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Location: Scott County, Tennessee/by way of Detroit
3,352 posts, read 2,824,565 times
Reputation: 10348
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72
If you are looking for a rural life in East TN then I am sure you can find it. You can get some land, house and live a very rural lifestyle in many areas. However if you really are serious about wanting to be in a place with no building codes, neighbors 5 miles away or more, no government officials to bother you then I would think you may be asking for too much. The kind of thing described in the OP really only exists in Alaska. You can come close to that kind of living in Montana, Idaho, parts of Minnesota, Upper Michigan or parts of Maine.
Now as far as some of these posts seeming unwelcoming, this is something you may see in some people, really very few people. There are some who don't like people from the urban northeast moving to town, taking up jobs, driving up real estate costs, and bringing northern ways to town. Most people you come into contact with will be friendly, but whenever you move to another place there will be some people who don't want you there. IMO when you move somewhere new it is not for the approval of your new neighbors. They will either like you or they wont, that is their choice. The move is for you, and if it will make you happy then what does it matter if your "treated like a laughing stock". I think overall you'll find Tennessee to be very friendly overall, as long as you treat others respectfully. This is true everywhere though. Other posters have said that you should take a vacation down here. I agree wholeheartedly, visiting here will allow you to see the reality of what it is like here. I think then you will see just how rural you can get here, then decide if that is what you want. What you are looking for is most likely found in Tennessee's most rural counties, especially the ones that border Kentucky. They seem to be the most rural. Good luck.
Good advice....I think very FEW people are unwelcoming also...moved to Scott County from Michigan in Sept and everyone here is very welcoming...from the State Farm guy, to the guy who put in our windows who actually said he was glad we were here... and not just for the business, we've become friends and he has helped us immensely with things....it's a beautiful state and I am glad we made the move!!!!
Good advice....I think very FEW people are unwelcoming also...moved to Scott County from Michigan in Sept and everyone here is very welcoming...from the State Farm guy, to the guy who put in our windows who actually said he was glad we were here... and not just for the business, we've become friends and he has helped us immensely with things....it's a beautiful state and I am glad we made the move!!!!
I also used to live in Michigan, and I have never met someone who made me feel unwelcome. However I have heard that people who move from the northeast have a harder time "fitting in" here or even in other parts of the US when they move out of that region. I don't know if that is true or not. There are common posters in this thread who originated in the Northeast, maybe they could shed light on this. You do hear a lot of hostility on CD aimed at people from the northeast for some reason. I wonder if they experience this in real life. The OP should look at your county, Scott county is the kind of place that comes closest to offering the rural life the OP is looking for. I think though he is thinking he will escape civilization, and when he visits he will see rural does not mean wilderness. If it is the "off the grid" wilderness experience he is looking for then only Alaska will provide that.
Location: Scott County, Tennessee/by way of Detroit
3,352 posts, read 2,824,565 times
Reputation: 10348
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72
I also used to live in Michigan, and I have never met someone who made me feel unwelcome. However I have heard that people who move from the northeast have a harder time "fitting in" here or even in other parts of the US when they move out of that region. I don't know if that is true or not. There are common posters in this thread who originated in the Northeast, maybe they could shed light on this. You do hear a lot of hostility on CD aimed at people from the northeast for some reason. I wonder if they experience this in real life. The OP should look at your county, Scott county is the kind of place that comes closest to offering the rural life the OP is looking for. I think though he is thinking he will escape civilization, and when he visits he will see rural does not mean wilderness. If it is the "off the grid" wilderness experience he is looking for then only Alaska will provide that.
My husband's roots are deeply embedded in Scott County..family goes back to the 1700s here, he has TONS of shirt tail relatives running around and most of the people from here have a last name that is related somehow....really fascinating...and it is pretty rural....
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.
just to be honest, if you went to a place like that in Eastern TN it would most likely also be a place with a serious Meth problem and crimes related to it.
Not saying everywhere you would go there would be that way but it sure as hell isn't unheard of. Not in the places you are thinking of.
going to touristy Gatlinburg is one thing but if you're wanting to seriously live or move into a place or small town that remote in Eastern TN, it has it share of problems like anywhere else.
one poster is right. You should just, come here first, then decide.
No offense but you sound like someone who has a broadly romantic view from watching "Deliverance" one too any times or something.
or just a big John Denver fan. or just a troll.
no, I don't meant that being disrespectful its just wherever you go, ANYWHERE, you will have problems to deal with and people to deal with.
you can escape a city but you can't escape life.
there's crime and everything else in those small backwoods too, sometimes even more so because they are so remote.
that's one reality of it. at least from some of the people I've personally met from the region in TN you seem to be asking about, especially the more remote it is.
maybe other people here can tell you a different experience.
I haven't been to Tennessee. But I live where there are so many cameras and advertisements and high-born stuck-up back-stabbin hypocrites telling you what you can and can't do all the time that I would do absolutely anything to go where you don't always feel like a prisoner having to get permits and permission just to pick your nose. To go where there is something left of the freedom we are supposed to have as Americans and where I can live without debt and build a life with my own 2 hands. Please tell me there is a place where I can do this. I am so tired of feeling like I'm in a soviet bloc.
you would actually have to buy land first........and then all the materials
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.
honestly, when I read threads like this, Im glad I live in Nashville.
I seriously had no idea East TN had so many "refugees"
I knew there's a few hippies there every summer backpacking but then again Bonnaroo aint too far from me, so that don't mean crap
but the way some of these people talk are as if they are seriously running from the law or a murder charge or something hoping East TN or western NC will be their salvation ?
am I wrong or is it mainly people from OUTSIDE TN,NC.VA or even the South who choose to live this way on purpose here?
I am also considering East TN as a location to buy a small condo (I'm single) and retire. Now, I'm certainly going to visit there first and see how I like the area. For some reason, I'm interested most in Bristol but also did consider and research Mountain City. I decided I didn't want to be as isolated as I think Mountain City would be, but it certainly would be a place to visit on a day trip.
Bristol appealed to me partly because some of the older homes seemed affordable and there were a number of condos as well. I wouldn't be looking for somewhere to work. In fact, I would most likely rent for a year or two before I purchased, just to see if I would fit in the area and how much I liked it there. Plus Bristol is the size of town I live in now and am most comfortable. Another thing is that Bristol is near I-81, which would make travel easier to be near an Interstate.
I've heard the area is beautiful and from the pictures I've seen, it seems nice. The other towns I've looked at and would like to at least visit are Abingdon, VA; Johnson City; Elkins and Martinsburg, WV. I'm from Texas, so I guess that would be considered moving from one part of the south to another. I'm interested in history, day trips in the mountains and just living a quiet life. I'm not sure how my moving to that area would threaten anyone.
Anyway, I'm 57 this year so this is maybe 5-7 years away still, but I am researching and planning ahead. Is that really not a good area to retire? Some of these posts have me confused.
In 2008 I visited a childhood friend I grew up with on the West coast. Twenty years ago he bought a modest ranch house on a few acres in the hills between Elizabethton and Mountain City. Employment was not an issue due to an inheritance. No cell phone, television, or computer. His nearest neighbor was a prostitute and involved in drugs, a mother of two children, until her house burned down ... meth. The next two neighbors live in old wooden shacks with a dirt floor ... no running water. Closer to the main road, newer large homes mixed with small ranch homes and/or trailers. Some of his neighbors ignore him or just stare at him; others he made good friends with who help each other out. Very good sincere people. He attends the local church occasionally which consists of the locals. He's accepted by some and not by others.
We hiked the Appalachian trail and I noticed a couple of guys hanging out at the entrance who seemed out of place. He told me it was probably a drug deal going on.
His family and friends told him he was crazy for wanting to live in that area instead of closer to town. But he is a loner to an extent and prefers to live in nature without some of the usual modern conveniences. It's truly a beautiful area across the path to the Cherokee National Park, but it does come with a downside.
Last edited by smpliving; 02-19-2015 at 08:48 PM..
I am also considering East TN as a location to buy a small condo (I'm single) and retire. Now, I'm certainly going to visit there first and see how I like the area. For some reason, I'm interested most in Bristol but also did consider and research Mountain City. I decided I didn't want to be as isolated as I think Mountain City would be, but it certainly would be a place to visit on a day trip.
My friend I described in my previous post said Bristol would be his #1 choice of a town to live in if he decided to leave country living. It's a quaint and authentic town, IMO, though I haven't been there since 2008.
I really liked Abington and its Barter Theatre, but the town seems more isolated. Bristol is closer to other cities in the area including medical facilities. Something to think about in later years.
Last edited by smpliving; 02-19-2015 at 08:54 PM..
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lmfao
