Tennessee
Center Hill Lake
The original field guide: coves, back roads, waterfalls, local food, lake access, and the stories behind the landscape.
Explore the edition ↗Lake access · still from Roots on Center Hill, owner’s media collection.
Tony’s Guide
Tony’s Guide
Practical travel resources and research-based history and culture. Five destinations, each with its own character and deeper story.
Created & published by Tony DePass
A place is more
than a list of stops.
Tony’s Guide brings together practical trip planning and research-based information about the histories, cultures, and environments that give a destination its character. The aim is to help people travel well and understand more about where they are.
A useful recommendation helps a visitor choose: who will enjoy it, what the effort involves, when it makes sense, and what the tradeoffs are. A fuller story asks why a place looks the way it does and whose experiences are missing from the familiar version.
The editions connect through an editorial approach while retaining their distinct regional identities. Readers can use the guides whether or not they stay at the Little Lake House.
Start with Center Hill Lake ↗
Five distinct editions
Choose your place.
Each edition remains a destination resource in its own right. Open one to explore its guides and current planning information.
History, culture & travel
Jamaica
Travel planning alongside foodways, Jamaican history, archival inquiry, and stories that examine inherited narratives.
Explore the edition ↗Ackee and saltfish · gailf548 · CC BY 2.0. Cropped for layout.
Alabama & the surrounding region
Mentone & Lookout Mountain
Village life, waterfalls, Little River Canyon, and practical choices about terrain, timing, and the wider region.
Explore the edition ↗Little River Canyon · NPS / Matt Switzer · public domain.
Texas Hill Country
Gruene & Canyon Lake
Music, German-Texan history, New Braunfels, Canyon Lake, and the river corridors that connect the region.
Explore the edition ↗Canyon Lake and Dam · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · public domain.
Western North Carolina
Bryson City & the Smokies
Deep Creek, Fontana Lake, Nantahala, and Cherokee: choosing a useful starting point for a mountain day.
Explore the edition ↗Deep Creek Trail · National Park Service · public domain.
The editorial approach
Depth that earns its place.
Practical choices
Routes, tools, access, weather alternatives, and the details that help a visitor act.
Historical context
Communities, institutions, work, displacement, and the forces that shaped a place.
Culture & everyday life
Food, music, craft, and local practices explained as part of a living story.
Evidence & correction
Documented findings, clear source attribution, and a distinction between evidence, interpretation, and unanswered questions. Accounts can change when better evidence appears.
Jamaican historical & family research
Read the record.
Reconsider the story.
DePass’s research in St. Mary and St. Ann connects family history with the larger institutions that shaped Jamaican lives. Registers, civil and church records, maps, and family evidence can help recover connections that a familiar narrative overlooks.
That work informs an approach to Jamaican history that distinguishes a document’s evidence from an interpretation and acknowledges what remains unresolved. It belongs alongside travel and cultural writing because understanding a place requires more than arriving there.
Explore Tony’s Guide Jamaica ↗A personal connection
Start with someone
you knew.
My Jamaican family research began with Va, my great-grandmother. It led backward through generations to Marianne and Jane, named together in an 1817 register.
Read In Search of Marianne →The Little Lake House / Music & place
See the setting.
Feel the rhythm.
Music and place are part of the story. This full-length film draws on my property and regional media collection.
The Little Lake House is my hospitality venture and one connection to the region behind the first guide. Explore the house and another music video →
Make the connection
A destination resource
for the curious traveler.
Start with the day you want. Stay for the story behind the place.
Family history & original records
In Search of Marianne
Marianne / Quasheba, Abba / Jane, and the family line from slavery-era returns to the people I knew. Read the complete narrative, inspect the documents, and follow the sources.
Stay at the Little Lake House
Choose how you book.
Check available dates on the direct website or use your preferred booking platform. Review the price and reservation terms shown by the channel you choose.