the natural landscape of trees and undergrowth: a chimney. Coming off the beaten path about 20 yards, I stepped across a long, thin line of block foundation where a house used to be. Among the leaves and brush, almost puzzle-like, was the outline of room after room on the forest floor. I was standing in the remains of the living room of someone’s house. My feet were settled where a family used to cook and warm themselves by the fire that came from this old chimney. My heart sank.

Why? In 1963, by order of President Kennedy, the federal government used ‘eminent domain’ to force 700+ families out of the land between the rivers (my grandfather and grandmother among them). Many of those families were the descendents of Revolutionary War veterans who were given that land as payment, by the same government that then stole it back. If a family didn’t leave by their specified date “federal marshals arrived to escort you from your home…while a bulldozer pushed down the house, which was then burned…” (betweentherivers.org)

Ultimately, 170,000 acres of land meant far more to the TVA (and the government) than moral decency, as they destroyed multiple family graveyards, Indian burial sites, and even Chinese immigrant graves. “The Promise” (as it has come to be called) was given to the people whose lives were uprooted so long ago: there will be no commercial development within the borders of LBL. They lied.

The over 200 miles of hiking trails in LBL are beautiful, the mountain bike trails are fast and pristine, the lake landscape is gorgeous, recreation is almost endless, and the sensation of being immersed in nature is awe-inspiring…but “cursed is he who removes his neighbors landmark.” (Deuteronomy 27:17) “No man may go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because the Lord is the avenger of them all, as we also have forewarned you…” (I Thessalonians 4:6)