Long time lurker, new member here...
The “town” of Signal Mountain has a very high income rate, but the city limits cover about ¼ of the mountain. If you include Walden through 127 off the backside of the mtn., then that average income rate drops drastically.
From Walden to the back of the mountain is hardly affluent. The Sequatchie County side is still rural, and not wealthy. You will see my point about this shortly…
I’ve lived on Signal Mountain for 35 years and know its advantages and drawbacks very well. It’s a "hush" community- if something goes wrong, it won’t make the news until it is a catastrophe. You still have to search the web or read the Times Free Press to find news of this story... very little, if any, coverage on the nightly WTVC, WDSI or WDEF 11 o’clock news. WRCB has featured the case.
Some Signal Mountain folks (especially those on the front side), will leave out the fact that the Klan was quite visibly prevalent up until the early 1990s with roadblocks and burning crosses. They are still large in the area, but they meet in secluded “survival” camps on the backside of the mountain these days. Signal Mountain’s most famous resident for a long time was Byron De La Beckwith (who murdered the famous Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers, for those with short memories). You also had the 4 wheeler murders, which took 15 years to solve.
The Signal Mountain cops are likely way over their heads with this. They like to spend most of their time harassing teenagers, and tailing home people who work late hours. Don’t drive through the city limits if you have an out of state tags late at night, or you will be tailed. There are a couple of fine officers who do their best, but a lot of them are not equipped, nor have the right kind of mental approach to the job to be able to handle this type of situation.
What should be noted is that St. Ives is directly connected to the Timesville area, which most people of money on the mountain avoid visiting or discussing. I lived in Applewood when they started construction on St. Ives, and since it runs directly into the Timesville community, they built an 8 foot wall to block access… because Timesville Road and further into that ravine make the hillbilly community in “Deliverence” look like paradise. The area around Applewood, St. Ives, and Timesville would’ve made the perfect place to dispose of someone. St. Ives was built on the old “motorbike” pits, which drew in a very shady crowd, with lots of drugs and rural crime taking place- as well as stills. Building St. Ives in that specific area was about the dumbest idea any developer could’ve come up with, because it is directly connected to one of the poorest areas on the mountain. It would still be very easy to hide something in this area. The woods behind the neighborhoods are miles deep and still probably filled with marijuana plants and shady activity.
