Coronavirus pandemic won't stop 690-mile-long 'World's Longest Yard Sale'

The COVID-19 pandemic killed public events of all shapes and sizes this year, but the "World’s Longest Yard Sale" will not be one of its victims.

The annual August event officially kicks off Thursday and continues through Sunday. It draws vendors and vintage goods/art and crafts fans to roam the roadsides looking for treasure.

The yard sale’s 690-mile path starts in Gadsden, at Noccalula Falls, and winds its way along the Lookout Mountain Parkway and U.S. 127 through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, to its end point in Hudson, Michigan.

Greater Gadsden Area Tourism is getting ready. Executive Director Hugh Stump III said the agency had to cut back advertising for the event this year after the pandemic curbed travel and cut deeply into revenues.

He said most organizations promoting tourism are in the same boat. “We all tend to be funding by lodging taxes,” he said.

Despite limited promotion, Stump said, GGAT has gotten calls about the yard sale — from people who want to shop, and from vendors, in numbers about equal to normal years.

That speaks to the popularity of the yard sale, he said — that people remember and are interested in coming back year after year.

Stump said he expects numbers may be smaller than years past, and that people might travel shorter segments of the route — maybe shopping over 100 or 150 miles of the sale. Many visitors to the southern end of the sale come from Mississippi and Florida, he said, and inquiries from that area have continued to come in.

It’s possible, Stump said, that some people who don’t normally shop the yard sale will come out this year.

“People have been penned up,” he said, and an outdoor event such as this will give them an opportunity to get out, within the safety guidelines relating to the coronavirus.

More locals may shop this year, Stump said, because they anticipate less congestion and less crowding.

The sale is slated for the first Thursday through Sunday in August each year. Some years in this area, that’s also the week kids go back to school, which can add to traffic congestion; that’s not the case this year.

As GGAT has responded to people who call about the yard sale, the agency has sent information including the latest public health orders, Stump said said, letting people coming from other states know that masks are mandatory in public settings where 6-foot social distancing can’t be maintained.

Vendors will start setting up at Noccalula Falls Park on Wednesday, Stump said, but in years past some have begun set up on Tuesday.

“We set up a welcome center at the falls because we want people to know about tourism in Etowah County,” Stump said.

Maps of the sale route, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, coozies and water bottles will be available for visitors, and T-shirts will be for sale to commemorate the yard sale and to share a vital message: “Open for business!”

Along the route through Etowah County, sellers generall offer items that range from metal sculptures and planters made from repurposed household items, to antique furniture, jams and jellies, glassware and farm implements.

In addition to all people will see for sale, there are sights that money can’t buy: waterfalls, canyons, scenic views from the brow of the mountain and unique small towns along Lookout Mountain Parkway.

Vendors set up along the main route, sometimes renting space in yards along the way, with vendors often setting up on adjoining roads.

Stump said in other areas along the route, things may be different: it all depends on the customs of the community, and that’s part of the beauty of the event.

"The fun thing about the yard sale is there are no rules,“ he said. ”There’s no organization governing it. It’s an organic being.“

As people have called the tourism office asking if the yard sale was on this year, Stump told them as long as vendors along the route set up, there will be a sale.

For more information about the yard sale, lodgings and other attractions along the route, visit www.WorldsLongestYardSale.com or contact GGAT at info@etowahtourism.com.