Tennessee's State Historian Weighs In...

Lines Drawn over Castalian Springs Quarry

Published in the TennesseanBy Walter T. Durham

Tennessee State Historian

July 13, 2011

The announced intention of Hoover Inc. Crushed Stone to open a rock quarry, crusher, ready-mix concrete plant and hot-mix asphalt operation in Castalian Springs has met a hostile reception from the community and historical organizations.

Neighbors to the 350-acre pastoral farmland on Corum Hill Road at State Highway 25 in Sumner County are incensed because Hoover acquired the land by setting up a front company called Western Farm Products LLC so that local people would not suspect that a rock quarry was about to settle among them. Many in the community were further incensed when Hoover posted no-trespassing signs along the property line in what appeared to be an effort to deter opponents from investigating the property for Indian burials and artifacts.

People with homes and farms surrounding the proposed quarry believe that their
property values will plummet. They ask, “Who will want to buy homes on land near a
rock crusher and asphalt plant?”

Neighbors and outdoorsmen object because of the impact of the quarry on the
natural resources of the area — fields, forests, streams and clean air. How will air
pollution affect lives of the young and the elderly? They question the effects of the
Hoover operation on Bledsoe Creek State Park, a popular camping facility.

And the quarry could have an adverse impact on a long-range plan by the Tennessee State Historical Commission to develop Castalian Springs into a historical park. 

Wealth of historic homes

Marveling at the tenure and scope of the Castalian Springs story, historians deplore the location of a rock crusher near so many historic sites and structures. The first known humans in the area were American Indians of the Mississippian Period, Stone Age mound builders, about 1500 A.D. Although resisted by Indians, colonial settlers and African slaves (1795) prevailed, and their men participated in the War of 1812, the Seminole War of 1836, and the 1846 Mexican War. During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies visited the town periodically.

William Brimage Bate enlisted local Confederate companies that fought throughout the war. He rose to the rank of major general. H.L. Hunley left Castalian Springs to build the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat. The CSS H.L. Hunley sank the Housatonic, a 1,240-ton steamship, in Charleston Harbor in 1864.

Several historic houses stand today. Cragfont, built 1798-1802, was the home of James Winchester, a brigadier general in the War of 1812. The largest historic log house in the state, Wynnewood, was built in 1828-1830 to be a stagecoach inn. Hawthorne Hill is the birthplace of General/Governor/Senator Bate; his cousin, who became the Italian countess Eugenia Bate Bertinatti, and Dr. Humphrey Bate, whose string band performed on the first WSM Grand Ole Opry broadcast.

These houses are all owned by the state. Nearby on Rock Springs Road are the residences of early settler Francis Weatherred and Governor Bate, both privately owned.

In Bledsoe’s Fort Park are three houses built by pioneers: the 1795 stone cottage of Hugh Rogan, the log house of the same vintage of Nathanial Parker, and the 1812 log house birthplace of H.L. Hunley.

Today the pleasant, tranquil community of Castalian Springs with its American Indian roots in the Stone Age faces a distasteful intrusion of the 21st century. The citizens are resisting even as the Indians and Confederates did. But this time, the resisters plan to win.