Community Website

If you’re reading this, you’ve found our new community-focused website, SouthCumberlandPartnership.com. While the site still relatively new, we will be adding more useful information of interest to our local community as we move forward, including updates on the progress of each of our Projects.

Workforce Training/Youth Engagement

Including our high schoolers and young adults in efforts to improve our area’s economy is critical to the future of this region. All members of our workforce can improve their careers and earning potential by taking advantage of courses that offer certifications in a number of areas, from business start-ups to finance to trade-specific skills training to human resources, customer service and more. This project will inventory all existing opportunities for workforce training, and will advocate for development of courses in areas not already offered.

Hospitality Worker Training

A visitor’s experience in our area is often determined by interactions with our local hospitality workforce. Friendly and knowledgeable hospitality personnel, capable of answering the most-often-asked visitor questions, can result in favorable online visitor reviews of our area (or unfavorable reviews, if the visitor had a poor experience). This project seeks to facilitate relevant training and certifications for front-line hospitality and customer service workers, including “local knowledge” such as area geography and history, as well as practical information visitors are most likely to want to know.

Guide, Docent and Interpreter Training

One of today’s significant trends in outdoor tourism is providing visitors with a guided (or “curated”) experience — basically, a guided tour, introductory talk, or even a costumed historic re-enactor or storyteller. With the rich natural features and deep cultural history of our region, there are tremendous opportunities for knowledgeable local citizens to provide these guided experiences. This project (closely related to our other project on facilitating guided tours and interactive storytelling programs) will identify and facilitate opportunities to provide certification-level training for guides, docents and interpretive specialists.

Tours and Guided Experiences

This project, closely related to our other project to develop certificate training programs for guides, docents and interpretive specialists — aims to facilitate guided tours and interactive storytelling programs in selected locations across Tennessee’s South Cumberland, during higher-visitor-traffic periods. The project team will develop a plan to grow guided tours with the support of local businesses, in order to give visitors reasons to extend their stay, and work to develop organized ways to promote the availability of guided experiences to our visiting public.

High-Angle and Rescue Training

The outdoor recreation part of our economy is large, and growing. Because our area is so highly regarded for hiking, climbing, backcountry camping and other active outdoor activities, it is inevitable that there will be times when visitors or even local citizens find themselves in harm’s way. Rescue procedures in rough terrain are challenging, and this project aims to identify and facilitate more opportunities for those interested in careers as first responders, including advanced classes to prepare them to respond effectively, even in the most challenging situations.

Bike and Walk Audits for Local Towns

Making towns easy to walk or bike through the designation and/or creation of pedestrian and bicycle-friendly sidewalks or trails is a smart investment in our economic future. The more time visitors can spend in our towns, the more opportunities for local businesses to succeed. This project will investigate the use of bike/walk audits and implementation of improvements to inform broader use in the region, conducting bike and walking audits for interested towns, in partnership with community leadership.

"Trail Town" Designation for Local Towns

Certification of our communities as “Trail Towns” is a great way to stimulate reinvestment and growth in our local economies. This project will work with our town leaders to inventory existing pathways and identify opportunities to help each town qualify for “Trail Town” certification. It will consider trails of all types (outdoor recreation: hiking, biking, equestrian, kayaking/canoeing and arts; and culture: history, artisan, wine/breweries, music, public art, farms, etc.) to include under a Trail Town banner, to connect outdoor recreation interests with main streets, downtowns, businesses, merchants and services in each community.

Outdoor Safety Videos

This project involves production of Ranger-hosted videos in cooperation with TN State Parks and TN Department of Tourist Development, focusing on visitor education and safety, with distribution via YouTube and social media, with marketing support as needed. This project team can partner with Friends of the Parks for use of its “ParkSmarts” information as the basis for some of these video scripts.

Promoting Local Products

This project team will explore ways to promote production and sale of “Made in the Mountains of Adventure” (or “Made in South Cumberland”) products through local businesses, including farms. The team will investigate ways to better connect visitors and online customers to our local “maker” community — including, but not limited to, art, furniture, textiles, produce and other food products, printed products, aroma products, etc.

Assess Gaps in Visitor Services

Because our area currently attracts only about one-third of the Tennessee state average for daily visitor spending, this project team will be conducting regional assessment to identify opportunities for improvements in visitor services, particularly related to hours of operation and seasonality of visitor services, but also to topics such as food options, take-out/delivery, etc. the assessment will help identify “gaps” existing assets and visitor services, including hospitality (food and accommodations), retail (shopping), services (e.g., yoga classes), and other business offerings that have impact on visitor experience and spending.

Business Incubator and Support Center

Many great ideas for new local businesses fail, not because of the lack of effort by our entrepreneurs, but because they may not have essential business skills, like the ability to create and execute a business plan, lack access specialized equipment or the ability to attract start-up capital. This project seeks to create a business incubator space, where such needs can be addressed, and both new start-ups as well as existing businesses seeking to expand can find technical assistance and education to help improve their chances of long-term success.

Christmas-Themed Event

This project team will develop and execute a Christmas-themed event that celebratesoutdoor recreation, downtowns, and cultural heritage, with a primary objective of increasing visitor spending at local businesses while offering unique experiences and activities both visitors and residents. The team should consider involvement with the faith-based community and student choirs, holding events at local historic sites throughout our region.

Visitor-Themed Events

This project will plan, prioritize and execute additional events in the region, each designed to connect visitors with the activities and services of local businesses and merchants. The project team will investigate options such as competitions (e.g., cycling, frisbee golf, pickleball, etc.), cultural heritage events (e.g., a Miners Path/history event at the OHV Park), and community-centric events (such as an area-wide Yard Sale).

Performing Arts Space

This project seeks to determine feasibility and develop specific plans for specific locations suitable for re-use as a performing arts space. Plans will include layout, design, modification costs, build-out, timetable, operating costs, operating strategies and likely funding sources. Multiple venues, such as a portion of the former Coalmont Elementary School, the former factory space behind the Courthouse in Altamont, and/or vacant space in Tracy City could be obtained for this purpose.

Design Guide

Because the Pennsylvania Wilds region, like the South Cumberland area, chooses to have little or no zoning regulations, a “Design Guide” was created by the Pennsylvania Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, providing suggestions to area businesses, new or existing, for making their facilities more attractive and appealing to visitors — a type of “idea book” with many good tips for their use. Our version will include lots of examples with local photos, and many ideas, too. These ideas can also be used with big-chain franchise restaurants, in order to encourage them to style their local locations in a way that blends with our area.

New Visitor Center

The State Park Visitor Center, between Monteagle and Tracy City, is nearly 50 years old, and is actually several miles from the park it represents. This Project is looking at the possibility of creating a new, state-of-the-art Visitor Center at Grundy Forest — a destination-grade attraction for visitors, and a wonderful place of learning for students and adults alike.

Trail Mountain Bike Facility

Many of us wish there were more enjoyable, healthy options for exercise in our local area. Other regions have found great success by creating a Trail Mountain Bike facility, which can be enjoyed both by local citizens and by visitors. In fact, a competition-grade facility, such as the one this Project is investigating, can bring in significant visitor spending with multi-day, competitive Mountain Biking events.

Elk River Paddling

The Elk River, one of Tennessee’s five major river systems, has its headwaters in Burroughs Cove, northeast of Pelham. This beautiful river would be ideal for a paddling (kayak or canoe) adventure. This Project is investigating whether the Upper Elk River can be made accessible and navigable for paddling, including the establishment of an Outfitter that would rent boats and gear, and provide shuttle service between points on the river.

Elk Herd Viewing

The Pennsylvania Wilds region has found great success in reintroducing wild herds of Elk into portions of its area. The Elk herds have brought significant numbers of visitors to their area, especially in the “slower tourism” colder months when the Elk tend to congregate in specially-designed grazing meadows. In our area, Elk used to roam and graze in astounding numbers (the Elk River’s name reflects this history!]. This project is investigating whether suitable land could be provided to support an Elk herd, grazing meadows and viewing areas, while keeping the Elk away from crops and farms.