Garnet and Frieda Carter opened Rock City Gardens in May of 1932, during the Depression. Carter, a promotional genius, had already developed a subdivision of sprawling estate homes for wealthy men atop Lookout Mountain. He had also invented Tom Thumb Miniature Golf. Now he wanted to promote his wife’s beautiful gardens. She had painstakingly developed lushly landscaped paths through the giant rock formations at Rock City. Carter just knew that people would pay to see these gardens if he could somehow draw them to Lookout Mountain.
In 1935 one of the most unique advertising campaigns ever envisioned was created. Seeing the great potential in the “attraction business,” Carter hired a 22-year old painter from Tennessee named Clark Byers. Young Byers was asked to approach farmers whose barns sat facing the major highways and byways in the surrounding area and see if they would be agreeable to a trade. Carter had driven up and down US 41 and made notes of which barns would best serve his purpose. The usual arrangement was that the property owner would receive free passes to Rock City and Tom Thumb Golf, along with an armload of promotional wares (like Rock City thermometers or Rock City birdhouses.) If there was no need for the paraphernalia, a modest sum of $3 was paid to the farmer. In return, Byers would paint the barn with the SEE ROCK CITY logo. In the beginning, they mixed their own paint using lampblack and linseed oil. There were no rollers. They used a 4” brush and all the work was done freehand. Once that paint was on the barn, it stayed. Soon, the eye-catching signs were dotting the countryside and Rock City became famous.
At their heyday in the late 1950’s, there were more than 900 Rock City barns in 19 states from Florida to Texas and all the way up to Minnesota. Remember, there were no Interstates back then, just two-lane blacktops for vacationing motorists. Clark Byers and his crews of painters got very creative, trying to capture people’s interest to lure them in. Familiar slogans read “Beautiful Beyond Belief,” “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” “Bring Your Camera,” “See 7 States From Rock City” and “Millions Have Seen Rock City, Have You?”
In the mid-60’s during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, roadside signs were seen more as an eyesore than as an icon. In order to “Beautify America,” the Ladybird Act banned billboards and most of the Rock City barn roof messages had to be removed. A piece of Americana was lost. But, by then people were traveling the Interstate highways anyway. Today you can still see a few of the Rock City barns in Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee.
