By Carla Craft, courtesy of the Collegiate Times
Mountain Lake Lodge, located about 30 minutes from Virginia Tech in Pembroke, Va., reopened on May 3 after undergoing design, vision and management changes.
William Lewis Moody Jr. built the original stone lodge and resort in the early 1930s. When Moody died in 1954, his daughter, Mary Moody Northen, purchased the property. Northen had spent the summers of her childhood at the resort, and had grown attached to the resort and surrounding the property.
It was her dream to use the resort as a way to connect others with nature. After Northen’s death in 1986, the Mary Moody Northen Endowment took ownership of the lodge to see her final wishes reach fruition. The resort is still owned by the endowment, and a portion of the profits generated go back to Virginia non-profits.
In the fall of 2012, the lodge underwent major changes to the guest rooms, design of the stone lodge and entire vision of the resort.
In the past, the lodge focused their marketing primarily on the fact that parts of the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” had been filmed on the resort property. Now, the resort still incorporates the film in its history, but has a new focus: connecting guests with nature and local culture.
Heidi Stone, director of sales and marketing at Mountain Lake Lodge, explained the idea behind rethinking the resort.
“We have so much more than just ‘Dirty Dancing,’ and we’re so much more than we ever used to be,” she said.
Stone explained the lodge has renovated and updated the guest rooms and lobby, as well as added Harvest, a farm-to-table restaurant and Stony Creek Tavern, a bar featuring local brews, liquors and wines.
Darren Dole, an employee at Mountain Lake Lodge, stated that there are no televisions in some of the guest rooms.
“The focus is completely on the outdoors,” he said.
In an effort to keep that focus, the lodge has added an array of outdoor activities. In the beginning of June, it will open Mountain Lake Outfitters, which will allow guests to rent mountain bikes, archery equipment, disc-golf equipment and more. In the end of June, the lodge will open Mountain Lake Tree-Toppers — an aerial, rope-adventure course, as well as children’s nature camps.
Recently, the lake suffered damage due to sinkholes and ended up draining. Thanks to a team of scientists who examined the site and plugged the sinkholes with natural materials, the lake is expected to be full once again by summer 2014.
“At that point, we will have everything at Mountain Lake Lodge,” Stone said.
In the meantime, the lodge has still found ways to offer aquatic activities to guests. Aside from the countless outdoor activities offered on its 2,600 acres, the lodge has partnered with off-site outfitters in Giles County to offer white-water rafting, guided canoe trips, fly-fishing and more.
