I have been to a dozen+ log homes of friends, mainly in Waynesville area...
A couple are very high end, and above your budget, though some are possibly
in the ballpark. I know of few true 'log home communities', eg all homes
are log homes...there are a couple in Maggie Valley area. No RE guy, so this is
anecdotal.
And, Yahoo search turns up a few pages:
log home communities in western nc - Yahoo! Search Results
There are few towns in western NC that are "too far from civilization", and fishing/hunting
is available all over Haywood, Jackson, Madison and Buncombe counties.
No clue on schools, as our Kidz are in their 40s and back in NJ/NY...
My guess is an NC resident pays much less than out of state for college; there was a recent thread
on this.
Hope this helps. Your orig & follow up posts are a bit vague.
GL, mD