Historic postcard of Rock City
The tourist attraction Rock City, atop Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee, contains rock formations arranged in a way that somewhat resembles streets and avenues. This natural phenomenon was carved millions of years ago by a receding inland sea. In the 1920s, developers Garnet and Frieda Carter turned it into a tourist attraction by planting gardens and installing statues of gnomes along the trail to the Lovers’ Leap rock at the top. Other attractions added include the Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village. Because Rock City was distant from regular tourist routes, Carter sent a painter out along the nation’s highways, offering to paint farmers’ barns in return for letting him paint the words “See Rock City” on them. Some half-million tourists now visit Rock City each year.
Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. To learn more, visit digitalheritage. org. You may also hear Digital Heritage Moments each weekday on radio stations WKSF-FM, WWCU-FM, WMXF-AM, WPEK-AM and WWNC-AM.
