trust for mountain land

While Matt and I are blasting away in Atlanta, my old friend Dallas hasn't entirely dropped out of sight. Out of the blue he calls me the next day and asks if I would come talk with Realtor friends of his who work in the mountain counties of north Georgia. Shortly thereafter, I have a cup of coffee with Tom and Jo, a husband and wife team who are representing a very unusual property just outside of Jasper, Georgia. I make a follow up appointment to meet Tom Lawrence in Jasper and we go see Elk Lodge. Elk Lodge is a 450 acre tract that has been in the hands of a prominent but eccentric family since the early 1950's. We learned that the matriarch of the family is old, ill, lives in South Carolina now and rarely even visits the property. We wound up a steep and curvy mountain road until we can to impressive stone gates. Inside, we traveled a paved drive that reminded me a little bit of the road up to the Biltmore House in Asheville. The forest on both side of the drive way was virtually manicured it was so lush and one could see 12 foot chain link fences that secured the perimeter of the property. Apparently, from 1965 until the late '70's the owners of the property rescued animals of all kinds and the fenced area that we drove through had once upon a time contained the only elk herd east of the Mississippi. The driveway ended at the steps of a 20,000 square foot log home that was literally perched on the edge of a gorge. We toured the home itself and despite its massive size, it was wholly unexceptional and needed serious updating if it were to ever live up to its billing. The site tour resumed as we descended into the gorge to a remarkably wide and flat, grassy flood plain that was the valley floor. A creek ran the lateral half mile of the plain and it had been dammed up several different places by beautiful rock walls creating pools, waterfalls and eddies where, again once upon a time giraffes, hippos and other exotic animals, saved from bankrupt zoos or private collections had roamed. There was a stone mill house with a water wheel, aviary for raptors of all kinds even a bear habitat, now all empty and derelict. Tom took us up a very rutted and muddy jeep trail to a wind blown field of wild flowers and broom straw on the ridge line opposite the old lodge itself. It was cool, breezy and beautiful there but more importantly, I could get a cell signal so I called Dave Kookenbach at the land trust we'd gotten close to to tell him about this site. Dave immediately warned me that Pickens County, Georgia was not only a poor county but a very disorganized one. He doubted that there was any long term steward available to hold an easement on such a tract that size and politely suggested that we stick to looking for broken subdivisions. As it turned out, upon learning that our process didn't involve actually buying the land (and paying him a commission,) Tom the broker went remarkable chilly on us and wasn't even willing to give us the appraisal documentation that he had on file. We tried to discuss how we might compensate a broker who brought us a transaction but it was clear that we hadn't thought it through and he wanted none of it. Broker sponsored opportunities were simply going to be a problem, I feared. That afternoon might have only been entertaining except I learned where downtown Jasper was and that happened to be the home office of the Trust for Mountain Land, a small but respected land trust to which I had been referred. Several days later, Matt and I were in the car, headed back to Jasper to meet Robert Rankin, the executive director.

Dr. Rankin held a PhD. in Biological Studies from Wake Forest, was a former Navy Seal and was a direct, super intelligent force of nature. He occupied a cramped office on the second floor of what passed for an office building in Jasper. Despite his modest surroundings - relative to almost anything but especially the plush, corporate offices of the Trust for Urban Land, Dr. Rankin was impressive and grabbed our concept immediately. It didn't take long to process that though he seemed marginally employed he was in a job that he loved. His was a small organization founded by wealthy Atlanta businessmen who had vacation homes near there and had wanted to conserve the forest around their conclave to protect their investment. They had founded a land trust to do just that he'd been hired to expand their scope of service. Two ambitious guys from Atlanta who needed his expertise suited him perfectly. And from him, we heard for the hundredth time, that we were absolutely onto something. Different from Kookenbach at the huge, national land trust, this guy was innovative, dedicated and maybe most importantly, he was hungry. He processed immediately how important Belmont Downs was to us (all) and offered to do a preliminary study on the conservation possibilities there that might help us push that rock up hill with the bank. Very different from Kookenbach, he offered also to see what the long term stewardship options really were in Cherokee County and that was bound to put some face cards in our hand. Over lunch, I learned two other things about him that seemed to cement our relationship. He grew up in Mt. Holly, North Carolina not more than 2 miles from my family's home and he did something that, in 30 years of work in professional settings I have never seen any one do. He drank 2 beers at lunch!