Tourism leaders in the small Letcher County town of Jenkins plan to attract attention to the area with a mountaintop resort.
The Raven Rock Resort will include a lodge, cabins and biking trails on top of Pine Mountain.
The area used to be a picnic retreat for the Beth-Elkhorn coal company. The tourism nonprofit EKY Heritage Foundation bought the property several years back.
Executive Director Jeffery Justice says he’d like to make the town a destination for those traveling along Route 23.
“I kind of compare it to Radiator Springs and the movie ‘Cars,’” Justice said. “That road just really cut the city of Jenkins off from the rest of the world, where it's down in the valley. If you're traveling on 23 you can't see it, so you don't really know that it's there.”
Justice says the plan is to keep the environment as intact as possible, and to share it with travelers.
“Once you get up there and see the views, you just get a whole new idea of Appalachia and what it means to be in these mountains,” Justice said. “So it's really more of a spiritual thing, I think, than anything.”
Justice says the project is in the design stage. They’ve hired trail designers, environmental consultants and architects. It’s scheduled to be open by 2027.
