DUNLAP, Tenn. — Jimmy Wagner has returned to his childhood passion as he develops one of the biggest residential communities ever undertaken in Southeast Tennessee.

Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding -- As a boy, Jimmy Wagner hunted in the woods of Fredonia Mountain, where he now is designing a gated community.

The 48-year-old emergency room physician put down his stethoscope eight years ago in South Florida to return to his hometown to help create a unique nature resort atop the same mountain he hunted and fished on growing up as a child.

“This is probably the only type resort like this in the world,” Dr. Wagner said while talking about one of the 10 trails he has laid out atop Fredonia Mountain overlooking Dunlap. “Most developers don’t want to put 10 years of their life into a development like this.”

But Dr. Wagner, who has personally walked and laid out the boundaries for more than 300 residential properties already sold on Fredonia Mountain, is passionate about the property he and his physician brother Barry Wagner began acquiring in the 1990s. Jimmy, who bought out his brother’s interest in the business a few years ago, proudly displays the ponds, parks and wildflowers he has planted amid the residential properties scattered across the first four phases of his development.

“There’s more deer and wildlife out here right now than when I was a child out here hunting,” he said.

The gated community includes lots anywhere from two to 70 acres at prices ranging from $60,000 to $125,000 per lot. Most of the homes being built on the lots are priced above $500,000, and several houses along bluffs and streams will cost at least $1 million. So far, residents buying the homes have come from 32 states. Few are from the local area.

Most of the land once was owned by Tennessee Consolidated Coal Co., which halted the last of its underground mining operations more than a decade ago. In all, the Wagner Brothers Land Co. owns about 3,200 acres, or nearly 19 percent of all of the land in Sequatchie County.

In a county of 13,369 residents with a median family income 27 percent below the U.S. average, the Fredonia Mountain Resort is altering the residential character of the former mining town.

“This is really changing our community for the better,” said George Wagner, Jimmy’s father and the longtime mayor of Dunlap. “We’ve had some great people move into our area, and they are shopping at our stores and investing in local businesses.”

Mayor Wagner recalls in the 1950s when much of the mountain land sold for a dollar an acre. Fully developed today with city sewers, underground high-speed Internet and paved roads, parcels are selling for $30,000 an acre or more in some places.

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Mayor Wagner, who has worked as a car dealer and businessman like his father, said Jimmy “has the Wagner gene for business.” The elder Wagner said he approached his sons about buying most of Fredonia Mountain when it became available in the mid 1990s.

“I thought they could make some money at this, and that’s how we got started,” Mayor Wagner said.

But Jimmy isn’t looking to turn a quick profit.

“We want to preserve the beauty of this area,” he said. “What we are creating will be here for generations.”

Although Barry Wagner is no longer involved in Wagner Brothers Co., the business remains a family enterprise. Diane Wagner Beavers, a sister of Dr. Wagner, serves as the company’s chief financial officer. Her husband, Jim, is the maintenance director for the company.

In one of his newest parks, Dr. Wagner is spending nearly $1 million to erect one of the largest covered bridges in the South. It is dedicated to his mother, who died a year ago.

“We hope it will be a place for everyone to remember and celebrate their moms,” he said.

Tim Coleman, a former college roommate from Middle Tennessee State University, left an advertising career three years ago to join Dr. Wagner in marketing the Fredonia Mountain land to buyers across the country.

“Jimmy has a true love for this land,” Mr. Coleman said.

Dr. Wagner, who trained at the University of Memphis and practiced medicine in both Chattanooga and South Florida, decided in 2000 to set aside his medical career for a while to work on the development.

“It allows me to continue to serve people while still getting outside to explore the rocks and creeks,” he said. “I’ve always loved nature and the out-of-doors, and the wonderful people that are coming to our development also are attracted by the trails, streams, mountains and wildlife in this beautiful part of the country.”