A cornfield on the Cherokee Farm, annually cut for silage around Labor Day, precipitated a dove-hunting controversy that pitted city against county laws in 1985. The dividing line between Knoxville and Knox County was the middle of the river, with dove hunting illegal on the city side and legal on the county side. Residents of Sequoyah Hills complained that dove hunters in boats on the river peppered their windows and land with buckshot. UT agriculture workers also reported being showered with pellets as dove hunters in boats between the south (UT land) and the middle of the river took aim at doves enticed by the remains of the cornfield. Dogs then retrieved the doves from the water. If the bird fell in the public water, it could be retrieved; hunters attempting to retrieve birds from UT land were subject to being charged with trespassing.
The problem was solved by Mayor Kyle Testerman and the city council’s annexation of the portion of the river that was Knox County’s, thus extending the city’s prohibition against dove hunting within the city and making it illegal to hunt the doves from boats.