Building Dreams

September-October 2016

Mississippi Magazine

With hard work and determination, Mack Lowery is proof that a lofty vision can become a reality.

- Mary Neff Stewart

In 1974, Mack Lowery and his father Kelton purchased 88 acres of rolling forest with a goal. Two years later, with ambition and hard work, his dream of creating a home with his own hands had become a reality. He built his first home in 1976, an 800-square-foot log cabin using trees from his own land. Built primarily with a chainsaw, ax, hammer, and chisels, the house became a home and was the site of his wedding to Melissa, his wife of 28 years, and is where the couple raised their two daughters, Mackenzie and Maison. In 1980 they acquired an adjacent 37 acres of wooded rolling pasture and two lakes.

In 2003, the beloved cabin burned and left the family devastated. They relocated to Jackson to settle for the next few years as Mack began to rebuild a home for his family, and with his own hands created a stunning work of art. On what is said to be the highest point in Hinds County, the home faces the north and overlooks the two lakes. Mature hardwood forests are to the west and south, and to the east are rolling hills and pastures. All of the pre-construction work, including the design and planning, felling of the trees, milling the lumber, and site work was done by Mack. He personally knows each board and beam utilized in his beautiful structure. The majority of the lumber was harvested from the property. “All of the logs were milled into boards and beams on my Wood-Mizer hydraulic sawmill,” he notes. “I started with mostly pine beetle trees that needed to be harvested to protect the healthy ones. All of my oak lumber was gathered from wind-fall or trees that had died from drought or disease.” Over five years, he filled five storage sheds with drying timber while completing the site work, which included moving fences, building a road, and laying underground cable and plumbing. Armed with a small crew of talented craftsmen, he worked tirelessly over the next two years to create his masterpiece.