Abandoned Wealthy Resort Town

By Matthew Kong

CHILLING photographs reveal inside the resort town where the wealthy once built luxurious holiday cabins but has since been rendered a ghost town after it was abandoned over thirty-years-ago.

From flaking paint, broken windows to collapsed rooves and rotting floors, some wooden cabins are in better shape than others. The resort is a shadow of its former glory as mother nature slowly reclaims the buildings.

One picture shows how an entire roof has caved in on one of the larger buildings, whilst another shows a large cabin complete with a garage.

The spooky images were taken at Elkmont in The Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee by an urban explorer known as Abandoned Southeast. To take his photographs, Abandoned Southeast used a Canon camera.

“I heard of this place several years ago when an internet article went viral about a hiker discovering a ghost town,” said Abandoned Southeast.

“This is a decaying resort town that was abandoned in the early 1990s.

Elkmont was initially a lumber town and wealthy families from Tennessee and North Carolina started to build holiday cottages and chalets. The owners gave parts of the town names like ‘Millionaire’s Row’ or ‘Society Hill’.

Compared to the rustic cabins of the lumber workers, these cottages were mansions in their day. There are 47-buildings standing in the town today.

Until recently, locals thought the town was lost to a series of wildfires.

“I want people to know this town was not harmed by the Gatlinburg wild fires and is very much intact,” added Abandoned Southeast.

“The Park Service asks visitors to not go inside the cabins. Some are partially collapsed or have rotting floors.

“When I show people my images they are often amazed at how beautiful a derelict cabin can be.”

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