Chattanooga holds the title of America's first National Park City, and now, a former National Parks Service archaeologist is ready to dive into its underwater history.
Andrew Van Slyke joined the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) as a lecturer this fall. And while his students aren't diving yet, they're on a mission to discover shipwrecks, a locomotive and even a submerged fort, all in the Tennessee River.
"Now, I get to teach students how to kind of get an introduction to this world and become professionals in it, so that’s really inspiring to me," Van Slyke said. "It’s a full circle moment. UTC’s set up perfectly to be able to study those (wrecks) and develop a program around students. We want to do the underwater archaeology of America’s first National Park City and tie it