Community members are invited to attend upcoming public meetings to learn more about the use of the Hall Mountain Tract in Macon County as a public park and to submit input for potential uses of the land.
The Hall Mountain tract, once a Cherokee settlement, is 108 acres of forest and open space the tribe bought with help from a federal grant. Tribal leaders plan to develop it as a recreation site, with trails and a picnic pavilion, a demonstration site for traditional Cherokee land management and a resource for traditional artisans.
The tract is six miles north of Franklin and is the backdrop of the historic Cowee Mound site, once the diplomatic and commercial center of the Cherokee people until the arrival of Europeans and early settlers.
The meetings are hosted by the Cherokee Tribal Office of Environment and Natural Resources and will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 27 and Sept. 17, at the Cowee School near Franklin, and Sept. 3 and 24 in Cherokee, at a location not yet determined.
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