Before Lake Martin became the backdrop to dinner parties, quiet mornings and dance-in-the-rain afternoons, a modest 800-square-foot cinder block cabin sat on the stretch of natural wooded land, complete with a rickety swimming pier and weekends spent building family memories.

In 1974, when Ricky Loeb was just 18 years old, his parents purchased one of the original Russell cabins on Lake Martin. Rustic by any standard, it quickly became a treasured weekend escape for the Montgomery family. Like many of the cabins at the time, it had no running water. Food was packed in coolers and hauled up in the trunk of the car as the family settled in for long weekends of swimming and rest.