North America is home to hundreds of national parks — and now, one National Park City.
Earlier this month, Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first on the continent to be named as such by the U.K. nonprofit National Park City Foundation. The third in the world, it follows London and Adelaide, Australia, which nabbed the designations in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
Chattanooga’s recognition was hard-earned: The journey toward it began two years ago, and after rallying residents’ support, the city council passed a resolution in 2024 establishing an official campaign to go after the status. With a population of around 190,000, the city undertook “a community-driven effort to celebrate, elevate, and conserve” the culture, people, and places that make it unique, per the interactive portfolio it submitted for consideration.
In March, after reviewing the application, the Foundation’s peer review board arrived in southeast Tennessee to experience the locale firsthand, and ensure it met the National Park City criteria, which include being “a place, vision, and community that aims to be greener, healthier, and wilder.”
On April 3, the Foundation announced its decision, citing Chattanooga’s “remarkable story” of transformation from one of the country’s most polluted cities in the 1970s to a biodiversity hot spot and unparalleled outdoor destination. Indeed, Outside Magazine previously named it the best town in the U.S., twice.
“We’ve used the National Park City movement to encourage folks to think about Chattanooga as a city in a park, rather than a city with some parks in it,” Mayor Tim Kelly said in a statement sharing the good news. “The outdoors is our competitive advantage. It’s at the heart of our story of revitalization, and it’s core to our identity. We’ve always known how special Chattanooga’s connection to the outdoors is, and now it’ll be recognized around the world.”
Nestled between mountains and along the Tennessee River, the area has been inhabited for 12,000 years, first by the Creek, Cherokee, and Shawnee peoples, then by Europeans who colonized the land.
In the 20th century, industry ramped up: The first Coca-Cola was bottled in Chattanooga, but with increased production came “terrible pollution, smog so bad, folks said, you couldn’t see your hand before your face,” the campaign portfolio reads.
In 1969, the federal government declared it the “worst city in the nation for particulate air pollution,” due to the unregulated emissions from factories, railroads, and coal furnaces. It would take decades for Chattanooga to consistently meet Environmental Protection Agency standards.
In celebration of its new status as a National Park City, a free, daylong event was held April 19, with music performances from local artists, dancing, and food.
“To be the third one ever recognized is absolutely amazing,” Brian Smith, communications and marketing director for Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “When you compare us to a massive city as London or even a large city as Adelaide, Australia, I think it really shows what a city of our size can do.”
RELATED: Formerly Toxic Wasteland Transforms Into a National Park After Decades-Long Effort
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