Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 53

ABOVE: This fading-fast barn is along
U.S. 129 in Robbinsville, North Carolina
at the eastern end of "The Dragon."
LEFT: This nearly gone structure is
located on old U.S. Highway 19 about
a mile inside the Bryson City, North
Carolina, city limits and across from the
Bear Hunter Campground.
BOTTOM RIGHT: This barn, 3.5
miles from the 129/411 junction in
Tennessee, has recently been repainted
by Rock City and appears to be in good
shape.

O

Story and photos by DAVID B. JENKINS

nce there were nearly 900 of
them, scattered from Michigan to the Florida line, from
the Carolina coast to Texas.
Now fewer than 250 remain
to lift their fading signs to the
straying tourist, commanding him to "See Rock City." They are the
nostalgic old barns which have passed
into American folk history as part of one
of the most successful outdoor advertising

campaigns of all time. And a surprising
number of them were in the Blue Ridge
mountains of western North Carolina and
east Tennessee.
Entrepreneur Garnet Carter launched
his tourist attraction on the escarpments
of Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1932, but few tourists
were attracted until around 1937, when
he conceived the idea of painting a message on barns along what were then major thoroughfares leading to Chattanooga
and sent out an enterprising, young sign
painter named Clark Byers to make it happen.
By 1937, the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park had been established, and
the sleepy little villages of Gatlinburg in
Tennessee and Maggie Valley in North
Carolina were beginning to attract numbers of visitors from the Midwest and

MAY/JUNE 2019

53



Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019

Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 5
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 6
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 8
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 9
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 10
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 11
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 15
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 16
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 18
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 19
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 20
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 21
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 22
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 23
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 24
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 25
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 27
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 31
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 32
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 33
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 34
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 35
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 36
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 37
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 41
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 46
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 49
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 50
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 51
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 53
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 55
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 65
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Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 67
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 68
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG1
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG2
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG3
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG4
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG5
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG6
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG7
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG8
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG9
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG10
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG11
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG12
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG13
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG14
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG15
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG16
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG17
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG18
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG19
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG20
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG21
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG22
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG23
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - BRPG24
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