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.Gif file of the story in the Herald-Citizen, Monday, November 25, 1996

Scott's Gulf no longer up for sale

From the Sparta Expositor,
Monday, November 25 1996

By ROBIN JORDAN
Staff Writer

The area known as Scott's Gulf has been on the real estate market for quite some time, but a decision was recently made by the property owners about the future of the 15,000 acres.

Originally, the land became available for purchase in the early 1980's. However, until recently no individual or company made serious attempts to purchase the acreage. In late 1994, a man from Michigan, Charles Doyle, began a variety of attempts to purchase the property through a host of company names. After much deliberation, a decision was announced in October l996 the longtime landowners of the property, Bridgestone/Firestone, would no longer consider purchase proposals from Charles Doyle, plus they took the land off of the real estate market. On November 22, 1996 the upper echelons of Bridgestone/Firestone met to determine the fate of their property.

In a statement later provided by Bridgestone/Firestone Public Relations Official Trevor Hoskins "Bridgestone/Firestone said it does not plan to sell the15,000 acre property that it owns on Chestnut Mountain (their name for the Scott's Gulf property) in Tennessee."

He continued, "This matter has now been fully reviewed by Bridgestone/Firestone management and the decision has been that the land will remain off the market. The land, which was purchased by Firestone in 1970, has been on the market since1981 but was recently withdrawn. Since Bridgestone purchased Firestone in 1988, we have had various parties interested in this land, but, for different reasons, the sale has not been consummated."

Hoskins explained, "Bridgestone/Firestone has now decided to keep the property off the market, but we will continue to maintain the area and provide security for this land."

Due to the fact much of Scott's Gulf is in White County, County Executive Tommy Denton commented, "I'm proud to hear Bridgestone/Firestone has decided to take the Scott's Gulf property off of the market."

However he added, "There has been a lot of work and effort by many individuals to obtain funding to procure this area. Even though Bridgestone/Firestone has decided to take this off the market, we as local officials and community leaders can now take a different approach to work with state and federal offices to try to obtain the property in some form in the future. I believe all of White County and surrounding counties will feel relieved this property is off of the market, and will be available to us in a manner as it has in the past. To me, Scott's Gulf holds a lot of the future for White County, through tourist attractions as a park or wilderness area, and I personally hope to see it established as such."

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[Any typos in this article are my own and not those of the Sparta Expositor or its staff. - Editor]

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