Fresh off the heels of a jaw-dropping, ratings grabbing tightrope walk in Chicago, aerialist Nik Wallenda says he’s planning his next major stunt for northeast Georgia’s Tallulah Gorge next year. Wallenda says he wants to re-create his great-grandfather’s famous high wire walk across the gorge to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the event. Karl Wallenda was 65 when he walked across Tallulah Gorge in 1970. He did two headstands on the high wire during his skywalk. His grandson Nik says he hopes to re-create the walk just as his grandfather did it, headstands and all.
Nik Wallenda successfully completed a death-defying high wire walk 600 feet above downtown Chicago on Sunday. The nickel-wide steel wire he traversed was stretched between two skyscrapers. Wallenda completed the feat in just under seven minutes, walking part of the way blindfolded. He did the entire skywalk without a tether or safety net.
Nik Wallenda’s walk was televised live by the Discovery Channel Sunday night. It aired in 220 countries and is that cable network’s most-watched telecast so far this year. Discovery says an average of 5.8 million viewers tuned in to the full telecast, while 6.7 million people watched as Wallenda walked blindfolded.
Wallenda also set two Guinness World Records during his Chicago skyscraper walk Sunday; one for highest blindfolded tightrope walk, the other for the highest incline tightrope walk. During the skywalk the 35-year old Wallenda had to overcome a steady eight-story incline in the wire while battling 30 mph Chicago winds.
The seventh-generation aerialist is a member of the famous Flying Wallendas which was founded by his great-grandfather Karl in the 1920s. Karl Wallenda walked a quarter of a mile across a 700-foot deep section of Tallulah Gorge on a high wire on July 18, 1970. It’s the kind of stuff legends are made of and around Habersham County Karl Wallenda remains a legend. Flyers and newspaper clippings of his walk “Across the Awesome Gorge” are posted on the porch outside the Tallulah Point store in Tallulah Falls. Locals still remember that day.
Mark Watson of Clarkesville was 16-years old. His father, Earl, was a Clarkesville fireman and also served with the Civil Defense. The elder Watson was posted inside the gorge to keep onlookers out and he brought Mark along with him. Mark Watson says he watched Wallenda’s skywalk from down below. “It was total amazement,” he recalls. “I remember it being so quiet while he was walking. All we heard was the whisper of those with two-way radios talking.” Watson was among 30,000 people who witnessed Karl Wallenda’s historic skywalk across Tallulah Gorge.
Mark Watson is now 60 years old but he says the sights and sounds of that day never left him. He still recalls a rather strange conversation he overheard on one of those two-way radios. Watson says he heard a man say he was staying close to his wife because she had said, “…if he (Wallenda) fell, she would jump.”
It’s that element of danger that heightens the interest in such daredevil stunts. Watson experienced the thrill once before and says he’d “love” to see it again. He says he’s excited by the prospect of another Wallenda skywalking the gorge and adds, if it happens, he wants to stand where he stood before, at the base of the gorge looking up from below.
Tourism officials in Rabun County have been quietly planning a 45th anniversary commemoration event for some time. They’ve even posted an event page to Facebook promoting it but, so far, nothing official has been decided. Tallulah Gorge State Park manager Danny Tatum says no applications or contracts have been filed with the park or the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and that would have to happen before a skywalk takes place. Though it’s still not definite Nik Wallenda will walk the gorge the fact that he’s gone on record worldwide announcing his intentions to do so is a hopeful sign.
Tatum says, personally, he’d like to see it happen. “”It would be something to see historically. It would be something to talk about for years and years and years. It would be good for the state park.”
It also would be a huge boon for local tourism. Unofficial estimates of the proposed three-day commemoration event put the number of potential visitors in the hundreds of thousands. At least one Habersham County official has engaged in informal talks with Rabun County. County Commissioner Andrea Harper says Habersham needs to prepare for the possibility that the county and its cities could be overrun with tourists looking for places to stay, eat and shop. While that would be good for local businesses she says it would be bad for Habersham County if it’s not prepared.
The attraction to next year’s – more probable now than before – event lies in nostalgia and danger. Karl Wallenda died eight years after conquering Tallulah Gorge. He fell to his death while performing a skywalk between two buildings in Puerto Rico in 1978. He was 73. His great-grandson now carries on his legacy.
On Sunday Nik Wallenda told the television audience watching his Chicago skyscraper walk, “You guys watching think I’m crazy, but this is what I was made for.” And right now, Tallulah Gorge appears to be what Nik Wallenda is preparing for. Wallenda says he’s working on his headstands, getting ready for what just might be another legendary Wallenda walk “Across the Awesome Gorge.”
