Clarksville Living Magazine — April 2026
April's Clarksville Living Magazine traces how the coyote finally reached Montgomery County, premieres a four-year documentary on the city's railroad past, and marks the 1862 surrender of Fort Defiance.
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The coyote took the scenic route to Clarksville. Before the 1700s the animal the Aztecs called coyotl kept to Mexico and the southwestern corner of North America; today Canis latrans runs from Alaska to Panama and across most of the eastern United States and Canada. The records are strange — coyotes near Chicago at its 18th-century founding, then two centuries with none, and a single sighting reported in New York State in 1912 — before an expansion that came slowly and then all at once. They are now established in Montgomery County and nearly every county in Tennessee, and residents like Mark Spurgeon, off Trenton Road, have their own recent sightings to recount.
On a February Sunday, dozens crowded into the L&N Train Station on 10th Street — built in 1881-1882 and a working passenger depot until 1968 — for the free public premiere of Departures and Arrivals: Clarksville's Railroad Legacy. Directed by APSU's Karen Bullis and Kathy Lee Heuston and backed by an Arts & Heritage grant, the four-year project distilled interviews that often ran 30 to 60 minutes into a tight 22-minute film drawing on local enthusiasts, historians and city officials. Ellen Kanervo and the Clarksville Arts & Heritage Development Council organized the screening, convinced the story of Clarksville's trains was overdue.
Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center marked the fort's February 19th, 1862 surrender with a living-history event, indoor exhibits and demonstrations across the historic grounds, and the 9th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry encamped on site. Associate Historical Interpreter Roxanne Jenkins described the yearly partnership with the Friends of Fort Defiance that makes it possible.
April's Veteran Business of the Month is Fleet Feet Clarksville, owned by Sara and Travis Esterby. The shop has been open fourteen years — its first five as the Runner's Hub before franchising to Fleet Feet in 2017 — and recently moved to 449 Warfield Boulevard for more inventory and more room to spread out. It started, as Travis tells it, with a group run they organized before there was any storefront at all: a way to connect with the community beyond the Army.
Table of Contents
- Wild Neighbors (p. 5)
- L&N Train Station (p. 8)
- Veteran Business of the Month (p. 10)
- Surrender of Fort Defiance (p. 12)
- Kevin Kennedy's New Book (p. 14)
- Black History Month at Ft. Defiance (p. 16)
- Sake-to-Me (p. 18)
- Business After Hours (p. 20)
- Mark Riggins Mayoral Campaign (p. 22)
- Stroll Among the Sakuras (p. 24)
- Black History Month (p. 26)
- Kats Jersey Reveal (p. 28)
- YADA Soft Opening (p. 30)
- Music City Gyros (p. 32)
- American Floyd (p. 34)
- Columbia Calling (p. 36)
- Black History Month at Kleeman Center (p. 38)
- Michael Davidson (p. 40)
- Polar Plunge (p. 42)
- Big Brothers, Big Sisters (p. 44)
Regular Departments
- Recipes (p. 19)
- Calendar (p. 45)
