(CHEROKEE LAKE REALTY WRITES A WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE GRAINGER COUNTY JOURNAL NEWSPAPER. THIS WAS A RECENT QUESTION ASKED BY A READER.)
Good question Linda. The second part of your question answers the first part. Because they are full. The famous line from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams “if you build it, he will come” can be applied to your question (we remember the quote as “they” will come. But in actuality, the line was “he” will come). Kind of. In our case, they were already coming and needed a place built.
The last two weeks I tackled the question of why there are so many folks moving to our area. This is somewhat a continuation of that question. I recently saw a Ken Burns produced documentary, The West. I highly recommend it by the way.Watching all those covered wagons heading west reminded me of all these RVs and campers coming to East Tennessee. Now instead of temporary covered wagons, RV’s and towable campers are used. I’ll use the word campers to refer to both going forward. America has always been a nation of searchers. Searching for a better life, searching for a better place to live. And, as I answered in my previous columns, our area has become the place to achieve these goals. I don’t have enough space in this column to summarize what I previously wrote and why folks have picked us, but it’s happened. A camper provides the opportunity for someone to check out our area and see if it fits their vision of what they are seeking, before settling down permanently, by buying a house.
I first saw this large wave of campers during COVID. Folks did not want to stay in hotels, where someone else had stayed. Camper sales skyrocketed, and they came our way. The Cherokee Lake area always had campgrounds, as we have always been a vacation destination for outdoor activities. But never to the extent that we witnessed during COVID. As folks took early retirement or the ability to work remotely from home, because of the epidemic, they were presented with the opportunity to relocate. Pretty soon there was no place to park these campers as our area was being checked out. Not everyone needed to check us out. Some already knew and liked our area and they just purchased homes. But not all. As I said, some figured they would see what we were all about before taking a permanent plunge. If they didn’t like us, they would take their “covered wagon” and go somewhere else. Some went back home but liked us enough to leave their campers here permanently, as this became a cheaper alternative to a vacation home. Some decided they liked the camping lifestyle enough to live in their campers permanently. Whichever was the case, as I mentioned, they needed a place to park. So, here came the campgrounds. I would say in the Lakeshore Drive area of Grainger County alone, there have been at least four major campgrounds built. And they are all pretty full. So, yes Linda, as long as we are a desirable location for relocating, and there is a need for livable parking spaces for these campers, new ones will be built. I say “livable” because there have also been storage parking lots built for these that are not being lived in but still need a place to park. A lot of those belonged to those folks that decided to settle here permanently in a new home, wanted to keep their campers for traveling, but did not have the room to park it in their driveway. And we’ll probably see more of these storage parking areas built as well.
