See Rock City!

 On our way to the Athens Storytelling Festival, Trish and I spent the night in Chattanooga.  Since we had only a short drive the following day, we decided to go up onto Lookout Mountain and visit Rock City.

See Rock City was the title of my fourth or fifth book published nearly thirty years ago.  The title is based on the story of a family trip to Florida that actually ended up here at Rock City.

Yes you can!

Garnet Carter and his wife, Frieda, opened Rock City, the gardens on their property, in 1932 right in the heart of the depression.  People with very little money could ride the street car out from Chattanooga and have a picnic or at least a pleasant day out in the giant rock gardens.

Trish entering Fat Man’s Squeeze.

Frieda Carter loved German fairytales and her touch on the gardens led to adding Fairyland Caverns.  The Cavern is filled with tableaux of such fairytales set into the walls of the underground walkway.

Entering the Caverns.

We found such a collection of fairytales depicted here plus a giant Mother Goose Village at the end with all our remembered nursery rhymes depicted.  These characters are all old German woodcarvings and many are nearly a hundred years old.

Little Red Riding Hood avoids the wolf!

If you have never been here and have a couple of free hours around Chattanooga, it is well worth the twenty dollar admission.

Jack Sprat and his wife.