The Whiteside Turnpike

The Whiteside Turnpike. . As part of a business venture to promote summer and permanent residence atop Lookout Mountain, associates of Col. James Whiteside were granted a charter in the mid-1850s for the construction of a road up the mountain., Col. Whiteside, who owned most of the land on the mountain, hoped that the “hygenic” benefits attributed to Lookout Mountain would attract from the coastal regions of the South residents seeking escape from yellow fever and malaria., The real estate venture succeeded, and by the time of the Civil War there was in existence at the summit the community of Summertown., During the siege of Chattanooga Confederate soldiers used the Whiteside Turnpike to haul their artillery and supplies to the top of the mountain. The turnpike was at that time the only road up Lookout Mountain., Following thc Civil War a toll free road was constructed up the mountainside (today Ochs Highway), and use of the Whiteside Turnpike thereafter declined. The remains of the historic turnpike lay before you as a marked depression in the ground.