Fort Dickerson Park closed Friday morning as emergency crews searched Augusta Quarry for a swimmer who went underwater and did not resurface, Knoxville police said. It is undetermined whether the man made it out of the water on his own, but crews are conducting a thorough search out of an abundance of caution, according to a notice from the department.
The closure and search were first reported by WVLT, which noted that the Knox County Rescue Squad responded to search the quarry for a person who reportedly jumped in and never resurfaced. A date for when the park will reopen has not been announced.
Augusta Quarry, the flooded former marble quarry at the center of Fort Dickerson Park, has become one of South Knoxville's most popular swimming spots since its renovated facilities opened to the public in 2025. But Friday's search marks the third major emergency response at the quarry in roughly the past 14 months, following a missing-swimmer search in June 2025 and the recovery of a woman's body in April.
A Pattern That Predates the Renovation
In June 2025, a swimmer went missing at the quarry shortly after it reopened, prompting an exhaustive search by the Knoxville Fire Department, Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad, and Blount County Rescue Squad. That swimmer had gone underwater while the quarry was still officially closed for construction, and as WBIR reported at the time, entering the quarry during construction was illegal. He was never found, and his disappearance prompted calls for safety improvements at the site.
Then in April, Knoxville Fire Department crews recovered the body of 35-year-old Kayla Eddington from underwater beneath the Fort Dickerson Park overlook. Knoxville Police reported visible injuries consistent with a fall and said there was no initial evidence of foul play; Eddington was believed to have accidentally fallen or jumped into the quarry, according to the same WBIR report. Hoodline previously covered the discovery of her body as investigators worked to confirm her identity.
An $11 Million Park With No Lifeguards
The tension between Augusta Quarry's popularity and its hazards has only grown since the city completed an $11 million multi-phase renovation in July 2025, according to Knox TN Today. The project added floating swim platforms, new restrooms and changing facilities, paved walkways, and an expanded scenic overlook. The redesign, created by Sanders Pace Architecture and Port Urbanism, later earned a 2026 Small Project Award from the American Institute of Architects for turning the former industrial site into an accessible public park.
Despite that investment, the City of Knoxville does not employ municipal lifeguards at the quarry, meaning all visitors swim at their own risk during the park's operating hours of 7:45 a.m. to 8 p.m., with vendor staffing available through October. City rules also restrict flotation devices to Coast Guard-approved Type III life jackets, paddleboards, and vendor rentals, banning personal inflatables, pool noodles, and private kayaks in an effort to reduce drowning risks.
A Quarry With a Long, Dangerous History
The water itself is part of what makes rescue and recovery operations so difficult. Depths in Augusta Quarry range from as little as 0 to 3 feet near the shoreline and floating walk-in beach to between 20 and 350 feet in the flooded quarry's central sections, according to the City of Knoxville. Fort Dickerson Park, which surrounds the quarry, spans roughly 85 to 91 acres in South Knoxville and centers on a Civil War-era earthen fort built by Union forces in 1863 to defend the city.
Long before its 2017 dedication as an official municipal swimming destination, the site operated as City Quarry from the 1930s to the 1970s and was long associated with unmonitored swimming, cliff diving, and accidental drownings, according to the Architect's Newspaper. That history has continued to echo across Tennessee's repurposed quarries more broadly; Hoodline reported that a 17-year-old died cliff-jumping at Bellevue Quarry in Nashville in July.
As of Friday, it remains unclear whether Augusta Quarry's growing popularity will push city officials to consider additional safety measures, such as on-site lifeguards or stricter barriers around cliff-access points. For now, Fort Dickerson Park stays closed while search crews continue working to determine what happened to the missing swimmer.
