Lone Mountain is a small, rural community in Claiborne County, Tennessee, where my father, Roger Keith Payne, was born and grew up. His father was a Payne, his mother was a Jennings, and I grew up hearing stories about both sides of the family.
After he married my mother, Alberta Cody, Daddy had to leave his beloved Lone Mountain for South Carolina in order to make a living. But nothing ever kept him away for long. Throughout his life he made the trek from South Carolina back “home” to Lone Mountain several times a year – over the pre-interstate highways from Aiken into North Carolina and across the Blue Ridge Mountains into Tennessee.
We passed through Bean Station before beginning the climb up the narrow two-lane, hairpin curves of highway 25E as it snaked past the precipitous drop-offs of Clinch Mountain. Then it was all downhill into the Little Sycamore community of Springdale where we made that long-awaited left turn onto Lone Mountain Road.
From there it was only five miles to go before we found our “Lone Mountain House” waiting for us – sitting patiently by the same railroad tracks that brought our ancestors there in the first place.
Daddy’s stories of his growing up years, and his deep love for his parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and close friends in Lone Mountain, sparked my interest in their stories and the history of the place.
It is my hope to share as many stories as I can with the large extended family that shares my Lone Mountain heritage. I welcome the stories of others as well. Together, perhaps we can capture our part of the history of Lone Mountain – that seemingly forgotten little corner of the world that looms so large in our hearts.
~Amy Payne Potts
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