We’re expanding our horizons at Appalachia Bare and have made our first attempt at video and filming! Join us on a tour of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s abandoned town of Elkmont. You’ll find the view slightly pixelated, a little jumpy in places, and dizzying in spots. We avoided several areas with caution tape and/or locked doors for safety reasons.
This video starts with a short bit of history, and the filming begins at the 2:47 mark. Our apologies for the “heliumesque” and sliced beginning. Hopefully, with experience we’ll improve our filming capability. We’re so glad to share this next step with you. Enjoy the video and leave a comment.
Here’s a link to the transcription:
https://www.appalachiabare.com/elkmont-transcription/
**All video footage shot by Delonda and Tom Anderson
**Photos by Tom Anderson
***Featured Image taken from a historical marker at Elkmont
Sources:
As I watched this video, besides the urge for a dose of dramamine, I kept thinking about what it was like in Elkmont’s heyday. A lot of stories and good times must be creeping around in these rustic cabins. As far as future videos, you both have very nice voices for narration; the short history was a good intro; the creepy music was a clever touch; and I know it isn’t easy to do handle-held videos. I’ve got a few shaky cam videos at home that make yours look positively cinematic. A helpful option for more advanced videography is a gimbal, but the good ones can be very expensive. Thank you for the tour, and I hope the head knock was not too traumatic.
Thanks for your comments and suggestions, they are always helpful, very welcome, and make us laugh. Definitely agree on the urge for dramamine! I’ll look into gimbals (which I’m familiar with only in name) to try and ease that effect in future videos. The head knock wasn’t bad, and we laughed every time we watched that scene, between that and missing the step in the room!
It was definitely eerie walking through these houses, even in mid-afternoon. There were quite a few other visitors there when we were, but for some reason everyone was silent walking around the area. It was clear these were essentially vacation homes, since there were no out-buildings, no space for gardens or the other elements one normally sees in year-round dwellings. The structures were pretty fascinating and are definitely worth a visit.