In celebration of Rock City’s 80th anniversary, several barns this spring are getting a fresh coat of paint. In the last month, Jim Byers, son of Rock City’s original barn painter, Clark Byers, and Don Parris repainted two barns.
Jim and his father painted many of the 900 barns that read “See Rock City.” Jim started working with his dad at the age of 14 in 1954, and has traveled from Milwaukee to Miami and everywhere in between. “I’ve enjoyed every barn I’ve painted,” says Jim. “I can’t pinpoint just one.”
Jim stopped painting Rock City barns in 1966, when he got married. About five years ago, he started painting Rock City barns again, this time with Parris. “When we get on the barn, we don’t talk much. We know what the other is going to do and we just paint,” Parris says.
The two barns the men painted in March are owned by Wilma Jean Eblen (the barn on I-40 going toward Knoxville) and the Henderson family (the barn on Little River Canyon Road in Fort Payne).
“The property on which the barn sits has been in my family since the 1900’s, and the barn was built in 1930,” said Eblen. “The barn has ‘Rock City’ painted on one side and ‘Ruby Falls’ on the other. People are always taking pictures of it, and I truly don’t mind.”
“The barn near Fort Payne belongs to my husband’s grandparents, Howard and Foy Henderson,” said Michelle Henderson. “One day, Howard was approached by a man he didn’t know, who asked if he could paint his barn for free. Howard was skeptical and asked what the catch was. The man said there was no catch; he just wanted to paint ‘See Rock City’ on it.”
Howard was ecstatic and soon realized this stranger from Rock City had quite an eye for advertising. At the time, there was an amusement park down the street from the barn named Canyon Land Park, and the majority of the traffic heading to the park would pass the barn.
“There are memories in that ‘See Rock City’ barn that make it special. When I top the hill and see the barn, I know I’m home,” says Henderson.
Rock City began its world famous barn advertising campaign in 1935. At one time, there were almost 900 barns in the Midwest and Southeast that read “SEE ROCK CITY.” Due to the Highway Beautification Act, which called for strict regulations on roadside signage, the number of barns has been dramatically reduced.
Located six miles from downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., Rock City is a 14-acre natural and scenic attraction with unique rock formations and gardens atop Lookout Mountain.