Tennessee Trail Visitors to Find Religion

D A Y T O N, Tenn., Feb. 13 -- Mountains, whitewater and bluegrass musicare the usual reasons people visit southeast Tennessee, but plansare also under way to formally showcase the region's diversereligious history as a tourist attraction.

There's the courthouse in Dayton where high school teacher JohnT. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution. There's also aCatholic shrine near South Pittsburg and a Holocaust Museum atWhitwell.

These and about 17 other sites will be linked by a self-guideddriving tour across 10 counties is completed in about two years. Inthe meantime, enterprising visitors can map the route themselves.

The Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, site of the famed "ScopesMonkey Trial," is already an international tourist attraction andwill likely be the most recognized stop on the proposed trail.

Only Trail of Its Kind

Also among the proposed sites are Beth Salem, a historic blackchurch in McMinn County, and the site of the Brainerd Mission inChattanooga, where Cherokee Indians were converted to Christianity.

The Our Lady of the Poor Shrine at New Hope, a replica of ashrine in Belgium where the Virgin Mary is said to have appearedstarting in January 1933, was dedicated in 1983 on 600 acres inMarion County.

At Whitwell, a German rail car that carried Jewish men, womenand children to their deaths has been developed into a memorial, aproject involving school children in the community.

The region also has "beautiful little country churches thatspeak to the faith of a lot of different generations," saidCarolyn Brackett, a researcher for the National Trust for HistoricPreservation Heritage Tourism Program.

"As far as we know, this is going to be the only religioushistory trail of its kind," said Melissa Alley, vice president forthe Convention and Visitors Bureau at the Cleveland-Bradley Chamberof Commerce.

Most religious tourist sites focus on a single group, such asthe Shaker Village in Kentucky or the Amish community in Lancaster,Pa. The Tennessee trail would be different.