Most rural/backwoods/isolated town in TN?

[jtmaze]

If you really want rural go to -

Wolf Pen, Pocahontas or Chewalla

(all in McNairy county)

Cherokee Slim

I have been to pochahantas and it is out there. Used to go mudding down there when I was younger but the people are nice.

JTM

Sent from my iPhone

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Being as I never go anywhere, have wondered if there are TN places as remote and beautiful as Polk County. The biggest metropolis is county seat Benton with a population less than 2000. Copperhill, Ducktown and Turtletown not nearly as big. You wouldn't even know you passed thru Reliance if there wasn't a sign on the road. And absolutely beautiful countryside for my tastes. 2010 census county population 16825.

Every time I go out there (not real often) I wanted to move out there. Even trolling around reliance and tellico yesterday on google street view makes me want to move out there.

Maybe there are rough spots out there. Maybe lots of em for all I know which ain't much. Been out there maybe once a year since about 1970 and nobody ever gave me any trouble and I don't recall getting "bad vibes" from the folks, but maybe just lucky and un-observant. There are remote places in hamilton county that give me "bad vibes" and I know fer sure are dangerous if you don't belong, so the spidey-sense isn't completely non-functional.

If I moved out there dunno if I'd like it so much. Since the olympics lots of yuppies discovered its beauty and have been driving up property values buying retirement acreage, so maybe by now the place is more upper-yuppie than hillbilly?

Edit-- Meant to say, not that maybe I wouldn't like it because of too many yuppies, but maybe after a month or two I'd change my mind about liking living out there. After going to so much trouble to move would be a bummer.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Lumber_Jack]

Wilder - all you need to know.

True!!!

Or Cravenstown, just up the hill from Wilder. We manage a 7,000 acre tract just North of Wilder.

[Erik88]

True!!!

Or Cravenstown, just up the hill from Wilder. We manage a 7,000 acre tract just North of Wilder.

Man, you really do know rural. I good to google both.

[Lumber_Jack]

Man, you really do know rural. I good to google both.

Haha, yeah I get around. Wilder actually has a post office, but no store or anything else. Cravenstown has a little store but they don't have much but dust covered cans of Vienna Sausages, bread, and beer.

[diablo982]

With my job, I get to travel the state dealing with the bottom rung of society. For the longest time I felt Tellico Plains and Cooker Creek were the most remote, backwoods areas in TN. Cellphone coverage dies as you get within 10 miles, and the best retail store anywhere nearby is a Dollar General. All that changed a couple of weeks ago when I had the pleasure of visiting Altamont in Grundy County. The Sheriff's Office is a single wide trailer, and all their cars were surplus Army trucks. We had to stop by the Sheriff's Office so they could point us to the trailer we were looking for. Seems its so backwoods out there, you get to make up your own road name to your house. Its not on any map, you just get to name it yourself. And as for the people we were looking for, they made Honey Boo Boo look sophisticated.

Edited October 20, 2012 by diablo982

[Tncobra]

Del Rio, whoop whoop.

[Lumber_Jack]

With my job, I get to travel the state dealing with the bottom rung of society. For the longest time I felt Tellico Plains and Cooker Creek were the most remote, backwoods areas in TN. Cellphone coverage dies as you get within 10 miles, and the best retail store anywhere nearby is a Dollar General. All that changed a couple of weeks ago when I had the pleasure of visiting Altamont in Grundy County. The Sheriff's Office is a single wide trailer, and all their cars were surplus Army trucks. We had to stop by the Sheriff's Office so they could point us to the trailer we were looking for. Seems its so backwoods out there, you get to make up your own road name to your house. Its not on any map, you just get to name it yourself. And as for the people we were looking for, they made Honey Boo Boo look sophisticated.

Grundy & Sequatchie Counties are like the Wild West. Gruelti-Lager to Altamont east to Cagle. I'm sure that's where they take the bodies to not be found.

[Patton]

Polk County is just a different place especially the eastern side of the Ocoee. I know we are talking cities and not counties but the whole county is like walking back in time 25 yrs ago. Except for all the latest kayaks.

[Guest sL1k]

Polk County is just a different place especially the eastern side of the Ocoee. I know we are talking cities and not counties but the whole county is like walking back in time 25 yrs ago. Except for all the latest kayaks.

My dad lives in Polk county I love it there. Some beautiful land.

Edited October 21, 2012 by sL1k

[Guest HillyKarma]

Hmmmm...sorry. I'm half-black, so these are actually the places I avoid!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I need to go back thru this thread and look up all the reference localities, given time. One slant is places with isolated folks and very little penetration of the "modern world" and perhaps "level of lawlessness".

Or another slant, if one were appreciative of unimproved nature and unappreciative of crowds, one might look for the most under-populated locations with beautiful country-side. Some low population terrains are not un-friendly to farming and actually have a "commercial purpose" as one could theoretically scratch out an existence by the sweat of one's brow. And then some of the locations are so vertical up and down that they ain't good for much except being beautiful scenery. Small veggie patches or if one wanted to ruin the natural beauty, terraced farming techniques. Not a big surprise some sections are traditionally "sparsely populated". Some of the remote areas have kept about the same population for 100 years or longer, and some are even losing population, having fewer inhabitants now than long ago.

Another consideration, is that perhaps the lowest-population areas are not especially remote, but merely are places where the gov has bought up so much of the land for parks, national forests and wildlife preserves, that a county doesn't have much privately owned land remaining where people can build houses and live?

If searching for remote localities "least criminal" one useful statistic might be demographic age of the population. The places gradually losing population as people move to where there are jobs, some of them have LOTS of old folk and not many younguns. Even criminals get old, and I have held the theory that people can tend to get meaner as they get older, but OTOH people tend to get less crazy-violent as they get ancient, so the areas with lots of elderly might be less plagued by property crime and violent crime, particularly drug-fueled violent crime?

http://usatoday30.us...nsus/profile/TN

This list of TN counties can be sorted by Population Per Square mile, showing the least populous counties Perry, Van Buren, and Wayne counties. Those are from half to less than 3/4 the population density of the previously noted "remote" places such as Grundy or Polk. But low population may not necessarily mean they have "remote places" dunno.

The above list, sorted by localities rather than counties, doesn't seem useful. Some of the lowest-density localities on the list are apparently communities that are conglomerations of upper-yuppie large-acreage "estates" not very far removed from urban centers. So there may only be a few people living in lots of woods, but they may be living in million dollar log homes on gated mountain tops or whatever. Which I suppose might be fine if you got the cash, but on the other hand maybe the neighbors would get mad at you shooting on yer own land every day, even if you have yer own 20 acres to shoot on? God forbid they might even have neighborhood housing ordinances and rules against trailers or ugly construction on yer own land, maybe as bad as some burb housing developments.

[pcrc11]

Hiawasee River and Rail train ends and turns around in Farnum. Definately made an impression on me as "End of the line".

[Shug]

There are still places up around Farner, Greasy Creek, and Coker Creek and Rafter that if ya'll don't have any reason to be there you best not go

[Mdunntn]

Saw a sign once in hancock county while trying to find a family cemetary. Passed a creepy man in a shack who waved at us then right past the shack was a sign that said, " Ain't nothing in this hollar worth dying for." We got the hell out of there lol

Sent from secret underground bunker

[mcurrier]

From my weekend cabin trip up near Big South Fork

[luvmyberetta]

From my weekend cabin trip up near Big South Fork

I looked them up. Sounds interesting...in kind of a wierd way. I may have to swing by there next time I'm heading through, just because I saw it here. They have a shooting range and they even sell live chickens. Oh, yeah! Moving targets... Here's what they posted on their website.

"Mixon’s Emporium is the ultimate shooting and shopping destination in Fentress County Tennessee. Our outdoor shooting facility has five 25 yard lanes which offer the ability to practice with your pistol on steel targets or to sit down and sight in your rifle on paper. We also offer you the most complete selection of quality new children's clothing, defensive firearms, reloading supplies, live plants, seeds, eggs and chickens to be found in Fentress County. Count on us for exceptional quality, unequaled value and personal service."

Edited October 22, 2012 by luvmyberetta

[Erik88]

I looked them up. Sounds interesting...in kind of a wierd way. I may have to swing by there next time I'm heading through, just because I saw it here. They have a shooting range and they even sell live chickens. Oh, yeah! Moving targets... Here's what they posted on their website.

"Mixon’s Emporium is the ultimate shooting and shopping destination in Fentress County Tennessee. Our outdoor shooting facility has five 25 yard lanes which offer the ability to practice with your pistol on steel targets or to sit down and sight in your rifle on paper. We also offer you the most complete selection of quality new children's clothing, defensive firearms, reloading supplies, live plants, seeds, eggs and chickens to be found in Fentress County. Count on us for exceptional quality, unequaled value and personal service."

Man, I really miss Tennessee.

[daddyo]

Man, I really miss Tennessee.

That's why, after three years in central Florida, I moved back to Tennessee in 1976.

[Erik88]

That's why, after three years in central Florida, I moved back to Tennessee in 1976.

I hear ya. 4-5 more years and I'll be back.

[jtmaze]

If y'all wanna talk counties you need to go to Perry county. Just east of Tn river and they get really out there.

Sent from iPad in the woods.

[Lumber_Jack]

If y'all wanna talk counties you need to go to Perry county. Just east of Tn river and they get really out there.

Sent from iPad in the woods.

I stayed in Hohenwald for about a week one time. That's a gem of a town

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Yeah Perry county has the lowest population per square mile of any TN county but dunno much about it. I've been google maps and some google street view where available on some of the places mentioned, out of curiosity. The google streetview spymobiles only travel public roads, but apparently there are public roads remote enough in TN that no streetview spymobile has yet managed to find em. Or maybe the streetview spymobiles which happened to drive down those roads never came back. [joking I hope]

Perry county is close enough if I wasn't so lazy could make a day trip and look the place over. Be good to "have a plan" before taking off for a look-see.

The streetview pics I saw on a Perry county highway, looked kinda like flatter farm land than mountains but maybe it was only the stretch I looked at.

Satellite view in google maps, in populated areas it is reinforced by airplane pictures where available, but out there it seems primarily fairly low-res satellite photos only. Being inexperienced reading aerial photos, sometimes its difficult to figger out what the hell I'm looking at. And easy to "get lost". Lumber_Jack, maybe you can tell me sumpin about that-- The satellite imagery is a "patchwork" and looks different at different zoom levels. I think some pieces of the tapestry were photographed different seasons and from different aerial angles so it is difficult to determine what are "real" boundaries on the ground versus "illusion" boundaries from different generations and sources of images. One piece photographed in summer from the east and an adjacent piece photographed in winter from the west or whatever.

There is one area somewhere out there in the vicinity of Perry county, maybe the residue of a big forest fire? Or willy-nilly image splices between different seasons and different satellites or passes. A complex network of country roads, a few small lakes, some pasture, some green trees and some sections of either winter trees or burned out trees. Maybe a logging site, some trees look downed, but its hard to tell whether they are downed intentionally. Any hints on how to better make sense of satellite imagery, or a better source than google maps?

[jtmaze]

My parents retired to their river house just across the river at fishers landing and my aunt lives in perry county just east of the river and as far as farm land there are 2-3 acre fields surrounded by hills. Not sure about the eastern part of county but willing to bet there is not a 1/4 mile stretch of straight road in the western part of county. I mean real "drunk Indian on a wild horse" stuff.

Sent from iPad in the woods.

[Lumber_Jack]

Lester. Yes google maps has very poor rural imagery depending on the location. It's just like you say, a patchwork of images. Sometimes they have some without recent update so the fill the gap with an older image which may be from winter. Most of the google images are not very recent though,some are several years old.

There isn't really a better source for aerials on your desktop computer than google. However if you have an iPhone the Navigator Pro by Tremble Outdoors is an outstanding app. Is has some more recent aerial photos, topo maps, street maps, or hybrid. It's $9.99 but its the best 10 bucks I've spent since I got a smartphone. Some of the aerial photos are the same as google bit the big difference is you can zoom way in with good resolution.