Gatlinburg's charm makes it home away from home for many. For 3,577 people, it's just home

For months, Dustin Quier and his wife have been staying in a Gatlinburg hotel as they search for housing. Not a temporary summer cabin, but something long term.

While many see Gatlinburg as a beloved vacation destination, a handful of others have made the choice to live there permanently.

For some, it’s the kitschy charm that makes Gatlinburg feel like home. For others, it’s the opportunity to work in the entertainment industry, whether it’s at a Ripley’s attraction or nearby Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.

"It's like life no matter where you live,” said real estate broker Missy Norris, who has lived in Gatlinburg off and on since 1984. “It's what you make it."

Gatlinburg's allure wasn't always defined by mini golf and moonshine. The city transformed over the years from a quiet town to a bustling tourism destination, a change spurred by the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934.

As early as 1969, locals saw the writing on the wall. Their home was changing.

"There's only so much space here, and the time may come when homeowners can't afford to own homes that became much more valuable as business sites," then-Mayor Bill Mills told the News Sentinel at the time.

That same year, the city boasted five hotels, 157 motels, 47 restaurants and seven attractions, according to an ad placed in the News Sentinel.

Fast forward to 2024, and Gatlinburg has 5,000 hotel rooms, 4,000 cabins, more than 100 restaurants, and more than 50 attractions, Gatlinburg Convention & Visitors Bureau spokesperson Chelsea Trott told Knox News.

With roughly 3,577 people living in the city full time, according to 2020 census data, that’s more hotel rooms than residents.

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Locals still spend leisure time tourist-style

For Corey Wagner, yearly trips to Gatlinburg with his family inspired them to live in their beloved vacation town. It was a dream, though - something they never thought would become real.

Wagner had been visiting the city with his wife and son since 2011. The family found a Gatlinburg apartment complex in early 2023 and, five months later, a unit opened up. They jumped on the opportunity and quickly moved from Ohio.

Wagner now works in retail at Anakeesta and is part of the exchange pass program, which allows him to visit other attractions for free. It’s a huge perk for a family that continues to love tourist offerings that once were a rare treat.

"We'll just have like a day of fun. We'll just pretend like we're tourists," Wagner said. "I don't want that to kind of wear off, and it hasn't so far."

But what about the traffic and the actual tourists - the ones who stop in for a weekend of pancake houses, offbeat attractions and hiking in the Smokies?  It doesn’t seem to bother local families like Wagner’s. After all, the most recent generation of locals chose to live in a destination town.

But some Gatlinburg families predate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which transformed the East Tennessee city. By 1937, the number of visitors had already begun to grow.

Some locals witnessed Gatlinburg's decades-long transformation

Stephen Lyn Bales grew up in Gatlinburg in the 1950s and '60s. Long before that, his grandparents lived on land that has since become part of the national park.

His grandparents, Homer Bales and Pearl Ogle, had 200 acres on Baskins Creek, which they sold to the federal government for $2,000, Bales said. Then, they moved to Gatlinburg.

Pearl was an entrepreneur who opened Bales Café and, later, Bales Motel. The motel started out with five rooms and, in 1962, a family of four could rent a room with two double beds for $12, Bales said.

He often helped his grandmother by cleaning the rooms or mowing the lawn.

"A lot of families did that,” Bales said. “Either you started an eatery, or a little motel … other people were craftspeople."

In 1940, tourist revenue was "going into the pockets of the old original families here" ? families with names like Ogle and Maples, the News Sentinel reported. Now, members of those families remain, but many of the town's establishments have become corporate, owned by country stars or out-of-town investors.

Gatlinburg was incorporated in 1945, and in the '60s and '70s, Bales saw some of the first large-scale attractions like the Gatlinburg Ski Lodge and the Gatlinburg Space Needle open.

Tourism brings benefits - and setbacks

To say Gatlinburg residents are just like other families wouldn’t be entirely true. Not everyone is up for the hustle and bustle of living in a vacation town, but many locals delight in the wash of vibrancy and activity visitors provide.

"I enjoy the tourism,” said Norris, the real estate broker. "I enjoy meeting people literally from all over the world."

Even as far back as 1935, the News Sentinel was reporting “the family that you run into in the Post Office is likely to be from Cincinnati” and that “conversation at the hotel lobbies and around the store is likely to be spiced with Yankee accents.”

Tourism jumped from 25% of Gatlinburg’s economy in the summer of 1936 to 75% the summer of 1937, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that year. Then, Highway 73 was added.

In 1940, the News Sentinel was reporting close to 1 million people were visiting the city per year. The city itself had grown from a population of 75 in 1930 to 1,300 a decade later.

But Gatlinburg isn't just defined by tourism. The misty peaks of the Smokies that rise up around the city can be more than enough to make the place home.

"The mountains are my soul. That's the bottom line," Norris said.

But not everyone has the opportunity to live in the city these days, Norris said. For one, it’s small - just 10.35 square miles, according to USA.com. Home prices are high, and construction is becoming more expensive as available land is mostly on the mountainside where it’s harder to build.

Many Gatlinburg employees are driving into the city for work because there isn't enough housing, Norris said. Many homes - at least in areas not governed by zoning laws or other restrictions - are being turned into overnight rentals.

An increased cost of living in Gatlinburg was enough to drive away Kimberly Freels, who attended elementary school in the city. She has lived there several times and still works there but has since moved to Newport.

At one point, she was living out of her car for about five months due to high housing prices and limited availability.

"I wish everything was how it was five years ago," she said.

Some might blame the tourists for the city's rising prices. But Freels views tourism as what keeps stores - like the one where she works - in business.

Quier, who moved to Gatlinburg from West Virginia, also works at a local tourist destination as he continues his search for a permanent home.

The job opportunity at Pepper Palace arose after he stopped in to try the store’s hottest hot sauce. The staff was so impressed that Quier was asked to come back later that day for an interview.

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Small town coming of age

Gatlinburg welcomed 13 million tourists in 2023, Trott said.

"The regularity with which you meet people that have come here from long distances … it kind of awes you a little bit," Wagner said.

At the same time, a new generation of Gatlinburg locals are settling in to the city they call home.

Seventeen-year-old Sophia Gibson moved to Gatlinburg with her mother and grandmother three years ago. She spends her days working at The Jerky Store and attending high school online.

What does a teenager like Gibson like to do? “Stay home,” she said with a laugh.

“I still play tourist every now and then," often bringing along her niece and nephew, she said. "I go to Dollywood more than I would care to admit."

Challenges young people face can seem heightened in Gatlinburg. Take driving in traffic, for example.

“I’m a fairly new driver. … It’s horrible,” she said, although she has already managed to find some back roads most tourists don’t know about.

When Bales was coming of age, the traffic was less of a problem. In fact, he remembers cruising - "like 'American Graffiti'" - as the activity of choice for many teens.

"If you were in high school, you would just drive up and down," he said.

For Gibson, her social activity involves spending time with peers of all ages, largely made up of other shop owners and staff members who work nearby.

A 'life together' in the Smokies

Gatlinburg stays much busier today than it did when Bales was growing up there in the ’50s and ‘60s. Back then, tourism was slower and peaked during the summer.

“It was really kind of a sweet little town,” he said.

Wagner tries not to let tourists affect that reputation, even if Gatlinburg is all grown up. If at any point his family has a frustrating encounter with a tourist, they like to remember they were once in those very same shoes.

Wagner runs a page called Gatlinburg NOW that shares regular content to social media about living in the area, content that is of interest to tourists, locals and tourists-turned-locals alike.

Like Wagner, finding an apartment in Gatlinburg marked a turning point for Alejandra Hinostroza. She used to live in Sevierville, but the commute to work in Gatlinburg could take up to two hours with traffic.

"Basically, all your day is gone," she said.

Like others who wanted to make Gatlinburg their home, Hinostroza and her husband put their names on an apartment waitlist and hoped for the best. After six months, they got in June 8, 2021, a date she knows by heart.

“It felt good that we were starting to have our life together," Hinostroza said.

Hinostroza, originally from Peru, has also lived in New York and Colorado. When it comes to life in Gatlinburg, she said, “for now, we’re very happy.”

For some, the mountains will always call

Bales said growing up with the national park close by “really kind of galvanized me for who I became: a naturalist.”

Bales worked at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville for 20 years and made it a point to regularly visit his parents in his hometown after moving to Knoxville in 1983.

But after the Gatlinburg wildfires of 2016, everything seemed to change.

“It’s almost too sad,” he said. “When you grow up on a street, you know everybody in every house … and all of that’s gone.”

As the community continues to rebuild out of the orange flames and gray smoke that devastated the Gatlinburg economy, Hinostroza remains positive about her new home.

While Hinostroza spoke, she showed off her manicure – blue on one hand and green on the other. The blue is like the sky, she said, and the green is for the Smokies.

“Right now, it’s so green. It’s so blue,” she said.

Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Gatlinburg appeals to tourists who visit - and to 3,577 locals who stay