An Imposing hotel had been built on Lookout Mountain at Mentone, Alabama many years before plans were made for the Lookout Mountain Hotel.  The elegant Mentone Springs Hotel was erected in 1884 at a site about halfway between Chattanooga and Gadsden.

A native New Yorker, John Mason, Founded Mentone after coming to Lookout Mountain about 1872 in search of pure mountain air and mineral water to restore his failing health.

Mason had gone to the West early in his life and later settled on a farm in Iowa and made his fortune.  But his health began to decline at the age of fifty and he began searching for a climate that could restore him to a healthy state.

During his search he was given a glowing account of Lookout Mountain's healthful atmosphere.  So Mason made his way to the mountain and, after residing with a family who lived above Valley Head, Alabama for several months, his health grew much better.

He returned to Iowa, but soon he became ill again and determined to return to Lookout Mountain to settle permanently.  Mason loaded his family on a steamboat for Memphis, then traveled by rail to Chattanooga.

However, the Alabama Great Southern trains were not operating at this time due to an epidemic.  The intrepid Mason loaded his family into a wagon and struck out through Lookout Valley.

He settled at a site on the mountain above Valley Head and remained for the rest of his life, enjoying the benefits of the pure mountain air and the mineral water.  He lived to be almost ninety-two years old.

A covered bridge built by Mason to span the Little River near his home was finally washed away in a storm after a citizens' effort to restore it failed for lack of funds.

A man named Vernon is believed to have built the first house in the Mentone area, and Vernon's Gap near Mentone is named for him.

John Mason's son, Ed Mason, was so attracted by the healthfulness of the Mentone area that he began laying out a town and advertising the place far and near.

One day during the period when the Masons' hotel was under construction the Mason Family was seated around the dinner table discussing the prospective town and hotel.

Dr. Frank Caldwell, who had come to the mountain from Ohio and financed the hotel, remarked that a name for the new town had not yet been chose.

Alice Mason, the only daughter of John Mason, commented that an article she had just been reading told of "Queen Victoria Vacationing at Mentone."  The Mentone referred to was in France and the name means "musical mountain spring."

The dinner company subsequently decided that Mentone was a very apt name for the town and it was adopted before the meal was completed.

Dr. Caldwell gave a grand ball in late 1885 at the Mentone Springs Hotel in honor of Alice Mason and Samuel O'Rear who married October 15 of that year.

The Fifty-seven room Mentone Springs Hotel, built on the main road which leads down to Valley Head, prospered for a time and attracted hundreds of "summer people" until the Depression days.

Each of the rooms in the hotel featured hot and cold water supplied by deep wells.  A wide porch spanned two sides and the front of the building on the first floor.

A hallway led from the dining room to the reading room and lobby, which featured a unique three-sided fireplace.

Advertisements for the Mentone Springs Hotel claimed that it was located in one of the most healthful and attractive spots in the South.

Hotel guests could enjoy swimming and fishing in the nearby Little River, or might indulge in tennis, bowling, croquet, billiards, box golf or dancing.  There was a special playground for the children.

The hotel grounds also included two springs--Mineral Springs and Beauty Springs-- both of which were believed to have furnished water with strengthening and curative powers.

The water from the Mineral Springs dried up following the blasting involved in construction of a new paved road between Valley Head and Mentone in 1928.

Dr. John E. Purdon, a former British Army surgeon who was an early guest at the Mentone Springs Hotel, was so impressed by the Mentone area that he determined to found an English colony there.

He advertised in English newspapers, offering to teach young Englishmen the art of farming.  A few young men did come from England to inspect Lookout Mountain, but none stayed on to farm the land.

Miss Martha Berry, founder of Berry College at Rome, Georgia, also purchased a home near Mentone.

The Mentone Springs Hotel changed hands several times soon after it was built.  New owners in 1914 remodeled the hotel and added a two-story annex with twenty four rooms, each with a private bath.

A forty-four-room dormitory was added in 1920, as well as an auditorium designed to seat 600 people and six classrooms.

The Alabama State Baptists began using the hotel beginning in 1921 for their youth conventions and often more than 1,000 members of the Baptist Young People's Union would attend conventions at the Mentone Springs Hotel.

However, with the coming of the Depression, the Mentone Springs Hotel failed as did so many other business enterprises throughout the country.

It was operated with but little success until at auction was held on the hotel grounds July 4, 1950.  Ben Hammond of Rome bought the old hotel to use as a summer home.

Norville Hall, an organ builder and repairman acquired the hotel in 1956 for use as a home and for storing organ parts.  Hall was the manager of the Mentone Springs Hotel from 1945 until 1950.

The annex was sold to H. L. Murphy of Summerville, and it was remodeled and operated as the Sunset Hotel for several years.

Construction on an even larger hotel than the Mentone Springs Hotel was begun near Mentone on the east fork of the Little River in the mid 1920s.

H.H. Pounds, a wealthy investor, envisioned a 180-room hotel to be built near the mining community of Lahusage which he had bought out.

Lahusage was a coal mining town near Mentone begun in 1902 by three developers--Russell Sage, a wealthy banker, and two men named Lamb and Hubbard.  The name of the mining settlement was formed from the names of these three men.

As many as 100 families once lived at Lahusage and the community had its own post office, church, school and company doctor.

Pounds and a group of friends form Florida had vacationed on Lookout Mountain by the Little River and were so impressed with the area that they formed the Lookout Mountain Development Company and bought up 7,000 acres.

The group also organized the Cloudland Golf and Country Club and built a nine-hole Golf course.  A forty-room, $30,000 clubhouse was built at Cloudland with cottages adjacent.

Even the plumbing had been installed on the Lahusage hotel when the 1929 crash hit and caused the project to be abandoned.  The Lookout Mountain Development Company went into receivership and the property was taken back by its original owners.

The almost-complete hotel was used by the government as a convalescent home for World War I veterans and later as a campground for Civilian Conservation Corps young men who were working at DeSoto State Park in the 1930s.

The Lahusage hotel gradually decayed until the roof fell in and the walls crumbled.

Also located near Mentone is one of the most unusual churches in the united States--the Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel.

Built in 1937 by colorful Colonel Milford W. Howard, the small stone chapel is constructed around a twenty-five by thirty-foot sandstone boulder which forms a backdrop to the altar of the church.

Colonel Howard's ashes were sealed behind a plaque in the huge rock a year and a half after the chapel was completed.  The plaque reads: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Above the altar are the words: "God Has All Ways Been As Good To Me As I Would Let Him Be."  This is a line from the last letter Sallie Howard wrote her husband from California before her death from a lingering illness.

The church's pulpit was formed from rocks gathered from the bed of the nearby Little River.

The chapel was built to serve all denominations, but it was rarely used for regular services until the mid 1940s when Mrs. Ida York organized an interdenominational Sunday School.

The Reverend T. J. Workman conducted Sunday School services at Howard's Chapel for a number of years and the Reverend Bob Meeler of Summerville also preached to a small congregation there for several years.

Hundreds of tourists stop each year to inspect the intriguing church located near the Alpine Camp.  The church was deeded to the Southern Baptist Association in 1974 by Howard's grandson.

The visionary Howard, a self-described dreamer, came to Fort Payne in 1881 and studied law under L.A. Dobbs.  He soon became a successful attorney and well-known orator.

Colonel Howard was elected to Congress from the Seventh District in 1894, running on the Populist ticket.  In 1906, when an Independence party was formed, his name was placed in nomination for President of the United States.

Colonel Howard was also the author of several books, including "If Christ Came To Congress," "Peggy Ware," and "The Bishop of the Ozarks."  A silent movie was made of the latter book and Colonel Howard played the part of the bishop.

He later made a trip to Italy, interviewed Benito Mussolini, and wrote a book, "Fascism: A Challenge to Democracy."

After a number of business failures in different parts of the country, Colonel Howard decided to start a school for underprivileged children on Lookout Mountain.  He purchased 1,000 acres of wilderness near Mentone in 1923.

A school, including two dormitories and a dining hall, was completed and classes were started in the fall of 1923 with forty students.

But Colonel Howard ran into financial problems in keeping The Master School operating.  He decided to sell part of his Lookout Mountain property and construct a clubhouse on a bluff near DeSoto Falls.

This structure, known as the Alpine Lodge, burned in 1970 and was replaced by a similar building.  A boys camp is now operated at this site.

Colonel Howard had a significant part in the construction of the Scenic highway on Lookout Mountain.  He envisioned a road stretching 100 miles on the west brow of the mountain from Chattanooga to Gadsden.

Colonel Howard walked much of the route himself to insure that it was built along the most scenic part of the mountain.  A portion of the Scenic Highway was built, but it was never completed all the way to Gadsden.

Although the hotels at Mentone ultimately failed, the area is now well known for its numerous summer camps for boys and girls.  The camps in the area provide a variety of outdoor activities for youngsters who come to Lookout Mountain in the summer months from all parts of the United States.

The Comer Scout Reservation of the Boy Scouts of America, Located near DeSoto State Park, covers more than 1,000 acres.  Planning for the camp began in 1962 and the property was purchased in April of the following year.

The camp is named for Hugh Moss Comer, of Sylacauga, Alabama, a former president of the Choccolocco Council which operates the camp.  The Boy Scout camp was officially opened on June 8, 1965.

Camp Cloudmont, the oldest camp at Mentone, was established on forty acres in 1924 by the YMCA of Miami, Florida, and operated by C. W. Abele and L. B. Sommers.

Six years later the camp was purchased by Abele, Sommers and Charles W. Edwards and operated as a private boys camp.  Jack Jones of Coral Gables, Florida bought the camp in 1947.

The camp now includes over forty building and more than 5,000 acres.  Jones began going to camp at Mentone as an eight-year-old boy.

Snow skiing, an unfamiliar sport to most Southerners, is available year-round at the Cloudmont resort.  The Cloudmont slope is carpeted with Astroturf and covered with poly-snow.

In the winter, when the temperature is twenty eight degrees or colder, the resort makes its own snow.

There is also an eighteen-hole golf course at Cloudmont.  The first hole of the Saddle Rock course is mounted on a thirty-foot rock.

The Lookout Mountain Camp was opened in June 1928 by Dr. J. A. Gorman and his son-in-law, Gray D. Morrison.  A native of North Carolina, he practiced dentistry there and later in New Orleans.

Dr. Gorman decided to buy property on Lookout Mountain after visiting Valley Head in the early 1920s.  He purchased 150 acres by the Little River and built a lodge overlooking the scenic stream.

Colonel Howard established the Alpine Lodge in 1926 following a trip to Europe.

Also overlooking the Little River, the lodge was operated as a mountain resort until 1934.  That year the lodge was sold and the new owners established the Alpine Lodge Camp for Girls.

In 1959 the property was sold again and the Alpine Lodge Camp for Boys was started.

Camp DeSoto was begun at Mentone in the late 1920s by a woman from Illinois, who left it to her attorney upon her death.

The camp was leased to Miss Eloise Temple in 1935 and operated as a resort for girls.  There are some fifty buildings at the camp, including thirty one cabins.

An assistant coach at the University of Alabama, Malcolm Laney in 1959.  Coach Laney directed the camp for fifteen years and was succeeded by Rob Hammond of Rome, Georgia.

The Seventy-acre Skyline Camp was started in 1947.  Miss Eloise Temple is the owner of the camp, which includes the 130-foot Skyline Lodge overlooking the Little River.