I’ve been a web developer for about 25 years. I still am. I work for a media company that publishes trade magazines, so building websites, working with databases, figuring out how information gets from one place to another - that’s what I do for a living.
WestBlount.com is what happens when I turn all of that toward home.
I’ve lived in west Blount County for 50 years. My property sits along Highway 31, which follows the old L&N railroad route, and the old stagecoach road to Blount Springs runs right through my backyard.
Over the years, I kept running into the same problem: finding basic information about this area online is harder than it ought to be.
What’s open in Hayden? What’s happening this weekend? Who fixes air conditioners around here? When does school let out? Where is that church? Who do you call about something?
The information is out there, but it’s scattered everywhere. Some of it is on Facebook. Some of it is on a business website. Some of it is buried in a county page somewhere. Some of it apparently exists only because somebody in town knows the right person to ask.
So I decided to build a place for it.
The history
The History section is probably the most personal part of this site.
I’ve spent a lot of time researching the history of this area, and I’ve given a couple of presentations to the Smoke Rise HOA about it. The slides and notes from those talks became the starting point for much of what you’ll find here - Reid’s Gap, the L&N Railroad, Blount Springs, Mont Eyrie Orchards, the old roads, the people and places that came before us.
But the more I dug into it, the more obvious it became that I was only scratching the surface.
There are people around here with old photographs in boxes. Family stories that have been told for generations. Property records. Letters. Memories of places that disappeared decades ago. Somebody remembers where an old store stood. Somebody else knows what used to be on the other side of the creek.
That stuff is worth keeping.
What I’d like the History section to become is something closer to an online museum for west Blount County - not something I write by myself, but something the community helps build.
If you have an old photograph, a story, a family connection, or just remember how something used to be, I’d like to hear about it and add it to this archive.
I’ve done this before
WestBlount.com isn’t the first community project I’ve built.
A few years ago, I built and ran thesmell.info with the Smoke Rise HOA. The site documented the odor problems coming from the Tyson plant across the river and gave residents a place to keep track of what was happening.
It worked.
Tyson eventually installed multi-million-dollar scrubbers to address the problem.
That experience stuck with me. If there’s a problem that affects a community, sometimes the best thing you can do is build something useful and put it in people’s hands.
That’s the idea here, too.
What’s here
Directory
Businesses, churches, schools, civic organizations and other local resources can have a basic listing here for free. It has to be an official entity though, and your free listing does not mean we endorse you.
If you own a business in west Blount County, this gives you a place to tell your neighbors what you do. Not somebody three counties away. Your neighbors.
Events
Festivals, markets, ball games, school events, community meetings and all the other things that happen around here.
There’s a lot going on that’s easy to miss unless you happen to be in the right Facebook group at the right time.
News
Local news about Hayden, Smoke Rise, Blount Springs and the rest of west Blount County.
The goal is pretty simple: cover things that matter to the people who live here, and give the community a place to work together to get the local news information out that people need.
Classifieds
A place for neighbors to sell something, give something away, find something, or hire someone locally.
About the news
The stories here are written and reported by people.
Not AI.
I’m not against AI. I use it myself, and it’s useful. It can catch a typo, point out an awkward sentence, or suggest a better word when I can’t think of one.
But it doesn’t report the news here, write the stories, or decide what’s worth covering.
This is a community. It ought to sound like one.
When we say news, we mean facts being told, not opinions being given. Opinion pieces are welcome to be submitted, but they will be labeled as such, and we will endeavor to keep our own opinions from influencing our editorial decisions.
The classifieds - and Facebook
Yes, you could put the same thing on Facebook Marketplace.
If you do, that’s fine. If you already have a listing there, we’ll even let you link to it from your WestBlount.com classified.
This isn’t about trying to beat Facebook.
It’s about having a place that’s specifically for west Blount County.
No algorithm deciding who gets to see your listing. No people from three counties away asking if you’ll deliver. No digging through unrelated groups to find something that was posted yesterday.
Just a local place for local people.
Where we cover
WestBlount.com follows the Hayden Blount County Schools attendance zone.
In practical terms, that means west Blount County from Nectar west to the county line - including Hayden, Smoke Rise, Blount Springs, Mt. High, and the communities in between.
Get involved
This site is a work in progress, and I expect it always will be.
If you have a business that needs to be listed, an event that needs to be added, a story worth telling, an old photograph, or something you think belongs here, send it my way.
And if you’re interested in advertising, I’d be happy to talk about that, too.
- Greg Caudle
WestBlount.com is published by West Blount Digital, LLC.
Have a business to list? A story to share? Submit it, or get in touch about advertising.