Cabin One: the ground's broken at Betsy

Ozark Gothic is five acres across two parcels in downtown Rogers, a short roll from Lake Atalanta. For a while it has been the quiet version of itself — trees, a mailbox, the lake and the trails minutes out. That's starting to change.

Cabin One is going up now on the Betsy parcel. It's the first building on the land, and the one that sets the tone for whatever follows. To be plain about what it is and isn't: we have a building permit, we do not have approval to rent it to anyone, we haven't asked for one, and we're not taking names. There's no opening date because there's nothing to open. A second cabin on the Walnut parcel is a hope, not a plan.

We’re out there most days now. The trailer we sleep in is parked in the lower clearing, the fire ring is thirty feet from the door, and Lake Atalanta is a fifteen-minute walk — a 30-acre lake in a 236-acre park, ten miles of singletrack, fishing piers. It is a good place to be building something.