Riding the Air: The Sky Lift and the Space Needle

For most of its history Gatlinburg's biggest draw was simply the view, and two mid century attractions were built to sell it. In the mid nineteen fifties, a local innkeeper named Rel Maples teamed up with ski industry pioneer Everett Kircher to run a chairlift straight up Crockett Mountain. The Gatlinburg Sky Lift became a popular year round scenic chairlift, its single seat chairs floating riders above the treetops for a mountain panorama no car could reach.

It was such a hit that the chairs were later upgraded to carry two passengers each. Then, at the end of the nineteen sixties, the town gained an even bolder landmark. The Gatlinburg Space Needle rose four hundred and seven feet above the parkway, an observation tower straight out of the space age dreams of the era.

From its open air deck, visitors get a sweeping three hundred sixty degree view over the whole town and the blue wall of the Smokies beyond. Together the Sky Lift and the Space Needle marked Gatlinburg's turn from a quiet gateway village into a full fledged tourist destination, a place that learned early on that in these mountains, the view itself is the main attraction, and people will happily pay to rise above it all.