Our History
When we come together in nature, we not only know ourselves better, we remember that we are a part of a system - a system with a history & a future.
Cherokee land
Of course, all of this land was the original territory of the Indigenous Eastern Cherokee.
Highland Lake is located seventy miles east of the current federally recognized Cherokee Reservation.
We honor the Spirit of this land and the history of the indigenous people, and we seek to continually learn from and honor the wisdom inherent to this place and native people.
Flat Rock
Flat Rock, North Carolina was established as a place for making and creating. There were small, local industries and attempts to create sustainability in community through industry and education.
Highland Lake Community
Highland Lake was originally dammed and created in the 1700s to run a mill.
In recent history, the property had been used as a church retreat and camp before Kerry acquired it in the 1980's.
If there's one thing that we know we need after the last few years of forced isolation, it's a sense of belonging.
Purposeful Living
We seek to honor the original spirit and purpose of this land, and to infuse ourselves in it so that we may steward it for the future.
We know from observation that the ecological environment is inherently renewable, left to its own devices.
Therefore, we can learn from it. We can model a localized economy after this organic ecology, and if we stay close to nature, it will help us to always remember what's important.
