Elmore County
Living M A G A Z I N E
SUMMER 2011 • COMPLIMENTARY
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
April 27, 2011 will be remembered around here for a long time
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his issue of Elmore County Living is dedicated to all of the storm victims in Elmore and Tallapoosa counties who realized on April 28 just how severe the storms of a day earlier had been. For many in the two counties, it was a night of terror. We are also dedicating this edition to the thousands of neighbors and many total strangers who came to their rescue. Our reporters and editors saw it firsthand while interviewing hundreds of people, and for a month now they have told the stories of survival and sadly, death. They waded through the downed trees and debris the night of the storm to get to the victims. The killer tornado had cut a swath through Elmore and Tallapoosa counties 44 miles long and a half-mile wide. From the air it looks like somebody used a giant weed eater and went along chopping down and tearing down everything in its way. It is hard to imagine, but that is exactly what this killer storm did. It took lives. It displaced hundreds of families from their homes. Many of them lost everything. Everything. And it could not have come at a worse time for many people in these trying economic times. But as our fellow man always does, they came to the rescue. Hundreds of volunteers responded to help clear debris. Thousands donated food, clothes and money. We turned our office into a collection point and when we announced it in the newspaper, our lobby quickly became a temporary grocery store. Thousands of items were brought in by caring people, some even sent via
publisher’s
message
overnight delivery from as far away as Renton, Wash. It came from a former resident of Millbrook. Employees at Mtek in Prattville delivered a truckload and a trailerload. Faculty, students and parents at Edgewood Academy added three truckloads of goods, too. Walgreens in Wetumpka brought in hundreds of items they collected. One after the other, people responded. Jay Goodwin and Kevin Taylor of our staff delivered the last of the goods to Eclectic as ECL was going to press. It was a sight for sore eyes seeing our van loaded down with water, food and sundry items. It made one feel good to know that when people need help, caring Elmore Countians and others respond. It will be a long time before many areas return to normal. In some places the huge trees are still being cleared from the roadways. Hundreds of trees fell that horrific night, broken like toothpicks. Dave Commander, who oversees the Russell Marine division for Russell Lands on Lake Martin, and his wife, Lynn, live in the Windemere neighborhood, in the Elmore County portion that was hit hard. They survived, and their house was not destroyed. But he said it was the sound of those huge trees falling that really had him concerned. Snapping like twigs and falling to the ground, the trees shook his house and made “an awful sound,” he said the other day, reliving the story one more time. Stories like his and hundreds of others will be told for a long time. Alabama hasn’t seen a deadly tornado outbreak like that in almost a century. Nearly 240
Jay Goodwin and Kevin Taylor load The Wetumpka Herald van with donations bound for relief centers in Eclectic to aid victims of April's tornadoes. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD
of our fellow Alabamians lost their lives, and the count is still rising because many are still missing. The University of Alabama cancelled classes and students will not graduate until August because one of 28 tornadoes on April 27 wiped out a 15-block area, destroying more than 5,000 buildings, killing more than 40 and injuring more than a thousand. Unfortunately, it was like that in Guin, Huntsville, Hackleberg and Phil Campbell, and in many other cities across our state. Massive destruction and death for miles. More than 440,000 were without electricity. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. It was a day that will live in infamy in Alabama. Kim N. Price is president of Price Publications, Inc.
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
editor’s
note I
Community spirit will prevail over tragedy
t has been amazing to witness first hand both the devastation the recent tornado caused across parts of Elmore County and the outpouring of support from people seeking to help the victims. The local community has responded with open hearts, flooding our office and numerous other collection points with donations of both supplies and money. The contributions have arrived from much farther afield as well. Many people have also volunteered their time and efforts to help those in need -- cleaning up, cooking, sorting donations, opening their homes and more. By and large, these generous folks are not looking for recognition -- they only want to be of assistance. And those who lost family and possessions in the storms are working hard to help themselves, too. While they appreciate every bit of support they receive, they aren’t waiting idly for someone to ride to their rescue. The same scenario is playing out all across our great state. Equally impressive is the number of “celebrities”
who have pitched in for the cause without alerting the media beforehand (including one who visited Eclectic). You will likely never hear about the good most of these people did. Many of those you have heard about was only because someone on site called their local newspaper or television station when they spotted them. And guess what? The majority of these selfless individuals are from right here in the South. All of it serves to make me proud to be from Elmore County, Alabama and the South. I think it’s obvious most of us adhere to the belief that “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” People in Alabama are proving that every day. And just a quick note about this issue of Elmore County Living -- there are plenty of interesting stories we’ve gathered to share with you. We hope you enjoy all of them. Peggy Blackburn is managing editor of Price Publications, Inc.
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Inside A Little Kindness 14
4 32 Doggie ‘I Do’s’
How an Eclectic ministry helped prepare volunteers for disaster.
Elvis and Dolly tied the knot in a ceremony with family and friends at the Hillbilly Mall.
Working in Wood 12
36 Feature Home
A Titus man turns logs and scrap lumber into unique, useful items.
A Wildwood home offers spacious living, a quiet neighborhood and room for outdoor entertaining.
Music Man 16 Baltimore native’s musical dream thrives in Eclectic.
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Mounted Shooting 20
38 Out and About 24
Bama Bandits test their skill in challenging family sport.
49 Golf Resort
Sweet Treats 26 Tallassee man’s homemade marshmallows are a hit.
Elmore County residents and visitors were captured at events and locations around the area.
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The Renaissance World Village Golf Resort offers a getaway for golfers and their families.
Riverside Inn 28
53 Calendar
Wetumpka hotel enjoyed nearly 60 successful years.
A guide to local events from late May through August.
Elmore County Living magazine is published by Price Publications, Inc. in conjunction with The Wetumpka Herald, The Eclectic Observer and The Tallassee Tribune. Copyright 2011 by Price Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Any reproduction of this publication is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. Kim N. Price - President/Publisher Peggy Blackburn - Managing Editor Jay Goodwin - Operations Manager Shannon Elliott - Ad Manager
David Goodwin - Political Editor Kevin Taylor - Copy Editor Griffin Pritchard - Sports Editor Christy Cooper - Ad Sales Porsche Ferrell - Classified Advertising
Tallassee Ashley Vice - Multimedia Manager Willie Moseley - News Editor Lauren Newman - Staff Writer Stephanie Weldon - Ad Sales
P.O. Box 99 • 300 Green Street • Wetumpka, AL 36092 • 334-567-7811
Inez Gates filling grocery carts for storm victims. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
HELPING HANDS
Kindness blossoms in disaster By David Goodwin
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ith hundreds left homeless after the devastating tornado that tore though the Eclectic area, the community sprang into action to feed and clothe victims who’d literally lost everything. But that’s not the kind of job an average citizen knows how
to do. And generous donations to the victims in Eclectic left the town almost drowning in canned goods, clothing and household goods. But a few local volunteers already had the space, organization and know-how to handle it. And it just so happened they’d spent the last year training for it, though they could never have imagined the multitude of needs left in the twister’s wake. “I think the Lord was getting this group ready to handle the
response to this disaster,” Johnny Gates said. “Without this last year of the Kindness Ministry, we would have no idea how to handle feeding so many people.” The Kindness Ministry began just over a year ago in the basement of First Baptist Church of Eclectic. Stocking its shelves with help from the Montgomery Area Food Bank, the Kindness Ministry aimed to make sure no Eclectic family went hungry.
Linda Reed restocks the shelves in the Kindness Ministry in Eclectic. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
A log book of donations contains more than 200 names of people, churches and other groups that have donated items to the Kindness Ministry since the tornado struck. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN
For its first year, it averaged 45 families per week on a two-day, six-hour schedule, volunteer Linda Reed said. Then an EF-4 tornado ripped a path of destruction more than 40 miles from the Dexter community, through Eclectic, and into Tallapoosa and Chambers counties.
Ninety homes were destroyed, including a mobile home park on Middle Road that saw more than 20 homes shredded and four residents killed. Another 96 homes had major structural damage, according to county Emergency Management Director Eric Jones. The Kindness Ministry linked up
with other volunteers and the Town of Eclectic to rush help to the victims. By 8 a.m. the following morning, volunteer Becky Webb was driving past shattered houses on Middle Road, her SUV loaded with coffee, bottled water and sausage biscuits. Residents were just returning to see the havoc the tornado had wrought on their homes. “I can see God in it, all over the place,” Webb said. “He gave us a year to practice, to work out all the kinks. Then we were ready.” As donations began to flood in, the volunteers honed their process down to a science. Someone would bring in a truckload of donations, which volunteers carried to a stairwell that led to the storm shelter where 50 residents sought refuge during the storms. One of those victims was wheelchair bound, so volunteers built a ramp for her that laid atop the five steps. That ramp became a chute, where boxes of food and bags of paper towels or diapers were slid down to the storm shelter, which was transformed into a warehouse. Webb said the Kindness Ministry
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Becky Webb, Inez Gates and Linda Reed sort supplies donated for victims of the April 27 tornado. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN
goes far beyond First Baptist. “It’s amazing how the churches in the area have all come together,” she said. “We’re blessed to have the space for people from all over to come pitch in.” Denise Greer, who Webb called the ministry’s “organizational expert,” attends Agape Church of God just down the road. “There are no denominations in this,” she said. Other regular helpers hail from First Baptist of Wetumpka, Eclectic United Methodist and other churches in Montgomery, Prattville, Tallassee and beyond. Greer categorizes everything for easy retrieval. There’s an unloading room, a row of shelves for dry goods, a room of canned fruit and vegetables and one room stacked to the ceiling with bottled water. As the supplies upstairs at the heart of the kindness ministry run low, Greer, Webb and others pull from the basement. Upstairs, other volunteers pull a variety of staples
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Jennifer Turner drops off some donated food and supplies to Becky Webb at the Eclectic Kindness Ministry.
and load them into three grocery buggies preloaded to get families in and out without delay. At the height of the need, a few days after the storm struck, Johnny Gates said they packed 66 buggies and took them to victims in a single day. They’ve loaded or delivered more than 120 three-buggy loads since the recovery effort began. Each load consists of food and water, cleansers, buckets, paper towels, clothing and blankets and, if the family has children, a few toys to brighten their day. “And we’ll ask if they have dogs or cats,” Marilyn Dorminey added. “Their pets are important, too.” The Kindness Ministry even has a stash of “sweet feed,” said Johnny Gates, in case the family owns goats or a mule. In the proud, independent South, getting people to accept help is
often the hardest job of all. “There was a family I knew who had a lot of damage out near Mt. Hebron Road, but I knew they wouldn’t ask,” Johnny Gates said. “So we loaded up a van and delivered it to them. They lost everything, but they were too proud to ask.” “Some of them want to come around and hug everyone’s neck in here,” said Inez Gates. “They say they didn’t know what was going to happen without it. Some break down in tears, because they’ve never had to take anything in charity.” The Kindness Ministry is one facet of an impromptu relief network that assembled before tornado victims even had the chance to ask for help. Like Webb’s sausage biscuit deliveries, residents outside the tornado’s path were clamoring for a
PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN
way to help their neighbors at first light the morning after disaster struck. A “Recovery Row” of donation sorting, victim assistance and volunteer registration centers sprang up downtown. At more than a halfdozen Eclectic addresses, hundreds of volunteers worked long days for the next two weeks. Inez Gates said the volunteers and the church are being used as conduits by a loving community to get help to all those who need it. “We couldn’t do this without the community’s generosity,” she said. At a candlelight tribute to the hundreds statewide who lost their lives or homes in the tornado outbreak, First Baptist Youth Pastor Brandon Roney gave a message inspired by the 23rd Psalm. “God gets us ready for things before they even happen,” he said.
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
By Peggy Blackburn
Bob Gantt uses a band saw to cut out the basic shape of a spoon. PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN
Craftsman listens when wood talks
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hether a log or scraps of discarded lumber, pieces of wood are transformed in the hands of Bob Gantt of Titus. In the workshop outside of his
home, the wood “tells” Gantt what it wants to be and spoons, bowls, mugs and other items emerge. “I had been working with wood all my life,” said Gantt. “My son B.J. is in Scouts and several years ago his leader
was involved with doing reenactments, like at Fort Toulouse. He wanted me to help him make a wooden spoon and bowl because he wanted everything to be authentic. “I told him I had been read-
ing about making them already and wanted to learn to do it anyway,” he said. “So I got to playing with it.” Gantt began with making spoons. “It evolved from there,” he said. “I was making so many
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011 bowls and spoons, we had them everywhere. We began giving them away as Christmas presents and gifts, but pretty soon we had given them to everybody we knew. “That’s when my wife, Deborah, said I either had to quit making them or start selling them.” The couple soon started exhibiting at arts and crafts shows as vendors. “We’ve been going for five or six years,” Gantt said. “We go to about nine shows a year -- three in the spring and six in the fall.” He said fall shows are where he sells most of his creations, but noted that he fares “pretty well” at the spring ones. “Sometimes we trade with other people for their items,” he said. “Then we wind up using most of what we trade for as gifts for our family and friends.”
“A piece of wood will talk to you ... If you listen, it will tell you what it wants to be.” Spoons and bowls represent the lion’s share of items Gantt produces, but he also carves mugs and scoops. And he is open to new ideas as well. “After we started going to shows, a lady who owns a shop in Huntsville was at one and asked me if I made French tasting spoons,” he said. “She explained to me what they are, and I began making them. She pretty much buys all of those I can make.” A French tasting spoon has a small, round spoon at each end. The handle between the spoons is also carved out. When one end of the spoon is dipped into soup or sauce, the user then tips the spoon so the liquid flows into the other end. The soup or sauce cools as it travels, and the design of the spoon also prevents the food being contaminated by the person tasting because the untouched end can be used to dip again.
Gantt recently began building traps for carpenter bees because “someone asked me to make some.” The traps appear to be birdhouses with no holes in the sides. There is a large hole in the bottom with the ring from a canning jar attached around it. A jar is screwed onto the ring. Several holes are drilled at an angle into the bottom edges of the “birdhouse” -- the size of those made by the bees. The bees go into the holes and head toward the light that’s let into the jar. Once they are in the jar, they aren’t able to escape. Gantt said he can use most types of wood in his work, including poplar, dogwood, mimosa and persimmon. “My favorite is cherry and dogwood is number two,” he said. “Cherry has a rich, beautiful grain to it. But I use about anything except pine. And I only use oak to make stirring paddles.” Despite the large quantity of wood he uses to create the items he sells, Gantt rarely has to cut a tree. “Most of my wood is from trees that have blown down, or trees that other people cut down,” he said. “My friends and neighbors know what I do, so they bring me trees they’ve cut or ones that blow down in their yard. “And, when someone clear-cuts, they leave everything but the pines, so I will get wood in those places. With the tornado that went through at Eclectic and Windemere, there are a lot of downed trees and I’ve wound up with some from over there. I very seldom have to cut a tree to make anything.” Gantt explained that most of his carving is done with green wood because dry wood is difficult to carve. Some pieces, like mugs, are set aside to dry after being shaped to his satisfaction. “I just wait and hope they don’t crack.” The large bowls he makes require a slightly different process. After the carving work is complete, Gantt places them in plastic garbage bags where they remain while they dry. The procedure produces dark lines and patterns called spalling. “It’s actually where the wood starts to rot,” he explained. “The lines add to the beauty of the finished bowl.” In addition to his popular bowls and
The shop where Bob Gantt makes his one-ofa-kind wood items. PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN
spoons, Gantt likes to make other items from the type of wood most people purchase at home improvement stores. But he typically doesn’t buy any lumber himself. “My favorite thing is to take lumber somebody else was going to throw away and make something useful out of it,” he said. For example, Gantt’s dining room table was created from strips of wood, each no more than three or four inches wide. He also built the island in their kitchen, his son’s bedroom suite, their computer desk, a blanket chest, their television cabinet and many more of the furnishings in their home. But he only builds furniture for his family’s personal use. Gantt demonstrated the procedure for making a spoon, starting with a section of dogwood log. His first step was to use wedges and split the log to remove the “heart.” “You have to get the heart out because if you make anything with it, it will split,” he explained. After dividing the log in half, Gantt used a hand axe to roughly straighten the inner face. From there, the sides were sheared off using a large power saw to trim it to a basic rectangular shape. The piece was then shaped into a more exact rectangle using another saw.
14 In the next step, Gantt used a pattern and a black marker to draw the outline of a spoon on the block of wood. Using yet another saw, he cut the wood to the outlined shape. After drawing a center line, he used a chisel and rubber mallet to first chip away wood from what would become the outside of the spoon’s bowl. The chisel was then used to gouge out the inside of the spoon’s bowl. Shaping by a large piece of sanding equipment was followed by more detailed shaping with a hand sander. When he was satisfied with the spoon, Gantt burned his initials, the date and the type of wood into the spoon’s handle. To finish, he rubbed the new spoon with mineral oil. The total time to transform the rough log to a smooth spoon was about 30 minutes. “When I work on items at craft shows, I do it all by
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
In about 30 minutes, Bob Gantt transformed half of a dogwood log into a spoon.
hand because I don’t have all my woodworking equipment there,” he said. “If I tried to do everything by hand, I would never make enough to sell. It probably takes about two hours to make a spoon entirely by hand. Gantt said he planned the
demonstration of spoon making so he could show the whole process. “I picked a nice, straight piece of dogwood I knew would probably agree to be made into a spoon,” he said. “But I don’t always know what the wood wants to be
PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN
when I start. “A piece of wood will talk to you. If you listen, it will tell you what it wants to be ... what God wants it to be.” Gantt can be reached by phone at 334-567-7896 or by email at bgdgbj@ bellsouth.net.
Tony Buenger in the mixing room of his studio. PHOTO BY KEVIN TAYLOR
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Music man
Baltimore native plants musical roots in Eclectic By Kevin Taylor
J
ess Meuse knew she wanted to work with Tony Buenger when she noticed his shoes. “I knew he was cool because he was wearing Van Halen sneakers,” she said. “He’s not a grown-up old fart who has nothing else to give. He is experienced, but he still acts like a kid sometimes.” Buenger is a Baltimore transplant who made Alabama his home in 2002 while enrolled in Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base. He rented a home just south of Equality and enjoyed the small town atmosphere of Eclectic. It was where his kids went to school. It’s also where Buenger built Guest House Studios, where he records and produces musicians from across the United States and even acts from outside of the U.S. “I liked the location,” Buenger explained. “I love this small town, and it was much more affordable to build here than in Washington, D.C. “I could have built a studio in a place like Montgomery, but let’s face it, studios are a dime a dozen down there.
They come and they go. I wanted to build a studio close to Montgomery because when you really think of it, this area is a music mecca.” The Montgomery area is certainly music-rich given the acts which have originated from the region, including Hank Williams, Lionel Ritchie, Nat King Cole and Tommy Shaw of the rock group Styx. “There’s a lot of great musical talent which has come from this area, so it only
seemed fitting to build a studio here,” Buenger said.
The music behind the man Music has always been a part of Buenger’s life. He was one of 10 children in his family and all played an instrument or two. “Dad was the only one who didn’t play an instrument. He couldn’t play or sing a lick, but he loved music,” Buenger said. “He would have an Elvis record on, or he would put one of my KISS 8-tracks
Tony Buenger and Jess Meuse work through riffs on electric guitar.
in the player.” He was given his first guitar at age 8. “My parents played a trick on me,” he recalled. “They put a bunch of jackets on the sofa and asked me to hang the coats up. I, of course, did begrudgingly and at the bottom of the pile was a red and black acoustic guitar with a card for six lessons.” Buenger later taught himself to play guitar at age 9 and then took jazz and classical guitar lessons at 12.
PHOTO BY KEVIN TAYLOR
18 Buenger eventually stepped up to an electric guitar before performing in a number of school and garage bands through his teens. His most successful band was Storm Warning in 1977-79. “We played a bunch of parties and even played a party for the governor of Maryland,” he said. A few years later, Buenger enlisted in the Air Force. He was a military man, but the rocker was not gone. “I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, and I remember in 1981 when AC/DC’s Back in Black album was released. There was an area where we could check out musical instruments like guitars, and we would get together and play all the songs on that album,” he said. Buenger said there were always enough people in the unit to put together a band and play. “We would get to Thailand, and there was a place there where the owner of the club would open the stage for us to play every time we were there,” Buenger said.
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
The man behind the music After playing in a number of bands, Buenger soon learned how to manage a sound board by watching what others would do. In 1994, he bought his first piece of equipment – a four-track cassette recorder – to start recording music. “I didn’t want to put too much money into that stuff until I had built my own place,” he said. In 2007 Buenger began building his studio and had it finished on Pearl Harbor Day (Dec. 7). Within two weeks of completion of his studio in Eclectic, he had customers. Since then Buenger has recorded hundreds of demos and fully produced 30 albums. In addition to albums and demos, Buenger is now doing video recordings of music acts. “You now have some club owners who want to see what these acts look like on stage before booking them,” he said. Some of Buenger’s early success stories who have recorded in his studio
include Alexander City native Rexton Lee, who recently signed with a music label and Talladega-based southern gospel quartet Damascus Road. Buenger’s latest success story is Holtville’s Jess Meuse who recently released her first album, which Buenger produced. “My objective is to develop talent to go to the next step,” Buenger said. “That’s what I’m doing right now with Jess.” Meuse and Buenger first met at an open house for another local musician, and they instantly hit it off. “We’re both rockers, and we enjoy the same sound,” Meuse said. “He has great ideas to only make me better.” Meuse could have worked with any studio in the area, but she chose Buenger for his passion and appreciation of music. “He always makes it a comfortable atmosphere to work in,” she said. “But when it comes to work, he’s strictly about work. He backs artists all the way, and that’s what I appreciate about him.” And the cool shoes may help, too.
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
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Jennifer Young explodes a balloon during a Bama Bandits shoot at Iron Horse Ranch in Wetumpka. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Shoot, fire!
Bandits enjoy riding challenge By Griffin Pritchard hots rang out in the peaceful May morning as a mixture of smoke and dust filled the skies around the Iron Horse Ranch in Wallsboro. The ranch — owned by Bruce and Dot Faust — is the home base of the Bama Bandits, a Cowboy Mounted Shooting club. “There was a small group that got together first,” said Dot, vice president of the Bandits. “Some of our friends told Bruce and I about it and we went to a clinic. Within two weeks we had people asking if we could start doing it at our ranch.” And the rest, as they say, is history. “We shoot single-action revolvers and period revolvers from the 1800s,” said Bandits President Eddie Vanderslice. “I’ve done rodeo in the past, but nothing is as fun as this.” Cowboy Mounted Shooting combines a mixture of focus, balance and luck. “The way this is set up it doesn’t matter the experience you have with horses,” said Vanderslice, “You can run wide open or you can go at your own pace. We have six different skill levels and everyone starts at a one, so there is constant room for improvement.” Vanderslice added that the senior men’s division could be the toughest. “They only compete against
S
other senior men,” said Vanderslice. “But don’t let their age fool you. Some of those old men will smoke your butt.” Competitors enter the arena and have to navigate their way through various patterns, shooting different colored targets. “There are over 60 different patterns that can be set up with 10 balloons,” said Faust. The rider with the fastest time and most accurate run through the course wins. “My husband and I have been married 46 years and have been involved in horses the entire time,” said Dorothy Turnbow, who with her husband Mickie, are members of the Bama Bandits from Verbena. “We’ve done barrels, poles, fast stuff, slow stuff, pleasures. We saw mounted shooting on television. “We made a deal that when our last child graduated we’d do something different. I thought climb Mt. Cheaha or go to the caverns. The first thing we did was go to see a mounted shooting show in north Alabama.” One of the couple’s friends gave Mickie the chance to go for a ride. “He shot for the first time and won his class,” said Turnbow. “All the way home from Beaverton, all he could talk about was this. The next thing I know we are dragging our horse trailers up and down the road again doing Cowboy Mounted Shooting.” The Turnbows, along with a host of Bandits, converged on Iron Horse May 7 for a club
Michelle Cummings takes aim on a target during a competition at Iron Horse Ranch in Wetumpka. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD
shoot in preparation for the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s Alabama State Championship May 28-29. “My husband and I share a horse and he was used in Civil War reenactments, so he’s used to the noise,” said Shannon Andress, who participates as a member of the Bandits with her husband, Allan, and 11-year-old son, Sam. “Ideally, you don’t want to use the same horse because that can wear him out. I let my husband have him and I’m trying to break this one in. This is a family sport. If my husband and son weren’t involved, I wouldn’t be. That’s what I love about it.” The family atmosphere permeates events at Iron Horse. “We’ve got a lot of husbands and wives that are members,” said Vanderslice. “We’ve got one little girl that’s nine or 10 and all she
does is ride. We have about 65 to 70 members and average about three to five new members each time we have an event.” Geni Payne of Jackson’s Gap falls into that category. At the May 7 shoot, she and her horse galloped into the arena for the first time. “My boyfriend does this,” said Payne. “He loves horses and thought this would be something fun we could together. He said, why don’t I try it. I tried on his shooting horse and had so much fun I bought my own and have been shooting ever since.” Payne said she plans to shoot during the upcoming state competition. “It’s a load of fun,” she said. “We (Payne and the horse) are just learning how to deal with each other. She’s getting used to the gunfire. She’s a little slow, but is getting better and is behaving like a good girl.” The key to the competition, according to Turnbow, Vanderslice and Andress, is finding the right horse. “A lot of the competition comes down to your horsemanship skills,” said Andress. “This is a very green horse. I’m still trying to break him in, so I don’t expect the kind of performance out of him that I would from a more experienced horse. His problem right now is that he’s very earshy.” Vanderslice said horses have to become accustomed to the constant pops from the revolvers. “The most difficult part of
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Cody Ivey keys in on a target during competition at the Iron Horse Ranch. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011 all of this is getting your horse to the point it accepts gunfire,” said Vanderslice. “You get them accustomed to hearing the noise and then you go from there.” The Turnbows use shotgun shells to acclimate their steeds. “All of our’s had won at cutting,” said Turnbow. “This mare was very humble. That mare was my granddaughter’s breakaway roping horse she used all through high school. She took to this like a natural. “We came home from that first shoot and started shooting .22 shells around them to get them used to the noise. This mare still flinches every once in a while when you fire around her on the ground, but it doesn’t bother her when you are riding. The gelding my husband rides is still new. He doesn’t mind the shooting at all.” Sometimes it’s the movement more than the sound. “The horse we have with the racing blinders on, gunfire doesn’t bother him,” said Turnbow, “But when your arm goes out it scares
him. So we put the blinders on and he’s just fine.” Vanderslice pointed out that a lot of the sport is trial and error. “I love being able to shoot and run fast,” said Michelle Cummings of Titus. “I’ve been doing this since the club started in 2009. Before doing this I shot some and showed horses.” Along with being proficient on a horse, participants also need to be sound with a firearm. “I’ve ridden horses all my life,” said Vanderslice. “But I’ve never hunted. I had to learn the dos and don’ts with guns. The toughest part was learning not to run faster than you can shoot.” Competitors take the course armed with two five-shot revolvers. The ammo is black powder bullets. “The cone of fire that comes from the end of your barrels is what bursts the balloon,” said Andress. “It reaches out and touches that latex and makes it explode. So ideally you want to engage your target between 15 and 20 feet.” Andress added that even though the ammo is mostly for show, there is
24 an element of danger. “We’ll take a watermelon or a soda can and put it at pointblank range and blow a hole in it,” said Andress. “So if you aren’t careful, you could disembowel yourself with this ammo. “If you are farther than 20 feet, it’s iffy if you are going to hit your target. If you are closer than 15 feet, the percussion will blow the balloon down and it will pop back up unharmed. You finish the course and look back at the ones still standing. You’re thinking, ‘I know I shot that balloon.’ If you can’t put the horse where you need to be on a run, then you are going to be in trouble.” The youth who compete – under age 11 – aren’t allowed to use firearms. “I’ll start shooting in October,” said Sam Andress. “Right now, the best part is beating people and winning. I get to make new friends. It’s
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Ross Cramer sprints through the course at Iron Horse Ranch.
fun. I enjoy riding and shooting and this is the perfect combination.” During the May 7 event, Andress competed against Dylan Galler of Enterprise. “My aunt has some friends that told her about it and thought it would be fun,” said Galler. “I’ve done speed events – barrels and poles – but nothing like this. This is fun.”
Along with the revolvers, competitors give a nod to the past, dressing in period clothing. Competitors dressed in cowboy fashions of days gone by also wear specially made holsters. The custom made holsters are angled above the shooter’s waist, making it easier for the rider to draw. “The requirements with the CMSA is either late 1800s attire or traditional cowboy at-
PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD
tire,” said Jennifer Young of Piedmont. “I enjoy doing the traditional. It puts you in the mood and brings an element of showmanship to it.” Young is new to the sport, but no stranger to performing. “For me that’s what I grew up doing was the showmanship part,” she said. “I work on my costuming and my performance depending on where I am competing.”
Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
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Chris Humphries works on making a batch of homemade key lime marshmallows. PHOTO BY LAUREN NEWMAN
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Elmore County Living • Summer 2011
Sweet treats By Lauren Newman
Patricia Elliott with a flowershaped marshmallow. PHOTO BY LAUREN NEWMAN
Homemade marshmallows are a hit
T
hey’re little pillows of sugar, flavored and shaped however you choose if you decide to cook them yourself. And that’s how Chris Humphries became interested in making marshmallows. After watching Food Network host Alton Brown make marshmallows and describe them as “the first candy,” Humphries said he became intrigued and decided to find a recipe to experiment with. “You can buy the mass merchandised ones,” Humphries said as he began to whip up a batch of key lime marshmallows. “But look at the fun you have with these.” Humphries’ marshmallows made their Tallassee debut at December’s Christmas Market and quickly became popular among market-goers. “They went off the charts at the Christmas market,” Humphries said.
Some of the marshmallow flavors featured at the holiday market were vanilla and eggnog. “It’s amazing that I lucked into doing it with the Farmers’ Market. I don’t know of anyone else that’s doing it.” Patricia Elliott, Humphries’ friend and owner of Ann Street Cafe, often offers her restaurant’s kitchen to Humphries to make batches of marshmallows. “I’ll admit that I do not like marshmallows you can buy at a grocery store,” Elliott said. “But I love these. They’re a different texture. They almost melt in your mouth.” Humphries said it is really up to someone’s imagination as to what flavor, color or shape they want their marshmallow to be. Some of the more popular marshmallow flavors Humphries has made are key lime, cinnamon roll and toasted coconut. “We’ve had so much fun with flavors,” Humphries
said. “You can also use food coloring, but we haven’t really gotten into that yet.” And the feedback he’s gotten from customers has been overwhelmingly positive. “Folks love it,” Humphries said. “They say, ‘When are you going to try this? When are you going to try that?’ Toasted coconut was the one everybody talked about.” As far as flavors that missed the mark, Humphries said he has not found a bad one yet. “I heard about a guy who did a ghost pepper-flavored one,” Humphries said. “And that did not go over well.” But it’s all about trial and error with recipe experimentation. And Elliott warns that anyone who attempts to make homemade marshmallows should be patient. “You have a lot more possibilities when you make your own,” Elliott said. “Something like this would be something fun to do on a snow day or a hot day with
your kids. It takes a few hours, but the end result is good.” Each batch of marshmallows, once spread into a pan, needs to set at least three hours. Humphries said he sometimes lets his batches set overnight. Humphries’ marshmallows are not available at every Farmers’ Market Saturday, but he is taking special orders. To place an order or inquire about a specific flavor, call Ann Street Cafe at 334252-0016. Minimum order is a pan, which usually yields 48 two-inch marshmallows. Humphries said he can get most orders turned out in 24 to 28 hours. At the end of the day, Humphries said it’s about having fun doing something you like. “Like I said, you could buy the store-bought ones,” Humphries concluded. “But here, you get to play. We’re still playing and having fun.”
Looking back at
THE RIVERSIDE INN By Peggy Blackburn
Hotels and boarding houses once dotted the Wetumpka landscape. In the 1800s, water transportation was the quickest and most economical way of moving goods before the advent of the railroad.
Wetumpka was the northernmost point steamboats could travel on the Alabama and Coosa rivers with their cargos. The city’s location made it a hub of commerce, and accommodations for travelers were in
high demand. “Wetumpka was at the head of navigation going all the way to Mobile and on to New Orleans,” said local historian Joe Allen Turner. “That’s why there were so many hotels. People would bring merchandise
and supplies from further north to be shipped south, and goods from New Orleans and Mobile would come here to be sent back north. “It was really a thriving busy place, and got off to a fast start,” he said. “At one point in the 1840s, the population
went as high as 15,000. But when the steamship business declined because of the railroad, it sort of fizzled out.� Coosa Hall, later renamed Riverside Inn, was perhaps the most successful hotel in Wetumpka. Built in 1846, it was located approximately on
the current site of the Elmore County Museum (old Wetumpka Post Office). In addition to the threestory brick hotel with more than 50 rooms, the complex included outbuildings and a stable. The hotel stable occupied the space where Wetumpka City Hall now stands. The hotel faced South
Main Street. Howell Rose owned the hotel at the time of his death in 1866. It was then sold to Thomas Williams. In 1880, the property was purchased by David and Flora Campbell, and then operated by Archibald Graham Campbell. Continued on Page 31