Before the roaming gnome, there was Rock City—where the gnomes are going nowhere, thank you. They've left the roaming to others, mostly drivers lured up Lookout Mountain by hundreds of barns and billboards dotting highways east of the Mississippi. Rock City turned 75 last year, and except for peripheral upgrades, the attraction itself—a quirky blend of kitsch and stunning rock outcroppings—seems frozen in time. That it has remained both economically vital and fundamentally unchanged, even as the era of roadside attractions has passed, is a testament to the belief behind the barn roofs: Marketing will get you everywhere.

"Once people could take interstates, they bypassed America. That was really the beginning of the end of the classic roadside period," says Ron Dylewski, Pittsburgh-based publisher of the Web site TheAmericanRoadside.com. Modest, privately run attractions fell into disrepair, he says, while theme parks became destinations, strategically evolving to capture new waves of tourists. Within this context, Rock City, like its 79-year-old neighbor, Ruby Falls caverns, is at a unique disadvantage: Its appeal is both geologic and nostalgic—qualities that defy change.

So Rock City changed its marketing. In 2006, it partnered with Ruby Falls and the nearby, 100-year-old Incline Railway to "brand" Lookout Mountain under the umbrella of R & R Marketing. Company president Robert Pettway calls the approach "co-opertition": Each attraction retains its own identity, but their blended creative and sales force allows for coordinated messaging. Even better, their combined $2 million budget buys advertising opportunities previously out of reach.

Last year, the pricey Atlanta market was part of a new, multi-city ad campaign; since then, Pettway says, sales have increased 8%, with more than a million annual visitors at the three attractions combined, and Internet ticketing has grown to 6% of total sales. (The goal is 15% to 18%, he says.) R & R has cross-promoted with out-of-market media, slapped ads on the back of Pepsi trucks in Tennessee and Georgia, and partnered with hometown Hercules, Gordon Biersch Brewery. Meanwhile, the attractions have stretched their seasons well beyond warm weather; Ruby Falls' Halloween Haunted Cavern and Rock City's seven-week Christmas festival are growing moneymakers. Next up, Pettway says, are events and programs targeting niche demographics, from Hispanics to dog-lovers.

Still, he notes, over half of R & R's efforts are roadside, on billboards and, yes, barns—including the latest, painted just last year outside Chicago. "You don't ever want to give up on what's brought you to the dance."