The City of Lookout Mountain, Georgia sits atop the mountain bearing the same name, near the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The high, wide plateau that forms the top of the mountain is surrounded by near perpendicular cliffs that give way to a more gentle slope near the bottom leading into the regions of Chattanooga Valley, Lookout Valley, and the St. Elmo Historic District.

A progression of Native Americans lived on the mountaintop including Creek and Cherokee Indians. Around the base of the mountain Cherokee of the "Lower Towns" or the Chickamauga, lived. The name Chattanooga, in fact, is the Creek Indian word for the mountain itself.