Aerialist Nik Wallenda set two world records during a skywalk between two skycrapers in Chicago on November 2, 2014. (Photo courtesy of the Discovery Channel)
Daredevil aerialist Nik Wallenda is expected to visit Tallulah Gorge soon to discuss his plans to skywalk across the gorge next year. Wallenda announced to the world earlier this month he intends to cross Tallulah Gorge on a high wire to commemorate the 45th anniversary of his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda’s famous gorge crossing in 1970.
Executive Director of the Rabun Tourism Development Authority (RTDA) Teka Earnhardt is leading the local drive to bring Nik Wallenda to northeast Georgia next year. She traveled to Chicago to watch his record-breaking tightrope walk between two skyscrapers on Nov. 2. Earnhardt called the experience “incredible.” She says “you could feel his confidence” as he walked across the wire 600 feet in the air.
Earnhardt says a commemorative walk across Tallulah Gorge would be even more spectacular because of the natural beauty of the terrain and the history behind it.
Nik Wallenda never met his great-grandfather. Karl Wallenda died in a tightrope walking accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1978. Still, the younger Wallenda has made a successful career of carrying on – and building upon – his great-grandfather’s legacy. “Nik has been to the gorge three times and has camped at the campground at the state park,” Earnhardt says. “He loves this place. He feels a connection with his great-grandfather here.” She says it gives her a good feeling, “to be part of letting him be a part of his great-grandfather’s legacy and to help him accomplish something so important to him. ”
Earnhardt says she and RTDA member Gail Darugh met with Wallenda’s manager while they were in Chicago. She says, “We are ready. We’ve asked for a site visit. You can’t negotiate exactly what he wants, where he wants to walk and whether it is even possible for him to walk where he wants without looking at the site.”
Earnhardt says organizing a second Wallenda walk is more complicated today than it was 44 years ago. “When his great-grandfather walked there was no state park, no EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), no DNR (Department of Natural Resources); it was a different world. And,” she adds, “the terrain is different; it’s changed a lot in 45 years.”
Spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Parks, Recreation & Historic Sites Division Sally Winchester says while the department is aware of Nik Wallenda’s intentions no formal applications have been filed:
“We are in very preliminary stages of beginning discussions. We are excited about the possibility of the Wallenda event happening but many conversations need to take place and details worked out before we have anything to report.” ~ Sally Winchester, GA DNR
If Wallenda’s walk happens – and at this point there is a strong likelihood that it will – it most likely will take place next June. Earnhardt says the Rabun Tourism Development Authority is planning a four to ten day-long celebration that will, hopefully, culminate with Nik Wallenda’s skywalk. The celebration will encompass events and activities throughout the region. That leaves less than eight months to finish planning and preparing for an event that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to northeast Georgia.
The RTDA has been working on the commemorative celebration for over a year after latching onto the idea when it first was proposed by Gail Darugh. Darugh, who owns the Beechwood Inn Bed & Breakfast in Clayton with her husband David, now serves as chairperson of the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration Committee. Members of the committee and RTDA recently met with Habersham County leaders and are also reaching out to other elected, business and community leaders throughout northeast Georgia. Earnhardt says, “We are meeting with several counties not just Habersham only because, if the numbers come as we anticipate, Habersham can’t handle it, Rabun County can’t handle it.”
A representative from the Clarkesville Business Association, Clarkesville Councilwoman Barrie Aycock and Habersham County Commissioner Andrea Harper were among those who met late last month with event organizers. Earnhardt says, “We had a great meeting. They’re very excited about being a part of it. We’ve asked them to think of some events they want to have there in Habersham and to put together tour packages we can promote and sell online.”
“We’re trying to bring together all the things these areas have to offer and spread them around the northeast Georgia mountains.” ~ Teka Earnhardt, RTDA
Although Rabun County is leading the charge and actually will be hosting the much anticipated celebration, Earnhardt says the event offers a unique opportunity to showcase neighboring counties. “We’re thrilled about that because we want to promote the northeast Georgia region.” She says when it’s all over the whole world will know that “the north Georgia mountains are a force to be reckoned with.”
The RTDA has hired an international event planning company called the WOW Factory to handle the major details. Event planners from the company’s offices in Atlanta, Colorado and Las Vegas are working on the Wallenda Tallulah Gorge project. A consultant in Rabun County also has been hired to assist with event planning. Earnhardt says the RTDA is raising money for the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration through sponsorships and advertisements.
Tickets, tour packages, shuttles and much more will be available for purchase online through the Explore Rabun website after the first of the year.
Looking at it as a whole, the size and scope of the event are overwhelming but Earnhardt, who is the sole paid staffer in the RTDA office, says, “We’re taking it piece by piece trying to do as much as we can ourselves in order to save money but we want to do it professionally and do it the right way.”
Doing it the right way is the only way Nik Wallenda can do what he does; A single slip on the high wire could cost him his life. That element of danger is part of the attraction but Earnhardt says she’s not worried. “For you and me the element of danger is high but for him it’s his profession, his skill…it’s his heart and soul.”
Wallenda says he wants to re-create his great-grandfather’s Tallulah Gorge skywalk, headstands and all. Karl Wallenda performed two headstands while crossing the quarter-mile span across the gorge on July 18, 1970. He told reporters at the time that the first headstand “was to do better than anyone else has done,” the second was to honor the troops in Vietnam. Soon, his great-grandson may again show the world how the Flying Wallendas do it better than anyone else and, if he does, north Georgians will have a front row seat to watch him do it.
For continuing updates on the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration visit the Explore Rabun website and visit Explore Rabun and Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration on Facebook.
