John Fox Jr. first visited the Cumberland Gap area while a student at Harvard College.

His two older brothers, James and Horace, owned coal mines in Jellico, Tennessee, and the three came to the area as speculators and mineral developers in 1888.

[3] While exploring the area for business, John Fox became more and more fascinated with the region and its people, eventually abandoning his real estate interests for his writing.

[4] Despite his frequent travels, Fox had his productive writing period in the home on Shawnee Avenue and it is here that he wrote his most famous works.

Fritzi Scheff, a singer with the Metropolitan Opera, was fascinated by the region through reading Fox's stories.