[5] Deer Lodge was originally situated around a 300-acre (120 ha) tract of land acquired by the Davidson family in the early 1800s.

Ross, who had been the proprietor of Rugby's Tabard Inn, decided to convert the tract into a mountain resort.

[5] By the end of the 1890s, Deer Lodge had two hotels (the Mountain View and Summit Park), a newspaper (the Southern Enterprise), a theater, a band, a planing mill, and numerous clubs and civic organizations.

[6] Deer Lodge is located in a remote section of the Cumberland Plateau in western Morgan County.

Deer Lodge straddles the Tennessee Valley Divide, with waters in the northern part of the community flowing toward the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, and waters in the southern half flowing toward the Obed River.