Chairs are set up to take in the view from the Brow Wood subdivision in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.Local outdoor-centered second home developments
* Jasper Highlands, Kimball, Tenn.* Brow Wood, Lookout Mountain, Ga.* Cloudland Station, Chickamauga, Ga.* The Fredonia Mountain Nature Resort, Dunlap, Tenn.
Soon, there will be cabins near the entrance of John “Thunder” Thornton’s high-end Jasper Highlands development atop Jasper Mountain, and prospective residents will have a chance to sample mountain life for real before investing in a home lot.
Soon, the rustic new sales office and headquarters off Exit 152B in in Kimball, Tennessee, will be finished. It will have a display of home interior accessories – cabinets, light fixtures, tile, toilets – just like a hardware store.
On a recent spring afternoon, Thornton, driving a white company Suburban, turns onto a brand-new blacktop road leading from Kimball up the mountain to his Jasper Highlands development.
At the top, Thornton stops at the pavilion at Pat’s Summit near the entrance to Jasper Highlands, which looks out over a bend in the Tennessee River and the blue bridge of South Pittsburg. Building plans lie unfurled nearby showing a small general store and a swinging bridge to be built here at the overlook park, which is owned collectively by residents of Jasper Highlands.