Work progressing on campground beside museum
Already more than a year past the originally planned opening date for the campground and recreational-vehicle park next to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, work is progressing, but there’s still no word on when the facility might open.
Construction of the main entrance building and the separate bathhouse is about 50% complete, and electrical wiring to the 100 campsites is about 80% finished, Mandy Conner, one of the park’s developers, said late last week.
“It’s coming along great,” Conner said. “We’re obviously still under construction, but we don’t know yet when we will be ready to open. It could be this fall. It depends on the rainy season.
“We have put up two buildings – one is the registration office, and the other is bathhouse,” she said. “The bathhouse will have restrooms, showers and a laundry facility for the customers.
“We still have to run the electrical, but the sewer lines for the campsites are completed.”
No work has begun yet on some other key features that will make the site – to be known as Appalachia Ridge – more than just a campground. Those include some permanent, upscale “glamping” (glamor-camping) tents, tiny homes and treehouses.
“We hope to start construction of the tents and other rental units soon,” Conner said. “It’s been slower than we anticipated. But we’re making progress. We do all the construction ourselves.”
For nearly two years now, the site has been criticized by local residents and some museum visitors as an eyesore, as it has been just acres of bare, red graded dirt during all that time, clearly visible from Andersonville Highway by people driving by the museum and entering the museum property.
“Once we start putting in the gravel and it starts looking like a campground, it will be much better.” Conner said.
There was no work underway on the 17.5-acre site this past week, even though the weather was mostly dry and mild. Conner said that was because it’s high season at her company’s other campground near Sevierville, “and we’ve just been very busy working there.”
The owners are Mandy Conner and her husband, Jimbo Conner, along with Mike Hale and his wife, Jessica Hale. The four are already partners in The Ridge Outdoor Resort in Sevierville, after which the Norris campground is to be patterned.
Grading on the site just to the west of the Museum of Appalachia began in summer 2021, then work seemed to be at a standstill for more than a year, with the large expanse of bare dirt the only sign of the project.
Initial plans for the park were approved in August 2021 by the city of Norris, after the land was rezoned in May to allow the facility on property next to the museum, owned by the founding family of the museum. The land is being leased to the campground developers.
“We’re excited to see the project get underway,” said Lindsey Gallaher, after the groundbreaking event. She was serving as the Irwin family’s spokesperson for the RV park. She is the granddaughter of the late museum founder John Rice Irwin, and daughter of Elaine Irwin Meyer, who was then the museum’s president. Gallaher earlier this year took over as museum president, after her mother retired from the position.
As for the campground developers, “We were approached by a friend of ours in Sevierville who is on the board of the museum about creating a campground there,” Mandy Conner said in 2021. “My husband has been in the campground business since 1992. We went up … and looked at the property, and we fell in love with the museum and the family. We started the process of leasing the land.
“Our goal is to really enhance the museum in Norris,” she said. “And we want to offer a really good camping experience to people traveling in the area. We believe it’s such a beautiful setting.”
Not exactly a traditional RV park, Appalachia Ridge plans to feature the glamping tents, treehouses and tiny homes for rent by the night, along with the campsites.
“We’re planning on four glamping tents, three tiny homes, and three treehouses,” said Joy Maples of Conner Marketing, who is handling public relations for the RV park owners.
Appalachia Ridge would bring the first overnight accommodations to the museum area, along Andersonville Highway in the Bethel community on land that was annexed by Norris about 11 years ago.
The Norris City Council in May 2021 approved rezoning the land for the park/campground from S-2 (Scenic Highway District) to general commercial (C-2), over objections of the city’s planning and zoning board, which had initially denied the request. That rezoning covers the address 2819 Andersonville Highway, which includes two tracts comprising about 17.5 acres adjacent to the museum. The rezoned area sits between the museum and Scruggs Cemetery Lane, behind a stone wall, on land the museum has used for overflow parking during special events. It sits back from Andersonville Highway, and would be accessible only through the museum’s entrance road.
The two pieces of property are Tract 132 on the Anderson County property map, a total of four acres, with Elaine Meyer listed as the owner; and Tract 13, part of which would provide the rest of the 17.5 acres for the RV park. But not all of that tract would be used for the park. Owners of Tract 13 were listed on county records as “John Rice Irwin and others.”
The City Council overruled the Planning Commission during the April 2021 meeting and voted for the rezoning ordinance.
They noted that the land along Andersonville Highway where the museum is located was zoned commercial before the city of Norris annexed it, and they said it was common knowledge that the city annexed that area in anticipation of commercial development.