On Nov. 8, 2025, Ijams Nature Center celebrates a remarkable milestone: 50 years of serving East Tennessee and beyond as a nonprofit organization dedicated to nature, education, and stewardship.

​Fifty years of walking trails, watching birds, and learning. Fifty years of caring for and restoring the land. Fifty years of continuing the legacy that one family began more than a century ago, when they picked a special homesite in Knoxville, Tennessee, to raise their children.

 

In 1910, Harry Pearle (H.P.) Ijams, a commercial illustrator and ornithologist, and his wife, Alice Yoe Ijams, an expert gardener, purchased 20 acres of land along the Tennessee River to raise their four daughters, Elizabeth, Josephine, Mary, and Martha.

Throughout their lives, the Ijams family fostered a love of nature. H.P. created an Ijams Bird Sanctuary on the homesite; it grew to more than 1,000 protected acres when other members of the East Tennessee Audubon Society joined the effort after H.P. offered to build the members a meeting lodge on the family’s land.

In the 1920s, Alice propagated and sold flowers to Brockway Crouch’s flower shop, Flowercraft, which later became Crouch Florist. Crouch, a close family friend, was an avid hiker and birder, and co-founded the East Tennessee Ornithological Society with H.P. and several others.

The Ijams family was also integral to the creation of a local Girl Scouts organization in 1923, and donated part of their property to the group, which created Camp Mary Ijams along the river. That site is now home to Knoxville’s Williamswood Castle.

Camp Margaret Townsend in the Smokies was established in part through Ijams and Townsend family ties. H.P. also helped establish the first official campsite on Mount LeConte and used his artistic talents to promote the Smoky Mountains as a national park.

In 1966, wanting to protect the Bird Sanctuary and ensure the Ijams family legacy continued, the Knoxville Garden Club and Knox County Council of Garden Clubs applied for an open space grant, and the City of Knoxville purchased the family’s property. The groups dedicated Ijams Nature Park in 1968.

The park became a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, Ijams Nature Center, Inc., on Nov. 8, 1975. Since that time, Ijams has relied on members and donors to support its myriad offerings, from land restoration and trail maintenance to a variety of educational programs and exhibits.

 

In the early 2000s, Ijams began managing Mead’s and Ross Marble quarries, which in their heyday produced Tennessee marble (actually limestone) used in local buildings as well as national monuments in Washington, D.C.

Over the past 25 years, Ijams staff and volunteers, with the help of the City of Knoxville and Knox County, have worked to restore this former industrial site to its natural, native state while honoring the history of Knoxville's contributions to a once-booming marble business.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ijams family's legacy in 2010, Paul James, who served as the nature center’s executive director at the time, published a visual history book, Ijams Nature Center, as part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.

The book, which captures the stories of the Ijams family, Mead’s and Ross Marble quarries, and the development of the nature center, includes examples of H.P.’s art promoting Great Smoky Mountains National Park, family Christmas postcards, and more.

Over the years, Ijams Nature Center grew in size and stature to become the region’s leading wildlife sanctuary and environmental learning center.

 

Today, Ijams Nature Center is one of the most visited nature centers in the United States. The nature center acquired the last inholding property from a former neighbor in 2025, and now manages 320 acres of Ijams-, City-, and County-owned property. People still ask how to pronounce the family’s name, which rhymes with “times.”

The campus boasts river access, a lake, ponds, a climbing crag, miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking, a green workout space, a nature playscape for children, a bat house completed in 2025, hundreds of engaging world-class programs, and a visitor center. Ijams welcomes more than 620,000 visitors from around the world each year.

Ijams’ story weaves across generations. It began as one family’s homesite and gardens, where the Ijams girls ran through fields, played in ponds, and explored the forest. H.P. and Alice’s grandchildren grew up playing there, as have their great-grandchildren. Their great great-great-grandson now toddles through these spaces.

Ijams Nature Center will celebrate its golden anniversary of being a nonprofit organization at the Ijams Homecoming Saturday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. This free event will feature fun, hands-on activities for all ages, historic materials, refreshments, and more at the Ijams Visitor Center, 2915 Island Home Ave. in South Knoxville. A short program from 10:30-11 a.m. will feature remarks from past Executive Directors Bo Townsend and Paul James, Ijams President and CEO Amber Parker, and City of Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon. Current staff, board members, volunteers, and Ijams family members look forward a reunion with former staff, volunteers, board members, and others who have helped Ijams Nature Center grow. One former Ijams senior naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales, a beloved local educator, artist, and author, will present a program, “What Children in Nature Can Teach Us,” from 11:30 a.m.-12 p.m.The celebration will include a silent auction of art created by some of the nature center’s animal ambassadors. Winning bidders will receive the art, a photo of the animal that painted it, and a short story card about the artist. 

There will also be a contest to name an animal ambassador homecoming queen or king. Attendees may donate $1 for a “vote” ticket to help support the care of these non-releasable educators, which costs about $20,000 annually. Naturalist-led guided hikes will be at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. The Ijams Nature Preschool is hosting an alumni homecoming and picnic for current and former students and their families at the Ijams Homesite that afternoon. Come share your story…or create a new one at the Ijams Homecoming! The event is free to attend, but registration is requested to help with planning. For more information and to RSVP, visit Ijams.org/50-years-of-stories.