Abandoned East Tennessee: Ruins of Rocky Top

Abandoned structures are places that open the imagination and invite interpretation. Distressed wood and weathered remnants of human life are crossed by time and animal tracks, inviting one to picture what once was.

Abandoned homes and buildings offer a unique, distressed beauty. While often overlooked by passers-by, their skeletal remains act as the perfect subject for the lens of a camera, quietly waiting to be captured and shared.

Abandoned East Tennessee: Ruins of Rocky Top takes you on an action-packed exploration of life left behind in the Great Smoky Mountain communities of East Tennessee. When most think of East Tennessee, they imagine beautiful mountains, misty mornings, rolling green meadows, wildflowers, and Southern hospitality.

The photos and narrative found in this book offer a different interpretation of East Tennessee’s blighted beauty. Photographer Jay Farrell takes viewers through the roads and hollows less traveled, walking them through dilapidated farmhouses, decaying cars and trucks, and the shells of former businesses.

Readers are encouraged to explore the forgotten corners of the state, see the world through different eyes, and take the long road home.