Cemetery Ridge Trail
Trail length: 0.7 miles
From Visitors Center via S. Loop Road: 0.25 miles
Round Trip via S. Loop Road: 1.6 miles
This newly blazed trail was named by David Scanlon of Knoxville who submitted the winning entry in the "Name the New Trail" Contest. Mr. Scanlon is a regular Arboretum visitor and trail-walker. The contest entry form asked participants to explain "Why I think this is a fitting name." David wrote, "The trail follows the top of a scenic ridge with views to the southwest of a cemetery below. The cemetery will be visible at least six months of the year. This pretty ridge near the river could also have been the site of Indian graves some two hundred years ago."
Richard Evans, UT Arboretum Director, embellished Mr. Scanlon's story with his observations, "Many years ago I found two rectangular depressions in the ground under an old oak tree on the top of this ridge. Around these depressions there were some old grass edging strips and metal flower pots. The depressions are side by side and oriented East-West, the traditional orientation of a burial plot. There were no grave markers, but the evidence indicated that these depressions may have been graves. I speculate that if they were graves, possibly the folks interred there may have been moved when the Government bought all of the property in Oak Ridge in 1941-42 to begin the Oak Ridge Manhattan Project. Thus, Cemetery Ridge Trail might be even a more fitting name than Mr. Scanlon realized."
More New Trails Planned
The Cemetery Ridge Trail is the first of several new trail additions and/or extensions that are planned for the Arboretum. Partial funding for trail construction came from a Tennessee Department of Conservation, Recreational Trails Program grant. When this grant project is finished, 2.3 miles of additional trails will eventually be added to the existing 5 miles of trails and walkways in the Arboretum.
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