By Bonita Wilborn
Thursday, August 4, 2022, marks the beginning of the 4-day yard sale that is officially titled the 127 Yard Sale due to its path through six states on the 127 Highway. It began in 1987 and continued to grow until it reached its current length of 690 miles of shopping fun.
The 127 Yard Sale takes place the first Thursday-Sunday in August each year. It’s literally, The World’s Longest Yard Sale! This unique event draws hundreds of thousands of people (shoppers/vendors) each year from all around the country. The 127 Yard Sale takes place mostly on Highway 127, hence the name “127 Yard Sale”. The route goes five miles north of Addison, Michigan, to Gadsden, Alabama. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Highway 127 ends, but the 127 Yard Sale route continues on Lookout Mountain Parkway through Georgia and Alabama.
In 1987, Mike Walker, former Fentress County Executive in Jamestown, Tennessee, planned the event to encourage travelers to bypass interstate highways such as I-40 and I-75 in favor of scenic routes that would take them through rural communities and allow them to experience what the small towns and cities had to offer. With state parks, historic attractions, scenic drives, waterfalls, opportunities for hiking and biking, rivers and lakes for boating, train rides, horseback riding, fishing, bluegrass music, arts and crafts festivals, and more, this provided a great opportunity to bring more visitors to Tennessee and all along the 127 Yard Sale route. Visitors from across the country and those who have traveled internationally to the sale will enjoy the yard sales and attractions along the 127 Yard Sale route. The Lookout Mountain Parkway was added to the 127 Yard Sale route a few years after the sale began.
Vendors can be found everywhere along the 127 Yard Sale route; in the front yards of people’s homes, fields, pastures, side streets, empty lots, businesses, community parks, and town centers. Some areas will have large groups of vendors, while others will be set up separately.
There’s no set “opening” or “closing” time for the individual sales along the 127 Yard Sale route. Each vendor chooses the time they want to “open for business”. However, typically vendors are open by 8:00 AM and stay open late into the evening, often until dark. Like traditional yard sales, you can expect a lot of cash sales, but more and more vendors accept credit cards. Still, it’s important to come with plenty of cash in various denominations.
There’s no reason to stop shopping if you run out of storage space in your car, van, RV, or trailer. Along the route, you will find shipping centers and, of course, the United States Postal Service (USPS). Consider bringing flattened boxes of different sizes, tape, and other packing materials in case you need them. USPS flat rate boxes are free and allow anything that fits in the box to ship no matter how much it weighs. Even if you don’t need to ship items home, you may still want to protect that precious antique or glassware you’ve purchased.
Traffic along the 127 Yard Sale route can slow down considerably in congested areas, but how far you can travel in one day depends more on your personal goals and how much ground you want to travel each day. If you want to stop at every yard sale, it will be impossible to cover the entire route in 4 days (the event duration). Generally, 100-150 miles is about as much ground as you can reasonably travel in a day.
There are plenty of accommodations along the 127 Yard Sale route, from hotels and motels, cabins and campgrounds, and bed and breakfast Inns. Making reservations is a wise decision, but you need to have a plan and be disciplined to make your destination each night. If you wait until late in the day to find a room, it may be more difficult, and you may have to travel several miles off the 127 Yard Sale route to find accommodations.