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Chattanooga: From salamanders to blues and beyond, plenty to do

Chickamauga National Military Park is America's first and largest National Military Park

Battles for Chattanooga Electric Map & Museum. Large relief map of the Chattanooga battlefield area feature 5,000 miniature soldiers and hundreds of lights, re-enacting the battles electronically with sights and sounds. Atop Lookout Mountain, just across from the entrance to Point Park. 1110 East Brow Rd., Lookout Mountain, (423) 821-2812.

Bessie Smith Hall. Celebrating the Chattanooga-born First Lady of the Blues with live music and education programs. 200 Martin Luther King Blvd., (423) 757-0020.

Chattanooga African-American Museum. Displays on African-American contributions to Chattanooga and the nation. 200 E. Martin Luther King Blvd., (423) 266-8658.

Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Chattanooga's famed Terminal Station (of the Glenn Miller Orchestra song) now hosts a Holiday Inn (some rooms are in sleeping cars), fine dining, a model railroad museum, shops, gardens, and an antique trolley ride. 1400 Market St., (800) TRACK-29. Website at: http://www.choochoo.com/

Chattanooga Regional History Museum. A look at the locale and its history. 400 Chestnut St., (423) 265-3247. On the Web at: http://virtual.chattanooga.net/history/

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Some of the most fierce fighting of the Civil War took place here on Lookout Mountain, and changed the course of the war. The park -- the country's first and largest National Military Park -- has 16 units throughout Chattanooga and north Georgia. (706) 866-9241. On the Web at: http://www.nps.gov/chch/

Creative Discovery Museum. Hands-on fun for children and adults. Dig for dinosaur bones, see what the inventors have concocted, and play giant musical instruments. 321 Chestnut St., (423) 756-2738.

Houston Museum of Decorative Arts. Collection of the late Anna Safley Houston includes antiques and decorative arts -- antique glass and porcelain considered among the finest in the world. 201 High St., (423) 267-7176. On the Web at: http://www.chattanooga.net/houston/index.html

Hunter Museum of American Art. One of the Southeast's finest collections of American art. 10 Bluff View, (423) 267-0968.

International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame & Museum. The history of wreckers and tow trucks. Only in the South. 401 Broad St., (423) 267-3132.

Lookout Mountain Incline Railway

Lookout Mountain Incline Railway. The steepest passenger railway in the world, with a 72.7 percent grade near the end of its one-mile (1.6-kilometer) journey up the side of Lookout Mountain. Deposits visitors a few short blocks from the entrance to Point Park. 827 East Brow Rd., Lookout Mountain, (423) 821-4224.

Rock City Gardens. A bit of Americana: who hasn't seen those "See Rock City" barn roofs? Well, here's the place. Spectacular views, enormous boulders, a reindeer herd, waterfalls, and strange little fairy creatures -- all here, if you make it through Fat Man's Squeeze. 1400 Patten Rd., Lookout Mountain, Georgia, (706) 820-2531. On the Web at: http://www.seerockcity.com/

Meet the man who painted the barns that made Rock City famous -- click here for a report on the park's creative advertising campaign.

Ruby Falls. 145-foot (44-meter) waterfall is the centerpiece of this cave deep inside Lookout Mountain. The passage leading to the waterfall was found more than 65 years ago when workers were sinking an elevator shaft to a cave. The Lookout Mountain Cave, no longer open to the public, had been a popular tourist stop for years. 1720 South Scenic Highway, (423) 821-2544. On the Web at: http://www.rubyfalls.com/