Cherokee and roadside culture

We drove through Cherokee yesterday on our way to Kuwohi AKA Clingman's Dome. Although the place still seems to be hanging on, there were a lot of classic motels, putt putt golf courses, diners and gem mining stores that are suffering from the same waning of traditional roadside culture that is visible in so many places around this great land of ours. Places that used to be exciting or at least worthy vacation destinations that now survive at best.

I used to think it was that cheap airline tickets meant that they were being outcompeted by the Vegases, Bransons, Orlandos, Londons, Parises and Grand Canyons of the world. And there is no doubt some of that going on.

But I also think it's a function of the waning of the working and middle classes in a America...

But then I thought of checking the data. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park remains one of the most visited of our national parks, garnering 12 million visitors or so a year for the last decade, peaking at ~14 million in 2021. Cherokee and Gatlinburg, TN remain key points of entry, and there are bigger population centers on the eastern side. I think people are coming through Cherokee. Maybe we caught it on a bad day. But it looks a little forlorn, certainly it compares unfavorably to Sylva, which is more or less the Chapel Hill of Western Carolina U, scaled down appropriately.