See Rock City

In the 1960s Ralph Ruhl, the original owner of the property, ingeniously installed an artesian well, allowing water to irrigate from the pond.

“See Rock City.” In the 1930s, those three little words nearly shouted from the rooftops. Painted on barns as part of an unorthodox ad campaign, they directed drivers to an up-and-coming mountaintop attraction: 14 acres of rock formations, caves and woodland gardens known as Rock City. The black-and-white billboards directed travelers as far north as Michigan and as far west as Texas toward the gardens’ home on Lookout Mountain just outside of Chattanooga, Tenn. By the end of the decade, Rock City had certainly been seen.

In 1978 Ed and Hilda Chapin, second-generation owners of Rock City – who also lived part-time on John’s Island – visited what was then known as the Wabasso Nursery, just north of town. At Hilda’s insistence, the two purchased the seven-acre property from Ralph Ruhl, who had established it in the mid-1960s. The Chapins immediately changed the name to “Rock City Gardens,” but it wouldn’t become a local destination until current owners Tom and Rhonda Lowe came into the picture in 1980.