EDGE sets up this event on the stairs of Chamberlain Field. Students really enjoyed the event. Friday, November 2025. (Photo by Angelina Fraga).
College students today will soon make up the front lines against Earth’s worsening environmental crisis. EDGE (Ecological Decisions for a Global Environment), a club at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), promotes sustainability and environmentally friendly practices on campus and in the broader Chattanooga area. According to Dr. Jodi Caskey, the main faculty advisor for EDGE, the average college student’s environmental awareness remains moldable. The mission is to shape that awareness for a better tomorrow.
EDGE was established as a crisis response. There was a time when smog filled the air of Chattanooga and the lungs of its population. The Tennessee River ran rancid, contaminated with untreated sewage and industrial waste. In 1969, a report released by the federal government’s Department of Health, Education, and Welfare officially named Chattanooga the “worst city in the nation for particulate air pollution.”
Those trying times led to an environmental revolution in Chattanooga and, subsequently, across the country. The founders of EDGE played a pivotal role in that revolution. In the late 70s, EDGE was established as UTC’s very first environmental club. The founders went on to help create UTC’s environmental science department, further strengthening the existing sustainability community.
Jennifer Tamble rings up cider, apple butter, and a bag of apples for a Fairmount Orchard customer. Sunday, November 15, 2025 (Photo by Clara Paulson)
A silver bell chimes as customers and an icy breeze slip through Fairmount Orchard’s wooden door. Pink and orange checkered curtains, a life-size scarecrow, and shelves lined with crimson, chartreuse, and golden apples greet them.
Adults pull off gloves to inspect jars of apple butter and burlap bags filled with spices. Children plead for one more gallon of cider, and their parents place chosen treats on the counter beside a sign that reads, “Farewell Season! Final Day: November 30—Thanks for all the memories.” As December draws near, so does the end of an era. On November 30, 2025, Signal Mountain, Tennessee’s beloved Fairmount Orchard, officially closes its doors.
Jennifer Tamble, now in her third season at Fairmount, rings up the shop’s final purchases, sending each customer off with a fresh treat and holiday wishes. Like many of her customers, she grew up visiting the orchard.
Engel Stadium, owned by UTC is locked from the outside and decaying on the inside. The stadium is set to be torn down and replaced by a women’s sports complex in 2026. Friday November 7, 2025 (Photo by Delaney Holman).
Patterned ties knotted at the neck and bright dresses swished with each stride. Frilly hats, white gloves, and leather shoes stayed on despite the heat. A Sunday afternoon in 1950s Chattanooga, Tennessee, called for the best fashion. Only this crowd had already been to church, and they were headed for another kind of sanctuary: Engel Stadium. “I can picture my father with his tie on, sitting in the stands on a Sunday after church,” said Mickey McCamish, former President of The Engel Foundation. “Growing up, Engel Stadium and The Lookouts were a social fabric of Chattanooga. It was the center place.”
Now, those Sunday games are long gone. After decades of negligence and decay, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) has announced that Engel Stadium will be demolished in 2026 and replaced with a women’s sports center. This decision has stirred both nostalgia and frustration from the Chattanooga community, especially those like McCamish who knew the stadium as the hub of social life in town.
John Rawlston, during his time as staff photographer at the Chattanooga Times Press, documented the final season of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s minor league baseball team The Lookouts. This last season took place at the famous Engel Stadium, which is set to be demolished under UTC’s ownership to create a new women’s athletic center. Rawlston recounts what made that season special, and the historical significance of the Engel Stadium.
McCamish first saw Engel as a ten-year-old selling Coca-Cola in the stands. Now a Navy veteran and Executive Director of Friends of the Festival, he watches as the fabric of Engel Stadium fades.
Axel Robards looks at the camera as he prepares for testing at Atlanta Motorsports Park, Georgia. Friday November 21, 2025 (Photo by Zoie Denton)
At just 14 years old, Axel Robards, a young driver from Chattanooga, Tennessee, is already setting his sights on one of the most exclusive dreams: a seat in Formula 1. What makes his journey so compelling isn’t just the speed or the ambition, it’s the unshakable belief that one day, he’ll race among the best. The one sport in which you can say, “You’re one of the best in the world.”
For Robards, racing was not something he discovered later in life; it coursed through his veins from the very beginning. Growing up in Chattanooga, he was immersed in a world where his two older brothers spent their weekends kart-racing. As a kid, he never got behind the wheel, but he had a front-row seat to his brothers’ battles, feeling every turn, every drift, and every slip.
“[Racing] made everything feel alive,” said Robards. He didn’t just like watching; he wanted to race. That longing matured fast. Around age 11, with no formal training, Robards got behind the wheel of a kart for the first time. What followed was less of a tentative drive and more of a revelation.
Joel Westbrook talks about his journey as a wheelchair athlete in martial arts and how his spina bifida doesn’t limit him. He is the first wheelchair athlete to join the U.S. Para-Karate National Team and became an inspiration for those with physical limitations to challenge themselves, so they can take the first steps towards greatness.
Greatness wears many faces. For 18-year-old martial artist Joel Westbrook, greatness is carved into every determined push of his wheels. As the first ever male wheelchair athlete selected for the U.S. Para-Karate National Team, he has become a living symbol that limitations don’t define a person. His journey is proof that true strength is not bound by the body, but by the fire that drives it forward.
Joel Westbrook releases a sharp kiai, a forceful, exclamatory shout in karate. This practice supposedly connected the mind and body, as he executed the final move in his kata. Tuesday, November 11, 2025. (Photo by Angelina Fraga.)
Westbrook was born with spina bifida, a condition that affects how the spine and nerves develop. He can walk short distances using braces and crutches, but his wheelchair is where he feels strongest and most comfortable. Despite the challenges he faces, he has never felt limited.
When Westbrook was around eight years old, he saw a television show with a character performing martial arts in a wheelchair. For most viewers, it was simply a character, but for Westbrook, he saw himself represented in a sport that had always seemed inaccessible. Under the guidance of his physical therapist, Westbrook and his family discovered Green’s Karate in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a dojo known for adapting karate for all students.
Lillian Moore, Director of Community Impact at the Bethlehem Center, speaks about the The Farm at The Beth and the role that pollinators play in supporting sustainable food systems. The organization manages an urban micro-farm and beehive on their property to serve the local community and educate their students in environmental stewardship.
The rays of the October sun cast a soft, golden glow across the farm, warming the soil and illuminating every shade of leafy lettuce and kale green stretching through the rows. Nearby, children tumble about after a long day at school, unleashing the energy that has been bubbling inside them for hours. Their laughter blends with the hum of bees and insects, creating an easy harmony across the landscape. In many ways, the youthful energy mirrors the growth and vitality of the plants, pollinators, and people who make this land functional, thriving, and truly alive.
Nestled in the heart of Alton Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the Bethlehem Center, known affectionately as “The Beth.” A 105-year-old community-based education and resource access organization, its quarter-acre urban farm serves as one of its most vibrant programs, a small yet powerful plot dedicated to improving food access for individuals who live nearby.
Damon Bartos, Farm Coordinator & Education Specialist at The Bethlehem Center, holding a bee hive in Chattanooga, TN. Thursday, November 13th, 2025. (Photo By Mackenzie Sweat).
“Here in Alton Park, we have limited access to healthy foods. That’s where the Bethlehem Center is really trying to step in and make sure that we’re a source of groceries for folks, but you see it all over the city. For us, having a source of fresh, nutritious food, and shelf-stable items right here in the community where folks can walk in, bike in, or take the bus with a little more ease, can take some of the burden off and also the cost barrier for people who may need groceries,” said Lillian Moore, the Bethlehem Center’s director of community impact.
Chattanooga Tree Project is a local nonprofit in Chattanooga, Tennessee, dedicated to planting trees in neighborhoods with low canopy coverage. Chris Winters (Director of Workforce), discuses the the team’s efforts of planting over 900 trees in the last year with the help of volunteers and the community. In the next four years, they plan to plant an additional 4,000 trees in the surrounding area.
In the sweltering summer heat, sweat drips down the necks of residents as they walk along the bustling streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee in search of shade. While some are able to find reprieve amongst the tree-lined paths, there are many areas around the city that are noticeably lacking these resources.
To address this problem, the City of Chattanooga was awarded a $6 million dollar grant from the United States Forest Service in April 2024 to fund the Chattanooga Tree Project (CTP). This project is dedicated to planting thousands of native tree species to increase canopy coverage across the city in neighborhoods that need them the most.
Volunteers use pickaxes to break up the rocky soil in Ridgedale neighborhood. Saturday, November 8, 2025 (Photo by Corbin Winters).
“From start to finish, I’ve spent a lot of my time mapping forest loss, and the data has shown that over the years, we’re losing forests in Chattanooga,” said Mimi White, graduate research assistant for the UTC Interdisciplinary Geospatial Technologies (IGT) lab. “A lot of the trees that we’re planting, we’re planting in neighborhoods that have lost their tree cover a long time ago,… so it’s really beautiful to walk through a neighborhood in Chattanooga and see the new trees that have been planted and know that the people who live in these neighborhoods are going to be able to enjoy the benefits that come with having a healthy urban forest years down the road.”
Bryan Slayton removes the barber cape after giving Malik a fresh cut. Malik was excited to look nice for his approaching birthday. Wednesday, April 9, 2025. photo by Angelina Fraga.
There’s no striped pole or hydraulic kick leather chair. No sign posted on a door pertaining to hours of operation or holidays off. It’s just Bryan Slayton and his barber tools laid out on his mobile cart, plugged into the city’s power outlet. Slayton’s “clients” sit on a chair pulled from a park table. On a good day, you can see people lined up waiting for a new do, sometimes not so many. Regardless, he stays from 8 am until noon, waiting to make someone’s day.
Slayton is a Chattanooga barber making a difference for those less fortunate in the community. You can find Slayton at Miller Park every Wednesday with his clippers and barber tools set up at his side. He gives haircuts to anyone in need, they just walk up to his improvised office and ask.
Slayon grew up in Chattanooga’s West Side projects and got his first pair of second-hand clippers for Christmas from his uncle when he was just ten years old. He mastered his craft through trial and error, but in the beginning it was only a side hustle.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a city of reinvention. Before this small southern metropolis became the first National Park City in the United States, it was running from its reputation as the dirtiest city in America. Earning this badge of infamy after playing an integral role in the Civil War, Chattanooga’s history is an allegory that features as many bends as the Tennessee River it was built around. The reshaping is a story of civic and community ambitions acting as the catalyst for the city’s degradation and its renaissance.
Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga historian, tells the history of the city from the time of the Civil War to when its becoming a National Park City Wednesday, October 8, 2025. (Photo by Clara Paulson)
Chattanooga was labeled the “dirtiest city in America” in 1969 by Walter Cronkite, but the history is much more complex. During the Civil War, the city was a pivotal part of Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan. A Union strategy created to defeat the Confederacy by blocking southern ports and capturing the Mississippi River. It was essential to the Union’s victory to take Chattanooga, “because it was the apex of the Tennessee River, which connects with the Mississippi,” said Linda Moss Mines, official Chattanooga and Hamilton County historian.
This apex propelled the city into becoming the gateway to the South, which transformed Chattanooga into a growing, diverse community, creating a hub for industrial advancement. This booming industry prompted the city to be nicknamed the Dynamo of the Dixie, but it was also this ambition that led to the notorious title.
At times, a smog blanketed the city, smothering dreams of the future. Mines reflects on her view of the city on Signal Mountain when she drove to work:
Mike Harding fishes from the dock on the Tennessee River next to Coolidge Park Wednesday, September 30, 2025. (Photo by Clara Paulson)
“At the top of the Signal [Mountain], you [looked] down, and you could not see the city. It was incredible. It looked like a perpetual fog” said Mines. The title of the dirtiest city will always be etched into Chattanooga’s history, but the community members of that day resisted that distinction and chose to redefine their future.
In order to move forward, Chattanooga had to look back. Before its industrialization, the city was studying plans by landscape architect John Nolen to improve the park system from within. This, in combination with philanthropy and community direction, led to the creation of Chattanooga Venture’s Vision 2000; a plan that would redefine the city forever, leading to the creation of the Tennessee Aquarium, Ross’ Landing, the Riverwalk, and the Walnut Street Bridge. Vision 2000 ushered in a new era for Chattanooga, an era of transformation.
The story of this southern metropolis’ transformation is one of recognizing what held Chattanooga back, propelling it toward becoming a greener, cleaner, and healthier city. From the dirtiest city in America in 1969, to Vision 2000 in the 90s, to now, the first National Park City, Chattanooga’s story is one of constant reinvention.
Meet the Storytellers
Malcolm Key is a senior Communication major with a minor in Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Key is a previous Division 1 NCAA athlete turned multimedia artist, graphic designer, and visual storyteller. He is passionate about sharing truths of the human experience using digital communication and its various forms. He is currently serving as Broadcast Assistant for WUTC public radio, where he connects written, video, and photojournalism skills with audio journalism and production. Key’s keen interest lies in connecting with the arts, music, global culture, urban development, and infrastructure. Key uses photography to highlight the overlooked and shine light on the forgotten. If you want him to shine light on your story or collaborate on a project, contact him at tfc775@mocs.utc.edu. For his graphic works, click here.
Clara Paulson is a Junior Communication major attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with minors in Brock Scholars and Creative Writing. Paulson is a writer and photographer who aims to capture the charm of Chattanooga’s culture. She has experience as an assistant university photographer, photo editor for the University Echo, and published author in the Sequoya Review. When she’s not behind a camera, you’ll find her hiking, paddleboarding, and rafting the Ocoee. After graduation, her goal is to continue writing—whether it’s with ink or light—the unheard stories of Chattanooga and beyond. If you want her to tell your story, you can reach out to her at tnq894@mocs.utc.edu.
