STRAWBERRY PLAINS — A volunteer walking tour near Strawberry Plains follows the route of the East Tennessee Unionists who burned the railroad bridges in the fall of 1861. The guide is Don Whitlow, a retired high school history teacher. Before each walk he passes a butter tub down the line and asks everyone to put in any lighters or matches, vapes included. He started the tub after visitors kept asking whether they were supposed to bring supplies, and he says some of them had understood the tour differently.
Whitlow keeps the tub on the card table with the liability waivers, and getting a group of adults through the waivers has put him back in the habit of chaperoning.
“I ran field trips for a long time, and there was always one kid who signed where the parent’s supposed to sign,” Whitlow said. “Now it’s grown people, and I’m hunting for somebody’s reading glasses, and half of them want to know if they can sign later.”
Tour member Linda Cooper said Whitlow helped her husband with the part of the waiver that covers uneven ground. “Wayne wanted to write in about his knee, and Don said go ahead. Then Wayne wanted a copy.”
Whitlow starts each tour once everyone has used the restroom.