Honeymoon Capital and the Rise of the Strip
Near Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Once the national park opened its doors, Gatlinburg reinvented itself with astonishing speed. The isolated farming hamlet of White Oak Flats became a full blown resort town, and two things came to define its modern reputation. The first is romance.
Framed by misty mountains and stocked with wedding chapels, Gatlinburg became known as the honeymoon capital of the South, and it now hosts more weddings than any American city except Las Vegas, with estimates ranging from roughly ten thousand to twenty thousand couples marrying in the area every year. The second is the parkway, the dense, walkable strip of attractions that greets nearly every visitor. Its most famous tenant is Ripley's.
A Ripley's museum opened here back in nineteen seventy-two, originally themed around witchcraft and magic before local churches pushed back and it was reinvented. Today Gatlinburg boasts more Ripley's attractions than any other city on Earth, from the oddity museum to the enormous Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, where a moving walkway carries you through a tunnel beneath sharks. Mixed in are mini golf courses, arcades, candy shops, and pancake houses lining both sides of the street.
Some travelers love the carnival energy and some find it jarring against the wild backdrop, but there is no denying the transformation. In a single lifetime, a place with the worst road in Tennessee became one of the most visited small towns in America.
