In 1927 H.E. “Cy” Hawkins bought a bunch of land near where present-day Grandview Lake is. Cy was a former minor league baseball pitcher for Carrollton, Georgia. Cy was considered the salesman and brains of the operation and his brother (Ira) Tanner was the practical builder type. He and his brother Tanner wanted to be land developers. They bought up land and divided it into one and five-acre plots. The idea was to sell the lots around a resort area with a lodge and a small lake named Pleasant Valley Lake. Pleasant Lake was built in 1927. It was 15 acres in size and 25 feet deep at its deepest point. It was stocked with government fish (black bass) brought in from Warm Springs, Georgia. It was built by damming up a stream. They also built a number of small cabins that would come with the acre sized parcels.
When Grandview Lodge was nearly finished Cy had arranged for a great chef to come to work at the lodge and to prepare exotic meals for people. Cy started an advertising campaign and advertised in the Pickens Progress, even offering free stays at the lodge with meals included in an attempt to entice people to buy the surrounding lots. He had a series of postsized cards available that showed various features of the colony as well as the prices involved. His office was located where present-day Mary Ann’s is located. The Lodge was astonishing. It opened officially on July 14, 1928. Three stories high, twenty-rooms, French windows, electricity, running water and beautiful view of the Blue Ridge and Sharp Top Mountain.
Around 1933 Cy and Tanner had packed up their belongings and left. They didn’t pay their workers and owed various people in the area money. They had sold some lots over and over again and left it up to the owners to work out who were the real owners. By 1933 many lots were given over to Henry Forest by way of a Sheriff’s Sale. Tanner Hawkins died of congestive heart failure in 1940. As of yet, I haven't been able to discover where or when Cy was laid to rest.
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