The Moses H. Cone estate, also called Flat Top Manor, is on a hillside overlooking the lake, whose elevation is 3,563 feet (1,086 m).

Bass Lake is found in Moses H. Cone Memorial Park which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

[10] Cone specified the construction of a 500-foot (150 m) long 30-foot (9.1 m) wide earthen dam with a clay core and a dual-channeled stone-lined spillway to handle overflows.

The Hickory Democrat reported that Cone was buried on the property where he had an orchard with 32,000 apple trees and two large lakes.

[11] In 1914, The Lenoir News reported that the Cone estate was said to have thousands of apple trees with an estimated harvest of 50,000 bushels.

The sluice gate was modernized, but the spillway remained historically intact as are the dam banks which continued to be covered with mowed grass.