Buffalo, White Deer and Rock City

ne of the attractions at Rock City is the White Fallow Deer. Sequoyah Caverns is another nearby attraction to feature these animals. Sequoyah Caverns has been mentioned in this blog often because of Clark Byers, the original Rock City barn painter. When he retired from Rock City, he opened up the Caverns commercially in the late 1960's he painted a few barns for them, also. This barn is one example.



Time has not been kind to this barn as it looks like it is slowly starting to crumble, but it probably has at least a decade left. At one time it was a Rock City barn and some of those letters show through. The original message is:

SEE 7 STATES
from
ROCK CITY

Due to its close proximity to Sequoyah Caverns, the message was changed to:

BUFFALO
WHITE DEER

To the left of these words was a large red outlined-in-white arrow pointing to the left. The metal roof on the far left has been replaced within the last 10 years.

This barn is visible when traveling northbound on Interstate 59 in Dekalb Co., Al. County Road 731 runs just behind this barn, then crosses over the interstate here. There is not an interstate exit here, but if you follow the signs, you would take the next exit, and then back-track for about 5 miles on U.S. 11 until you get to this barn, which was featured on this blog earlier:



This marks the turn onto CR-731, which then crosses over the interstate and behind the barn and you're a few hundred feet from the entrance. This is the back of the barn.



Oddly enough, I saw the back of this barn a couple of months before I saw the front. I thought an important barn was here and I kept trying to read any painted words on this back side. There's probably nothing here and you can't see this side from the interstate.

White fallow deer is an interesting similarity between the two attractions, however the ones at Rock City are more famous, as evidenced by this post card from 1939:



These days, you're not allowed to get this close to them, but you view them from above, such as in this picture:



Sequoyah Caverns still has white deer, but must not have any buffalo any more. The Ellis family, which owns the Caverns also maintain a working farm. They also have horses, goats and sheep.



This is the second barn I've featured which used to be a Rock City barn and was repainted with an ad for another tourist attraction. The other is this Ruby Falls Barn in Tennessee.
In the Jenkins book on page 131-F.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 34.656823o N \ -85.605893o W