South Pittsburg, Tennessee is a small town along the Tennessee River and Sequatchie River. It is part of the greater Chattanooga municipality, about 30 miles west of downtown Chattanooga.
The route from Chattanooga to South Pittsburg curves across the Tennessee-Georgia border, and South Pittsburg itself is right on the Tennessee-Alabama border.
It was amusing to hear GPS announce “Welcome to Georgia! Tennessee! Georgia! Tennessee! Alabama! Tennessee!” so many times in the short span of maybe fifteen minutes.
Developers in the 1800s saw huge potential for miles and miles of agrarian land located along major rivers, near the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, and flush with coal and other resources that could be mined and transported.
They envisioned it as a new industrial capital; the “Pittsburg of the South,” and named it as such.
This area is extremely significant in Civil War history, Native American history including the Trail of Tears, and various railroad and mining companies. Drop by the South Pittsburg Heritage Museum to learn more about that.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people show up from around the country and even overseas to celebrate the National Cornbread Festival, and that is how I found myself there for the first time.
The National Cornbread Festival started when locals sat together and asked how they could promote the growth of their town and its economy.
With cornbread being such a star in Southern cuisine, and having the Lodge Factory right in the center of the town’s historic downtown district, a match was struck!
Food festivals are a classic example of “build it, and [they] will come” and combining that with an opportunity to tour a factory and museum! It was a hit.
The first festival took place in 1997 and it was a hit, and it has only gotten better each year.
Festival planners are volunteers that work to include local businesses and non-profit organizations to help and to give exposure to them in return.
Proceeds from the festival are returned to each entity that helped, either in monetary donations or with revitalization projects.
Like thousands of other people, we parked along the side of Lee Highway and walked to Third Street, then followed it to the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron and Lodge Factory Store.
Lodge Manufacturing was established in South Pittsburg in 1896 by Joseph Lodge and his wife, and descendents still operate the site today.
Lodge has opened a store and museum for the public to tour and pick up new favourite items. You can also hang out in their courtyard with all the “Skillet People” sculptures.
Inside the store, visitors line up outside the massive cast iron skillet montage, waiting their turn to tour the museum.
Back outside the Lodge store and museum, a series of tents were set up for the National Lodge® Cast-Iron Cornbread Cook-off.
Contestants each chose a different variety of Lodge Cornbread mixes and put them on display for guests to sample, then cast their vote at the end.
Cornbread Alley is the most popular festivity of the day.
For eight dollars, you will be granted a plate and access to about a dozen entrants and their cornbread-themed dishes that you can also vote on in the end.
Each entrant represents a local non-profit, and some of the menu items include sweet potato and bacon cornbread balls, pepperoni skillet cornbread, Farmer Jack cornbread, sweet corn blueberry burst cornbread, lemon squeeze cornbread, and many others. Most contestants are churches with a few nonprofits in the mix.
Other activities like the Cornbread 5k Race and the Cornbread Fondo, a ride through the beautiful Sequatchie Valley along the Tennessee River, are festival staples that require pre-registration and fees.
Food trucks and pop-up restaurants selling all kinds of wild dishes are set up all around the festival. I had never even heard of cornbread salad before attending!
There are quite a few interesting characters wandering about the festival.
One particular alley hosted live demonstrations of antique farm equipment.
In the background, several local bands entertained the crowd, as we maneuvered our way through tractors and larger-than-life statues.
One guest brought her sweet little piglet and we were lucky enough to play with him a bit. Pets are not allowed at the festival, but she had him nuzzled into her chest wrap like a newborn human baby.
The main drag through downtown is South Cedar Avenue and it is lined with local favourites like Alessandro’s Italian Artisan Bakery, the newly-restored Princess Theatre, South Pittsburg Antiques, South Cedar Artisanal, and Spill Coffee.
We went to South Pittsburg for the National Cornbread Festival and did not have time to check out some of the other awesome attractions of the town, like the Nickajack Bat Cave, the ornery Camak Stone, or the Russell Cave National Monument.
I learned about a group called SPARQ that is behind many of the downtown revitalization projects, and the Old South Pittsburg Hospital Paranormal Research Center which keeps locals and tourists on their toes.
I also learned that the silent film star of the 1920s and 1930s, Jobyna Ralston, was born and raised in South Pittsburg. She starred alongside one of my favourite actresses of the day, Clara Bow, as well as Gary Cooper, Eddie Cantor, Buddy Rogers, Harold Lloyd, her future husband Richard Arlen, and even the old Rin Tin Tin hound.
In the area for a while? Follow me to Chattanooga’s downtown Riverfront and Southside District, or to Bradley County, historic Gateway to the Cherokee Nation.
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