Chota Canoe Club
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Club History

In 1969 John and Beverly Hiscox founded the Chota Canoe Club was as a whitewater club in Knoxville, Tennessee. The couple would crank out a monthly newsletter in their home on a mimeograph machine and often fed their fellow members breakfast before setting out on paddling journeys.

Despite the name, there are many whitewater decked, and touring kayak boaters in the Chota club. While the city of Knoxville is located in the relatively flat Tennessee Valley, it’s surrounded by plenty of whitewater rivers and lakes. Even the Ocoee River, site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater slalom, is less than 2 hours’ drive from Knoxville. With the Smokey Mountains to the East and South and the Cumberland Plateau to the North and West, there is a a tremendous variety of whitewater and flatwater, along with touring paddlesport activities.

John is now affectionately called Johnny Canoeseed, as he has also founded clubs in Jackson, Tennessee and Macon, Georgia. There may have only been about 12 charter members, but club membership has risen steadily over the years and we are now more than 240 paddlers strong!

The club name, Chota, comes from the ceremonial capital of the Cherokee nation along the banks of the Little Tennessee River, just downstream of the Citico Creek confluence. We chose the name in support of efforts to prevent flooding of the site by the proposed construction of the Tellico Dam downstream. Unfortunately the controversial dam was completed in 1979 and the site now lies under Tellico Lake. Chota was also the Cherokee word for “peace”.

In the beginning, people paddled whitewater in aluminum canoes, then fiberglass became popular since it slid over rocks more easily and could be patched at home. The first ABS canoe was introduced to the club in 1973, a Blue Hole OCA, #13.

Whitewater canoeing education was a learn-as-you-go process for several years. Our annual Chota Canoe School weekend began in the mid-1970’s, when we also had decked boat rolling sessions in the Westside Y pool. Finding good river segments within day trip distance of Knoxville was also learn-as-you-go, as was finding feasible routes through those rivers, and we were all beginners.

Results were not surprising: lots of cold swims. People survived wearing only wool clothing and ponchos or K-Mart style rain suits for one or several seasons before crashing through and purchasing a diver’s wetsuit, which they then sometimes altered to create more room for shoulder movement and circulation behind the knees. Drysuits and fleece are very recent improvements.

 

Year President  
1970 John Hiscox Club Founder
1971 John Hiscox  
1972 Bill Krueger  
1973 Dick Navarre  
1974 Murray Evans  
1975 Jim Carter  
1976 Hugh Welch  
1977 Mike Bates  
1978 Mary Evans  
1979 Rac Cox  
1980 Damaris Olsen  
1981 Anne Phillips  
1982 Tom Janzen  
1983 Ed McAlister  
1984 David Mathew  
1985 Bill Atkins  
1986 Anne Phillips  
1987 Jane Harris  
1988 Jim Lucas  
1989 Janet Michel  
1990 Anne Phillips  
1991 Doug Johnstone  
1992 Dwight Guinn  
1993 Pete Dolan  
1994 DeWitt Beeler  
1995 Gary Kilpatrick  
1996 Philip Young  
1997 Ron Crass  
1998 Stacey Cutshaw  
1999 Roger Underwood  
2000 David Elliott  
2001 Doug Johnstone  
2002 Renee Harwell  
2003 Renee Harwell  
2004 Trey Coleman  
2005 Trey Coleman  
2006 Doug Klaras  
2007 Tisha Benton  
2008 David Mann  
2009 David Mann  
2010 Angela Garrison  
2011 Doug Johnstone  
2012 Paul Alexander  
2013 Pete Feist  
2014 Bob Eckhardt  
2015 Angela Wood  
2016 Angela Wood  
2017 Stuart Mckee  
2018 Allen Glazer/Storm Shuler  
2019 Kevin Flint  
2020 David McConnell  
2021  David McConnell  
2022 David McConnell  
2023 Rachel Butzler  
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