Harrison Bay State Park's Biggest Problem Is Its Shoreline, According to the State's Own Draft Plan

The Dockside Café at Harrison Bay State Park got an "excellent" rating when state staff walked the park in August 2026. So did the Recreation Hall, Campground A and the golf course. The park's 40 miles of Chickamauga Lake shoreline got "poor."

Those ratings come from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's draft strategic management plan for Harrison Bay, the five-year blueprint that will guide operations, conservation and facility work at the park. Harrison Bay is one of 12 state parks getting a new plan this cycle. The draft is open for public comment now. The buildings at the center of the park are mostly in good condition, and the draft saves its most urgent language for the water's edge.

The Buildings Most People Use Are Holding Up

Here is how the August 2026 review rated the facilities Harrison residents use most:

The poor ratings fall into two groups. Some are aging structures the park can renovate on its own schedule: the Campground B bathhouse, the 24 Group Camp cabins and the playgrounds. The playground work has already begun. The park's website says construction has started on a nature-based learning playscape that mixes play with hands-on nature learning, and it warns campground guests that early-morning work may be noisy. Oddly, the draft's mid-term list says "Replace campground with a nature playscape," while a separate line lists "Playground replacement" as a high priority.

The other group sits right on the water. That's where the plan spends its strongest language.

Forty Miles of Shoreline, Rated Poor

The draft calls the park's land "some of the last undeveloped shoreline in the area." It says that land protects the Tennessee River's riparian zones, which cut down on common kinds of pollution and give many species a place to live. Then it rates those resources:

• Lake shoreline, 40 miles: Poor, because of erosion and encroachment.
• Riparian corridors, 40 miles: Fair, threatened by encroachment and erosion.
• Hardwood forest, 944 acres: Fair. Threats include encroachment and invasive plants such as Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, Paulownia, Ailanthus and kudzu.

The biggest cause the plan names is boat wakes. The draft says the park is losing "large amounts of shoreline due to erosion, primarily from changes in recreation practices, with large ballast ski boats casting large wakes." Anyone who has been on Chickamauga Lake on a summer weekend knows those boats. In the plan, they're the main reason the park's banks are wearing away.

The plan also calls for more boundary surveying and protection to prevent habitat destruction, encroachment and land loss along the park's edges.

Shoreline stabilization and riparian bank stabilization are both rated High priority, which the plan defines as work for the next one to five years.

The Money Was Approved in 2025

The state has already set aside money for this problem. On July 10, 2025, the State Building Commission approved the Harrison Bay State Park Shoreline Stabilization project. The project number is SBC 126/048-01-2025, and the description reads "Rehabilitate shoreline erosion at Harrison Bay State Park and all required related work." The total budget is $16,340,000.

The funding is unusual. The minutes list it as seven current-funds capital maintenance lines spread across fiscal years 2013-14 through 2019-20:

1. $7,372,772.95 from FY 2013-14
2. $197,260.18 from FY 2014-15
3. $2,965,994.55 from FY 2015-16
4. $573,313.65 from FY 2016-17
5. $3,625,750.51 from FY 2017-18
6. $176,653.99 from FY 2018-19
7. $1,428,254.17 from FY 2019-20

The commission's action that day was to approve the project and start choosing a designer. LJA Engineering, Inc. was selected as designer in July 2025. The draft plan, reviewed in August 2026, still lists "Complete Shore Stabilization project to protect shorelines" among its two-to-five-year recommendations. So this is a funded project with a designer chosen, and the park's own planning document puts its completion within the coming plan period.

The Marina Sits on the Same Edge

The 198 slips and walkways at the Harrison Bay marina are rated poor. The gas dock and the marina office and restrooms are rated good. The plan puts the marina's mooring structures, walkways, fuel tank and supply system at the top of its facility needs, marked High.

Tennessee State Parks currently lists covered and uncovered slips on monthly or yearly terms, transient docking, ethanol-free fuel, pump-out service and a free 24-hour boat ramp at the marina. The park page also says EV charging stations have been installed there.

The draft also has a plan for the marina building. Once the park builds a new central park office and visitor center, a mid-term recommendation, it would put the marina office to wider use.

The History Along the Water Needs Protection Too

The draft's history section describes Harrison as the site of an old town and the last Cherokee town in the area, made up of three villages ruled by one of the last great Cherokee chieftains. The plan lists several cultural sites that need protection:

• Two historic CCC shops are rated good, with a warning that "the buildings are nearing a point of collapse if interventions are not made." The Civilian Conservation Corps built them for the park's early operations, and today they host workshop-style demonstrations of historic skills. Their preservation is rated High.
• Civil War gun pits are rated poor and threatened by artifact poaching and encroachment.
• Fifteen archaeological home sites are rated poor. The plan says "even the knowledge of the locations of these is not well preserved" and calls for ranger patrols to protect them from disturbance and theft.

The plan says shoreline erosion "is causing loss of other resources."

What the Draft Would Add

Many of the new features in the draft are on or near the lake. The plan's list of new assets includes:

• An ADA kayak and canoe launch
• Rental pontoon boats, which the plan says would get more families out on the water without straining park operations
• New cabins on the peninsula behind the current Group Camp cabins
• An accessible hayride wagon for land-based tours and events
• A horse barn and pasture on the group camp field, so the mounted patrol can return to Harrison Bay

Waterfront cabins appear in the long-term recommendations, along with more day-use rentals and updated wayfinding and interpretive signs.

The trails have their own water problem. The park's six trails total 6.48 miles. The longest, the 4.31-mile Bay Point Loop, runs through a low part of the park, and the plan says it "constantly floods and becomes muddy" and needs more boardwalk and turnpike construction. Most of the other trails have erosion problems because they follow the fall line, and some need small bridges.

Dec. 12 at the Recreation Hall

Residents get two ways to weigh in. Park staff will present the proposed management objectives at a public meeting on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. ET at the Recreation Hall, 5489 Campground Drive, Harrison, TN 37341. That's the same building the plan rates excellent. Written comments are accepted through Dec. 31, 2026, according to TDEC's announcement and Chattanoogan.com's coverage. The state's online comment form has Harrison Bay in its park menu. You can type a comment or upload a Word or PDF file.

If you'd like to see the park before you comment, it's holding a free Day After Thanksgiving Hike on Nov. 27. The draft also commits to 12 scheduled volunteer events a year and quarterly community-science programs.

Harrison Bay is a big reason many of our clients and neighbors love this side of Hamilton County. Our team at Kyle Johnston Homes follows plans like this one because the park's shoreline, trails and marina are part of everyday life in Harrison. If you have questions about the area around the park, we're glad to talk them through with you. Let's Connect.