Montvale Springs and Chihowee Mountain, eight miles south of Maryville, were inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years. In 1832 Dantel Foute constructed a road from Maryville and built Montvale Springs Hotel, one of Tennessee's first mineral springs resorts. Asa Watson replaced the log hotel in 1853 with the Seven Gables Hotel. Promoted as the fountain of youth, guests came from around the world, and novelist-poet Sidney Lanier (1843-1881) spent summers there. The Seven Gables Hotel burned in 1896. Andrew Gamble built a third hotel in 1901. Ludwig Pflanze ran it from 1911 to 1933, when it burned. The YMCA operated the 394-acre Camp Montvale as a summer camp from 1948 to 2005. Sam Furrow purchased it 2008 and placed a conservation easement on it with Foothills Land Conservancy to protect conservation values. Harmony Family Center bought it in 2012 to benefit children, families, and community.