About the Friends of Big South Fork


Devil’s Cave

Mission Statement Friends of the Big South Fork is a non-profit group of interestedcitizens formed to support and promote the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area by raising funds to preserve, restore and enhance the park’s natural and cultural resources, to provide improved services and facilities for visitors, to increase public awareness and support of the park and to enhance educational and interpretive activities, thus increasing public appreciation and understanding of the park.
Sponsors & Friends Contact E-mail

BIG SOUTH FORK NAT’L RIVER & RECREATION AREA

HOME / EVENTS / FRIENDS NEWS / AREA MAP / ABOUT US / CONTACT

Just a little something about the Friends of the Big South Fork

In January 2005 we began the most active period in our 14 year history. For the first time we became a full time, professionally staffed organization and broadened our focus to include an ambitious community development program for Scott, Morgan, Fentress, Pickett, McCreary and Wayne Counties. This wasn’t—and isn’t—the kind of development that builds more smokestacks. Rather it is an effort aimed at the careful and sustainable development of our unique natural and cultural resources through a combination of eco-tourism, retirement and home grown small business.

I am happy to report today that though still in its infancy this program is going strong. While it will be years before the full impact is known, we believe we may even be seeing some of the earliest positive results.

I must start any account of the Friends history by first thanking the companies who share our vision—and who have backed up their belief in our Region with cash.These read like a “Who’s who” of Plateau business.

First National Bank of Oneida, First Trust and Savings Bank,Bank of McCreary County, Barna LogHomes, National Coal, Mothwing, Grand Vista Hotels, East Tennessee Economic Development Association, CNX Oil Corporation. We thank each of you from the bottom of our hearts. You committed many thousands of dollars over multiple years, to a set of programs with long range and indirect returns, and you must share the first congratulations for any success that we may achieve.

Carta Vista - A Virtual fly Through of the Big South Fork Coming to a Computer Near You!

What is - Carta Vista™

In late 2004 we approached these Cornerstone Sponsors, and the community at large, with a three year plan. The main features of 2005 were to secure staffing, help open and promote the new Visitor’s Center and begin development of a program called Carta Vista. This is a virtual reality software which—among many other features—lets visitors take a visual “fly-through” of the Big South Fork and learn about its features. We are pleased to report that working with the Chamber of Commerce and Scott County Government, we began full time operations at the Visitor’s Center on schedule. We continued development of Carta Vista and started work on the $750,000 in grants necessary to implement Phases I and II of that ambitious program. In 2010, among other things, the plan is to bring Carta Vista online and begin to promote its use in both tourism and education. We would also work on long term revenue development for our operations so as not to free up our sponsors’ charitable support for other groups and activities. This would result in a number of improvements and would see the Carta Vista program implemented in Visitor’s Centers throughout the region. The future of the Carta Vista program looks bright indeed.

"The future
of the Carta Vista program is bright indeed."

Sponsorship is available for
Wings Over Big South Fork 2010!

Wings Over the Big South Fork

Wings is a program we developed from scratch in 2004 which will have its annual show on the second Saturday in September at the Scott County Airport. It features historic WWII Fighter Planes, low level aerobatic performances, airplane rides, a family fun center, with the addition of a Friday night concert and more. Please see www.WingsOverBigSouthFork.com and plan to bring your families. It is not only great entertainment for those of us who live here; it also introduces the Plateau to visitors with higher than average discretionary funds and invites them back to fuel our local economy.

Many Other Projects…

To date we have written over $1.5M in grants for various needed visitor services for consideration in 2009. In addition to things like a comprehensive Regional Visitor’s Guide, a “Tear Off” Map and a well designed Driving Tour, these provide ample operational funds as well.

In addition we are working with vendors to develop Friends of the Big South Fork logo items for sale through various outlets. These are being produced on demand, and shipped from the vendors dock. We receive a good commission with no up front investment or handling costs. 2009 will see the first major re-vamping of our web site, www.FriendsOfTheBigSouthFork.org, in order to make it easier to update and to better emphasize e-commerce through the ability to make commissionable reservations and purchase from our online store.

We are also in discussion with several providers of visitor’s services to hammer out commission deals for referrals, and we have establish a “Hospitality Training Program” that will be the basis for a “Big South Fork Seal of Approval”. This will help ensure a quality visitor experience at participating businesses throughout the region. These and other programs all stand to help us meet our operational needs for the indefinite future.

Today we are building a regional network and improving our relationships with area the National Park Service, Area Chambers of Commerce, Local Governments and leading businesses. We are working hard to expand the hours of operation at the Visitor’s Center at Huntsville and to coordinate activities between Visitor’s Centers in 6 Counties and 2 states. By developing these relationships now we can begin to share visitors and refer them to multiple spending opportunities throughout the Region. In addition, these Centers will provide excellent locations for the expansion of Carta Vista throughout the Region.

In 2005 we worked with TDOT to designate Hwy 63 as the Big South Fork Parkway. In conjunction with that effort, we have had new signage erected along that route directing travelers to the Center.

Some of the 4,000 + people who attended the Haunting In the Hills at the Bandy Creek Campground.

Festival Based Development

We have increased our focus on what we call “Festival Based Development”. The idea is to help coordinate and market a series of high quality commercially feasible festivals to visitors from outside the region. These are by no means events that we have developed on our own—in fact many have been going on for years—but by coordinating, sharing information and cooperatively marketing them across a broader region, the success of each event can be maximized and we can bring ever more diverse visitors to the Plateau. If you are involved with a festival, whether well established or just starting out, we would like to speak with you. We are very interested in seeing that all the hard work that goes into these events pays off. A few examples are the Storytelling Festival at Bandy Creek, the Pumpkin Festival at Allardt, Independence Day at Huntsville, the Dumplin’ Festival at Winfield, various excellent events at Historic Rugby, a new Appalachian Heritage Festival slated for this August at the Scott County Museum and of course our signature event, the Wings Over the Big South Fork Air Show. Please visit our Events page.

Wrapping Up

These are some of our major activities since we began full time operations, and they are only the beginning. Of course the very nature of long term planning, which we believe is essential to sound and stable communities, is that often the results are not seen for several years. If you are seeing even a bit more recreational traffic—Motorcycles, ATVs, Kayaks, of if your business is serving just a few more visitors and retirees, or if you see that our roadsides and rivers are even a little cleaner than in the past, then we hope we have had some small part in those improvements. We look for this to continue at an ever increasing pace, and are already making plans for the next generation of challenges. These will be in helping our communities manage rapid growth so that our Region becomes and remains one which works well for its residents and a place of which we can always be proud.

I hope you will agree that the Friends of the Big South Fork have not just been busy—but that we have been busy doing things that matter. These are different sorts of activities than traditional economic development to be sure. Some even doubt their importance or relevance in an area which has traditionally made its living on transitory manufacturing jobs and natural resource extraction. But we believe this work is important, and that with your help we are starting to develop new and different segments of our economy in new and different ways.

Your dedication to the Friends and its programs shows that you share that vision—and that you are willing to try something new for the betterment of our communities. For that we thank you. Please stop by or call us any time for more information about any of our programs or activities. You may reach me at the Visitor’s Center at 423-663-4556 or by e-mail.

James E. Taylor
Executive Director, Friends of Big South Fork 423-215-1888 Cell Friends of the Big South Fork P.O. Box 290 Helenwood TN 37755 Phone 423-663-4556 ---- Fax 423-663-4557 www.friendsofbigsouthfork.org
Board of Directors