Forgotten and ABANDONED Neon Signs of Cherokee
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- www.AdamTheWoo.com - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE - Joined by Jacob from www.TheCarpetba... I ventured to Cherokee, North Carolina to see what left of the incredible amount of vintage neon signs that used to welcome weary travelers. A few still in use, a few hidden and a few on their last leg. Quite an adventure . Enjoy !.
More former signs from Cherokee can be found at www.thecarpetba...
![일상 속 기분 좋음 [Proto disco meme]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DwmEIaZ7XGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Nothing caps a history project better than a grumpy local.
Glad I am old and got to see this place in it's glory days of the 60s when Frontier Town was still around to.
Adam, thanks so much for making this. I'm about your age, and when I was a kid, we'd vacation in Cherokee when it was in its prime. I have wonderful memories as a child there. It's sad how it's decayed.
In the top 3 videos you have ever done. Sweet, thanks.
And thanks for hooking us up with The Carpetbagger.
Pete Stean, the Cherokee Tribe opened their land to gambling (semi-Vegas/Atlantic City style) a number of years ago. With the arrival of the casinos several major chain motel/hotels opened in the area which cut down on occupancy in the older "Mom and Pop" motels closer into the old tourist town itself....Driving the older motels into bankruptcy in some cases. In addition RVers have become more common and several large, very nice and well maintained RV parks have also opened in the area. In Adams video I saw several motels and former tourist attractions that my parents, my brother and I stayed in or visited back in the late 1950s through late 1960s. Also, many smaller motels and most tourist attractions have traditionally closed for the "off season" from late October through about mid March.
It really doesn't help that one of the other bigger draws in that area, Ghost Town in the Sky, has fallen into complete disrepair because the new owner is being selective about what they want to restore. In the late 70's/early 80's, we would ALWAYS spend our summer trip in Maggie Valley and visit both areas. The last time we were in Cherokee the only thing doing well was Harrah's Casino; even the strip mall with the swinging bridge had been shut down. Very sad.
saffir girl, since it has been about five years since I lasted visited the Maggie Valley area I was unaware about Ghost Town. However, and I assume this is still true, a number of "B" (or maybe even "C") Westerns have been filmed in and around Ghost Town and Maggie Valley. I may have the name wrong but I think the production company calls or called itself Ghost Town Productions.
OMG the triceratops!!! I have been going to Cherokee since I was a kid in the 80's early 90's and have so many pictures of me on that dinosaur. Thank you so much for showing it. It is so random just sitting there now. Back in the day there was a souvenir shop beside him. But that is long gone. I think last time we were there it was an electronic shop.
I went to Cherokee sometime around 1967 as a kid. It was amazing. Very busy and exciting.
I remember going to the parks in western MD, VA where I grew up, and visiting Cherokee a couple of times. It was really cool, walked the paths along the river, went to some of the roadside places...and now, in 2018, I still remember it all.
Wow I visited the Cherokee Trader in the 70's...great memories..thank you
I see you found the "welcome wagon" at the end of the video.
wonder what that was about?
Adam, I saw and remember everyone of those signs when they were lite and glowing in all their glory. They were wonderful.
Bro I love these vids man. I have watched every single video. Still find myself going back and watching em. Gotta say tho, if it wasn't for your road to nowhere and this video I would have never went and visited Cherokee and Bryson.
I LOVE vintage neon signs..remember them as a kid and liked all the colors..Have a few I collected over the years.
As kid, we used to go there every year. I remember it being a very busy place, with lot,s of Native Cherokee folks dressed in traditional garb. They would be posing for pictures, and selling their wares, and souvenirs to tourists. We stayed at many of the old theme motels in the area with their neon signs flashing 24/7. Very good memories indeed.
+62636263c This was in the late 60s and early to mid 70s.
I went there back in the 80's. Cool place
The real-life "Radiator Springs" abandoned and forgotten...sad statement for us as a country...but "progress" has always run over the past. Well shot and edited...seems better with a "sidekick" to play off of too. Very enjoyable!
I have been to Cherokee several times. I saw places there in the video that are now closed forever. It is such a sad sight. I am tired of the economy being so terribly bad. I hope that one day, America will be as great as it once was. But for now, my hope is so very lost.
I love Adam the Woo,and The Carpet Bagger. The best channels out there in TH-cam land. Great content,and personality. Thanks guys.
As someone who grew up in the area, it makes me sad to see the state that the place has fallen into. I visited a couple of years back, and it seems like the casino had pretty much drained the area of anything resembling the tourism that used to run through there when I was a kid. They built a casino in Murphy? I guess Wal Mart is no longer the biggest thing going there :-)
I love the way you look at life
I actually spent a lot of time in that part of nc when i was a kid. This video was awesome thanks man!
My hubby and I were in Cherokee and Maggie Valley 10-17 thru 10-19. I used to go every couple of years. Its beautiful. I live in Greenville NC east coast and there are neon signs on a fair amount of abandoned places all over NC.
Why??
.....I'm from Florida
So hahaha
Plus you gotta love the "slightly distorted" bear face
"I'm from Florida" "SO" LMAO
That guy had never heard of F-L-O-R-I-D-A. Thought was some government agency there to take his welfare check.
Somewhere in my mom's stuff, there is an old vacation picture of 2-yr-old me with Chief Henry.
My 2 favorite TH-camrs. It's great to see you and Jacob together.
Love the signs! I've always thought it would be awesome to win the lottery and fix up a bunch of relic properties like this, recreate a 40's-50' era tourist trap. Always makes me sad to see the loss of neon and bulb marquees in favor of cheap plastic inserts that have no character...
A Carpetbagger and AdamTheWoo collab!? How have I not ever seen this??
I truly hate to see all these old places shut down. i miss the neon lit places.
I gotta compliment you on a couple of very cool, very smooth, slow tracking shots (like at 8:00 and 8:56 ). You just keep getting better and better!
The new smooth tracking shots are a strange addition to the normal ATW filming style? I like the hand held unedited rough filming style that we're used to!! Keep up the great work!!!
Adam and Jacob! Great collab guys. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks that was enjoyable. I love those old signs. I will be looking out for them in NJ now.
Times of life when things moved alot slower. The days were more simpler and definatly more colorful. But, it appears it is a very cozy and beautiful place. Forgotten by many enjoyed by few. Evidently not enough though?
I live near there. it use to be such a wonderful place to go.almost every summer we would.
As always another nice video !! Man ,they were playing like children ! LOL !
Chianagirl
What do you say about it ?! Really ,they were playing like children !! LOL !
Chianagirl
By the way ,do you have Facebook ?!
In the late 90's, me and my family stayed at a really dodgy motel in Cherokee. There was a hole in my sheets, with what looked like a blood stain around it. And even though it was around 1998, the TV was black and white with turn dials and rabbit ears instead of cable.
I can't remember the name of the place, but there was a tee-pee shaped buffet restaurant right outside of the motel building.
+ClassicCommercials4U Ha!
Good time !-_•
At least the teepee
was not full of pee.
I just found my "twin" - recreating famous locations from Dawn of the Dead, and now exploring vintage neon/tourist traps!!! Wow. I've done that too - have you been to Downingtown, PA to visit the locations where the BLOB was shot?? I did that (and got to meet the outer space alien himself!!), also used to document abandoned drive-in movie theaters. Keep up the great work, my grandparents lived in Maggie Valley, NC which is about an hour east of Cherokee. Beautiful country, and a great place to find some relics from the past. Rt. 11, which runs alongside 81 is also a great trip..........
You can't trust anyone with a mullet and the guy at the end of the video proves that.
I haven't been to Cherokee since 1989 and it's so sad to see it in such decay. You should start off in Knoxville & drive east to Rogersville & thru the Cumberland Gap & back west thru Kentucky, there's miles of old hotels & motels & cars, just looks like a place time forgot.
I lived there back in sometime around early 2000 It was beautiful there , I'm really homesick now I wish I would have stayed . The native people's really nice there they treated me so well . I miss them so much .
Omg when you asked that bear if he was ok god I laughed so much your so funny I love these vlogs xx
Always great seeing the carpetbagger
I love Neon signs. I was happy to see that Las Vegas has restored their neon signs and have them displayed downtown. Someday I will do the nighttime tour of their neon graveyard. It's always sold out when I go. Bummer!
Great video. You outta do a video about the movie deliverance. Which was filmed in oconee county south Carolina. Not to far from Cherokee nc
Lol I remember going to Cherokee and having my picture made with an Indian in full headdress named "Steve" lol. I was 10 years old; I'm 61 now! So that was definitely in the dark ages for most of y'all. (Yes, we had running water. Yes, we had indoor plumbing and air conditioning in our homes AND cars. Yes, we had restaurants, Coca-Cola, cameras, FM stereo radio (that still played under overpasses!), great movies, and penny candy. (That cost a penny.) We had regular gas that cost 33 cents/gal (but I didn't drive yet so I didn't care), We had McDonalds and Krystal and others. We trick-or-treated wherever we wanted and got real candy and delicious homemade treats. I could go on, but I don't want to hijack the thread! Hmm? What's that? Dirt? Sigh.. we had dirt then, too. I'm NOT older than dirt. Dirt was here before me. Not long! :)
The 1800s sound lit as AF.
Was that a real black bear with a sore head?...Actually Cherokee has a infamous dark past with the treatment of the black bears for tourist trade entertainment....i'm glad those times have changed!...From Florida....SO? lol..Thanks A&J for sharing.
Very cool signs. Thanks for another enjoyable video Adam. Go Florida!
Adam, thank you for doing a really fascinating video on "Forgotten and ABANDONED Neon Signs of Cherokee, North Carolina!"
Cheers!
P.S. “Pretty neat for Duke fans!” I rather enjoyed seeing Cooter's Place, and the Dukes of Hazzard Museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
I've actually stayed at the cool waters motel with my grandparents before, not that bad, good price on rooms, decent pool and is pet friendly unlike most places in Cherokee, oh the memories
Cherokee used to be pretty cool when I was a kid, back in the 80s, but they have just let it go to shit.
Yep. Passed through there so many times as a kid in the 80s. It was so lively full of tourists and locals. Went there last year and it was in sad shape. Still, the beauty and serenity of the place is alive at least.
70's too!
You could build a monster Tesla Coil with all those neon sign transformers!
Catching up on some old videos while Adam is on hiatus..
Was doing a nostalgia look througu and came back here (I kept up with the dailywoo for a long time and recently have started again) to look for some of the videos I remember from binge watching your videos on the main channel for hours upon hours a day, festooning my mind with Wooisms - and ran across this and don't recall it. And I just got back from a vacation to Cherokee 2 months ago. If I go back, I really want to check if all of this is still up, and what's been added to the list. I saw many, many closed up or barren places on my visit
And also we stayed at the same motel lol
I went through Cherokee in 2007 and had a nice time walking through some of the shops there. It's sad how the motels have had to close :>\
That guy at the very end was a real dick.
I got my picture taken with Chief Henry back in the early 80's.
Thanks for sharing this one. I have an old sweatshirt from there from years ago.
I saw a guy wearing a AdamTheWoo T-Shirt at a Wendys in Dayton, Ohio around 3-4 days ago (Around November 12th i believe) I wanted to say hi to him, but he had his hands full with his small child and i had my hands full as well. But if you are out there reading this you know who you are!
I ordered a t-shirt a few days ago... It hasn't arrived yet, but it has further to travel to the UK.
Well cool, love the videos all the way from the uk
You two are a hoot!
A Wonderful Place to go.went there many years when I was younger. Took my Mom we had a great time. Met and talked to Chief Henry one year he was a wonderful Man. Very Sad. Just saw Grannies is closed sucks. Had the besy Breakfast Buffet ever!
Miss Chief Henry a ton, he was a distant cousin and we saw him every year til he passed,
Hi Adam that one motel ,the teddy bear motel my aunt and uncle use to own it I think it still belongs to the family , nice to see it again
HI Adam , Another awesome vlog blog I love it :-)
the guy at the end shows how it would be in the 50's, off limits to some.
😂🤣
It's sad to say - but those wires were probably cut & stolen by copper thieves.
The ending clips are awesome!!
Cool video, thanks for posting. My grandparents took me camping in Cherokee as a kid, I think I've got a picture of myself standing next to that old stuffed bear in it's heyday.
Y'all need written permission from Billie Bob before y'all go takin pictures of this here Meth Lab....
Laughed so hard at the part with the giant Indian raising his hand "pst...psst! ..hey guys...I know..." XD
It reminded me of "HOW....do you get to The Thing?" XD
This was our family vacation spot every August as a kid growing up in the 80s....the town, not the hotel lol.
Many of those motels open in busy season and close during slow winter season.
AWESOME VIDEO AS ALWAYS
Gotta love The Carpetbagger too! :)
"You ain't got dem flashy neon signs In Florida?"
When I was in high school we went on a family trip and stayed in The Princess Motel! We thought it was so cool that the hotel was built around the trees. Also, all the rooms had mismatched furniture in them, we noticed out when the maids were cleaning some of the rooms
I spent a lot of my childhood in Cherokee, NC.
Sad that no more videos are uploaded to this channel. Don't get me wrong, the Daily Woo is awesome, but, I like the attention to detail on these videos. Now when you go visit a place it's a minute or 2 and then it's on to something else.
Lewis Booth Yep I miss it also. You never know, he may upload more on this channel in the future.
That "random" triceratops was at a little roadside venue (souvineer and snack store) along with Steve the Indian in full headdress. I have a picture somewhere of me on top of that thing! I was 10 then. I'm 61 now. That's a lot of years inbetween. I can't believe you and the Bagger found that! It was painted a lighter color back then.
I worked in that shop, next to the dinosaur, airbrushing t-shirts for many years. I don't remember having snacks and I don't remember a guy named Steve. That shop was brand new when I started working there, so the time you are talking about must have been quite some time before I was there. I miss those days in a way, but I worked way too much to really enjoy my time there. Looking back I shouldn't have worried so much about working and actually had a life. It still holds a lot of good memories for me.
I remember going through here in the mid 60'S. We stopped one place and 2 guys were trying to change a tire, had a jack but no handle for it. Dad loaned them our handle but the tire they were trying to put on their Ford was on a Chevy wheel. They asked if we had a file to file out the holes to make the rim fit. Dad told them no, but if they needed a ride he would take them where they needed to go. They said thanks, but they were going to have to figure a way to get back to Georgia.
I was about 9, and as we left I asked if that wasn't a long way to go without a spare? Got a laugh from Mom and Dad.
Been thru there quite a few times in my life. Sad to see it all go down like that.
Very cool place indeed , will be on my list to do next year when over there , thanks Adam
WOW so many Motels in that small town!
I can remember when places like these across america was hopping busy every weekend and threw the summer months and of course there was no casinos in america and of course there was no interstate freeway system via everyone had to travel by way of the old 2 lane hwys ( the old twisting turning windy hwy and byways roads ) that ran threw every little nook and cranny town threw out america..
My parents took us kids on vacation every yr and on one of those vacation my parents drove our family to California taking the old route 66 out of Missouri all the way to California in 1962.
I was born and raised in Missouri and thus threw out the 1960s my parent took us kids on vacation in all four direction north south east and west. I`ve been to Washington DC, Florida keys,Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone national park corpus Christi Texas and of course california.
I`ve seen a shit ton of these fun little vacation towns across america AND sadly casinos and the modern day HWY system not to mention the economy has just about destroyed them all.
"Aww... man your being held by 2 bears.... I thought they were werewolves!!" 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
That place use to be thriving. So sad .
Awesome signs! Everyone of them deservses to be saved.
My family and I, when I was just a child, used to camp around that area.
The Kevin bacon movie was "Digging to China." I googled it
ALTERNATIVE TENTICLES.??? NICE ONE WOO!!!! From MAX in Liverpool UK
Thanks for this video I used to go there every Fall with My Mother and stay there. So sad to see it like this. I blame the Casinos for it. Met Chief Henry many times there. Ate the buffet at Grannies, many times was good food!
Love the Woodchuck scene! Ha ha ha! Thanks for the vid., Adam-
there used to be a great restaurant it was a buffet called the TeePee the sign was a huge neon Teepee and the food was INCREDIBLE there used to be nothing better than fried trout from there
Theres an abandoned theme park called Land of Oz in Beech Mountain NC. Sounds right up your alley dude!
Actually drove to this area to see the Eclipse of 2017, some of the signs looked familiar.
i love those old signs
Cool old neon signs!
Cool, I live in a town close to Cherokee called Murphy, N.C. next time you are over this way you should swing through. It has some neat old stuff.
Like the world's Largest Ten Commandments!
yes, fields of the woods! hey thanks for the reply
as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck. if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
I love neon, it`s kinda futuristic and rustic at the same time.. Great video, great channel, I love all of your stuff buddy you really go above and beyond, your `wanderer`s soul` is quite inspiring. I bloody wish you`d appear on Google+ though. Lol
Its interesting how our vacation interests have changed. I guess back then when it came to the "small town get away from the city for a weekend" type vacations they were not loaded with tons of water parks,amusement parks,Clifton Hill/Down town Wisconsin Dells type places etc. Even though i admit i am more of a amusement park/water park/big tourist attraction type person i wonder how old 40s and 50s small town vacations were like.