Elkmont, TN, 2008

Layne Kennedy, an excellent photographer, is a friend and former colleague from teaching the Mentor Trek workshops for “Popular Photography.” He recently posted a photo of an almost contemporary modern ruin from a Russian mining town that was abandoned, leaving everyday articles laying around, and it reminded me of Elkmont, TN.

Elkmont, now inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, started as a logging community, and later became an elite level resort. When the Park was created current owners were allowed to keep their property, but by 1992 that changed, and the area was emptied of residents and businesses. Originally all the structures were to be demolished, but with some on the National Historic Register, there was an agreement in 2009 to restore some of them. I haven’t been back since 2008, so I don’t know what the status of any of that is now.

It’s fascinating to see places like this, or Layne’s village where it feels like everyone got up one morning and just left, and interesting to see what was left behind, discarded. I found a similar personal situation a few years ago when I sought out an old dwelling in the countryside west of Savannah, where my father’s family had large reunions when I was a kid.

To see that post, go to https://savannahphotographicworkshop.com/2022/11/claxton-ga-2020/

To see the gallery of photographs from the Old Home Place, click the link at the end of that post, or this https://www.billdurrence.com/gallery/The-Old-Home-Place-2020/G00001ZvD4inIsYE/