I recently wrote a post about 5 famous people from Chattanooga and it got me thinking about all the amazing things that Chattanooga Tennessee is also home to. This weeks fun fact Friday is all about 5 things that were invented in Chattanooga.

Mini Golf

Mini Golf may not have actually been invented in Chattanooga. It was however, officially patented by Garnet Carter a Lookout Mountain local.  Originally called Tom Thumb Golf, Carter patented the “whimsical version of golf” in the late 1920s.

Moon Pie

Chattanooga Bakery had over 100 items they regularly sold in 1917 when a Kentucky coal miner asked Earl Mitchell for a “snack as big as the moon”.  By 1929 hundreds of boxes a day were being packaged up and sent out. They rest they say is history.

Tow Trucks

In 1916 Ernest Holmes helped his friend John get his model T out of a ditch and little did he know he was about to change the world. He took his 1913 Cadillac, a pulley, some poles, and an iron chain and began pulling cars to his garage.  By January 1918 he filed a patent and split-boom wreckers came to be.

Krystal Hamburgers

R.B. Davenport Jr was a textile businessman who was inspired by White Castle. In 1932, right in the middle of the Great Depression, Davenport opened the first Krystal downtown Chattanooga. He decided to name the burger joint Krystal because his wife admired how “crystal clean” the restaurant was. Extra Fun Fact: the old Mason-Dixon Line is the separation of White Castle / Krystal territory.

Lodge Cast Iron

Ok, so this is South Pittsburg not Chattanooga proper but it’s close enough. My blog my rules. Joseph Lodge started the Blacklock Foundry making cast iron cookware in 1896. In 1910 the foundry burnt and was restarted as Lodge Cast Iron.