Charred Smokies town rebounds from wildfires
GATLINBURG, Tenn. – Bob Bentz had just installed underground utility lines and paved a new road when wildfires roared through the eastern Tennessee treetop canopy he wanted to transform into a $30 million adventure park.
A year later, after the blaze killed 14 people and damaged or destroyed about 2,500 buildings in the Gatlinburg area, tourists now take a ski lift from downtown up 600 feet to the Anakeesta resort, where they can zipline, shop, explore a treehouse playground and wander tree to tree on a sky-bridge.
The otherwise whimsical park saved space at its highest point for a memorial walk, featuring photos and stories about the heroism, heartbreak and raw destructive force of the fires.
Despite such somber reminders, Bentz is sticking with his plan and, like others, forging ahead, even after a National Parks Service report said the conditions that let flames burn into the city could become the “new normal.”
Climate change, the report concluded, has coupled with other factors to expose more areas like the Great Smoky Mountains foothills to wildfires. The report suggests a new level of vulnerability, with sweeping implications for some of the nation’s most revered wilderness areas and the tourism economy that surrounds them.
But Bentz and city and county officials are unconvinced. They say it’s unlikely that Gatlinburg will again endure a perfect storm of factors that caused the blaze. Teens were playing with matches in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and winds whipped up to about 100 mph to carry embers for miles and down powerlines to start more fires.
Other businesses are investing with the same confidence. A $35 million Margaritaville Resort is slated to open in Gatlinburg this spring.
“I’m a believer in climate change,” said Bentz, Anakeesta’s managing partner, who has a forestry background. “But I don’t think we have concern about another fire coming to Gatlinburg and doing the same kind of damage.”
Though downtown Gatlinburg was essentially untouched by the fire, and Sevier County was open for business quickly afterward, it cost an extra $1 million-plus in Gatlinburg advertising and more state money to convey that to travelers.
The area’s tax revenues bolster its case for a comeback. Gatlinburg’s gross tax receipts were down 36 percent in December 2016, right after the fire, compared to December 2015. This September’s revenues were down only 2.4 percent compared to September 2016, before the fires.