1940s Lover's Leap Rock City Gardens Lookout Mountain

Postmarked 1948, Lover's Leap, Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain, vintage postcard.

Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "Last Battle of the Cherokees" in this area during the Nickajack Expedition.

But alas! it is with the heart that we remember lasting impressions, and Lover’s leap atop Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga is no exception. A Chickasaw warrior named Sautee loved a beautiful Cherokee maiden named Nacoochee. Their two tribes were at war, and the two lovers were found out. The Cherokees sent out a raiding party that captured Sautee and hauled him to the ledge atop Lookout Mountain and threw him off to his death. While they were celebrating their deed, Nacoochee slipped unnoticed to the edge of the cliff. Her family couldn’t reach her in time, and the last word she spoke before leaping to her doom was “Sautee.”