Cemetery Ridge Trail and Big Oak Spur
Trail length: 0.7 miles
From Visitors Center via S. Loop Road: 0.25 miles
Round Trip via S. Loop Road: 1.6 miles
Big Oak Spur length: 0.06 miles
This trail was named by David Scanlon of Knoxville who submitted the winning entry in a contest held to name the trail when it was blazed in 2008. 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, former 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."
Over a decade later, a new spur was blazed to showcase a very large white oak tree located off of the Cemetery Ridge trail.
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