Fall-Creek-Falls Sees Fifty Years as a State Park

50 years ago to this month, Gov. Buford Ellington unveiled blueprints for a state park “next to the Great Smokies as a resort area.” The state park became Fall-Creek-Falls.

Jacob Young manages Fall-Creek-Falls.

Originally, the government wanted to make Fall-Creek-Falls a national park. The national government handed the park to the state, Young said.

“And the reason they did that is when they come into the area and saw the beautiful waterfalls and the gorge and all the resources that we have, they didn’t realize at the time that the waterfalls would run dry in the summer,” Young said. “They didn’t think that it would make a good national park because they didn’t believe people would come to a park where the waterfalls might go dry in the summer.”

The state made blueprints for Fall-Creek-Falls that included an inn, a restaurant, and a lake.

Young said the lake was supposed to serve as a view for the inn.

“But when they put the lake here, that actually gave us the ability to keep the waterfall, the main one, running during the dryer times of the year. Of course, all the other waterfalls are naturally fed and they are still running strong,” Young said. “And some will go all summer, all the way into the fall. So that was something that was kind of proved wrong. People still, even if we dry up in the summer, there is still a crowd that comes to Fall- Creek-Falls.”

In the 1960’s Fall-Creek-Falls plans contained various facilities across the park. Young said the creators did not think of how much money it takes to maintain the park.

“In recent years, and I’ll say the last fifteen years, there wasn’t really enough funding available for us to be able to maintain those facilities the way we needed to do,” Young said. “And the good thing is, even with these big capital projects we are getting, there is also some other money that we are being able to spend to just give the whole park a facelift. And that’s going to continue into the next ten years.”

Young said the park will rebuild the original inn and restaurant. The inn rebuild project is still in the early stages. While the park rebuilds the inn, the park will also build a new visitor center. Young said he hopes to have these projects finished by 2020.

The park will continue work on the new ADA-accessible upgrades at the Nature Center, Young said.

“And the ADA upgrades at the Nature Center, they’re saying they may be done as early as June the eighth.  And we have done a little bit of work on the inside of that building,” Young said. “We are hoping some paint and rock is coming for the outside. So, that will be coming this summer. We think we will be able to unveil that and let people see the new overlook and the new pathways.”

For more information on visiting Fall-Creek-Falls, go to their website.