In the Valley

In the Valley is a limited-event venue site for the purposes of lectures, small parties, conferences, tours, reunions, and field trips.

Oral history strongly suggests the cabin was originally built in 1821 by a Cherokee Chief named Chief Pine Log. The cabin was a one-room dwelling with an earthen floor, sleeping loft, fireplace and rough log interior walls.

In 1913, the single cabin and 200 acres were purchased by novelist Corra Mae (White) Harris. Following the purchase of the single cabin, she began an improvement of the cabin adding a stone foundation, two wings, kitchen, paneling the interior, and adding separate upstairs bedrooms, including indoor plumbing. The campus includes approximately ten buildings, a pond, a walking trail, a rock nursery garden and a windmill. Ownership or resident occupation leading up to the time when purchased by Harris has not been located, likely due to Cass County documents being destroyed during the Civil War.