Returning to Gatlinburg 12 years later changed my perspective ? mostly

I was 12 years old the first time I visited Gatlinburg for ice skating at Ober Mountain and exploring the Ripley's museum. Believe it or not, I wasn't a fan of the latter. And aside from passing through the touristy town, I never went back ? until I started thinking about the city's locals.

I fought the Smokies traffic one June evening to visit with them and learn why they chose Gatlinburg, of all places, to call home.

I quickly learned my perception was outdated. My preteen trip predated some of the modern businesses and organizations that have since become Gatlinburg mainstays: the Margaritaville Resort Gatlinburg, Sugarlands Distilling Company, Anakeesta. Even the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau was built after my first visit.

A lot has changed between then and now, including my feelings toward the place.

My first impressions of Gatlinburg

My brother, who was 10, was the one who wanted to visit back in 2012. I must have picked the ice skating because the artifacts in the museum terrified me. I was alarmed by the shrunken head, the eight-legged buffalo and the display on foot binding.

This was a microcosm of my general feelings toward Gatlinburg. The city's hokeyness wasn't charming; it was disturbing. Even the tourists seemed strange, though I now realize I was one myself. I'm certain I didn't stop to consider that some of the people we passed walking down the sidewalks might have actually lived there.

After we explored the strip, my family headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Exactly where, I'm not sure, but I know the hike was beautiful. The stream that ran alongside us was clear, rushing around and through rocks blanketed in moss. It smelled clean, like the mountains.

The in-between

Shortly after I moved to Knoxville in 2023, my boyfriend and I took a trip to North Carolina. On our drive back, we took the long way through the park, and then through Gatlinburg. This was my second time seeing it.

Inevitably, traffic stopped us on the Parkway. I craned my neck for a glimpse of the Space Needle and the Ripley's museum I had once been so scared of. Rather than annoyed, I caught myself feeling slightly endeared.

Since starting at Knox News in April, I have written a lot about Gatlinburg. My favorite was a story about one of the city's long-lost attractions, something I talked about for weeks to anyone who would listen.

By the time I began working on my piece about locals, I could somewhat understand the desire to visit. But I really couldn't fathom why someone would want to live in Gatlinburg. Until I met the people who did.

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Back in the Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains

I arrived in Gatlinburg around 5 p.m. June 26 and began the search for locals, walking into shops and bars along the strip. My feelings became informed - in the way it so often happens - by the conversations I had.

Many folks I talked to had a complicated relationship with the place, themselves. But for one reason or another, they stayed. For some it was the attractions, which I still don't totally get, and for others it was the Smokies.

Some people didn't really have a choice. They came with family, grew up in Gatlinburg or just needed a job, no matter where it happened to be.

I still feel tourism is the root of many of Gatlinburg's problems. Short-term rentals make it hard to find permanent housing. The visitors cause traffic, feed the bears and walk ever-so-slowly down the sidewalk.

But the tourists also are essential to Gatlinburg's economy, and the locals know it. Most people I talked to had jobs they know wouldn't exist without the vast number of visitors ? and dollars ? that enter the city from across the world.

Despite problems they bring, tourists are part of the draw for some Gatlinburg residents. They keep things lively. They mean the city is never boring or lonely. And because they come from so many different places, they make Gatlinburg feel sort of ... worldly?

My new view of Gatlinburg also comes partly from a change in my own life: I became a Tennessean. I've lived in the state since I started college in 2017, and I've lived in Knoxville for more than a year now. From my first weekend in the Scruffy City, I knew it could be home.

I have a specific kind of pride in Gatlinburg because of that. It's a place that brings people to a region that I love. Sometimes, it makes them fall in love with it, too. Knoxville is my home, but so is Gatlinburg. Because these days, I'm an East Tennessean through and through.

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

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Speaking to Gatlinburg residents 12 years later changed my impression