World’s Longest Yard Sale

Nice News  -  Over four hot days in early August, U.S. Route 127 comes alive as vendors set up tents and stalls that will hold their most, or perhaps least, prized possessions. It’s the 127 Yard Sale, stretching 690 miles through six states, from Michigan all the way down to Alabama.

The annual event, which boasts the title of “the world’s longest yard sale,” was the brainchild of Mike Walker, a former Fentress County executive in Jamestown, Tennessee. In 1987, he set up the yard sale “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,” per the 127 Yard Sale website.

For a photo essay in The New York Times, Kendall Waldman traversed the entirety of this year’s sale, coming upon such treasures as a book of German sausage recipes published by the Oscar Mayer corporation, carved bowls made from buckeye trees, and a hand-painted Wizard of Oz dish set.