About Us
Why We're Different
Running Water Creek Campground is fully off-grid! Powered almost exclusively by solar power, we know the importance of renewable energy sources. We also have a solar well pump system for the bathhouse along with one of our future Airbnb cabins having a rainwater catchment system. We try to keep the property maintained while keeping the natural beauty of the land.
history of the property
Deeply Rooted in Cherokee & Railroad History
Running Water Creek gets its name from the creek that runs through the property. Originally, the property was, or near, one of the five Cherokee towns founded by Chief Dragging Canoe, who lived at Running Water. He and his Cherokee followers were opposed to European-American settlement in their lands. So after being pushed out of the hills of North Carolina, Georgia, and East Tn, they settled south of Chattanooga. Later on, they were again pushed down the Tennessee River, settling in what is now known as Marion County. Fed up with moving, they moved further down the Tennessee River, what is now Running Water Creek, Isolating themselves to more distant areas of the frontier to avoid the Colonial Americans. They were later forced onto the Trail of Tears to Arkansas, and later Oklahoma.
After the Cherokee were removed, the Chattanooga-Nashville Railroad was built. With the Tennessee Valley being rich in coal deposits, the railroad was built to move the coal and iron being mined. The community of Whiteside developed at this site, named for a major railway investor, Colonel James Whiteside. It took over the construction of what is known as the Whiteside Tunnel in 1858. After the tunnel was abandoned, because of changes in rail standards and patterns of use, it was donated to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in 1968. The Whiteside Tunnel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, as NRHP 78002595. The tunnel can still be seen along GA-299. The Running Water Trestle Bridge was constructed on another part of the route in Whiteside. Confederate troops destroyed it during the Civil War, but Union forces rebuilt it in 1863. This structure than washed away in a flood in 1867, and the next bridge lasted until 1924 when it was rebuilt into what is still in use today.