See Rock City

Goodbye...Tell Your Friends...

2011-06-20T01:46:00.002-05:00

GOODBYE
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT
ROCK CITY

It is quite possible this is the only Rock City Barn that doesn't tell you to "See" Rock City. That's because it hopes you've already been there. It is also on a highway going away from Chattanooga, as it is along I-24 heading west towards Nashville.

This is a barn that eluded me for a while. After I first heard about it several years ago, the next couple of times I drove though here were at night when you can't see it. After that, one day I passed through here in the daytime and wasn't thinking about it and the next thing I knew I passed it after seeing it in the corner of my eye. If you go looking for it you see it without much advance notice. Even then, what are you going to do? be the passenger in the car and get it as a drive-by? That works sometimes, but the interstates guard-rail might get in the way even if it turns out halfway decent. That, or you can park on the shoulder on a winding, always busy spot on the interstate.

The best way to get a good view is by finding the rural street that goes right by the barn. So, then on my first attempt, I took exit 158 and drove around the area aimlessly with no luck. Since then, I have gotten a GPS and found Shellmound Rd. which took me right up to the barn! (Bonus hint: Drive a little farther down Shellmound Rd and when it crosses the other lanes of the interstate, you can see a Ruby Falls barn!)

On OhioBarns.com, this is known as RCB# 42-56-01.
In the Jenkins book, it gets a full page photo on page 125.
In the Capps book, it is barn #8, the Elsie Turner barn.
See it on a map HERE.

It is sad to say, but the title of this post has a double meaning. If you have been a regular reader of this blog, then you have seen I have not been posting regularly. Since I first picked up a digital camera, the Rock City barns have continued to be my first love. However, since then I have branched out to things like County Courthouses, trains, old motels and other neon sings, etc.

As of now, I must say Goodbye to this blog. I will keep it up but not add anything to it. Instead, I have a new website and blog devoted not only to the Barns but the other things I listed above.

My new website is SeeMidTN.com and if you're interested in the most recent posts about the Rock City Barns, keep reading here!

Remember when...?

2009-01-25T22:54:00.003-06:00

emember When Every Barn Had Its SEE ROCK CITY Sign? This was the title of a magazine article written over 35 years ago that I recently came across. The article, written by Maxine Thompson and published in Georgia magazine in 1973, talked about the changes evident along the highways in the 8 years since the Johnson 1965 Highway Beautification Act. In a few short years, southern tourism changed dramatically, from it's heydey in the 40's and 50's. If the Interstates were going to bypass the entrances to all of the tourist attractions, you needed to have a really good sign to bring people in. But then, after the Act was passed, many signs had to be removed. Here's one that still remains today:

SEE

ROCK

CITY

Today

One of the best places to see these barns still intact today is in DeKalb County in Alabama, along U.S. Highway 11. US11 is one of the prominent U.S. Highways in America and this important stretch runs from Birmingham to Chattanooga. Many of thome miles is in the narrow valley between Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain. Today, most motorists take Interstate 59, which parallels US11 very closely. So close, that the other barn in the picture is a painted advertisement for them, with an ad for Ruby Falls.

From the 1973 article,

"Don't Ride over one of these roads when you're in a hurry. Take time to browse, to read the faded old signs on the barns. One of these days the last one of them will complete its crumble into decay. When that happens, a segment of history will fade away."

Still so true this many years later!

On Ohiobarns.com, this is desgnated as #RCB 01-25-04.

In the Jenkins Book, it is on page 81F, and very faded.

To see it on a map, Click Here.

Lat & Lon: 34.67295oN \ 85.587412oW

Christmas Barn at Cal Turner's Farm

2007-12-17T04:06:00.000-06:00

hristmas-time has brought a new tradition to those who travel down Franklin Road (U.S. 31) in Brentwood, TN (which is a suburb of Nashville). As a traveler, the stream of fancy businesses turns into newer mansions, and then appearing is a wide-open space that looks like it has been preserved in time. From behind a small hill and a green fence emerge an old barn with a mural of the star of Bethlehem giving light to several barnyard animals.

Everything I have written on this blog to date has been for barns with advertisements painted on the barn. This one is different. Nothing is being advertised, but instead, the season is celebrated. The barn isn't painted, but instead, a 400-pound mural is carefully unwrapped and placed on this barn every December. After Christmas has passed, The mural is carefully taken down and put into storage not to be seen for another 11 months.

The farm now belongs to the Turner family. Cal Turner, Sr. was the founder of the Dollar General. Cal Jr. succeeded Sr. as president of the company but also has taken over the farm. Brentwood, like many cities has seen much growth over the decades, and many of the rural areas around the farm aren't rural anymore. Many real estate developers are anxiously waiting for the day this prime land can be turned into more mansions, or maybe even more retail stores. But for now, it's remains a farm and the 60 year old barn serves as a reminder as what life was like in the area decades ago.

The 48' x 38' over-sized Christmas card was first seen in 1996. Turner Jr. commissioned local art-teacher Chris Tibbot to paint the mural. However, the art is not going to last forever. The painting is fragile since it is exposed to the elements. in years past, they had decided that they couldn't put it up anymore. So far, though, they think it can make it one more winter. This might be the last year it is shown or maybe next year, they'll bring it out for the last time again. Even the barn has become a concern. It was built in the 1940's, but over the years, it has slowly deteriorated to the point where now it's not used for anything other than the yearly display. A fierce storm came through this year that uprooted some of the nearby trees, but the barn held on.

Other things of note from the barn. On the left is a portable light which will illuminate the barn some nights during the season. The animals in the painting are sheep and donkeys and one white Charolais cow, which used to bred on this farm and were known as "Cal's cows." The large radio tower which is about a mile away is the signal tower for WSM 650 AM, the legendary station which has been the "home of the Grand Old Opry." At the time of the tower's construction in the 1930's it was called the tallest radio tower in the world. I'd like to get a picture at night, but so far, the light hasn't been on any time I've driven by.

See it on the map HERE. If you live in the area and are thinking about seeing it for yourself, this really could be the last year it's up, and they could take it down the day after Christmas.

Changes and Preservation

2007-12-03T02:21:00.000-06:00

hange happens. People move from the country to the city. Companies go out of business. Industries become less important. Traffic patterns change. Highways get more traffic than they can handle. In the case of Brown County, Ohio, two U.S. Highways change their route. Left behind is a Rock City barn that hasn't been updated in decades.

SEE
7 STATES
FROM
ROCK CITY
Near
...............Chattaooga
.....................................Tenn.

At some point, It was decided that since both U.S. Highways 62 and 68 are both going to Ripley, that they should be merged together and form one bigger highway to accommodate the rising traffic demands of both. A couple miles north of the town square in Georgetown, OH, U.S. 68 is routed to the east of town. Several miles down the road, it multiplexes with U.S. 62 and heads towards Ripley, OH. When it was just U.S. 62, the highway ran strait into Ripley and became Main St. However, with the increased traffic, the new highway runs mostly parallel with the old one and gets to Ripley a couple thousand feet on the east side. I am not sure when the change was made, but the oldest map I have of the area, made in 1966, doesn't reflect the update.

What do you see, when you drive the old main street out of Ripley along this once important road, but is now nothing more than a residential street? There's a run down vacant hotel. You see an abandoned gas station. It's mostly houses. The area is too hilly to have any kind of farmland, yet there is a barn. Perhaps a petter description would be a shed. This is the view you get when coming from the south. (The first thing you'd notice about this barn is the quilt pattern.)

This barn is big enough for a good lawnmower. The land it's on isn't even flat. If you look closely at the first picture, the front center support as well as the front right corner is held up by a stack of rocks! It makes me wonder if the right half of this barn is even usable for anything.

Even more curious is something that made me take a second look when I was re-examining the pictures at home. The word Chattanooga is misspelled! The "n" is missing. The word there is Chattaooga. Is this a mistake? Quite possible, but you can't quite assume that either. There were stories of one of the Mail Pouch Tobacco barn painters who would intentionally misspell a word. He would wait to hear from the corporate office to see if any of the locals was paying attention and report the mistake. When the misspelling was (usually) reported, the painter would revisit the barn and repaint the word to correct it. Did that happen here? I don't know. Maybe "Chattanooga" wouldn't fit in the allotted space.

One final view of the barn to share is this view. When traveling southbound on old U.S. 62, this is the first look at the barn you'd get along the windy and hilly road. The top of the barn comes directly into view strait ahead. Then you drive over the top and the road veers to the left.

On OhioBarns.com, this is designated as #RCB 35-08-01.
In the Jenkins book, this is on page 81 (in the book in the 1995 picture, the weeds were so tall in front of the opening to the barn, it was probably difficult to get the mower out.)
To see it on a map, click Here.
Lat & Lon: 38 46.05oN \ 83 48.96oW

Ohio Bicentennial Barns #1

2007-11-01T21:30:00.000-05:00

o commemorate Ohio's 200th year of statehood, they commissioned an Ohio Bientennial Barn project. For this project, a barn in each of Ohio's 88 counties as selected to have the bicentennial logo painted on it. Scott Hagan was the official logo painter, and painted the logo in every county, including this barn in Brown County.

The original official website to Chronicle this project, Ohio200.com is no longer active. However, a great website OhioBarns.com details each of the barns that was painted as part of the celebration. With this program, and more Mail Pouch Tobacco barns located there than any other state, Ohio likely has more painted ad barns than any other state.

This barn is located in southeast of the town of Ripley, OH along the Ohio River Scenic Byway (which is also the multiplex of U.S. 52, U.S. 62 and U.S. 68).

On Ohiobarns.com, this barn is listed HERE.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 38.7237oN / -83.8288oW

The Well-worn Barn in Spencer, TN

2007-10-30T14:43:00.000-05:00

ecently, my wife and I took a weekend excursion to see Fall Creek Falls. I wasn't expecting to see any Rock City barns that I hadn't seen before, mostly because I have driven through many of Middle Tennessee's backroads already. However, in the tiny town of Spencer, TN was this Rock City barn that has been worn to the point that the painted words are almost illegible. My wife looks at this picture and still doesn't believe it says anything. When the image is viewed full-size, some of the letters become barely visible.

SEE 7 STATES
FROM
ROCK CITY

That's the text I can make from this picture. Traditionally, "atop LOOKOUT MT." would be at the bottom level of the barn, but the barn is just too worn down to tell.

There's not much to do in Spencer, TN. Unless a person lives here, there's a rather good chance that most people here are driving on their way through to Fall Creek Falls State Park, like me. For a long time, there was only one highway into town, TN30. from the west, it starts at the road to McMinnville, winds its was up the mountain into Spencer, winds its way down into a valley and then back up to the top of another mountain up to the entrance to Fall Creek Falls. More recently, TN111, a newer strait 2-lane divided highway, was built through the town. Many people who go see the falls and are coming from the west now use TN111.

Spencer is the county seat of Van Buren County and is perhaps the smallest county seat in the state with a population just above 1,700. I was hoping to find a place to eat in Spencer, but did not see hardly any business at all. The old county courthouse is small and simple.

It shouldn't be a surprise that there are Rock City barns on TN30, signs advertising a tourist spot should be where the tourists are at. From here, you are less than 2 hours from Rock City. This barn is just a few hundred feet east of the intersection on-ramps of TN111. The nearest side street is Turkey Scratch Rd.

See it on a map HERE.

Fuston's Discount Variety Store

2007-07-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

FUSTON'S DISCOUNT
VARIETY STORE
"ENOUGH SAID"
MANCHESTER HIGHWAY
WOODBURY, TENNESSEE

As you can see, the top lines are on a background of black, with the letters in white with a dark red shadow, with the bottom lines white in a dark red round-cornered rectangle.

This barn is located on Highway TN145, which is the quiet country road in Cannon County that runs from Woodbury to Auburntown. This painted advertisement barn, with roosters running around is located somewhere between the unincorporated towns of Brysonville and Hardscrabble. It's not far from a pretty neat goat farm.

I'm not sure, but I think I saw another barn for these people on US70 (not 70S) near Dowelltown. It would have been an ad for their second location in Smithville, TN.

I can't find any store named Fuston's Discount Variety Store, but there is a Fuston's Antiques. Best I can tell, this is a new location or a new retail business from the same owner or family. Fuston's Antiques of Woodbury is located on Main St., which is U.S. Highway 70S, across the street from the Cannon County Courthouse.

Manchester Highway would be highway TN53, as it runs from Woodbury's city square to Manchester, the county seat of Coffee County. However, this highway is not labeled as the Manchester Highway anymore. In town, it is South McCrary St. and further from town it is the Jim Cummings Highway. Jim Cummings was a highly influential state senator and congressman from the late 1920's through the early 70's. The Manchester highway was renamed for him soon after his death in 1979. This likely means the barn was first painted 30 years ago or more.

See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.975329oN & -86.875329oW

A Very Faded Rock City barn on 31W

2007-07-09T04:04:00.000-05:00

ometimes you can tell it's coming. When I drive down a major country highway like this, I always have a tendency to look behind me at every prime location of a barn we pass just to make sure I am not missing anything. Occasionally, I say to my wife, "That would make a good one" when I see a barn with a big side facing oncoming traffic. My wife humors me and nods. I noticed the huge roof on the north side of this barn, which make for the perfect sign for southbound traffic.

The words I can definitely read say:

SEE BEAUTIFUL
ROCK CITY
LOOKOUT MT.
Chattanooga, Tenn.

Although I can't see it, usually there's an "Atop" before Lookout Mt. and a "near" before Chattanooga, Tenn.

My wife and I were driving North from Nashville to Louisville and we both like country driving instead of the interstates if time permits. One good section of highway we'd never taken was U.S. Highway 31W north of Cave City, Ky into Louisville. In the past, we had driven 31W from Cave City to Bowling Green as there are some other Rock City barns along that drive.

Most drives between two big cities have one major U.S. highway, but Nashville to Louisville have 2: 31E and 31W. Both are very old routes. 31E goes by Lincoln's Birthplace as Lincoln's parents and siblings lived along that route which many decades later became 31E. Dixie Highway, which was the major tourism route from Chicago to Miami in the dawn of auto travel in the 1920's in this area has become 31W.

Since we were driving North, if we were to spot a Rock City ad, we'd have to turn around to see it as they would only be useful for people going in the right direction. Most Rock City barns I know about before we get to it, based on other people's pictures online. There's also the most thorough collection in the Rock City Barns book by David Jenkins. However, if a barn appears in that book from about 12 years ago and it doesn't appear in someone's online collection, that often means it's gone. In this case, it just means that nobody else had spotted it and put it online.

This barn is in Hardin County, KY, but 31W through here serves as the border between Hardin and Larue counties. I-65 runs very close to 31W through here and can be seen not far away. This barn is about a mile south of the intersection with KY Highway 84.

In the Jenkins Book, this barn is on page 144-D
See it on a map Here.
Lat & Lon: 37.507419oN \ -85.882804oW

6 Miles to Frisch's Big Boy

2007-07-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

One of the more scenic drives out of Downtown Cincinnati is to drive east on U.S. Highway 52. This starts as Pete Rose Way by the Great American Ballpark, but becomes the Ohio River Scenic Byway, which is one of 99 National Scenic Byways designated by the U.S Department of Transportation. At one point, the road is known as Kellogg Rd., and a highlight is the famous Coney Island which opened as a theme park in 1887.

At some point, the highway needed to be widened and a large portion of U.S. 52 east of I-275 became a four-lane divided highway. Despite the widening, small stretches of the Old Kellogg Rd. still exist. On one of these stretches, just west of Eight Mile Road, hiding in the overgrowth is this barn painted to tell you how far Frisch's Big Boy Restaurant is.

Frisch's
6 MILES TO Frisch's
BIG BOY
DRIVE IN RESTAURANT
& COFFEE SHOP

The New Highway is literally 25 feet to the right of this barn. For whatever reason, the paint that has survived the best is under the beam in the middle and the white 6, outlined in black in the red circle has remained well, except for the wood that has been replaced.

Frisch's Big Boy is a chain of Drive-Ins with over 100 locations surrounding the first one in Cincinnati. Their signature advertising landmark is the boy statue at most of the locations. The boy, wearing red and white checkerboard overalls holds a round tray with a Big Boy, a double-decker burger. The specific Frisch's advertised here is still open in New Richmond, Oh.

There were several different Big Boy Franchisees around the country, such as Bob's, Kip's, Marc's, JB's and Eat N' Park. Out of all of these, only Frisch's kept the Big Boy name. Locally, I remember eating at a Big Boy when I was young as the regional franchisee was Shoney's Big Boy. In 1984, Shoney's dropped the Big Boy name but kept a similar menu so they could expand more throughout the south.

This stretch of old highway, which is currently a dead-end street is being considered for a bike trail. More info Here.
This barn is listed on OhioBarns.com as Advertising Barn #AdB35-31. The picture shown there was taken in the winter, making it possible to see all of the words.
The barn also appears on page 97 in the Simmonds book.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 39.035793oN \ -84.337387oW

Old Rock City barn near Readyville, TN

2007-06-30T22:54:00.000-05:00

Although you can't tell by looking at it, this used to be a Rock City barn, according to the David Jenkins book. It appears on page 156C.

This road is now called Murfreesboro Road, but it is also Old U.S. 70. This used to be the main road between Murfreesboro and Woodbury, TN. It is located in Cannon County about a mile east of Readyville.

When this was still the main highway, this barn was a great location for an advertisement barn. The road goes uphill and the top of this barn is seen not too far in the distance directly in front of street before it curves to the left of the barn. The large roof of the barn is directly facing the street before the curve, making a message there easy to read for passing motorists.

The Current U.S. 70 runs parallel to this street about a mile away. Like most of the newer highways, The John Bragg Hwy is a straiter four-lane divided highway. This four-lane widening project for the 18 miles from Woodbury to Murfreesboro took place in the early 1990's.

This stretch of Old highway has been a road for many years. In 1806, it was developed as the Stone's River road, then in 1811 it was the Old Stage Road. In the 1850's it was developed as the Murfreesboro-Woodbury Turnpike. Finally, it became U.S. 70S in 1923-24. In Readyville, there is an old Grist mill, built in 1829 which is still standing and on the National Register of historic places.

See the barn on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.818374oN \ -86.157516oW

Update: Stay on TN58 and See...

2007-06-08T23:26:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to revisit a barn I have discussed before and this time it was different. The new photo is shown first and the older picture is next.

The difference is the presence of the words ROCK CITY and the bottom of the triangle on the TN58 sign. This must be some kind of door or removable door covering that was open the first time I drove through.

Some Rock City Barns are tough to see

2007-05-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

hen driving down the highway, there are countless things that you can't see that used to be in plain sight of everybody. These changes aren't necessarily by design. Landscapes change. Trees are planted. Farmland ceases to be harvested. Kudzu moves in. Overgrowth is unmaintained. There are lots of things that you could see decades ago, but for various reasons are hidden today. This Rock City barn is one of them.

Thanks to my resources, I knew exactly where this barn was. I couldn't see it. I was driving west of Crossville, TN along highway TN68 and I passed it. I turned around here in the Grassy Cove community and could make out a small portion of that barn I was searching for. I pulled over on the shoulder and I'm not sure how anyone would see the advertisement for Rock City anymore. The barn was rather close to the street and it was located at a bend in the road with the words at eye level. Decades ago, before all the trees and overgrowth obscured the view, this was an ideal ad placement. Perhaps in the winter, when all the leaves are gone, you can still make it out.

My map showed a small street at this location. I didn't drive all this way to miss seeing it. I drove the car down a small incline onto a dirt road (using road in the loosest sense of the word.) I had come closer because now I had a clear view of the unpainted side of the barn with its rusty tin roof.

I really don't want to trespass on anybody's land. (for their sake, and my own - I don't want to startle a farmer and certainly don't want to be chased by a farmer with a rifle.) There was a road. It didn't look like it goes anywhere, but it's a road. There's also a fence. I can get to the other side, the painted side, by walking the road and not crossing the fence. It was worth it.

When You See
ROCK CITY
You See The Best

It certainly looks like this barn has been maintained. I suppose it really is visible in the winter months when there are no leaves.

On Ohiobarns.com, this is designated as #RCB 42-18-02. If you compare my picture to the one here, which is three years older, it does seem as if this barn has been repainted at some point. I don't know if that photographer went further down the dirt road or could see it from the street.

In the Capps book, this is known as barn #27, the "George Kemmer" barn. Included in the book is a tiny picture taken by a Rock City barn painter after it was painted. The picture was taken from the street when there were no trees or overgrowth blocking the view.

In the Jenkins book, this is on page 149-E.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.849252oN \ -84.918357oW 1018

Millions have seen this Rock City Barn

2007-05-20T00:51:00.000-05:00

f you put up an advertisement, you'd naturally want to put it in a place where many people would see it. In the days before interstates, this would usually be the heavily traveled US highways, which is one reasons why most of the Rock City Barns appear alongside one. Today, Most people use the interstate, and there are a small number of these Rock City barns visible from one. This one is along I-40 between Nashville and Knoxville in Roane County.

Millions Have Seen
ROCK CITY
Have You ?

Interstate 40 is one of the most important and heavily traveled freeways in the country. It is one of a few that nearly reaches from coast to coast in the country. Plus, Millions of motorists drive through this area every year.

This specific barn's message is visible when traveling eastbound near mile marker 358. This is seen just moments after crossing a local road, Buttermilk Road, that this barn is located on. It is located East of Kingston, TN and between Exit 356, which is TN58 north to Oak Ridge and exit 360, which is the access to Buttermilk Road and the Bradbury community. If you take the Buttermilk Road exit and drive to the barn, this is a view you get right until you cross underneath the Interstate.

Unfortunately, there is not a view from the road where the smaller barn does not partially obstruct the view. This barn with its message and oversized question mark is used to store hay and cure tobacco.

For me, the real amazement, was the other side, which had an unmaintained for years Ruby Falls advertisement. Sometimes, it seems like the Ruby Falls advertisement crew had a "Anything you can do, I can do sometimes" mindset. I have seen other instances of Ruby Falls signs being on the other side of a Rock City barn, or even a Rock City barn being repainted as Ruby Falls. However, these days, just a few, if any, of their barns get repainted.

RUBY
FALLS
Lookout Mt. Chattanooga

Although the paint looks like rust upon a metal roof, it might not be that simple. Of course, if that is all it was, the color of the paint would actually be their "Ruby" color which would fall somewhere between a Deep Red to a pink. However, traditionally, their ads are not just words on a blank or unpainted background. Usually, between the background and the words, one was colored Ruby and the other Turquoise. If anything was kept white, it would be the text on a ruby or turquoise background. There are a couple of reasons why it might not appear this way, such as one paint chips easy or rusts in a different way.

One reason why this barn wouldn't be maintained is you can't actually see this side from the interstate! (Unless you could catch it at a sharp angle through the trees.) You'd have to be traveling along Buttermilk Road to see this, and that road doesn't really go anywhere, except for highway US 70 which is a couple of miles up the road.

On Ohiobarns.com this is designated #RCB 42-73-02. From their picture, which is 4 years older than mine, you can tell it's been repainted in the interim.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.8612oN \ -84.4057oW
In the Capps book, this is #15, the Malinda Eblen barn.
In The Jenkins book, this appears as a color photo on page 65. This photo from the mid 90's also was taken after a repaint and appears on the Rock City website HERE.

Tray featuring Jim Harrison's artwork

2007-05-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

Here is a tray published by Rock City in 1998.

According to the text on the back of the tray describing this painting:
The original painting, oil on Canvas, by Jim Harrison was destroyed in a fire. More of Jim's work, along with this "Rock City" barn can be found in the book His World Remembered. Jim Harrison, born in Leslie Georgia, lives in Denmark South Carolina, his hometown since childhood, where his gallery is located in an old store front on main street.

Here's the back of the tray if you would like to read the rest.

Here is his book, which was published in 1982, but is now out of print.

The original Rock City painting from 1975 was reproduced with 1500 serial numbered copies and sold for $40. If you can find a copy now, it would sell for approx. $425. This tray, which measures 17.5" x 13" is available on Jim Harrison's website for $15.

Jim Harrison specializes in rural scenes, especially images of vintage coca-cola advertising. Check him and his artwork out at his website.
961

Double Cola barn along River Road.

2007-04-02T01:51:00.000-05:00

As someone who enjoys photography, there are times that I will be going somewhere without my camera and see something I really wish I could photograph. If it is within relatively close driving range from home, it stays fresh on mind until I have a free weekend to go back and visit the place. Such an event happened recently. My wife and I were driving to Ashland City, TN. I brought my camera, but left its memory card at home. Last Friday, the weather was perfect; I had my chance. The scene is perfect: A barn with character, reflecting on a pond on a beautiful Spring day.

Tennessee Highway 249 runs between Pegram and Ashland City in Cheatham County. This segment of TN249 is along River Road, which is a scenic drive that runs parallel to the south side of the Cumberland River from West Nashville to Ashland City. At the spot the above photo was taken, I could turn around and see the river about 2000 feet away.

The origins of Double Cola go back to 1922 when businessmen from Chattanooga launched their first soda as the Good Grape Company. Two years later, they change their name to the Seminole Flavor Company and launch Marvel Cola, which is soon renamed Jumbo Cola. In 1933, the cola was sold in 12 ounce bottles, which was roughly twice the size of other available colas at the same price, and "Double Cola" became the flagship product. Since then, they have added more products, such as the popular Ski citrus soda and the Jumbo line of fruit sodas.

In this close-up of the Double Cola as, you may be able to tell that this is a large metal sign affixed to the barn and not painted directly onto the barn. I would estimate the sign being made in the 1960s. What I don't know is if that is the original location of the advertisement sign, or if the barn owner bought it somewhere else and moved it here. The main message is Drink Double Cola with the slogan of Get a BIG Lift! The hand is holding the Double Cola bottle, and around the logo are the words: Double Measure, Double Pleasure.

From its beginnings, the distribution region of the country steadily grew all over the southern and then Midwest United States. However, it is difficult to stay competitive against the soda giants, and they have withdrawn from markets. I haven't gone looking for their brands all over Cheatham County, but I have never seen them for sale in my own Davidson County, which borders Cheatham to the east. I've seen it available at a couple of places in Rutherford County, but the Double Cola headquarters is just a couple of hours away in Chattanooga and their primary bottler is in Huntsville.

See it on a map HERE.
This photo was highlighted on the Nashville is Talking blog.

A Rock City Ceramic Plate

2007-03-05T02:17:00.000-06:00

Ceramic Plates are not my specialty. This is the first one for me to own. I am not very good at determining the age of this collectible, but if I were to guess, I'd put it in the 1950's based on the 6 pictures.

Starting at the top and working clockwise:
1) Lovers leap. This was designed before today's higher guard rails. When rock city was first opened commercially in the 1930's, the stone guard rail wasn't even there - the brave just walked close to the edge of the cliff.

2) Swing-along bridge - Scaring many for years. You can opt to transverse the ravine on a stone bridge, which is where you'd be standing to get this view. Many industrial buildings of Chattanooga are in the background.

3) 1000 Ton Balanced Rock

4) See Seven States marker overlooking the Chattanooga Valley

5) Most pertinent to me is the replica of a rock city barn. That is a standard message, so I don't know if this is a replica of an actual barn, or if it was drawn specifically for the plate design.

6) The See Rock City hot air balloon. This is new to me. I assume they had one at some point to be depicted here. I would like to know more about it, but I don't have any information about it. That is what I'd expect a 1940's era hot air balloon to look like.

Miniatures

2007-02-17T09:03:00.000-06:00

Here are some small Rock City barn collectibles that I have accumulated:

Porcelain figurine #1 has a tealight candle, cows, pigs (the first one is standing in a puddle) and trees (one of which is ready for autumn.)

Porcelain figurine #2 shows a birdhouse/barn with the path to the home.

This is wooden ornament is the second ornament in my collection, to go along with this one.

A Barn, Corn, and a state border irregularity

2007-01-07T23:32:00.000-06:00

They say you can see 7 states from Rock City. It's a claim that is highly debated, especially by geologists that say the curvature of the earth would prevent seeing Kentucky (or Virginia) across the entire state of Tennessee. This post focuses an unusual state border irregularity between Kentucky and Tennessee and this barn which is just a stones throw away on the Kentucky side:

SEE
BEAUTIFUL
ROCK CITY
ATOP LOOKOUT MT.

As you can tell, the primary crop here is corn. If Geddes, KY is on your map, that is where this barn is located. It's in Simpson Co. Ky. on highway U.S. 31W, one of the 2 primary routes from Louisville to Nashville. It's also south of Bowling Green, KY and Franklin, KY. The other side of the farm is lines with trees and on the other side of the trees is Interstate 65. If you were to take I-65 across the border to KY exit #2 and were to drive 1/4 of a mile, you'd be here. This barn is about 1 mile from the Tennessee state line, and if it weren't for an unusual border irregularity it would be closer to only 1/2 a mile from the state border. This border jag has an interesting history of its own.

The dotted yellow line is the state border. The red pushpin is the location of the barn pictured above. I-65 and US31W are the two primary highways here.

In the 1780's, in the early days of the country, Daniel Smith was hired by the state of Virginia to survey the border between them and North Carolina. At this time, Kentucky was part of the Virginia territory and Tennessee was part of North Carolina. When Smith's party reached this spot, the equipment began to malfunction and they stopped bearing due west. When they learned of their mistake, instead of backtracking, they compensated for the mistake by heading northwest until they were back on course at the correct latitude. Their survey was submitted like this and it was approved.

Several years passed and both states of Tennessee and Kentucky had come into existence, and it was the first time anyone noticed the jagged border. Both states claimed ownership of the land. Sanford Duncan was a prominent landowner, owning farmland through much of this area. He built a stagecoach inn in this land in 1819, and much of it still stands today. Three more surveying groups came to the area to again determine the state line, which wasn't fully settled until 1831. One version of the story goes that the third group of surveyors stayed at the Sanford Duncan Inn, and he wanted his land to stay in Kentucky. On the night they stayed, he filled them with whiskey and begged the land to remain at it was.

In the intervening years, it was difficult to determine who had jurisdiction over this area, known as Linkumpinch. This made the area popular for duels (and the Sanford Duncan Inn became the most popular place to stay). Dueling was illegal in both states, and willing participants would come here telling any law enforcement that the other state would have to intervene. The most famous one was in 1826 when Sam Houston (who had trained with a pre-president Andrew Jackson) defeated General William White. In 1827, a duel between two Clarksville, TN lawyers garnered so much bad publicity that both states finally came together to jointly enforce the rules here. To this day, anyone who takes public office in Kentucky has to, as part of their oath, promise to have never participated in or organized a duel.

In the 50's, on the same land, the Highway 31-W Drive-in Theater opened up, and is still there today. Across the street, in 1990 the Deuling Grounds Race Course opened up hope to lure Nashvillians who wanted to legally gamble, and bet on horses. The track has fallen on hard times but is also still around, now known as Kentucky Downs.

On OhioBarns.com, this barn is designated as RCB# 17-107-01, where you can see what the barn looks like, unobstructed by corn.
On Flickr, quillius has uploaded a photo of this barn taken about 2 months later. Here you can a portion of the metal roof about to fall off.
In the Jenkins book, it gets a full color photo on page 34.
For another interesting border irregularity, check this article on Bubbleland.
I'd like to plug this book "The Treasure Hunters Guide to Historic Middle Tennessee and South Central Kentucky" by Maude Gold Kiser. This is where I found a lot of the information on the Dueling Grounds area.
See the barn on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 36.657205 oN \ -86.555593 oW

How a Barn Changes in 20 years

2006-12-24T04:08:00.000-06:00

any Rock City barns haven't changed much over the years. It's true that a large percentage of the estimated 900 that were around during their glory years are gone. Barns, in general, aren't as necessary as they used to be. If a barn has collapsed, there may not be a need to build a replacement. However, the Rock City Barn owners are do what they can to preserve their barns even when the barn is not in service any more. In many cases, their owners will go to greater lengths to save their barns when a normal barn that is starting to crumble would be complete removed. Here, however, is a well-maintained barn that will hopefully be around for a long time.

SEE
7 STATES
FrOM
ROCK CITY
atop LOOKOUT MT.

Of curious note, the r in FrOM is not capitalized.

About 20 years ago, talented Americana artist Ray Day created a series of 4 paintings of advertising barns which were converted into collectible plates by Blue River Mill Publishing Company. The series was called as "Once Upon a Barn" and each plate was serially numbered to 5000. Barn #2 in the series was the same barn as shown above. Here is the plate:

The back has this inscription: This old barn was located along old Highway 31E, just south of Hodgenville, KY.

The other barns in the series are: 1) a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn in Nashville, IN. 3) a Meramec Caverns barn off I-65 in Uniontown, IN. 4) a Coca-Cola Barn in Park City, Ky. These barns are not for sale new any more, but you can see pictures of them on Ray Day's website HERE or learn more about his work in general HERE. These plates do occasionally appear on ebay, if you'd like one.

I am not certain how close to reality he was in his painting, meaning I am not sure if he took artistic liberties when painting this or if his intention was complete accuracy. The most notable difference is that now there is not a road that goes by the barn and passes it on the right. Since there is no road, there is no lining of it with trees and a fence. If those are windows on the left, they now appear to be gone, but the unpainted door on the right and the red roof have not changed.

Highway U.S. 31E is an old highway, being for many years the primary route between Nashville and Louisville. Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home at Knob Creek farm are not far from here and were located along this route, which was in use back then. Eventually, an alternate route was created, 31W which goes by the popular destinations near Mammoth Cave and Bowling Green. Both routes have remaining barns, many of which will eventually be featured in my blog. Interstate 65 has been built, cutting traffic for both routes. 31E still had enough traffic that a new street had to be paved, but the places this happens does closely parallel the old street, and I saw a few patches of the old heavily cracked and worn pavement. As seen from my photo, the newer highway runs 50 feet to the left of the barn.

About 10 years ago, the Kentucky Department of Tourism created a website and sponsored a small contest to find all of the Rock City barns that still survived in the state. The submissions were then converted to a brochure. You can't submit info any more, and the site hasn't been updated in years, but all of the old photos still remain, including one for this barn which you can see HERE. from that photo, you can see the trees which lined the old highway decades ago obscured the view a decade ago, but not now.

Another view, slightly newer than the last one, is from Ohiobarns, which lists this as #RCB 17-50-01
in The Jenkins Book, on page 114.
See it on a map HERE. It's in Hart County, just a couple of streets south of the Larue County line.
Lat & Lon: 37.4140 oN \ -85.7580 oW

Buffalo, White Deer and Rock City

2006-12-10T23:34:00.000-06:00

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

Merry Christmas

2006-12-04T05:11:00.000-06:00

The Rock City Christmas Ornament is exactly what I would expect. My wife put the tree up within the last week.

Proof that new Rock City barns get painted

2006-11-19T17:59:00.000-06:00

y now, you can tell that many of the older Rock City barns, have been abandoned, or simply not repainted. However, on occasion, the barn painters find a new barn to paint, and have a new message, as well. I am not aware of any other Rock City barns with just this message, however a small number of barns have been repainted with the www.seerockcity.com message added.

www.
SeeRockCity
.com

I'll admit that I am not fully happy with this photo, as it was completely cloudy that morning. I did something that I usually don't do much, and that is to tinker with the photo. Most of my basic image editing can be done in Picasa or MS Paint (don't laugh!), but on this one, I tried my best with Gimp and Photomatix (This is an HDR.) I really wanted the red of the horse trailer and the green of the grass to stand out. As an alternate, I also tried the same photo with giving it an "old timey" feel, and I'm torn between which version I like better.

In this version, I really upped the brightness, because I think that makes the paint job look fresh. In the first photo, you can tell where some of the paint has started to wear off, especially on the Y. Most vintage Rock City barn photos in the 40's show the barn just after it was painted. Clark Byers would take a photo of his freshly painted barn and send it to the Carter's, original owners of Rock City, as proof of the job. I also enjoy the irony, since this fake vintage feel would be an anachronism.

In case you were wondering, the small square sign next to the barn says, "FOR SALE QUARTER HORSES".

There's more. This same barn has the modern Rock City logo on the other end.

Here is a closeup of that logo:

This barn is in Dade County, Georgia, and the upper ridge of trees in the background of the first photo is lookout mountain. (that same ridge of trees has disappeared from the sepia photo because it was brightened.) This barn is in an unusual place, however. Highway U.S. 11 is the prominent street through the area, although there are stretches of the original "Old Birmingham Highway." In the small area of Wildwood, GA, just north of Trenton, is a turn off the Old highway, named Pope Creek Trail. Some maps may label this as County Road 111, but I saw no such designation while there.

This is too new for the Jenkins Book.
On OhioBarns.com, this has the designation of #RCB 10-41-01.
See it on a map, HERE.
Lat & Lon: 34.947913 oN \ -85.416158 oW

Being From the South...

2006-11-16T22:14:00.000-06:00

here was a time when Rock City barns were synonymous with traveling in the south. In their heyday, there were about 900 Rock City Barns, most of which were in the south, but they made it as far north as Michigan and as far west as Texas. With the number of Rock City barns currently maintained these days near 100, they are all in the south. When someone finds one of my pictures at random, their comment is usually something like: "When I was a child and we went to [fill in the blank], we would drive by a barn just like this one!"

SEE 7 STATES
FROM

ROCK CITY

atop LOOKOUT MT.

I was recently browsing a local thrift store, when I found this book: How to Love Yankees with a Clear Conscience by Bo Whaley. On the back cover, was a list, What Northerners should know about the South:
*How many fish are in a mess.
*What "pot likker" is.
*The sum total of forty 'leven dozen.
*The names of the entire cast of "The Andy Griffith Show."
*Where Rock City is.
Not too long ago, anyone who traveled in the south would know the answer is "atop Lookout Mtn. or near Chattanooga, Tenn."

This specific barn doesn't look like it is maintained any more. However, if you keep traveling north on U.S. 11 in DeKalb County, AL, you will find a couple of barns that are repainted just north of Ft. Payne. This specific barn is just north of the Etowah County line, just south of the small lovely town of Collinsville.

This is the first barn to appear in this blog that can be viewed using Microsoft's Local Live "Bird's eye view" which is close to what you'd see flying an airplane over U.S. 11. See it HERE.

On OhioBarns.com, this is designated as RCB 01-25-09
In the Jenkins book, a full page color photo on page 47.
Lat & Lon: 34.204899 oN \ -85.910017 oW

When is a Rock City Barn not a barn?

2006-11-15T02:48:00.000-06:00

t certain locations, the Rock City painters determined a different structure other than the barn made the best sign. While it is true that the barn is the structure that was painted most of the time, there were certain places where the silo was in a more visible location, such as the one shown here in Rutherford County. On this "Rock City Silo" the painted sign has faded and chipped so much that most people could not tell that this is an advertisement.

SEE
ROCK

CITY

TAKE U.S.

The people I have shown this photo to thus far did not see any of the painted letters at first, because both the white of the letters and the black of the background have both chipped. I strongly recommend clicking on the picture and pulling up the original size, or click HERE.

This Silo is located about a block outside of the vastly growing urban sprawl of Murfreesboro. When you drive along U.S. Highway 231 from Lebanon to Murfreesboro, this is the last farm you are going to see and will be on the right. It's located along at the intersection of the main highway and a tiny stretch of the "Old Lebanon Pike." If you follow the instructions, once you get to the heart of Murfreesboro, you should take a left on Broad St. which is U.S. 41 (and at that spot U.S. 70S before it splits).

In the Jenkins Book, this is on Page 153D.
See it on a Map HERE. It's across the street from a golf course.
Lat & Lon: 35.916786oN \ -86.384243oW

STAY ON TN58 and SEE...

2006-11-14T23:38:00.000-06:00

igh visibility of a bend in the highway makes this a prime location for a Rock City Barn. Then, add to that the thought of staying on the same road for another hundred miles, and you are there. This Rock City barn is on state highway TN58, just south of Kingston in Roane County, and runs all the way into downtown Chattanooga. From there staying on TN58 may be difficult, because it meets up with the multiplex of US11/US41/US64/US72, but the signs for Rock City are, of course, everywhere, and you can't miss it. South of downtown Chattanooga in the St. Elmo community, TN58 is one of the two primary routes to ascend Lookout Mountain. Known as "Ochs Highway", named for Adolph S. Ochs (who helped develop Point Park at the northern end of the mountain), the highway becomes GA157 at the state line and Red Riding Hood Trail takes you to the Rock City entrance.

STAY ON 58 TENN. and SEE
ROCK CITY

As you can tell, the ROCK CITY part is now missing. Something has happened to it in the last 10 years. (The bottom of the TN58 Triangle was part of this section, also.) I suppose that would be strange if you were driving this highway, and didn't know what to make of it. The 5 of 58 looks here like the paint has faded, but there is actually a mesh Christmas light in front of it. Also, some of the boards on the right appear to be loose. Here is an alternate view:

The last time I was at Rock City, I bought art of this barn on a magnet. The magnet style is now discontinued and was in the discount section of their store across the street. The art here is a painting from the Anita Armstrong Capps book, but cropped and condensed to fit on a 2"x2" magnet. I like how the road plays a prominent part in this painting, because the barn at the curvature in the road is what made this an ideal Rock City barn in the first place.

In the Jenkins Book, featured on page 150A.
On OhioBarns.com, is RCB42-73-03. The photo there is 4 years old and the part with ROCK CITY is still there.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.7821oN \ -84.5799o W

Has anyone ever painted Rock City on their own barn?

2006-10-25T02:34:00.000-05:00

ould someone who wanted a Rock City barn paint one of their own? North of Nashville, I believe I have found such a barn, located on a farm full of Nostalgia. This is what I believe to be a "Home-Made" Rock City barn:

There are several clues that this is not a "sanctioned" Rock City barn. (I don't think the Rock City people would mind the free advertising, but I don't think this was painted by their guys.) While most of their barns do say "SEE ROCK CITY", the big block lettering of this one just does not look like any of the other barns. It does look just like the style of one of their birdhouses, however. Also, the placement of this barn makes it an unlikely candidate to be officially painted. The Rock City guys find barns that are close to the highway, near the line of sight while driving. (one you would easily see while driving.) This one was up a hill, behind trees and about 400 feet from the street. Tennessee Highway 78 between Springfield and White House might not be well traveled enough by vacationers to be worthy of Rock City's advertising budget.

Many owners of Rock City barns do not want to sell their barns. Whether it reminds them of their past, or it makes them local celebrities in their hometown, they often do what they can to hold on to their barn. If you can't buy one, I suppose the next best thing to do would be to paint one of your own. If I ever have land with a barn. I suppose I will be buying some quality paint.

To photograph this barn, there was no margin in the street, and I pulled the car into the entrance of the owner's gravel driveway. From there, I could see several vintage advertisements: soft drink signs, metal Gas Station signs, and a row of Burma shave wooden signs. I also saw a building on the property with a sign saying "Antique Store."

These people would probably sell something I would want. I pulled the car up to the building and the property owner came up to my car asking if I needed help. I was informed that it's not an actual Antique store, they just have a sign for an antique store. I apologized for bothering them, but I do admit they have good taste in collectibles.

If you've never seen it, the classic Burma Shave advertising signs from the 1930's consisted of 6 signs places in a row along the highway. The first 5 usually formed a sentence with the last showing the Burma Shave logo, all of which have white on dark red colors. If you could see them all, this set would say: "EVERY SECOND" "WITHOUT FAIL" "SOME STORE" "RINGS UP" "ANOTHER SALE" "BurmaShave"

On OhioBarns.com, this is #RCB 42-74-02.
See it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 36.476636o N / -86.707578o W

The Rock City mileage brochure Dispenser

2006-10-24T21:59:00.000-05:00

Another unusual advertising method by the Rock City folks is the decades-old brochure dispenser:

The brochures are held in a form-fitting bin on the left. At the bottom, it says Free BROCHURES and MAPS TAKE ONE

The rest is shaped like a Rock City barn. At the top is a familiar saying: SEE ROCK CITY ATOP LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN

Below that are 4 windows. The contents of the windows are controlled by a dial on the right side. In the first window are an alphabetical list of many cities around the continent, most of which are in the Southeast U.S. Highlighted here is "Nashville, Tenn" Located above Nashville in this view are Milwaukee, Wisc., Mobile, Ala., Montgomery, Ala., Montreal, Que., and Murfreesboro, Tenn. After Nashville in the list are New Orleans, La., New York, N.Y., Norfolk, Va., Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Ocala, Fla.

In the second window is the mileage from the highlighted city in the first window to Rock City. Nashville is 171 Miles. Murfreesboro is 140. The third window is a cartoon drawing of Rocky the Rock City elf mascot, with the label Rocky invites you... In the final window, is a shrunken post card view of one of the sights at Rock City. This view is of the "Entrance to Rock City" and the label finishes the sentence to see this colorful preview of Beautiful ROCK CITY.

At the bottom is the overall description:
MILEAGE TO MAJOR CITIES
Compliments of Beautiful ROCK CITY

This specific one is at Sequoyah Caverns, another tourist attraction in the northeast corner of Alabama, which will be discussed in another post. I've seen others scattered around Chattanooga, but I wonder if there are any in Montreal.

See Beautiful Rock City TO-DAY

2006-10-02T04:50:00.000-05:00

ometimes the way a Rock City barn is painted these days is a little different than the way Clark Byers used to do it, and this barn is an example. Of note with this barn is the way that the word "today" was most recently painted in block letters, but it used to have a painted script.

SEE BEAUTIFUL

ROCK CITY

TO-DAY

This small tobacco barn is in Sevier County, TN, just west of Sevierville on Chapman Highway. This stretch of the highway is U.S 411 and U.S. 441 and the barn is located at the intersection of Garner Hollow Ln. Behind me when I took this photo is a small hill that many people choose to climb to get a higher vantage of this barn. If you look closely at the O in ROCK, someone has unfortunately added a bit of graffiti. The Barn was built in 1961 on farmland that has belonged to the Delozier family for over 60 years.

Here is a closer look at how the word TODAY used to appear, in a cursive slanted script. This photo is a closeup, and TODAY appears below the TY in CITY and to the right of the doorway blocked with wood. At one time, it must have been painted over in black, but the original white is barely showing through. Click the photo to enlarge.

Why is there a hyphen in the word TO-DAY? It has to make you wonder whether it was a simple oversight, the painter had space to fill, or perhaps for emphasis. The old Today had the TO connected cursively and the DAY also connected. (in other words, there was a small gap between the O and the D)In addition to the hidden "today," the original message had a slanted "Near" on the far left and a slanted "Chattanooga" over the word "Tenn." the the TO-DAY is now. Only the old today was cursive. It's not evident in either of these photos, but the CHA in the old Chattanooga is barely visible, also.

This is in the Jenkins Book on page 66. You can also see this same picture on the Rock City Website HERE.
On OhioBarns.com, this is RCB 42-78-03.
In the Capps book, chapter 36.
See it on a map HERE.
LAT 35o51'35.60" N / LON 83o43'27.11" W

What Does a Newer Rock City Barn Look Like?

2006-09-03T00:43:00.000-05:00

he Current Rock City barn painters repaint dozens of the older barns, yet also find newer barns to paint for the first time. Right now they maintain just fewer than 100 different barns. This one, pictured below, was painted for the first time within the last 10 years.

SEE 7 STATES from
ROCK CITY
Atop LOOKOUT MTN. Chattanooga Tenn.

231.5 Mi Via

Gravel Switch, KY

There are a couple of clues to distinguish this from some of the older repainted "Clark Byers" barns. First, you can tell by the painted "font", which you can really just get by comparing this to other barns. Second clue is the location. It used to be that all of the barns appeared on major highways, but the location of this barn is at the entrance of Maker's Mark Distillery, which is instead a tourist destination of its own.

The Maker's Mark people built their gristmill distillery in 1805, and is the oldest operating distillery still operational in the U.S. Located on their property include the original master distiller's house, an old toll house, a springhouse, an old fire engine house and a barrel warehouse. All of this is located in Loretto, Ky in Marion county.

This barn is too new to be included in the Jenkins Book.
On OhioBarns.com, it is designated as RCB 17-75-01.
In the Simmonds Book on Page 78.
In Some places, the background paint appears to me to have a greenish tint, but in person, at least when I visited was definitely black.
See its location on a map Here.
LAT 37.6475 / LON -85.3503

EDIT on 1/04/07
Here are two alternate views:
Lyle Canterbury has a view of this barn on his excellent website CountyRoadsPhoto.com. See it HERE.
Mark Abercrombie has also used spectacular effect on his photo of this barn which you can see HERE.

Wonder Cave barn

2006-09-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

This is a fading memory for a couple of reasons. First, the paint has worn off so much that you very easily could miss the sign. You might look at the photo and still not see it. Second, The tourist attraction advertised here went out of business about 20 years ago.

You'll have a tough time determining what this says, but I caught a glimpse of the word Wonder, did a U-turn in the street and went back to take another look. On rock city barns, a popular slogan is "World's 8th Wonder" and maybe that's why I even saw the word Wonder.

This is instead an old ad for Wonder Cave, which was at the base of the drive up Monteagle in Grundy County on Highway US 41 in a small town called Pelham. This metal barn is approx. 6 miles north of that. The cave was discovered in 1897 by a trio of Vandy students. It was used by moonshiners for a while. In 1900, it opened as a tourist destination when visitor boarded a flat bottom boat, which lasted until 1917. A few years later, an inn, which is now a bed and breakfast opened. With the opening of the interstate diverting traffic off highway 41, the cave has closed and opened to visitors several times.

If you are so inclined to try and find it on your own, see it on a map HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35.35894 N / 85.938374 W

The Rock City Barn I missed several times.

2006-08-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

here it is, right on the side of the interstate, on top of a hill. How could I miss it? The stretch of long-distance Interstate driving I am on more than any other is probably Interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga. If you are traveling Eastbound, right after exit 155, the Freeway splits as the Eastbound and westbound lanes separate for a short distance. If you are traveling westbound, the split starts right after you cross the Tennessee River (and Nickajack Lake) at Exit 158. There is a fireworks store between the lanes. I always wondered how someone would be lucky enough to get a store of any kind between lanes of an interstate. At this same spot, if you looked to your left, there used to be a Rock City Barn wishing you goodbye. Sadly, it has been removed in the past 10 years. Pictures of the Goodbye Barn are Here.

Let's move back to the split in the eastbound direction. The land of that area is used to display tractors and other various farming equipment for sale. There were probably 50 of them in nice rows. This caught my attention. It is difficult to take a good picture from a moving car. It's worse when you are on the interstate and on the passenger side looking at something on the left. It came out horribly blurry:

I did think it was neat how all the tractors were in the foreground with the See Ruby Falls extra-wide billboard was in the back. However, I was severely bummed that this picture didn't come out well. I couldn't wait for my next opportunity to try again, which came a few months later. It rained that day. Months later, I had another chance, and it was sunny. When we were about 30 seconds away, I took this test picture:

(Side note: the Ruby Falls billboard was repainted a different color.)
While I was getting ready to take my good shot, my wife asked, "what is that Rock City thing on top of the hill?" We pulled over and stopped the car.

SEE
ROCK CITY
today

This is Barn #10, the Joe D. Thomas Barn in the Capps Book.
This is on Page 159, top center in the Jenkins Book.
OhioBarns.com lists this as #RCB 42-56-02.
It is located in Marion County, and you can see it on a map here.
Lat & Lon: 35.043471 N / 85.609154 W

Crumbling barn with multiple advertisements

2006-08-26T17:31:00.000-05:00

ne dilapidated barn in Northwest Georgia is falling apart but still has four old advertisements on it. Three are visible in the first picture, with the 4th around the corner. Closeups will be available for each.

This barn is on U.S. Highway 11 just South of Trenton, GA in Dade County. Once this highway was a primary route between Chattanooga and Birmingham, but with Interstate 59 running parallel most of the way, it sees much less traffic, and there would be no incentive to maintain the ads.

First, on the left side of the barn, with a message facing northbound traffic was a small painting of the words "SEE ROCK CITY" except much of the black and white paint has chipped away. This portion of the barn is made of corrugated metal, and a strip of it on the left has fallen off, and has taken the R of Rock and the C of City with it.

Facing the street, the cracked sign which has been nailed onto the barn reads:

CRYSTAL CAVE
CHATTANOOGA'S BEST ATTRACTION
OR YOUR MONEY BACK

Crystal Cave in the early 1970's was renamed to Raccoon Mountain Caverns but they still retain the Crystal Cavern tour. To the right of the Cave sign is a metal gas station sign that has completely rusted and has become mostly obscured by greenery. If you recognize it, please help me out.

On the side of the barn visible to southbound traffic, the "See" of "See Rock City" is still visible. What I can't tell is if the barn has been rebuilt at one point, covering up the words "Rock City" or if the "Rock City" part was painted on the slanted side.

OhioBarns.com lists this as #RCB 10-41-02.
In the Jenkins Book, Page 136, Top Center.
See it on a map Here.

How far to New York or New Orleans on U.S. 11?

2006-08-25T23:23:00.000-05:00

his photo has become one of my favorite subjects, and is also one of the rare times that I have had a chance to go back and rephotograph something that I wish I had done better the first time. This barn is painted on both sides and also also has a roadfan element to it.

This barn is at the primary entrance and exit to Sequoyah Caverns in DeKalb County, Alabama. (I will write more about Sequoyah Caverns in a different blog post.) Upon leaving the Caverns, motorists are presented with a choice. Turn left and you are 877 Miles from New York, New York to the North, or turn right and you are 462 Miles from New Orleans, LA to the South.

To arrive at Sequoyah Caverns, signs point you onto U.S. Highway 11, and then onto County Road 731. Then, when your visit is done, you would get back on U.S. 11 with this barn at that intersection. U.S. 11 does go all the way from New Orleans to the U.S. / Canadian Border, north of Syracuse. (Ironically, it does not pass through New York City.) This highway was established in 1926 and follows much of the same route then as it does now, although it has been lengthened to 1645 total miles in 10 states.

The metal pole in the center is an actual pole, not painted. The small triangular JCT. sign at the top has been affixed onto the pole, just as the U.S. 11 Shield has been. The black "shadow" of the U.S. 11 shield was painted on the barn, just like the arrows. The U.S. 11 sheild's paint has worn down to the point that you can see it used to be a sign for Phillips 66 gas stations. The black paint looks to have worn off much faster than the white paint on the sign.

Did this used to be an advertisement for Phillips 66 gas stations? If so, at some point, they must have dropped their sponsorship and U.S. 11 was painted over the Phillips 66. This was my Original conclusion. However, now I think the painter was just looking for a metal sign that was the correct shape and found an old Phillips 66 sign and painted over it. This barn likely would not have been a Phillips 66 ad unless there was one in either direction, I would think.

The other side has been better maintained.

When you follow the signs to get to the caverns on U.S. 11, this marks the entrance off the main road to go less than a mile to the parking lot for the Caverns. The Portrait on the left, I would assume, is Sequoyah devising the Cherokee alphabet.

It has been a long time, if ever, that this has been used as a barn, as it is inaccessible, unless you cut through the tall grass and weeds. There is a small stream between me and the barn when I took the first photo. There is a line of trees on the south side and the street to its north, but now is slowly becoming "reclaimed by nature."

I had never really paid attention to Sequoyah Caverns until I had driven U.S. 11 in pursuit of some Rock City Barns, but after a chance to research it more, my wife and I made a point to see it soon thereafter. More of their advertising barns will be discussed later.

Read more about Sequoyah Caverns, Here.
See it on a map, plus its aerial image Here.
My original photo is Here:

See Ruby Falls on Interstate 24

2006-08-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

SEE RUBY FALLS
LOOKOUT MTN.

This wooden barn with a rusty and warped metal corrugated roof is along Interstate 24 with the same Cumberland Plateau that includes Monteagle in the background. The Ruby Falls barns have simpler messages than the Rock City Barns, but have a more complex Color Scheme. This uses their trademark colors of Ruby Red and Turquoise. The "Ruby Falls" is painted in Pink, but outlined in a darker red and white to give it a 3D look.

On Ohiobarns.com, is listed as #RFB 42-74-02 but is mislocated in Robertson County. It is really in Rutherford or Cannon county south of Murfreesboro, TN but north of Manchester.

See Ruby Falls and Meramec Caverns

2006-08-09T14:12:00.000-05:00

nce a Rock City barn, this has changed to advertise Ruby Falls and Meramec Caverns. If you live in the not-so-deep south, if you were to think of an advertising barn, you'd think of the many "See Rock City" barns that used to be all over the countryside. This barn used to be one of those. At some point, however, their rival barn-painting (albeit not so prolific) tourist trap from Lookout mountain were permitted to repaint this barn with a "See Ruby Falls" message in their colors of red and turquoise.

This barn is on U.S. Highway 41 right on your map where it says Noah, TN in Coffee County, just north of Manchester. With the construction of Interstate 24 about 40 years ago, this highway is less often used now. So this was probably painted before then, and would have been a rock city barn before that. Rock City Paint was some high quality mixture, and has been known to outlast many things. Is it possible that the ruby falls paint has chipped just enough that the Rock City white is beginning to show? I think you can make out the letters of Rock City along the bottom of this barn. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

SEE
RUBY FALLS

Now, on to the other side. Meramec Caverns is indeed along the Mother Road, the Old Route 66, so now think how long ago this was probably painted. The newer barns for Meramec Caverns tell you it's located off I-44. These ads are plentiful in Missouri, but many of the remaining painted barns in the south are for Rock City.

See Jessie James
Hideout
MERAMEC
CAVERNS
U.S. 66 STANTON, MO

OhioBarns.com lists this as #RFB 42-16-01 and #AdB 42-16-01

In the Jenkins Book: Page 71.
In the Simmons Book: Ruby Falls side, page 60-61; Meramec side, Back Cover and Page 67.
See it on a map here.
An alternate view from quillus is HERE.
Lat & Lon: 35o34'33.96" N / 86o11'31.68" W

See Rock City for $3.99

2006-08-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

This was one of my favorite items for sale in the Rock City gift shop.

This is exactly what it looks like. On the floor, it's a flower pot full of See Rock City Barn shaped birdhouse pencil-toppers on the floor of the Rock City gift shop. However, I bought one that was a Christmas Tree Ornament instead. They also have poofy hats that are shaped like this.

It Costs Less at Sterchi's

2006-08-07T14:49:00.000-05:00

Not all of my posts will be long-winded or even focus solely on Rock City Barns.

the barn reads:
It Costs Less at
Sterchi's
TO FURNISH YOUR HOME
(the last 4 words are on the right)

They probably can't help if you need to refurnish your barn after a tree falls upon it. I had never heard of Sterchi's Furniture store until this barn. I saw 2 of these in Lincoln County, TN. The other was on U.S. Highway 64. This one looked better. It's on U.S. Highway 231 just north of Fayetteville. I am not sure what color the barn was originally painted, but it is always nifty to see old painted metal barns where the old different paints rust into different colors.

The very approximate location on a map.

Crumbling Barn on U.S. 41A

2006-08-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

rumbling barns are not uncommon, but sometimes, they make me sad. You can see barns that are falling apart all over the place. Sometimes, it's because of heavy wind or other weather conditions, sometimes because the wood is rotting, and other times because they are too close to the road. Some barns are held up by one well reinforced side and some appear to be held up only by vines and the grace of God. Barns one day might become an Endangered species. Sure, they are common now, but today's farmers have less of a need to build new ones. Most of the barns we see these days are decades old, such as this one:

at one time, this said...(take my word for it.)

SEE BEAUTIFUL
ROCK CITY
atop LOOKOUT MT

This barn was built in 1918 by the same family that first bought the land in the 1830's and resides their today. Four score and seven years after its construction, I drove by. That was a year ago. It might not be there anymore. I'm not sure I want to find out.

This barn is located along Highway U.S. 41A (sometimes labeled on a map as Alt 41). It is south of the 31A / 41A split, and about 5 miles south of the small town of Eagleville, TN in Bedford County. If Rover, TN is on your map, that is a better approximation. The first picture was taken from Beasley Rd, which is just north of the Barn.

In the mid 90's, during its better days, this barn served as the cover of the Capps book: (and is also barn #16)

OhioBarns.com lists this as #RCB 42-02-01. (which has two additional photos one with less and one with more decay.)
In the Jenkins Book, page 154 top right
Here it is on a map.
Lat & Lon: 35o 40' 60 N / 86o 36' 26" W

See 7 States - along the old route

2006-08-05T22:05:00.000-05:00

his building was on the main road many decades ago, but now gets minimal traffic. In the dawn of car travel, the main highways winded their way from city to city. Since then, there has been a bigger emphasis on getting to your destination quicker. If it is an important route, an Interstate has been built to supplant the old highway. A highway that still gets significant traffic has been straightened, widened with more lanes and bypasses the town square or city center. Many people prefer it this way as the drive to where you're going is a necessary evil that should be as short a duration as possible. However, for me, and people like me: Half the fun is getting there.

Highway U.S. 27 is the route used to get from Cincinnati and Lexington to Chattanooga. Most people who would make this trip now would use Interstate 75. Still, there is significant traffic along U.S. 27 and in many places, the highway has been straightened and widened. Many Rock City Barns have been lost due to this process. However, a significant portion of the Old U.S. 27 has been redesignated as Ky 1247. Along this highway in Pulaski Co., between the town squares of Eubank and Somerset, you will find this old store bearing the See Rock City painted sign.

SEE 7 STATES from
ROCK CITY
NEAR CHATTANOOGA, TN

This appears to be an old convenience store whose best days are behind it and is slowly becoming "reclaimed by nature." The sign has obviously not been painted for decades. This would not really be a good location for an ad for a tourist destination nowadays as this area primarily only sees local traffic.

The bricks in the center of this side of the store are staring to fall off, showing the diagonal wooden frame. Even some of that wood is missing, also. Spray painted in white in the same area are the words ICE CREAM and COLD DRINKS. Although completely covered, there is a window to the left of the front door. You can still access the front door. Barely. The chimney is still barely visible at the back. There is even a small storage building behind the building. When painted, this still would have been white lettering upon a black background, but the white area rusted reddish while the black paints seems to only fade or chip away.

OhioBarns.com lists this as #RCB 17-100-1
In the Jenkins book on page 141 top left.
See it on a map here.
Lat & Lon: 37o12'48.11" N / 84o38'19.87" W

The Birdhouse Barn near Rock City

2006-08-04T14:31:00.000-05:00

ne Rock City barn can be seen from Rock City, but it hasn't always been there. One of the bigger draws to rock city is the claim you can see seven states from the Lover's Leap overlook. You are in Georgia, while Tennessee is not far to your left, while Alabama is just a few miles to the right. The Carolinas are many miles strait ahead, and it is debatable that you can actually see Kentucky or Virginia. If you look down, you will see the tops of trees down the side of the mountain until it gets to the flat area at the bottom. There are several fields while the Chattanooga Valley Highway (GA 193) runs parallel with Lookout Mountain.

The Rock City people have bought one of those fields, the one which appears in the top left corner in the picture below. Every year during the autumn season, they have a maze grown out of stalks of corn, which they call The Enchanted Maize. In that field is a rock city barn, which only looks like a white dot on a black speck in the first picture.

The sale of Rock City birdhouses have now complemented the painting of barns for their advertising. The concept was originated by the Barn painter Clark Byers who, along with his son, first painted this barn in the late 60's. It was originally located just off Interstate 75 in Dalton, Ga, however the overgrowth of trees made it difficult to see from the freeway, unless you stopped at just the right spot. (Here is an example photo of a birdhouse.)

Not too long ago, the church that owned the property decided to expand their building, but to do this, they needed the land where the barn was located. Before they could raise the barn, the Rock City people stepped in to preserve this one-of-a-kind and relocate it to where it stands today.

This second photo is a zoom in from the first picture's vantage point.

OhioBarns.com designates this as #RCB 10-155-01
(listed in Whitfield County here, but now is actually located in Walker County)
The Jenkins Book: page 119. The Picture from the book appears on the Rock City website. See it Here.
See it on a map HERE. You might notice in this overhead picture that the image "grown" in the field is the shape of the seven states listed in the sign from the first picture. If this overhead picture ever gets refreshed, it might be something else.

Here is one more picture in the old location. (the photographer likes putting his truck in pictures)
Here is a great photo in the new location of a kid walking through the maize with the barn in the background.
Lat & Lon: 34o58'42.28" N / 85o20'05.20" W

65 Miles to Rock City

2006-07-31T02:20:00.000-05:00

f you are looking for a bargain in August, you might spot this Rock City barn. The World's Longest Garage Sale occurs every year along U.S. Highway 127. With a distance of over 400 miles, the sale runs along the stretch of U.S. 127 from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, usually in the first weekend in August. If you have something to sell, there are many good places to do so along the route (preferably at one of the key stops along the way where there is a flat section along the side of the highway and not along one of the winding parts or in someone else's yard). If you are looking to buy, many people will drive from one end to the other. When you go, this is something you will see. Learn more from the Sale's website.

Located in Bledsoe County, this barn is about 8 miles north of Pikeville, the county seat. On your map, it will appear near the town of Ninemile, TN. This stretch of U.S. 127 has replaced the old William Howard Taft and Alvin York Highway (Old TN 28) in the Sequatchie Valley. This well-maintained barn has been owned by the Fields family for nearly 60 years. In the year since I took this picture and uploaded it to my Flickr.com account, the Flickr computers have calculated this as my "most interesting" Photo.

65 MILES

........to

ROCK CITY

OhioBarns.com designates this as #RCB-42-04-01 (In their 2003 photo, it hadn't been recently painted and it looked more run down.)
In the Jenkins book, it appears on page 30.
In the Capps book, it's barn #30.
In the Simmons Book, on Page 76.
You can see it on a map HERE.
Lat&Lon: 35o42'38.50"N / 85o06'25.74"W
My picture has been used HERE.
Another view taken in 2003 by "abone1" on Webshots

The First Rock City Barn - Nashville, Tn

2006-07-30T20:17:00.000-05:00

here should be no surprise that the first Rock City Barn I would look for would be the closest one to where I live. It's the only one in Davidson County, Tn (where Nashville is) but in a place I had never been. The Clarksville Highway, designated as U.S. Highway 41A, runs from Clarksville to Nashville through the Northwest side of the county. If you follow it long enough, 41A will take you up to Monteagle, where it merges with the original U.S. 41 and progresses to Chattanooga. The road is much less traveled now by long distance motorists as the highway runs parallel with Interstate 24.

The barn is just across the Cheatham County line, and would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. It is on the left side of the street if you are heading south, and there is a line of trees blocking the view of it, making it difficult to see until you are about to pass it. Obviously, the paint has faded as it has not been redone in years. Ironically, it is not located along the stretch of the "Old Clarksville Highway." Someone more familiar with the history of roads in the area may know when the newer stretch was developed.

.

SEE

7 STATES

from ROCK CITY

To see another view of this barn, on the About.com page of Nashville taken by Jan Duke, Look Here.

On OhioBarns.com, this is designated as #RCB 42-19-01

In the Jenkins book, it is located on page 157 (bottom right).

You can see its location on a map, HERE.

Lat & Lon: 36o19'26.95" N/86o54'47.02" W

How I became interested in these Barns

2006-07-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

Many people have told me, "When I was a child, I remember riding in the back of the car and going past the one on highway XX often."

They're spotted all over the countryside. I suppose I saw them, too, but there's not any specific barn that I can definately remember. I have lived in Nashville most of my life and I have always been interested in roads. There's a good chance I saw one on the family's drive to Gatlinburg or Louisville. What I do remember was seeing all of their billboards along Interstate 24 going to Chattanooga, especially once you drive past Monteagle. The signs are still there but they don't look like they used to.

There are many of these barns, but not as many as there used to be. Back in the day, there were over 900 of them painted by Rock City's barn painter Clark Byers. The combination of his retirement and the 1968 Highway Beautifcation Act has reduced their number. There arestill some barns that are painted and maintained by the current painters, but many older ones are crumbling or rusty

My wife and I both enjoy to drive the highway backroads. Plus, I have taken up the hobby of photography. We have driven many routes in the south. When I bought the Jenkins book at the Rock City gift shop in 2003, it must have unlocked something in me. Maybe it's the thought that any of these could be gone tommorrow, or maybe it's the feeling of accomplishement for each one I find, but there is a hope that every time I travel out of town I can claim another one for my own photo collection.

As of today, I have found nearly 40 Rock City Barns, and so more for other advertisements. By the time I get all of them posted (and it will take me a while), perhaps I will have dozens more.

Resources used by this blog's author

2006-07-29T18:32:00.000-05:00

There are a couple of websites and three books which are helpful in finding and learning about Rock City and other barns. Unfortunately barns crumble or are removed all the time and any of these can be out of date, including my information.

Website #1: The official Rock City website.

Here you can see what all the buzz is all about, learn the history of Rock City, Buy a souvenir and see pictures of some of the barns from the David Jenkins book below.

Website #2: OhioBarns.com

They are a wealth of information, all submitted by users of the website. They have a page on Rock City Barns. Generally if a barn is listed there, it was photographed in the last 5 years and is still around, but not always. They also have well done pages on Mail Pouch Tobacco, soft drink ads and much more. Each barn has its own page with a photo, the general location and is labeled in a format like: RCB 42-19-01 (A Rock City Barn in State 42, Tennessee, County 19, Davidson, and is the 1st barn in that county).

Book #1: Rock City Barns: A Passing Era by David Jenkins

A great book where in the mid 1990's the author traveled the countryside with the Rock City's disorganized notes in an effort to find as many of the remaining barns as possible. A very worthwhile book.

Book #2 See Rock City Barns: A Tennessee Tradition by Anita Armstrong Capps

In the mid-90s, the author went to each of the barns in Tennessee that were still maintained by the Rock City painters and gave the story of the barn's owners, as well as a lovely portrait of that barn

Book #3: Advertising Barns by William Simmonds

Another good barn book, but focuses on all types of advertising barns.

Maps: For maps, I use Local.Live.com which is the Microsoft equivalent of Google Maps. Both website have similar features, and Google's is easier to use. You can see an aerial photo of the location, or just a map, or both at the same time. I use Microsoft's here for two reasons. 1) Local.Live.com has a permalink feature which makes it convenient to link in this blog. 2) While Google's imagery is in color, they do not have color photos for many rural areas, instead using very poor resolution satellite imagery. Microsoft has adapted their website from their old Terraserver website with of their USGS images. They are all black and white, but it is good resolution everywhere, although some areas might not have been rephotographed in 15 years. (by the way, Google Earth is the still about the coolest program ever. That is where I get my Latitude & Longitude info from.)

Milestones:
Created: July 29, 2006
100 Hits: Sept. 2, 2006
200 Hits: Nov 10, 2006

A Geographically Sorted Index

2006-07-29T15:09:00.001-05:00

This is a list of all barns profiled in this blog, Sorted geographically by state and county:

ALABAMA

DeKalb: Buffalo, White Deer and Rock City
DeKalb: How Far to New York or New Orleans on U.S. 11?
DeKalb: Remember When...?

DeKalb: Being From The South...

GEORGIA

Dade: Proof that new Rock City barns get painted
Dade: Crumbling barn with multiple advertisements
Walker: The Birdhouse Barn near Rock City

KENTUCKY

Hardin: A Very Faded Rock City Barn on 31W
Hart: How a Barn Changes in 20 years
Marion: What Does a Newer Rock City Barn Look Like?
Pulaski: See 7 States - along the old route
Simpson: A Barn, Corn, and a state border irregularity

OHIO

Brown: Ohio Bicentennial Barn #1
Brown: Changes and Preservation
Hamilton: 6 Miles to Frisch's Big Boy

TENNESSEE

Bedford: Crumbling Barn on U.S. 41A
Bledsoe: 65 Miles to Rock City
Cannon: Old Rock City barn near Readyville, TN
Cannon: Fuston's Discount Variety Store
Cheatham: Double Cola Barn along River Road
Coffee: See Ruby Falls and Meramec Caverns
Coffee: Wonder Cave barn
Coffee: See Ruby Falls on Interstate 24
Cumberland: Some Rock City Barns are tough to see
Davidson: The First Rock City Barn - Nashville, Tn
Lincoln: It Costs Less at Sterchi's
Marion: The Rock City Barn I missed several times
Roane: STAY ON TN58 and SEE... --- UPDATE
Roane: Millions Have Seen this Rock City Barn
Robertson: Has anyone ever painted Rock City on their own barn?
Rutherford: When is a Rock City Barn not a Barn?
Sevier: See Beautiful Rock City TO-DAY
Van Buren: The Well-worn barn in Spencer, TN
Williamson: Christmas Barn at Cal Turner's Farm

OTHER

Merry Christmas
Miniatures
A Rock City Ceramic Plate
Tray Featuring Jim Harrison's Artwork

Would anyone find it helpful if I added thumbnails of the pictures along with the titles?
Someday, I hope to be able to embed a map with clickable links to each barn.