Civil War Trails are the focus of a new program by the state Department of Tourist Development. Individuals, communities and organizations are encouraged to participate in this effort to provide a new tourist attraction. There is a website -- www.CivilWarTrails.org -- that promotes the trails, with more than 2,000 map-guides downloaded weekly.

With a transportation enhancement grant, the state tourism department will pay for 80% of the cost of the signs, so the local match will be $1,100, plus a $200 annual maintenance fee. This includes the design, fabrication, and installation of the  historical marker and trailblazer signs, in addition to the design and printing of the statewide map-guide.

Marker locations should be as close as possible to the actual location of the interpreted event and have adequate parking already in place. The sponsor provides the elements that will be included on the marker -- text and historic photos or drawings. The text should tell what the visitor is looking at.

For more information, contact the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development at 615-532-8077.

There are three sites in Polk County included in the Civil War Trails of Southeast Tennessee brochure developed by the Southeast Tennessee Tourism Association -- the Confederate burial and memorial on Chilhowee Mountain, the site of a Civil War skirmish; the Confederate Memorial Forest at Boyd Gap, created in 1942 to commemorate Confederate soldiers and enhance land conservation; and the reproduction of the Hiwassee Mine Stack in Ducktown, symbolizing the original Hiwassee Mine that operated during the Civil War, controlled by Confederate forces through late 1863.