Hill\Mountian Folks (Johnson City, Bristol, Gatlinburg: for sale, real estate, insurance)

[ylisa7]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

I am looking for a place unspoiled by civilization. No t.v. No billboards No radio if thats even possible. I want to live the simple life of just like 10 acres of undeveloped woods\mountains where I can be left alone and have real absolute peace and tranquility. I would like to have friendly neighbors (maybe 5-10 miles from the nearest neighbor) Maybe have a town of like 40-50 normal down to earth people who live by the work they do with their own hands and have character and integrity and pride. (They don't live beholden to anybody, and don't owe anybody anything, and are always friendly and honest.) I can come down from the mountains into town and buy supplies and everybody knows everybody. I imagine a place like the hills and hollers that Porter Wagoner or Loretta Lynn sang about. A place where I won't get bothered for raising critters and planting things and shootin my guns. A place where nobody will tell me what I can and can't do with my own land. A place where I can build a log cabin and work my land and fish and eat and sleep and be left alone. Are there any places like this left in Tennessee? Where folks word is their word and seldom is heard a discouraging one. And I can let my banjo ring through the hills.

P.S. I know I may sound like a nutcase or somebody that watches too much tv but I genuinely want this kind of simple life. I am not one of those people that wake up one day and decide to live off the land with no idea how. I have been thinking about it for years and I have spent years learning all the skills I need to do it and I understand and gladly accept the back-breaking labor it's gonna make for me so please treat me seriously.

You can check into Johnson County TN. There are small towns throughout but as with all places you will have good and bad people/neighbors….just less of them.

There are very few building codes in JC. Just a perk test and a septic inspection and an electrical inspection if you hook up to a house or building. Other than that you can build what you want. The EPA will bother you if you change any of the water on your property though.

Good luck in your search. I am from LI and will never go back to that zoo of people and Gestapo rules. Come down for a visit and check out the different areas. Make sure it is what you really want. I love it but it is very different from where I grew up and not all people will like it. No matter where you live there will be some things you won't like

[An Einnseanair]

First off, using the internet to try to find a place with no high-tech frills (radio/TV/internet) is somewhat ironic. No one on this board will say, "I live in the perfect spot", because if they really do live in the perfect spot they won't have access to the internet.


What you are looking for isn't a "thing of the past", but it's not a thing you're likely to find east of the Mississippi River. Waaay too many people around here. The Cumberland Plateau areas in the middle of the state are too full of Nashville/Knoxville retirees, though there are some seriously rural areas. Nothing like the isolation you describe, though. Maybe buried deep in the Appalachians, but most of the Appalachian areas in TN are public land (GSMNP or Cherokee NF) so you can't live there. If you want something in the eastern US you may have luck in far western North Carolina, Virginia, or even better, the far holler's in the western part of West Virginia or eastern Kentucky (ever seen the AMC TV show Justified? It's pretty good, even if the fake accents are atrocious.)

For better luck, you should be looking way over in the Rocky Mountains. Specifically, look in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. That will be your best bet for no TV/Radio. But even there you'll have access to satellite TV... so... maybe you're looking for a home in a cave?

If you really want to find something like this, sell everything you own, buy a camper/travel trailer, and go explore.


Incidentally, building codes exist for a reason. If you want to build a tarpaper shack and live there by yourself, then go for it. But if you want to get a bank to loan you money using the home as collateral, the bank has the right to know if the "home" is one errant ember away from total immolation. And if you expect to be able to call the fire department when your home wiring ignites your palace, the firemen have the right to know then won't die if they come in trying to rescue your libertarian butt. Finally, if you want to raise kids in what is essentially a death trap, the state has the right to know about any cases of child endangerment.

[talkin56]

I did that..in a former life. I was tired of neighbors, zoning regulations, neighbors calling zoning and the Florida heat of Jacksonville, FL.. I moved to Green Mountain,NC in Yancey County NC just over Iron Mtn from the TN border and lived there for almost 20 years before returning to "civilization". Yancey county is home of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak E of the Mississippi river. While I was away on my adventure.. the internet was developed, the microchip, superhighways with planes runways on top of them, more people than I could have ever imagined crossed our shores, my profession was "crowded" when I returned to Florida (Ft Laud. this time). While I was away on my adventure I developed sub-skills much like in the Fox Fire books of the 70s. I enjoyed farming to a great degree and really appreciated nature as I never had in my life. So, it is possible but you have to have someone to do it with in case something happens to you in the "middle of nowhere". I still have my property there and by comparison it is quite a "real life" dealing with the solitude, the seasons and the mountain culture of NC. Like you, it was something that I just wanted to experience in my life..having "had enough" of the mundane. I was greatly influenced by the series Northern Exposure and wanted a sense of community in a small area. I found that and sometimes I really miss it and that was a life I left three years ago. I agree a vacation would be a good start. I say you can find what you are looking for on the outskirts of Burnsville, NC...between there and TN. providing you can find work there.

[An Einnseanair]

Had another thought on this... Upstate or western New York or north-central Pennsylvania. A co-worker grew up in the Allegany Mts and it can be seriously rural. Unfortunately, you'll have to deal with the nanny-state laws imposed on the upstaters by the urbanites in New Yowak City. Building codes will most definitely be mandated.

talkin56 has a good poing about rural NC, but I believe your best bet east of the Mississippi river would be upstate Maine. Totally isolated, especially in winter. Move up there and you'll be cussin' the worthless summer folk in no time.

[kamilavalamp]

So Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Burnsville North Carolina, and Johnson County TN are my best bets. Maine and Montana are out because I hate snow.
Doesn't unincorporated Territory mean no police, fireman, post office, building inspectors, etc?

[Bones]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

Doesn't unincorporated Territory mean no police, fireman, post office, building inspectors, etc?

For the most part = NO

[Creekcat]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

Doesn't unincorporated Territory mean no police, fireman, post office, building inspectors, etc?

Unincorporated, as in not a town or city, still in a county.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

So Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Burnsville North Carolina, and Johnson County TN are my best bets. Maine and Montana are out because I hate snow.
Doesn't unincorporated Territory mean no police, fireman, post office, building inspectors, etc?

Unincorporated = not in a city/town. I do not believe there are any "territories" in the contiguous United States. Maybe some on outlying islands. Here on the continent you will always be subject to county, state, and federal laws.

You will always have access to US Mail (federal). Anywhere and everywhere in the USA.

Building inspectors depends on the state. Rural areas probably won't have county-specific building codes, but many states have state-wide codes with state inspectors. There are locations with no government-mandated building codes or inspections, but if you want to get a mortgage most banks will require compliance and inspections.

Fire will likely be by volunteer departments. Usually this means by the time they assemble and show up the home is gone but they can probably keep the fire from spreading to other buildings. There are vast differences in training, equipment, and readiness between different volunteer departments.

You will always have access to police (county sheriff, state police), but "access" varies considerably. I lived at the edge of a county, and police response times were at least 30 minutes during the day, over an hour at night. And that's if you could actually get in contact with the one deputy on duty, and if he wasn't on another call. There was a case in Oregon a few years back where a woman called 911 and was told there was "no one to help her" while her ex was breaking down her door. The call lasted a while. He eventually made it inside the house where he raped and strangled her. If you move to a rural area, get a gun. In a true emergency the police cannot help you.

Medical care will be similar. An acquaintance lives in rural Colorado and he is a volunteer EMT. Emergency response times are usually over an hour purely based on travel times over mountainous roads. You may have access to helicopter transport (better get health insurance that covers it), but your best bet is to learn how to treat yourself.

[creeksitter]

TN passed a law a few years back that required building codes - unless a county took steps to opt out. I don't know how you'd find out which had opted out unless you called every rural county.

No one on this board will say, "I live in the perfect spot", because if they really do live in the perfect spot they won't have access to the internet.

There are phone lines run in most if not all of the rural areas. I don't know if it was a mandate like rural electrification but they are pretty prevalent.

[TN Tin Man]

Morgan County, Tennessee, USA

http://www.scottcounty.com/

http://www.fentressco.com/

http://www.dalehollowlake.org/

http://www.tn.gov/local/pickett.shtml