See Rock City

16 years ago

Before the interstate highway system was schemed and dreamed up, in the rural South someone got the bright ideal that barns would make a good billboard. 'Course, this was a phase or fad that kinda died out a while back. But not quite. On my bicycle ride this evening, riding on the east side of town, I came upon this barn that I have seen most every time I've had to drive east. But life on a bicycle is at a different pace than life in a car. Had my cell phone camera with me and stopping for a moment on a bicycle is infinitely easier than stopping the car. After all, I can pull off the road onto a field a lot easier on a bike than in a car.

One on these days I really must get better camera equipment.

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Comments (10)

andie_rathbone
16 years ago
I saw those signs on barns for years taking vacations with my folks. Has anyone here actually been to Rock City? Just wanted to know how effective that kind of advertising really was.
Janis_G
16 years ago
Shoot! living as close as I do, I've been going to Rock
City for years.
I took the kids when they were little, carrying Katrina
all through the caverns and even to see Ruby Falls which is located way down in a cave. Katrina was in a frog leg brace at the time and 2 years old. I always took her everywhere we went because I never wanted her to feel different or left out.

It is definately a tourist place but combined with the other attractions can be quite fun.
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lindac
16 years ago
Is that like "Chew Mail Pouch"?
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: Barn sigh
agnespuffin
16 years ago
The DH and I went many years ago after we got all the boys in college. It was enjoyable.
Those signs were often seen in South Georgia. I knew what Rock City was before I was old enough to go to school.
oscarthecat
16 years ago
Interesting article on the, "mail pouch barns". Steve in Baltimore County.
meldy_nva
16 years ago
DD was 10 or 11 when we decided to drive up Mt. Washington again. We made a loop to include Hershey Park on the way up and Niagara Falls on the way back. After we left Niagara Falls [our bodies remaining poised to feel the ground rumble whenever we stood up], but still winding though the New York mountains, we saw a number of signs to "Rock City". Well, you know how it is, the big things planned have been done, and there's still a lo-o-ng drive home. So we followed the signs which more or less led in the direction we were going, and eventually came to a tiny wooden stand beside the gravelly entrance to "Rock City". This Rock City was not what anyone could have expected. It was simply an area - a large area, maybe a mile square, with a trail wandering up and down the slopes and around trees and huge boulders. Really tremendous boulders the size of cabins and mansions; but scattered here and there, occasionally leaning against each other in eternal support. A certain sense of disapppointed touristy-expectations accompanied us at the beginning of the tour; following the trail up and around these boulders as the guide gave a very short spiel that neatly encompassed geology, mineralogy, and a bit of family history. After maybe ten minutes, he told us to just continue following the signs and to take our time. As we walked, the surroundings became less park-like, and more... something. One could easily feel that one was walking backward through time, not in the let's-play-indians sense but in terms of milleniums passing. The trees became huge trunks, the boulders more impressively solid, and we became tiny observers. Then, turning a corner at one edge of a towering rock, we came upon a cathedral of trees; a double row of huge trunks with branches that reached up and over, touching twig tips to form a most gracious arch. Moss paved the gentle slope, hillocks and pillows of moss-covered stones invited one to sit and absorb the awe-inspiring silence. We weren't tourists anymore, but visitors who were being permitted to see the land as it was, as it had been for thousands of years past and, it seemed, as it always would be for thousands of years to come.

The signs are long gone. Rock City doesn't exist any more. The guide told us that the last of the family was selling the land. He thought that apartments and maybe a shopping center would be built.
rob333 (zone 7b)
16 years ago
Nice Michael! I've often thought about taking a series of barn photos; Suzanne does that enough and much better though!

Yes, it's not uncommon for my family to get a wild hair and head to the boogey (Chattanooga) to see Rock City, the Aquarium, IMAX, and Ruby Falls... and the pubs, and the Duck river tours, and the... an aimless trip, you get the drift.

Meldy, Rock City is gone?!
meldy_nva
16 years ago
The Rock City we visited is no more; that was a privately owned area. There are several other Rock City places -- and better known, such as the one on Lookout Mountain (I think that's the one Jan refers to). There are many "rock city" formations in the various caves and caverns... I won't say in 'every' cavern, but I suspect most of the largest tourist caverns have one.

There is also a Rock City Park near Olean, New York, and some of the photos remind me of the place we visited, although the RC Park is much more commercialized.

Here is a link that might be useful: rock city park
rob333 (zone 7b)
16 years ago
Our rock city, mine and Jan's, looks like this (Lookout Mountain and the entrance to Rock City is in Chattanooga):
{{gwi:155231}}

Whew. Ours isn't closed. Good to hear!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lookout Mountain
endorphinjunkie
Original Author
16 years ago
Seems barn photography is a participatory sport.

Rock City and other such barns.

The Rogersville barn is the second to last picture of the Alabma barns.