Have you responded to the call to ‘See Rock City?’

Rock City, a garden attraction atop Lookout Mountain, Ga., located about six miles from Chattanooga, Tenn., took the advertising artform of painted signs on barns to a new level beginning in the 1930s. 

The words “SEE ROCK CITY” were painted in white letters atop red barns with black roofs to catch the eye of everyone who passed by.

 

On a clear day, each visitor to Rock City is guaranteed to be able to see seven states – Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.

 

Garnet Carter, who founded Rock City in 1932, openly admits he was influenced by the success of the barn-side painting advertising campaign initiated in 1891 by Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company of Wheeling, W.Va., for its Mail Pouch chewing tobacco brand. 

Painting the barn roofs was Carter’s twist to improve upon the Mail Pouch concept. 

At the height of Carter’s ‘See Rock City’ advertising campaign, there were 900 barns in 19 states announcing the wonders of Rock City.

 

All were painted by Clark Byers, who hired on in 1936 as Rock City’s sign painter, according to Carroll McMahan of Smoky Mountain Living Magazine. Byers and his crew earned $40 for each “See Rock City” paint job. 

“Byers and a pair of helpers drove the highways and byways looking for barns and willing barn owners who, along with their free paint job, got Rock City bathmats and thermometers for allowing the advertisements to be painted on their barns,” McMahan said.

 

Byers even negotiated “paint maintenance plans,” promising to return every two years to freshen-up the fading paint.

“Because the barns were various shapes and sizes, each sign was different, but all featured the trademark white lettering on a black background.” McMahan said. “The number of words and their arrangement varied, based on the size and shape of the barn.” 

“Byers never used stencils. He sketched out the words in chalk and hand-painted the letters with a four-inch brush. He and his crew could usually paint a barn roof in three hours or less.” 

Occasionally, Byers would alter the script and make up a slogan, such as “See 7 States From Rock City” and “To Miss Rock City Would Be A Pity.” 

“Byers braved angry dogs, charging bulls, slippery roofs and lightning bolts to get the job done,” McMahan wrote. “He quit in 1968 after he made contact with a high-voltage wire while painting a barn near Murfreesboro, Tenn. His left side was temporarily paralyzed, and hair was singed off his head.”

 

Will Adams of RelicRecord said: “Byers’ love and passion for Rock City transcended barns. After painting ‘See Rock City’ on the roof of his own home, he thought his mailbox would be the perfect complement, so he replaced his mailbox with a miniature barn, and painted it.” 

“When the Postal Service took issue with the alteration, he decided to build a miniature barn birdhouse. Today, ‘See Rock City’ birdhouses remain one of Rock City’s best-selling souvenirs.”

 

Byers died in 2004, at age 89. But his work endures. About 70 “See Rock City” barns are in various states of restoration, preservation and protection by the See Rock City parent company.

 

Doug Chapin, president of See Rock City Inc., said: “These rural icons are a part of our legacy that gets to the cornerstones of our business – innovation, sustainability, art and people.” 

Darren Henderson, who owns one of the painted barns in Fort Payne, Ala., said Rock City barns “continue to inspire generations of visitors, reminding travelers that making new memories is just a drive away.”