A Magazine Article about the property Circa 1940s:
PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT
Whitesburg, Ky.
LAND OF THE LONESOME PINE
For five breathtaking miles you roll up and up and up, along the broad black ribbon of the Rhododendron Highway, to reach the PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT.
The world falls away from you. Valleys unfold their soft bosoms to your view, lush with timbered slopes and the patch work of tasseling corn fields. The fragrance of a pine scented atmosphere fills your lungs . . . and you notice, suddenly, that you have risen above the tops of the lesser mountains. Only the venerable crest of Old Pine lies between you and the drifting clouds.
You are here for a vacation, a week end, or a Sunday picnic. You want to wander along sylvan mountain trails with cool breezes caressing your body. You want to relax, be happy and carefree, to forget your troubles and have fun.
Rest assured. PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT was designed for you.
George Dewey Polly seeing the need for a playground in Letcher Co. has amply met this need by developing, the Pine Mountain Resort.
Even the air at this lofty perch is like heady wine. You can feel the freshness of it surging through your veins. You can hear it whispering through the trees like the distant fluting of some ancient melody . . . softly mysterious and soothing to jaded nerves. It puts life into your being.
For this is the land and the people immortalized by John Fox in his “TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.” It is also the land of “THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME” and “THE KNIGHTS OF THE CUMBERLAND.” Here it was that John Fox met the unforgettable characters that move so lustily through every written page of his works.
It is the land of the keen throated dulcimer and the sobbing fiddle . . . of golden sunsets and mountain tops rising in majesty above fog-choked valley . . . a land of strange contrast, keeping step with the trend of modern industry, yet retaining hidden sanctuaries so strongly flavored with the quaint customs of a bygone age that they seem eternal and priceless jewels.
It was the desire to perpetuate this aura of a fading era, to make its picturesqueness available to the thousands who hold its memory close to their hearts, that prompted the late Vincent Sergent to undertake the development of the PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT. It was a task that he did not live to finish.
To Dewey Polly, a man actuated by the same motives, fell the job of pushing the idea toward completion. And it is no small task to which Dewey Polly has set his hand. It is one that requires a tremendous outlay of energy and cash . . . and one that is moving steadily toward the vision that Dewey Polly holds in his heart.
Sitting squarely atop Old Pine Mountain, the RESORT HOTEL, recently renovated and enlarged, is today one of the very best lodging houses in Eastern Kentucky. Here, if anywhere, one can get a perfect nights rest. The rooms are airy and clean, warmed by steam heat during the winter months, and are cooled by fragrant mountain breezes in summer. There is none of the disturbing hall-way and street noises common to most hotels. It is, indeed, a pleasure to spend the night here.
And yet the RESORT is only a few minutes drive from several towns. Whitesburg, on the Kentucky River side of the mountain, is only six miles away. Cumberland, Lynch and Benham, in the Cumberland area, lie within a few minutes drive. Telephone accommodation is also offered by the hotel, for those who wish to keep in touch with family or business interest.
In the big lodge, which is an annex to the hotel proper, is a room designed for private parties, club and lodge meetings, guest dancing and semi-private dinning. Meals are served impromptu at any hour during the day, but special arrangement should be made for large parties. The RESORT maintains, also, several log cabins for family or individual service.
Another of the features of the PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT is EAGLE VIEW LAKE, lying just under the hilltop. It was recently built by Dewey Polly, and offers excellent bathing and boating facilities during the summer months. In the winter its clear, hard surface, frozen solidly and safely, makes it a splendid table for ice skating or hockey. EAGLES VIEW LAKE is an acre and a half in area.
Trails have been laid out around the mountains, and at various points games have been provided for. Every point of scenic beauty has been made (page cut off).
Chief points of interest that lie within easy walking or driving distance are cataloged as follows:
HIGH ROCK, atop Pine Mountain. The highest point in the state of Kentucky whose mountain range lies wholly within the state.
LITTLE MAMMOTH CAVE and associate caverns, eight in all. Located on Line Fork, about forty-five minutes drive from the Resort. Huge, undeveloped caverns of historic interest that twist for unknown miles back into the bulk of the hills. Have many levels and waterfalls, also superb formations of stalactites and stalagmites.
The largest of these caverns, Little Mammoth, was used during the Civil War as a hideout in which to manufacture gunpowder. The existence of saltpeter in this cave, which is essential to the manufacture of powder, was, of course, a valuable asset. Many of the old implements used are still in the cave.
NED’S OLD ROCK HOUSE, atop Pine Mountain. A unique formation that was used during the Civil War as a hideout and lookout point by an old man known simply as Ned.
THE BULL HOLE, atop Pine Mountain. A bottomless hole strongly associated with local legends.
THREE LAKES, atop Pine Mountain. Some odd quirk of nature formed these lakes on the very top of the mountain. The largest, during the wet season, is approximately one hundred by fifty yards in area.
RAINBOW ROCK, atop Pine Mountain. A strange formation of the natural bridge type. About twenty-five feet in arch.
BAD BRANCH FALLS, on the Cumberland side of Pine Mountain. Plunging for a distance of about one hundred and sixty-five feet in two stages, these falls are very beautiful.
INDIAN CLIFFS, atop Pine Mountain. Long before the coming of the white man, these smoked cliffs were used by various Indian tribes as a look-out or camping grounds.
SEVEN SPRINGS, on Pine Mountain near Bad Branch Falls. Seven distinct kinds of water bubble up from these clear mountain springs, all within a very small area.
RANGER LOOKOUT TOWER, atop Pine Mountain. Fifteen minutes walk from the RESORT HOTEL. The best spot on the mountain from which to view the unfolding beauty of the hill country.
TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE, beginning at Jenkins and winding across hills and down into valleys toward its terminus in Virginia. About thirty minutes drive from the RESORT. This trail was immortalized both in literature and by motion picture. It knew the tread of that stalwart figure, “The Tall Sycamore of the Elkhorns,” “Devil” John Wright. Here it was that Red Fox, John Hale and June Tolliver made romantic and actual history in the vivid stories of the Cumberlands that fell from the pen of John Fox.
There are, of course, many other points of interest that lie within short driving range of the PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT. But for sheer, unadulterated beauty, for magnificent vistas and breathtaking heights, the view from rugged crest of Old Pine Mountain is unsurpassed.
And the recent development of the PINE MOUNTAIN RESORT by Dewey Polly makes all this available to the thousands who hold in their hearts a cherished affection for these kindly old hills that roll, ridge upon ridge, into the deep haze of the far blue yonder.
