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Clarksville Living Magazine — April 2026

The April 2026 issue of Clarksville Living Magazine tracks the coyotes now living in Montgomery County, premieres a four-year documentary on the city's railroad history, and marks the 1862 surrender of Fort Defiance.

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The coyote reached Clarksville the long way around. Before the 1700s the animal the Aztecs called coyotl was confined to Mexico and the southwestern reaches of North America; today Canis latrans ranges from Alaska to Panama and across much of the eastern United States and Canada. Records place coyotes near Chicago when the city was founded in the 18th century, then absent for the two centuries after. One was reported in New York State in 1912. The eastward expansion came slowly and then all at once, and the animals are now established in Montgomery County and most counties in Tennessee — Mark Spurgeon, who lives just off Trenton Road, is one of many residents with a recent sighting to describe.

On a Sunday afternoon in February, dozens of people 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. The four-year project, directed by APSU's Karen Bullis and Kathy Lee Heuston and funded through an Arts & Heritage grant, condensed interviews that often ran 30 to 60 minutes into a 22-minute film drawing on local enthusiasts, historians and city officials. Ellen Kanervo and the Clarksville Arts & Heritage Development Council organized the screening, having judged that the story of Clarksville's trains needed telling.

Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center commemorated the fort's surrender on February 19th, 1862 with a living history event, exhibits inside the center and across the historic grounds, and the 9th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry camping on site. Associate Historical Interpreter Roxanne Jenkins described the annual partnership with the Friends of Fort Defiance.

April's Veteran Business of the Month is Fleet Feet Clarksville, owned by Sara and Travis Esterby. The store has been in business fourteen years — the 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 for customers. It began, as Travis tells it, with a group run they organized before there was any store at all, a way to connect with the community outside 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)
  • Business After Hours (p. 20)
  • Mark Riggins Mayoral Campaign (p. 22)
  • Stroll Among the Sakuras (p. 24)
  • Black History Month (p. 26)
  • YADA Soft Opening (p. 30)
  • American Floyd (p. 34)
  • Black History Month at Kleeman Center (p. 38)
  • Polar Plunge (p. 42)
  • Big Brothers, Big Sisters (p. 44)
  • Sake-to-Me (p. 18)
  • Kats Jersey Reveal (p. 28)
  • Music City Gyros (p. 32)
  • Columbia Calling (p. 36)
  • Michael Davidson (p. 40)

Regular departments

  • Recipes (p. 19)
  • Calendar (p. 45)

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