June & July 2024
Making the special day perfect
New
TURKEY CALL
Education at Big Canoe Creek Preserve
Coming together to stop dam project
Traveling the Backroads
Cool Springs Missionary Baptist
Hope Steps Up
Thrifting to help survivors of human trafficking
Page 14
The Depot
New community center on track to fulfill vision
St. Clair Weddings Lakeside Event
Page 40
All the ways to make the special day perfect
St. Clair Weddings
Making the special day happen
A very special cake
Couple’s love story
Page 56
Page 60
Page 62
Photographer’s perspective
Page 60
St. Clair Business
New restaurants in Ashville
Page 72
Whataburger, Outback coming
Healing Vine
Final Focus
Page 49
Page 82
Page 84
Page 86
Chandler Mountain is known for its many unusual characteristics – its flat top, its lakes, its rich tomato fields, its boulders dating back thousands of years and its stunning vistas. When it was threatened by an effort to generate electricity in new ways that would forever change the land, a community rose up to fight. Chandler Mountain still stands as a reminder of its storied history.
Ask us about an adventure loan!
Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. She serves as president/CEO of Partners by Design, which publishes Discover and LakeLife 24/7 Magazine®.
Roxann Edsall is a freelance writer and former managing editor of Convene Magazine, a convention industry publication. She has a degree in (broadcast) journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, worked as a television news reporter in Biloxi and as a reporter and assignments editor in Birmingham.
Wally graduated from Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college.After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.
Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become chief operating officer and vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia
Mackenzie Free
Mackenzie Free is an experienced and nationally published photographer with a bachelor of fine arts degree. She is a Birmingham native now cultivating life on a farm in Steele with her husband & 4 daughters.
Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in journalism from Samford University. She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. She is a former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine.
Paul South, a native of Fairfield, is an Auburn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, he had a versatile career as reporter, columnist and first full-time sports information director at Samford University.
Joe Whitten was born in Bryant on Sand Mountain. When he arrived in Odenville in 1961 to teach at St. Clair County High School, he found a place to call home. Joe was active in the Alabama Writers’ Conclave and the Alabama State Poetry Society. The society named him Poet of the Year in 2000. Joe has also published several local history books.
Richard is a Landscape Architect and professional photographer with 50+ years experience behind the lens of a camera. Working as a photojournalist for a global technology company, his images were used for many magazine covers. He is currently employed as Community Organizer for Coosa Riverkeeper.
Elaine Hobson Miller
It’s been quite a bit since I drove all the way around the county. I used to do it quite often – actually from the beginning of my career at the old St. Clair Observer newspaper. The first pretty day in Spring usually had me out and about “looking for stories.”
That pattern of behavior never ceased. In late April, some decades later, I still take that traditional ride down roads I know and up some not so familiar. It reminds me of what I used to tell reporters under my tutelage – “You can’t find the story sitting behind a desk.”
My leisurely drive does two things for me. It triggers a wealth of story ideas, and it soothes my soul, distancing me from the everyday stresses, if only for a little while. And it reminds me just how stunning St. Clair’s countryside is in the Spring – with a palette filled with hues of green acting as the backdrop to the vibrant colors of first blooms, rolling hills and wide open pastures.
It’s my own drive down memory lane. On this particular day, it takes me back to 2011 when we launched Discover. Memories come rushing back like Kelly Creek’s rapids after a relentless downpour. We were preparing to go to press with our first edition of Discover, The Essence of St. Clair that August. Of course, you have to start early ‘gathering’ the content, so that first pretty day of Spring naturally called my name.
It’s really no different than the 2024 version. ‘What a great job,’ I said to myself as I headed north from Pell City. Not many get to do this kind of research. It took me to Ashville’s Mater Shack, where I picked up vegetables and home-canned “October Beans” and Crowder Peas. I remember when we first did a story on this unassuming roadside stand that in addition to its fresh bounty sells the best home-canned tomatoes this city girl has ever tasted.
I took a seat at nearby Shaw’s Barbecue for lunch (after squeezing into the last parking place that remained),
remembering the story we did on the local color – from politics to pokin’ fun – that emanates from just about every table in the joint. It’s purely local. It’s family and friends. It’s good.
I headed over to Springville to check on the newly opened Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve and in the parking lot, I spotted out-of-town and out-of-state tags at midday on a Friday – no doubt visitors discovering our heretofore hidden gem. We’ve done countless stories on this 422 acres of nature’s bounty. No doubt, we’ll do more.
Then it was over to The Depot, Springville’s newest quality of life arrival. This 38,000 square foot community center is exactly that – a center for the community. In this issue, you’ll get an inside look at the comings and goings of this impressive vision come to life. Judging by the smiles all around and the activities throughout, no need to say, “All Aboard.” They’re already here.
Of course, there’s plenty more in this edition of the magazine. In short, that’s how we do things at Discover. We get out from behind the desk, savor the old, explore the new and share it all with you – not a bad gig for a living.
So join us. The old and the new await in this issue of Discover. Turn the page and discover it all with us!
Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher
Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Graphic Arts Director
Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Mackenzie Free
Wattle, caruncle, snood! Characters in a Dr. Seuss book? Though quite amusing to say, and quite like the nonsensical words used in the works of children’s author Theodore Geisel, these are real words that describe features of a gobbler, a tom, or a hen or simply a turkey.
The wattle is that flap of skin under the turkey’s chin, while the caruncle are fleshy bumps on the turkey’s head and throat. The snood is the fleshy flap that hangs just above the turkey’s beak.
Fun facts about turkeys kept the attention of dozens of young people and their parents at the Youth Turkey Call Expo, held at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville to kick off its education program. The Preserve opened in March, and the education component will be a key focus.
The goal was to get kids outdoors and learning about the sport of wild turkey hunting, an activity they can do now with adults and continue to enjoy into adulthood. They learned about turkey behavior, their habitats, turkey calling and about habitat management.
If you’re wandering around the woods and find a turkey feather, don’t worry, that bird has quite a few more…about 6,000 more. And if you want to find that turkey, you’re going to want a locator call. There are basically three types of turkey calls –locator, diaphragm (or mouth) and friction.
Locators help to find where the turkeys are. Diaphragm-type calls are those that are held in the mouth, and sound is made by forcing air through them. Friction calls use a rubbing motion to make sound and include push-button, box and slate calls. Which type a hunter uses depends on his or her need at the time and their skills and preference.
“My favorite is a slate call,” said Miller Gauntt, already a seasoned hunter at 12 years old. His dad, Trey Gauntt, took him on his first hunt six years ago. “He didn’t even want to take a gun,” says Trey. “But I killed a turkey that day, and he changed his mind.” Miller says what he likes most is hearing them gobble. “100 percent it’s hearing them gobble … and being outside.”
Male turkeys are called gobblers or toms. Females are hens, and young turkeys are called poults.
As three children from one family head home, they excitedly reflect on their favorite lessons of the day. Five-year-old Noah and his 10-year-old
Future turkey hunters practice calling on their homemade turkey calls
brother, Caleb, were particularly impressed with their newfound knowledge on identifying turkey droppings. “Boy turkey poop is shaped like a hockey stick,” says Noah. Caleb completes the lesson by adding that the female’s skat can be identified by its more artistic spiral shape. Macy, their 9-year-old cousin, now knows that turkeys have three toes, a lesson learned this day through pushing a metal impression of a turkey’s foot into a bit of modeling clay.
“I think events like this are crucial to getting people out here,” says David Hopper, senior conservation officer and wildlife biologist for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “Being a turkey hunter myself, I think it’s imperative to teach kids about the traditional ways of turkey hunting. We want to teach them to be safe and to respect the bird.”
He explains that respecting the turkey includes only killing what you plan to eat. And, if pictures are posted to social media, making sure the bird is cleaned up. “Make sure he’s shown respectfully,” says Hopper. “They’re beautiful creatures.”
Hopper grew up hunting and credits his grandfather as his outdoor mentor. “Turkeys and hunting, period, kind of shaped my career path, down to both degrees I ended up getting,” he says.
“As much as the outdoors and hunting has given to me, it became natural to give back. And the way we give back is to manage these resources so that my kids and their kids and everyone else have these natural resources for the future.”
He was four when his grandfather took him hunting for the first time. It’s a tradition he is planning to carry on with his own children.
Three generations of one family are enjoying the event and learning about the sport. Kyle Mavin, from Springville, has brought his son, Jake, and 5-year-old grandson Rowan to introduce the youngster to the family pastime. “I introduced Jake to hunting when he was a young boy,” says Kyle. “Now we’re introducing Rowan to it together. We wanted to get him outside, away from technology. Today’s been a great day to do that.”
Traci Ingleright leans in to help a child practice using a turkey call. She’s a teacher by day and volunteers with educational events for the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). Having grown up turkey hunting with her dad, she is helping to educate future hunters as a tribute to him.
Her dad, Ben Knight, was a two-time world slam turkey hunter. A world slam turkey hunter is one who has harvested one of each of the North American subspecies of wild turkey in a given year.
Another grand slam turkey hunter is helping with another presentation today. Preston York got his single season grand slam in the spring of 2021. A family friend took him turkey hunting
Play-doh makes the perfect turkey imprint
•
when York was 18 years old. “It spurred my love of the outdoors,” he says. “It got me in the woods every day of the season.”
Now he’s in the woods a lot as owner of FloMotion Trail Builders, the company that built most of the trails at the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve and another 200 miles of trails in 40 locations in five states.
The VanWagner family loves coming out to the Preserve. “It’s a huge resource for us,” he says. “I do a lot of hiking and landscape photography, and this is a great place for that.” He has brought his two girls out for the day to enjoy time outdoors and to participate in the turkey call expo.
Eight-year-old Emma can hardly contain her excitement as she talks about her love of these “fuzzy and cute” creatures. She says she’s always wanted to use a turkey call, but that her dad won’t get her one.
Thanks to the vendors who donated prizes for the day, the VanWagner family has a very happy daughter. Emma won her very own turkey call. She’s sure to summon a gobbler soon, complete with wattle, caruncle and snood.
Maybe one day, she’ll be a grand slam turkey hunter, too. l
Using a mouth call is harder than it looks
Participants check out various types of turkey calls
Gabby Martin knows human trafficking is not just a big city problem, a fact she has heard repeated in a number of training events aimed at helping victims. It can happen anywhere at any time.
A recent report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation defines the potential area of vulnerability to human trafficking as “any U.S. community – cities, suburbs, and rural areas.”
Martin and two close friends, having been stirred by viewing the movie, Sound of Freedom, started a not-for-profit mission in Pell City that hopes to help victims of human trafficking. Named Freedom’s Harbor, the mission gives a nod to the movie’s name and its mission in helping women who have escaped from or been rescued from traffickers. They are raising money to build a home for those who have survived this unspeakably painful horror.
One of the avenues they are using to reach that goal is through the opening of a new resale store called Freedom’s Finds. Located in downtown Pell City, the 2,900-square-foot store features a variety of previously owned, but well-maintained merchandise at thrift store prices.
“We started the store to build revenue for the house itself and to pay the bills for running the home,” said Martin. “The plan further down the road is for the ladies who will be living in the home to work in the store if they want to. We want the store to support the mission of giving these ladies a safe harbor to begin the healing process.”
Seven years ago, The WellHouse opened in St. Clair County for women who have been victims of human trafficking. Carolyn Potter, The WellHouse’s chief executive officer, has met with Martin and welcomes any help for these victims. “There are times when we are full and we could always use help with a place for a lady to stay until we have a place for her,” says Potter.
Martin plans to position Freedom’s Harbor as a stabilization home for short-term living while waiting for a placement in a facility like The WellHouse, which offers long-term transitional care and counseling.
Why St. Clair? The very busy Interstate 20, the thoroughfare that bisects the southern part of the county and connects Atlanta to Birmingham, is commonly referred to as the superhighway of human trafficking, because it connects Atlanta to Dallas and is close to Interstate 65 for northbound and southbound travel.
Adding to the county’s vulnerability is the proximity to Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, which has been identified as the second busiest airport for human trafficking in the country by the Polaris Project, which operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, in the 17 years since its inception, it has received over 10,000 cases, with more than 16,000 victims, and those numbers are rising.
In 2021, they issued a report by state, and Alabama’s hotline received 80 cases with 216 victims involved. It is difficult to quantify the exact number of victims of human trafficking because of the complex nature of the crime and mental health impacts it leaves on its victims.
Countless victims never come forward due to the physical and psychological abuse from their traffickers.
In a move to bolster resources and to better focus on ways to help, Martin has reached out to several agencies who have firsthand knowledge of the human trafficking crisis.
She has gone through training from a number of those resources, including from A21, an anti-human trafficking group whose name stands for Abolishing Injustice in the 21st Century.
A21 operates on six continents and in 21 countries with their mission to “abolish slavery everywhere forever,” a daunting task, considering the International Labor Organization’s estimate of 49.6 million victims of human trafficking worldwide.
They consider education to be an important part of their focus, including providing information for those, like Martin, wanting to offer services to victims, and offering programs to educate first responders on how to help victims.
“We also have a school curriculum that is available, designed for ages from kindergarten through high school,” said Kim Thompson, A21’s chief development officer. “Educating children and youth on what to look out for is an important step in the prevention of human trafficking.”
Thompson tells about launching the pilot program for education in a junior high school and having several students
come forward as potential victims of grooming, trafficking and exploitation.
“One of these students was planning to meet with someone she had connected with online, and because of what the student learned through A21’s curriculum, she shared with her teacher what was happening. Her teacher alerted law enforcement officers, who were able to identify the individual and keep the student from a potentially dangerous situation.”
Thompson has had a heart for victims all her life. Her first exposure to human trafficking was early in her career when she was working as a summer camp director and had one of her campers become inconsolable.
“We were not able to get her to tell what the problem was at first,” said Thompson. “But eventually she told us her father was raping her and letting others in their apartment complex do the same. She desperately didn’t want to go home with him. I was heartbroken. I didn’t even know what trafficking was at the time.”
The camp staff contacted the sheriff’s department, who got the FBI involved. “In the end, the father was arrested, and the girl was removed from the home,” Thompson added. “Oh, and she was just 12 years old.”
Even the term, “human trafficking,” is often misunderstood. People tend to focus on the perceived “movement” part of the words. “Movement is not what makes a situation human trafficking,” explains Thompson. “People who are smuggled are not necessarily being trafficked. They’re vulnerable to human trafficking, though, because of their loss of control. Force, fraud or coercion is what defines human trafficking.”
Human trafficking includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Victims of both are lured by the prospects of a better job, better future,
“No one person can do everything, but every one of us can do something.”
— Christine Caine, founder, A21
Below are some red flags that MAY indicate human trafficking –
• Person has someone with them always – never alone.
• Refers to their trafficker as their “boyfriend.”
• May exhibit signs of physical abuse or physical neglect.
• May have signs of severe anxiety, depression, panic attacks, submissiveness or emotionless.
• May lie about age or have false ID.
• May be forced to sell drugs or other materials on the street.
• Do not have control over their personal documents.
• Appear afraid, nervous and may not make eye contact.
• Conversation seems scripted, rehearsed.
• May have “branding” or tattoos such as dollar signs or “daddy’s girl.”
• May not admit they are victims and may not ask for help.
• Questions to ask yourself if you think someone may be a victim:
• Are they being forced to do something they don’t want to do?
• Is the person allowed to be alone?
• Has the person been physically and/ or sexually abused?
• Does the person appear to have been threatened?
• Do they have to ask permission to eat, sleep or visit bathroom?
• Is the person dressed inappropriately for age?
• Where does the person sleep?
• Are there inconsistencies in the person’s story?
If you suspect human trafficking, report it to the National Human Trafficking Task Force at 1-888-3737888 or text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733). www.enditalabama.org or 1-866-347-2423.
July 30 is proclaimed by the United Nations as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The situation might seem overwhelming, but awareness is the first step to finding a solution.
other fraudulent promises or are forced into trafficking by a family member.
They never receive the job, promised future or compensation but, often, stay with their trafficker in response to threats by their captor, which often include threats against the victim’s family.
“The vast majority of people know their trafficker,” says Thompson. “They are recruited or groomed by people they know or think they know. Our children are especially vulnerable because of their online activity.”
While the number of cases of trafficking in Alabama remains lower than surrounding states, neighboring states Georgia and Florida are among the list of top 10 states for human trafficking cases, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Gabby Martin knows trafficking knows no community size. “Anywhere people feel trapped or stuck, desperate or abused,” says Martin, “that’s where people are vulnerable.”
Having been in an abusive relationship over a decade ago, she knows what desperation feels like. She feels lucky to have escaped that situation and to have found a room at a YWCA domestic violence shelter in Eden, a home which has since closed. “We want to be that beacon of light for women who have escaped a trafficking situation, to help them with a place to shelter, to receive life skills, counseling and to help them become selfsufficient.” l
Editor’s Note: For more information or to donate –www.freedomsharbor.com. Freedom’s Finds is open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Coming in August –A deeper look into the hope and help provided by another organization that supports and provides help to survivors of human trafficking in St. Clair County.
The name Cool Springs calls to mind a wooded bower where weary wanderers of long ago found peace and rest in the springs’ restorative waters.
And when a church is named Cool Springs Missionary Baptist, it is lovelier still, for it speaks of refreshing the soul and spirit. Psalm 104:10 reads, “He sends springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.” This was the motto verse for the church’s 150th Anniversary in 2019.
The man who would establish this church, Alexander Clark Ramsey, was born in 1812 in Jackson County, Georgia, to John and Sarah Anderson Ramsey, according to Ramsey family history provided by Beth Jones and Judith Abernathy.
Their research also shows that “Sarah Anderson Ramsey was ¾ Cherokee and Creek Indian. She moved to St. Clair County, Alabama, with her children after her husband died in Rhea County, Tennessee, in 1829. The family believes that Alexander Clark also came to St. Clair County c1829 as well.”
Records show that at age 22, Alexander “entered land at Cool Springs with the government” in 1834, and by that same year, he had married Nancy Ann Ross, born in 1803 in South Carolina.
Alexander and Nancy Ann built a home in Cool Springs and reared a family of three sons. Two died during the Civil War: The first, recovering from wounds was returning home by train; however, the train crashed, and he died in the wreck. The second son died of measles.
The third son, John Washington Ramsey, returned home and lived his life in Cool Springs. Oral history states that when he returned from the war, John Washington could not embrace his family until his clothes were boiled and he had rid himself of lice.
The nearest church, Ashville Baptist, lay five miles northeast of Cool Springs. To attend this church, worshipers traveled these miles, by walking, by wagon, or by horseback. Inclement weather made this journey tedious.
We know the Ramsey family worshiped there from Mattie Lou Teague Crow’s history, Ashville Baptist Church and Its Beginnings. In her research, she discovered among Col. John Washington Inzer’s notes about the church a paper dated 1858, which listed those who pledged money toward constructing the second Ashville Baptist sanctuary. The listed names included “Clark Ramsey,” who pledged $10.00 – not a meager sum in those days.
Realizing the advantages of a local church for the Cool Springs families, Alexander Clark Ramsey and his son, John Washington, with other Baptists, organized Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church in 1869. We do not have the names of the Charter Members other than John W. Ramsey, for the church’s earliest existing record book dates to 1883, 14 years after the organizing date.
These were Reconstruction years and money was scarce. The men of the church and community felled trees, notched logs and constructed a log sanctuary which stood on the same property as today’s building and near the springs’ refreshing waters. Winter heat came from a log burning fireplace.
Interior of today’s church
The 1883 minutes book lists 37 male members and Rev. J.S.E. Robinson as pastor. Rev. Robinson (1849-1924) pastored St. Clair County Baptist churches for over 50 years and preached revivals almost every year. A brief history of Friendship Baptist gives an account of a revival Rev. Robinson preached there. “He was asked if it were true that he had converted 60 souls during the revival. His answer rang out, ‘I never done it. God done it!’”
The walls of the log church resounded with Gospel preaching for 22 years, until the congregation needed a more commodious sanctuary. In a transcribed talk presented by Bessie Whitfield Burttram at the church’s Centennial Anniversary, she stated that in the January1891 business meeting, “Bro. W. Johnson was endorsed to have a bill of lumber cut for the new church building.” Then in March, “… a committee of five members was appointed to ascertain the indebtedness of the new building and to assign to each male member his portion of the cost.” The dates of completion of the building and the first service are unrecorded.
The 1891 building had two front doors – one for men and boys and other for women and girls. Judith Abernathy recalls her Aunt Roberta Ramsey Ensey telling how her “best beau” would walk her to the women’s door and then he entered by the men’s door.
Although remodeled and updated over the years, that building still serves the congregation today. The two front doors are gone, and all enter to worship through the same double doors.
In January 1913, a motion was made and approved “…to sell the timber on the church lot.” The timber sale resulted in $13.58, and they “purchased new seats for the church.”
Cool Springs has always had a concern for the spiritual and physical needs of its congregation and others. Church records show that in 1925, Mr. A.L. Galbreath, a farmer, told the membership that he had planted a five-acre plot “for the Lord.” When that was harvested and sold, “He brought the money received to the church to be divided between the pastor and the orphan’s home.” In those days, pastors were often paid
with farm produce. Cash would have been a Godsend in 1925. Today, Baptist churches conduct Sunday school classes for all ages. This wasn’t always the case. Sunday schools originated outside of established churches and were interdenominational.
In a Jan. 6, 2012, online article titled, “Sunday School an Evolving Institution,” it says that denominations moved slowly in organizing Sunday school classes. The same article states that “The Southern Baptist formed its Sunday School Board, now Lifeway Resources, in 1891.” Therefore, it’s not surprising that in April 1895 a motion to organize Sunday school at Cool Spring didn’t carry. They later approved Sunday school classes, but church minutes seem not to have recorded the date.
Membership increased, and church minutes show that in1936 the congregation approved remodeling and adding Sunday school classrooms, and Alabama Power installed electricity that summer.
For classrooms, the church decided to dig a basement under the 1891 structure. In a recent interview, Beth and Ross Jones and Judith Abernathy, told the basement’s history. “In 1936, teenage boys with a short mule named Bell, a slip scrape, shovels and picks dug the basement under the supervision of the older men. Church members picked up rocks to make the basement foundation to the addition. One of the men hauled them over here on his Studebaker truck.”
The US economy had improved by 1936, but in 1937, it took a dive which lasted until late in 1938. This unexpected decline involved the church members’ finances, so, completing the remodeling and basement rooms progressed at a tortoise pace.
In speaking of this, Judith told that in a business meeting someone suggested that the ladies of the church might give their Sunday eggs to help pay off the indebtedness. “The women sold eggs gathered on Sunday and put that money in the collection.”
It took from 1936 until 1938 to complete the remodeling, “However,” Beth Jones observed, “we have a full set of Sunday School rooms still in use today under the sanctuary built 132 years ago.”
A significant 1938 event occurred when Dr. Jacob Gartenhaus, director of the Southern Baptist Home Missions Board, accepted an invitation from the Cool Springs WMU (Women’s Missionary Union) to come speak to their group. Cool Springs’ WMU invited all churches to attend his presentation but as reported in The Southern Aegis of Feb. 3, 1938, due to inclement weather, only Cool Springs folk attended. “However,” the article continued, “Dr. Gartenhaus expressed a desire and determination to visit again.”
Dr. Gartenhaus, a Jew, was born in Bukowsko, Poland, in 1896. As a young adult, he came to New York City where he converted to Christianity. He attended Moody Bible Institute and the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He served 27 years with the Southern Baptist Home Missions and was known as the “Southern Baptist Jew.”
Eighty-five-year-old June Smith, WMU member, recently told of WMU women quilting for the public. “We put the money in the WMU treasury,” she reminisced, “and that money went to missions. We’ve always been big on missions – and still are.” Cool Springs’ heart for mission continues strong today.
What would a Baptist worship service be without instruments to accompany the singing? However, beginning with the Reformation, protestants congregations sang acapella, for the organ represented the religion they protested. And 350 years later, most rural churches in the United States still sang without instruments.
Hymnbooks came with lyrics only. Instruments were also expensive, but the invention of the pump organ made that instrument affordable, but churches still resisted purchasing them.
We see that at Cool Springs in 1901, the motion to purchase a pump organ did not pass. Opinions changed by 1902, and the congregation approved buying an organ, and Myrtie Whitfield was organist for many years. One can only imagine the harmonious blend of voices and music the first Sunday it was played.
Today Leah Attaway plays the piano for the church. She studied piano for 10 years with Electa Stevenson, the wellrespected piano teacher in Odenville, then continued music studies at Samford University. Leah’s first cousin, Kerry Montgomery, serves as song leader.
Singing schools that were held in churches became popular in the 19th Century and continued until into mid-20th Century. An announcement for one at Cool Springs appeared in the July 7, 1915, The Southern Aegis: “The Eureka Normal School of Music will hold an eighteen-day service under the direction of Homer E. Morris of Oneonta at Cool Springs five miles southwest of Ashville beginning July 12, 1915.”
The cost for 19 days’ study was $1.50, and for those coming from a distance, boarding for the duration was “very reasonable.”
All Day Singings occurred once a month in many St. Clair County churches, and singers from all over the county attended. In the Dec. 6, 1928, issue of The Southern Aegis, “Cool Springs News,” we read, “Cool Springs Singing Society attended the singing at Poplar Springs and report a good time.” Another in the April 1931 issue announced that at the All-Day Singing at Cool Springs there would be quartets from “Leeds, Acmar, and Odenville. …We are expecting a grand day. Bring well-filled baskets (of food).”
The St Clair News-Aegis of April 16, 1959, announced that “Lee Smith and the Master Workers Quartet from Akin, South Carolina, and Rick Mays and the Jubilaires Quartet of Birmingham” would be at Cool Springs, and that Ray Wyatt was the program chairman.
Beth Jones recalled that once when she was a child, she had the mumps and couldn’t attend. “Our family lived about 3/10 of a mile from the church, and that day, cars were parked all the way to our barn. I was on our front porch, and with the church windows open, I could hear the singing. We used to have big singings.”
Vacation Bible School (VBS) began at Cool Springs in 1947 under the ministry of Bro. Oscar Mitchell, and it has continued every year since then. Bro. Mitchell’s wife, Nellie, directed that first year.
Later, Peggy Jarrett directed many VBS weeks and is remembered for her concern for children. “I never will forget,” a church member said, “how when she always prayed, ‘Bless the children.’ She worried about children.”
Other VBS directors from bygone days include Margaret Sellers and Mary Ramsey.
June Smith’s family joined the church in c1950 when she was 12 years old, and she remembers well VBS time. One of
original church bench
her teachers, Gladys Smith, became her mother-in-law when June and Ralph Smith married.
Recently, she told how Lena Morris and Ruby Kirkland prepared cookies and juice each day for the children. “Mrs. Morris would squeeze oranges and make fresh juice for us.”
Today, Regina Ash directs VBS, and the entire church participates. Each year, between 50 and 60 children attend – Peggy Jarrett’s prayers answered. The purpose of VBS is teaching children about the Bible and God’s gift of salvation. Each year, children come to faith in Jesus Christ through this church ministry. These new converts wait until after the yearly revival to be baptized.
Until recent years, most churches held revivals every summer. Through the 1950s, the evangelist preached a morning service, had lunch with a church family, made visits in the afternoon, and preached at night services.
Churches announced revivals, as in this Aug. 8, 1917, ad in The Southern Aegis: “A series of revival services is being held at Cool Springs Church by Rev. E.P. Moore, who has many old friends in this community.”
Cool Springs scheduled revival week at the end of July. If the first week proved especially effective with many converts, a revival could continue for two or three weeks. Extended revivals were called “protracted meetings.”
The Ramsey sisters reminisced about revivals. “Ladies of the
The original church bell still in attic today
church took turns cooking for the evangelist and had the meal ready after the morning service,” Judith recalled.
Rev. Pearl Tinker was their favorite evangelist, for he brought his family and stayed with the Ramseys. “Judith was friends with the older daughter of the pastor, and I was friends with the younger daughter. We went to all the dinners!” “But,” Judith added, “we girls waited until the grownups had eaten.”
When revival ended, “Baptizing Sunday” came soon afterwards. This service occurred at the “Baptizing Hole” on Canoe Creek until the installation of the indoor baptistry in the 1980s.
Ross Jones recently reminisced, “The baptizing hole was originally a ford, so it was a rather shallow place with some areas deep enough for baptizing.” Beth joined in, “On Saturday before baptizing, some of the deacons would build steps going down from the bank into the water.
“Then on Sunday morning before the baptizing, John Ramsey, one of the deacons, would carry a long rod and go down the steps and check to make sure no holes had washed out during the night that could cause someone to fall. Then before baptizing started, a deacon would precede the pastor into the water to scare off the snakes.”
When the church added the baptistry inside the church in the 1980s, Pat Massey thought a painting of the Baptizing Hole would be a good background scene, showing “the olden days.” He commissioned Karl Scott, St. Clair Springs artist, to paint the scene, and the church paid the cost.
The most recent update to the sanctuary occurred in 2016. For 10 years the congregation had saved money to install a cupola for the original church bell. Several carpenters assessed the structure and determined the bell was too big and heavy for
a cupola. Since the old Cool Springs School bell would fit, it hangs in the cupola today. The historic church bell remains in the attic and is rung on Memorial Day.
The Cool Springs School stood across the road from the church and to the left of the cemetery. Organized toward the end of the 19th Century, classes first met in the church, it seems, for church records of July 1899 state, “Permission was granted for the church building to be used as a school.” Sometime after that, the community constructed a school on land donated by the Ramseys. It stayed in use until the 1940s when Cool Springs students were sent to Ashville school.
After building a home in the area in 2010, Chuck and Regina Ash wanted to worship in a local church, and after visiting other churches, they joined Cool Springs, and they both participate in church ministries. Chuck had grown up in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, so when he and Regina chose Cool Springs Missionary Baptist, Chuck was baptized by emersion as required by Baptist. “I had to learn how Baptist do things,” he said.
Chuck learned well, for on March 20, 2022, he was ordained as a deacon along with David Murphree, Steve Ray and Jacob George. These four serve in fellowship with the other deacons: Ross Jones, Jim Montgomery, John Ray and John McWaters Sr. Jacob commented on how the church had influenced his life, for he had grown up being taught the Bible and the things of God. “The church family itself has played a big part in me learning how important family and good friends and fellowship are,” he said. “At Cool Springs, most of our members are older, so, for me as a young man, it’s good to be around their wisdom.”
Brother Curry Harris has pastored Cool Springs since 1989.
Local
He also refers to the congregation as family. “In my 34 years, we have laughed, wept, celebrated and mourned. We celebrate marriages and births and watch children grow up. They feel like my own children.”
Of church members’ funerals, he said, “We weep and mourn for the family and our church family, but we celebrate that because of Jesus, they are with Him and we will be together again one day.”
Of the camaraderie and fellowship of his congregation, he recalled a September 17, 2023, picnic at Camp Sumatanga. “We prayed for each other’s needs, worshiped the Lord, enjoyed His beautiful nature and studied God’s Word. We ate together – Yes, fried chicken and banana pudding because we’re Baptist! Afterwards, some played horseshoes, children rode bikes, and others enjoyed walking or just talking and fellowshipping.”
Brother Harris’ plans for Cool Springs include to continue reaching out to the community and to continue fighting the good fight.
The ministries of this church are founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ who said, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14, NIV Translation)
Composer John Peterson used this verse when he penned the chorus of his gospel song, “Springs of Living Water.”
Drinking at the springs of living water, Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied. Drinking at the springs of living water, Oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church, a refreshing oasis in a chaotic world, invites you to come.l
Today’s organ is quite different from the church’s original pump organ
Once historic enemies join forces to keep a proposed
Story by Paul South
Photos by Mackenzie Free and Leo Galleo
When Seth C. Penn ponders Chandler Mountain, he thinks of the Indigenous peoples who walked the mountaintop 6,000 years before Christ trod the earth.
Darrell Hyatt thinks of generations of his family, who yanked a living from the mountain’s rich soil. The Hyatts came to the area when the only way to navigate the mountain was by wagon, horseback or on foot.
And Joe Whitten, an amateur historian and retired educator who came to St. Clair County in 1961, hiked from the base to the top of the mountain at age 80 and plans to do so again, even at 85.
Their backgrounds are different, but the three men share a love for the mountain and an understanding of the importance of the successful battle to fend off an Alabama Power proposal to build dams there. It was a plan that would have flooded the valley, displaced families and damaged sacred sites and archaeological treasures.
While bluegrass music at Horse Pens 40 and tomatoes – the area’s iconic signature crop –sprout in the minds of most Alabamians when the name, Chandler Mountain, is mentioned, make no mistake, it is holy ground.
According to Penn, Southeastern Region coordinator for the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and a citizen of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, all land is sacred for Indigenous peoples, regardless of location. But the mountain is unique.
Community comes together for common cause
“Chandler Mountain is an area where tribal territories met,” Penn said. “This was a place inhabited by several different tribes, Cherokee people and Muskogean people as well. This is an area where you could see different looking people, different looking tribes, different languages. That makes the mountain unique unto itself.”
There are archaeological and ecological features on the mountain sacred to the tribes.
“How the water flows, the hydrologic buildup, makeup and processes are important ecologically and also sacred, considering the values of water, plant life and animals,” he said.
Prayers and other ceremonies were conducted on the mountain. And while the story may be apocryphal, it is said that Chandler Mountain is the only place where a peace treaty was signed between the Cherokee and Creek tribes.
“I have never seen that document,” Penn said. “So as far as the credibility of that, it’s very debatable and very questionable. So, my response to that would be, I’d like to see that happen in present time, so that an actual treaty exists.”
One piece of ancient history that does exist are the rock formations, stone structures and Cherokee pictographs, rock art that native peoples may have painted with their fingertips, according to a report by Dr. Harry Holstein, a professor of Chemistry and Geosciences at Jacksonville State University.
These drawings and structures, as well as the stars, all play into the ceremonial and governmental history of the mountain and its ancient inhabitants, Penn said.
“This is a place where we might go to higher ground in search of a spiritual connection. It’s a place where territories met. So, at times we might meet in council-like setting, where topics might be discussed among our tribe or with other tribes even. Trades could also take place,” Penn said.
From a spiritual perspective, he added, “The whole sacred, ceremonial prayer aspect of events that took place
– with certain rock features facing certain directions, certain astrological features in line with certain features, that all plays into the ceremonial aspect of it.”
With all their earthly belongings, John Hyatt and his wife arrived on horseback from Hurt County, Ga., and settled near the Horse Pens area in 1875, where they homesteaded 120 acres.
“There have been Hyatts on that end of Chandler Mountain ever since,” said John Hyatt’s great-grandson, Darrell.
He lives near the base of the mountain. He can recite his family’s history like a precocious schoolboy. John Hyatt’s
brother, Otis, was the first person to farm the tasty Chandler Mountain tomatoes.
But the mountain is about more than tomatoes. Darrell has lived in the Chandler Mountain Valley since 1969, and at his current homestead since 1981. There, he reared his children.
At one time, he pondered moving his family out west. But the tug of home was too strong, the ties too deep. In his family, Darrell has always been known as “the man who came back to the mountain.”
“I always knew this mountain was different,” he said. “We could never pull ourselves away. It’s not just the family history. It goes back thousands of years.”
He found paleo-points on the mountain, and he and his wife found the pictographs. In turn, they brought Holstein as well as a rock expert from the University of Tennessee.
“Dr. Holstein said this was the most significant archaeological find on the upper Coosa River drainage area,” Hyatt said.
That archaeological find played a significant role in the defeat of the Alabama Power project.
What would have been the impact of the project if it had moved forward? Often, before Alabama Power shelved the plan, Darrell imagined his last day in his beloved valley, where his kids grew up and where he walked the mountain, climbed its rocks and contemplated the world in solitude.
One of the dams would have been built within 1,000 feet of his home. Rocky Hollow, the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, a number of archeological treasures and dozens of families would have been washed away.
Darrell remembers the first time he and Joe Whitten hiked the mountain, following Steele Gap Road. Whitten was 80.
“Joe, are you ready to stop?,” he would ask.
“Where’s the top?,” Whitten replied. Hyatt pointed upward.
“Let’s go,” Whitten said. And they did. “I think I can do it again,” he added.
Whitten talks of the importance of Chandler Mountain to the quality of life of St. Clair County and to its economy.
“It was in a remote section of the county that the pioneers made a beautiful place of,” Whitten said. “As time progressed, they tried various fruits. They grew peaches there for a time, but the tomatoes made the mountain famous.”
Two groups that history saw often at odds, the Indigenous tribes and new settlers of the 19th century, joined with the City of Steele and Montgomery politicians to fight the utility. The fight continues because the utility still owns significant acreage there.
In the face of opposition from locals, as well as Public Service Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh, Alabama Power Company scrapped its plans to build a hydroelectric storage project and remove homeowners from Chandler Mountain in August 2023. The utility withdrew its efforts to seek a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
In these politically fractured times, is there a lesson to be learned from the alliance that fought it?
“Absolutely,” Darrell said. “This community in my eyes was starting to lose itself. (The dam project) pulled everybody together.”
In local folklore, it’s told that John Hyatt built the market road down the backside of the mountain near what’s now U.S.
top of mountain a distinctive characteristic
Rock facings another feature of mountain
Artifacts found tell story of Native Americans living on land
One of the pictographs found on the mountain
231, in an area known as Hyatt’s Gap. And the mountain can be seen from Alabama’s highest peak, Mount Cheaha.
“It’s very distinct,” he said. “And I think the Native Americans saw that, too. It’s sacred. Very sacred to them.”
Whitten said that even in these difficult days, the successful effort to block the project, “shows there can be unity. Peoples can come together and work together on projects that are needful to the community and the county and the state.”
He added, “What is there is important to the state as well, because it’s part of our Indigenous history.”
Penn agreed. “Obviously, it’s an ancestral holy place for an Indigenous person,” he said. “But because of those thousands of years of prayers building a foundation for a sacred setting, it’s just as much a sacred place for that farmer who says a prayer while he’s out there planting or harvesting. It’s a sacred place to that family who comes together and prays before a meal every time they eat dinner. It’s a sacred place and a significant place to many people.
“While our significance to the mountain and the sacredness of the mountain predates the settlers, I don’t want to discredit that it’s important to many of them as well in present time.”
Of the alliance, Penn said, “We’re a whole lot better when we can put differences aside and find common ground and work together regardless of backgrounds, faiths or political affiliations.
“Chandler Mountain is a unique situation in that we can come together. We have done that, and I’d like to see this initiative grow. I’d like to see Alabama Power realize, ‘Look, we had wrong intentions here. This isn’t where we need to do this. We just need to pull out and let go and give this mountain back to the people who truly care about it. And that is the Indigenous people and that is the local Chandler Mountain Community. That is our mountain and should be our mountain. That’s how I
feel about it.”
“Alabama Power does not have any plans for the Chandler Mountain property,” said Alabama Power spokesperson Joey Blackwell in an email response in April.
When Alabama Power announced it had scuttled its proposal, there were celebrations on Chandler Mountain. Hyatt and his family celebrated with dinner at an area Mexican restaurant. There was joy. “And there were tears,” he said. “More than a few tears.”
Charlie Abercrombie has a history on this mountain, dating all the way back to the War of 1812 and a man by the name of Chandler.
That’s why today’s fight to save it meant so much to so many. For Charlie, it was personal.
Many joined the fight along the way and for varying reasons – from newcomers to old timers. It was personal to them, too.
Mackenzie Free, a photographer for Discover Magazine, joined the effort and was a vocal advocate in the Save Chandler Mountain movement. She lives in the mountain’s valley on the same land her husband’s family raised generations. Mackenzie and her family stood to lose it all – just like Charlie – if Alabama Power’s quest to build a hydro dam there succeeded.
It didn’t.
This is but one story among many, painting the picture of how history could be lost so easily. Here are excerpts from Charlie’s story that Mackenzie shared on social media at the height of the fight to save the mountain:
This is Charlie Abercrombie.
Out of all the folks I’ve met since moving out to the Steele/Chandler Mountain area 10 years ago, he might very well be one of my favorites.
I “think” he said he’s 77 years old, but I might be mistaken because he’s far too sprightly and agile for that to be correct.
He’s very charming and intelligent and has a memory that far exceeds mine.
He is also humble, hardworking and takes a lot of pride in his land.
You see, this land he calls home is special.
Very special …
His property was part of a presidential land grant from the U.S. government to Mr. Joel Chandler (yes, Chandler… as in ‘Chandler Mountain’) for fighting along with Andrew Jackson in the war of 1812.
A short while later, in the early 1840s, a grist mill (grinding wheat to flour and corn to meal) was built here. It was powered by water… this dam and Little
Canoe Creek.
Mr. Abercrombie’s great grandfather later purchased this property and grist mill from the daughter of Joel Chandler in 1896. Let me reiterate that … 1896!!
(*To put that in perspective this property has been in his family longer than Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii, have been a part of the United States!!!)
This land is more than just his home… its history!
It’s his heritage.
It’s sewn into the very fiber of who he is.
It’s his legacy.
And you’ll find that is a common theme for most of these families (mine included) that stand to lose everything their forefathers fought so hard to protect.
It’s more than land … it’s bigger than that.
It’s not money either … it’s about history, heritage and the American dream.
Land has always been a staple of the American dream. From the Mayflower Compact of 1620, to the Homestead Act of 1862, all the way down to the ongoing battle we face to preserve what we have today … land has always been a integral component and driving force for the American way of life.
Mr. Abercrombie’s family worked their entire lives to earn, maintain and preserve the land they have for the next generation.
He is a steward of this land and the natural wonders around him … just as his great grandfather was.
He stands to lose it all.
The same sentiment played out across the mountain and down in the valley. They treasure the land, and they want to preserve it for future generations.
People like Fran Summerlin, Ben Lyon, Leo Galleo and a host of others led what did indeed become a movement to stop the project. The Alabama Rivers Alliance lauded them with an award for what was called a valiant battle.
The consensus was that the mountain isn’t just a geologic formation, it stands as a monument to history and heritage. It still stands because people cared enough to get involved in a fray most didn’t think they could win. But, they did.
Native American groups stepped in with support for preservation of land their ancestors once lived. Twinkle Cavanaugh and Chip Beeker of the Alabama Public Service Commission visited the mountain, heard the group’s pleas and decided their votes on Alabama Power’s proposal would be ‘no.’
Within days, Alabama Power announced it was cancelling its plans. l
Charlie Abercrombie on the dam on family’s land
A welcome addition to Springville, The Depot is already becoming central to community’s everyday life
Serving an entire community is a pretty tall order but when visionaries saw an opportunity to build a community center in Springville, it seems no detail of service was omitted.
The 38,000 square foot facility just off of U.S. 11 houses a church, a school, a fitness center, a health and wellness center, indoor playground, a massive common area, a chef’s operation and a coffee shop. And that’s just the first phase.
Mike Ennis, pastor of Faith Community Fellowship Church, Springville campus, says the center’s “whole goal is to serve the community.”
When the project began, Ennis explained, “We felt like rather than building a church, we’d rather build a community center –something the entire community could use, something that would hopefully improve both the economics and health of our community and provide athletic opportunities.”
It has not wavered from its original vision. At the time, Ennis described it as a center “not just for young people and not just people who are a part of our church, we really wanted to build something that would serve the community at large. That’s been the driving factor behind it from the beginning.”
To accomplish that, the church partnered with a nonprofit property management group, Surgance Inc. They wanted to create something fresh and alive with activity that would be used every day and geared toward bolstering the economy and health. “Every tenant is focused on that mission,” says Ennis.
Hayden Hornsby is the facility coordinator, and his ever-present smile as he outlines the tenant roster hints at the success story all around him.
Kind Kups is an anchor with wideopen space in an inviting atmosphere that has become a central gathering place for meetings, conversations, Bible studies and of course, a cup of specialty coffee and dessert.
Bring your laptop, bring a friend, meet new people – all are welcome at Kind Kups. The Depot is actually the second location for owners Kevin and April Browning, who live in Cleveland, Alabama. It began from their leadership in their church’s small group and grew into a community outreach. Its mission is to “provide a life-giving atmosphere for community building and
fellowship. To encourage our customers through acts of service and words of kindness. To impact our community by empowering self-worth and inspiring kindness, ultimately motivating them to give back.”
An infant through 8th grade school has a significant presence. It has grown so much that enrollment is expected to be 160 in the fall, and officials are considering adding 9th grade.
While it occupies part of the building, the school is actually separate and secure. The school keeps class sizes small so that each student feels like they have one-on-one learning opportunities. The fully staffed faculty headed by Tyra Jordan provides students with an education based on academic excellence and biblical values.
It features state-of-the-art classrooms, library, sports opportunities, music, art, Spanish and weekly chapel.
“SCA is honored to have Lacy Trull bring hot lunches into the school each day, something that most schools of this size do not have the opportunity to have,” Hornsby said.
Kind Kups serves great coffee drinks and is a hub of activity and a gathering spot
Proudly serving Alabama communities in Pell City, Ragland, Odenville, Branchville, Cropwell, Alpine and Vincent.
Center hosts variety of events
Euvista is a health and wellness center, offering weight loss and nutrition coaching, prescription weight loss medications, hormone testing, low-tox lifestyle coaching, Long Haul COVID treatment, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and lipo/B12 injections.
The center focuses on the root of weight management, offering programs for nutrition, mindset and overall body transformation.
This is Euvista’s second location. The first was in Cullman. The Springville location is already busy with bookings for appointments weeks in advance.
A gym and physical fitness center, Performfit offers a fully equipped workout studio with classes available. It also offers speed and agility training.
President Chris Lynch holds a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.
Nutrition, lifestyle
Voting is not just our right, it’s our privilege as American citizens.
Freedom and democracy are precious principles upon which are country was founded. It should be our duty to cast our votes and make our voices heard!
The Literacy Council of St. Clair County offers a helping hand with FREE programs: The Literacy Council of St. Clair County offers a helping hand with FREE programs:
• Adults learning to read or improve reading skills
• One on one reading classes
• Classes to help with reading skills and comprehension of what you have read
• GED preparation
• ESOL Classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Every Tuesday night on second floor of Pell City Municipal Complex (above the Pell City Library)
“When my mother had the beginnings of dementia, she was in Birmingham, and I was in Pell City. Working full time, I couldn’t be there. But Always There could, and they helped her with the things she needed to remain independent -- taking her grocery shopping, making sure she got the right medications at the right time, being a companion. Always There allowed her to stay in her own home and took the worries away from my siblings and I when we couldn’t be there for her.”
-- Carol P.• Companionship • Bathing and Grooming
• Care Management
• Errands
• Dressing
• Escorts for shopping
• Laundry and appointments
• Light Housekeeping
• Meal Preparation
When you can’t be there, Always There can.
Chef Margaret Vincent, also known as “The Chef Next Door,” offers Delicious Delivery services. She prepares gourmet, homemade meals once a week and delivers to clients on Wednesdays.
Grand Central is as the name implies – a bustle of activity Community
Easter Egg Hunt draws 1,200
She also caters bridal and baby showers, in-home parties and open houses – events traditionally thought of as too small for a caterer. She creates charcuterie grazing boards and tables, holds cooking classes and demonstrations and does food styling for publicity shoots.
She also sells Chef Margaret’s No-Mento Cheese, described as “hand-crafted, chef-made, perfectly-southern, totally addicting creamy goodness.”
While the church was the catalyst for the center, it, too, is a tenant like the others. The growing congregation is now 350 and growing.
The centerpiece of the building is an expansive lobby area with high ceilings and plenty of room for all kinds of events.
Aptly named Grand Central, the entire area is a bustle of activity – the comings and goings of all the services found
there in addition to the activities it provides space for. You might quote the old cliché, and say it’s a bit like Grand Central Station, and you’d be right.
The auditorium is available for rental, and it has exceeded its annual goal already. Hornsby pointed out that the auditorium hosted a theater group with a 55-member cast, a political reception and a variety of other parties and events.
An indoor playground is tucked into space at the front of the building just off Grand Central, and it is being done in a railroad motif. The windows will have locomotive faces peering out – a welcoming attraction for children.
A community Easter Egg hunt with a live band drew 1,200 people. Depot Days and Sip and Shop provide brick and mortar-type opportunities for local artisans to set up booths and sell their wares.
It’s all a part of the effort to serve all aspects of the community. Ennis motions all around him, adding, “There’s nowhere else in this end of the county that provides all this. We love this community!” l
In the movies, love stories begin in glitzy spots, like the top of the Empire State Building, or with blind date jitters or online mysteries.
But Hunter and Hallie Hannah Craton’s road to romance began – as it is with many folks – over dinner. In their case, steaming plates of Mexican food – her goto chicken enchilada with sour cream and fajita quesadilla for him – spiced up the first date.
Seven years later, on Oct. 14, 2023, the two were married at a spot more beautiful than any Manhattan skyscraper, on the banks of Logan Martin Lake and in sight of the iconic Pirate Island. The wedding was celebrated at a family friend’s lakeside home, the rehearsal dinner and reception next door at Hallie’s grandfather’s home.
Trees adorned with lights and the lake teamed with an altar crafted from a gold ring of flowers.
“It was so beautiful, we didn’t have to do too much,” Hallie recalls.
The couple had become engaged almost a year to the day before, on the banks of the lake, a fitting spot for two Pell City kids. From their first date fiesta to the wedding, seven years passed. Their relationship endured being separated by college. Hunter majored in building science at Auburn, Hallie in marketing at Jacksonville State.
Hallie works in sales, while Hunter works for Goodgame Company, both in Pell City.
Again, with a touch of
Hunter and Hallie make it official
Lake at sunset makes ideal backdrop for ceremony
serendipity, they were engaged on the anniversary of their first date. But Hunter Craton knew that she was his forever love long before the diamond ring.
“Within about a month of the first date, I pretty much knew,” Hunter says. “She’s got a great personality, and that’s pretty much what stood out to me. She was a lot of fun to be around.”
College has extinguished more than one high school flame, but not for these two. For them, love never failed. They weathered separation and a year of wedding prep. “It actually made us stronger,” Hallie says.
And there were differences in personality, Hunter is an admitted introvert, but Hallie “brought me out of my shell,” he says.
Hallie was smitten sooner. She put it this way: “When you know, you know. I fell in love with Hunter almost immediately,” she says. “Hunter is kind to all, funny, dependable and has felt like home from the moment I met him.”
She adds, “I never knew I needed someone like Hunter in my life,” she says. “He calms me.”
And while other couples fall for the trends of the day, Hallie and Hunter were traditional. Hunter, gentleman to the core, asked her parents for her hand.
“He absolutely did,” Hallie’s mother, Jennifer Hannah, says. “He texted us and wanted us to meet him for dinner and said we don’t need Hallie to know about it. We kind of knew what it was.
“They were already making life decisions and financial decisions based on what the other was doing.”
It begs a question: What took them so long?
After high school, Hunter joined the union, then toiled as an ironworker for several months before commuting for a few classes at Auburn, then transferring to campus to complete his degree.
“There was a lot of prep needed financially before we went through all this from the engagement to the wedding,” Hunter says. “We wanted to make sure we were ready for all that.”
They were ready. And while many in this part of the world choose church weddings, others courthouse nuptials, even elopement, the lake was always the place for the future Mr. and Mrs. Craton. It was a family place, a place of memories for generations of Hallie’s family.
“It was the only special place in my heart to me,” she says. “What makes it even more special was not only does my grandfather live there, my cousin lives nearby as well. My aunt lives just across the street. We’ve always been big lake people. I’ve always wanted to get married at the lake.”
While the actual wedding party was “very formal” – black tie and black formal dresses, the guests were allowed to be casual.
“We didn’t really care what people wore,” Hallie says. “We’re very casual people. When it came to what (guests) wore, we were more semi-formal.”
It was the wedding of Hallie’s dreams.
“I always pictured the black and white theme. We had a square black and white dance floor.
While wedding planning can sometimes deteriorate into a Jerry Springer-style throwdown, Hallie and her Mom had only one “knock down drag out in the days right before the blessed event.
Chairs.
“Back in the day, when I got married, I was not working like Hallie and Hunter. I’d just graduated from college, and I was about to start my first teaching job. So (for Hallie and Hunter’s day), I was ‘Whatever you want. Whatever you want,” except when it came to those chairs. We got in a fight about chairs.”
But the blowout eased pre-wedding nerves.
“It was a small thing. But we were stressed out,” Hallie says. “We needed to have a cry. Planning a wedding is stressful, especially when it’s just you, your Mom and the coordinator for a 300-plus person wedding on the lake.”
The couple, their parents and friends did a lot of the pre-wedding decorating themselves late into several evenings, stringing up white lights in the surrounding trees and other tasks for the wedding. Elegance carried the day.
And it seems with every wedding, something funny happens.
Hallie’s first drop at the reception did the trick.
“I tore my dress,” she says. “It ripped
right below my butt, and it was a big hole in my brand new, beautiful dress.”
Humor also came from a little 1980s rock n’ roll.
Dan, Hunter’s brotherin-law, closed the ceremony reading the lyrics from The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News.
“At first we had no idea where he was going,” Jennifer says. “It was sweet. It was funny. It was perfect. (Dan) was there for all of their love story, so it was perfect.”
And of course, there was the father-daughter dance, a month in the making.
“Hallie is a great dancer,” Jennifer says.
And her Dad, Jason Hannah?
“He’s a Dad.”
It was a magical night.
But what advice would they give to others planning their weddings?
The mother of the bride was brief:
“Destination wedding.”
Hunter wasn’t much involved in the planning, save the two weeks prior to the big night. Then he was hard at it, stringing lights that hung like low stars on the lakeside.
“That was my time to shine.”
What advice would he give to friends and perhaps a future son?
“Get ready to work.”
As for Hallie, she says, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.
“There’s no need to worry about the small stuff, because the small stuff that I worried so much about for my wedding, I barely even recognized the day of. There’s a balance when you’re having a wedding,” Hallie says. “As long as you maintain that everything will be OK.”
Sun sets on a perfect day
Story by Paul South
Submitted Photos
In seemingly every forever love story, there’s tradition – a band of gold, a diamond engagement ring, family, friends and joy.
But while some things never change, every couple puts their own stamp on their special day.
Hallie and Hunter Craton were no exception.
But the couple added in bits of themselves. Think a down home rehearsal dinner, a bit of espionage and a trip South of the Border.
And just as Logan Martin Lake provided a breathtaking backdrop for their wedding, the ageless body of water was home to another courtship milestone.
As a small-town young man raised with small town values, Hunter had already asked Hallie’s folks for her hand. But to borrow a word from college football television analysts, he had to resort to a little “trickeration” to pop the question.
Hunter and Hallie take a stroll as Mr. and Mrs. Craton
“I spent a lot of weeks prior trying to sneak around town looking for rings and stuff,” he says. “Once I got the ring, I went over to my best friend’s house trying to come up with a date. I was so nervous, just talking about it.”
Hunter, along with his co-conspirators – his friends and hers – made sure she was dressed for a special night out and got her to a friend’s lakeside dock, decorated with a table, candles and pictures.
“She thought she was going to eat with her friends, and they brought her over there. When she came around the house, Hallie saw me standing on the pier.”
The couple’s parents hid nearby, to watch the big moment go down.
“I was shocked, not that he asked me. I had an idea,” Hallie says. “I expected it to happen two weeks later, on our six-year anniversary. I didn’t expect it to happen when it did.”
She initially thought someone was working on the dock when she recognized Hunter.
“I actually saw my Mom hiding in the bushes before I saw him,” she says.
Hunter said a few words that will belong to the couple alone, Hallie recalled. But the moment was emotional.
“He asked me to marry him. I was shaking, so excited. It was
beautiful.”
And both wept, just as they would almost a year later on their wedding day.
Just as the couple will keep the words of the proposal to themselves, so it was with their vows.
“We did private vows between the two of us before the wedding,” Hallie says. “Hunter isn’t much of a public speaker and we wanted to share them in private. It was very sweet and very intimate.”
In another nod to tradition, Hallie’s engagement ring is a solitaire round diamond on a thin gold band. Her wedding band is a thin gold band with diamonds across.
“I wanted something that would be appropriate through the ages,” she says.
Hunter’s wedding band is the timeless gold band.
“Hallie talked me into it. I originally wanted a ring that was gold or wood with antler laid into it because I’m a big hunter and fisherman. “But Hallie was having none of it.”
Perhaps a bigger chore than picking a ring was buying it without Hallie finding out.
Hunter’s red pickup is easy to spot in Pell City and Hallie – her Mom says – is “nosy, always up in everybody’s business” and tracks her loved ones with her Smartphone. So, the trick for Hunter was to buy the rings without Hallie finding out.
Hallie’s Robert Bullock-designed dress in the Lilac Dream style was crafted from a luxurious crepe material. The form-fitting frock has a strapless bodice and features a square neckline, adding to the sophisticated look, as well as a cathedral style veil.
For the reception, Hallie added a bow to the back of the gown.
Hunter was clad in a traditional, timeless black tuxedo.
While the wedding rehearsal was at the site of the wedding, the after party was celebrated at Hallie’s grandfather’s next door.
Hosted by Hunter’s Mom and stepdad, pulled pork from Butts to Go in Pell City, along with the eatery’s delicious baked potato salad and baked beans.
“Hunter’s Mom and her friends really came through. They decorated it up, and it was very nice,” Jennifer Hannah says.
Proposal on the dock at Logan Martin
Members of the family and the wedding party delivered speeches, celebrating the happy couple.
“It was really sweet and sentimental to have that special time with our closest friends and family before the wedding,” Hallie says.
In a nod to her younger years, Hallie and her bridesmaids had a sleepover at her grandfather’s house. Some of Hunter’s groomsmen did the same at his house.
The couple celebrated their honeymoon in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, at the all-inclusive Hotel Xcaret Arte.
“We had the best time,” Hallie says. “We ate at a new restaurant for lunch and dinner every day. The beach was beautiful.”
Along with lounging at the pool, the couple went scuba diving and swam through miles of caves under the turquoise water. On land, they rode ATVs.
“It was a great, great honeymoon,” Hallie says.
Hunter and Hallie worked with a travel planner. The bride likes laid back vacations. Hunter is a go-getter. The couple found middle ground.
“I like to sit on the beach and rot, I like to say. Hunter likes to do stuff and be very active. We tried to find a place that would satisfy both,” she says.
Hunter Craton isn’t only a gentleman, but an Auburn man to his heart. The wedding was the same day as the Tigers’ matchup with rival LSU.
“I couldn’t miss an Auburn game, even on my wedding day. It was the only thing I asked for.”
The solution was a big screen TV at the reception. Auburn lost. But no one would disagree, Hallie and Hunter won – big.
This, Hallie says, is a man with priorities. “It just tells me how lucky I am.”
And in a distinctly Logan Martin Lake love story moment, Hunter tells about when the wedding photographer wanted to get some shots of the newlyweds as the lovely sun sank in the west.
“We had to wait for a bass boat to pass before we could take the picture.”
No wedding reception is complete without the main ingredients – the wedding and groom’s cakes. That’s when Klarissa Hendrix steps in to create custom cakes only limited by the couple’s imagination.
She began Klarissa’s Cakery five years ago in a specially equipped camper. The demand became so great that a year and a half ago, she opened a storefront on U.S. 411 in Odenville. “Actually, my very first order was a wedding cake,” she said, and the orders haven’t stopped since.
“The classic wedding cake is always in style, no matter what,” she said. But couples these days are choosing all kinds of cakes for that special day.
“Boho” – short for Bohemian style cakes – are an eclectic blend of natural textures like pampas grass, wildflowers and earthy, rustic tones. They are growing in popularity.
Trends and styles, though, change every year, she said. It’s a matter of matching the cake to the couple’s personality and tastes. Some are traditional, some are outside the box, and others fall somewhere in between.
Her most unusual concoction? She once baked an armadillo groom’s cake with red inside to look like roadkill. She also did a solid black wedding cake – “not what I’m used to,” she said, but that was the order.
Klarissa has used her creative touch on drip cakes with chocolate grenache, showed the couple’s true colors with Auburn and Alabama cakes and a variety of themes and styles. “Whatever is the groom’s hobbies,” like hunting or golf, usually end up as the cake’s theme.
As for pricing, it varies. It depends on sizes, shapes and delivery. The best way to determine the price tag is talking through it with the couple. They describe what they want, and Klarissa creates it.
For the wedding day, it’s a perfect match.
Cakes are central to tradition
Story and photos
by Mackenzie Free“I used to think a wedding was a simple affair. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, he buys a ring, she buys a dress, they say I do. I was wrong. That’s getting married. A wedding is an entirely different proposition. “
George Banks in Father of the Bride
Father of the Bride was one of my all-time favorite movies growing up. It was wholesome and funny, and it played into so many girls’ pre-Pinterest ideas of
what a dream wedding looked like.
Zach and Gracie Walker place ring on daughter Addalynn’s finger as part of wedding ceremony
But, George, the father of the bride (played by the eternally cool Steve Martin) wasn’t wrong. Getting married and having a wedding are two very different things.
No one knows this better than newlyweds and, of course, their photographer – me – who shot their wedding celebration the second time around. This St. Clair County couple – Zach and Gracie (Bright) Walker – became newlyweds twice, opting for a ‘real wedding’ after an initial elopement.
I have been shooting weddings for years and honestly, no two are exactly alike. Here, at Discover, we thought we would take you behind the scenes for Zach and Gra-
cie’s special day in a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Walker.
The two began dating in February of 2023 and to say they fell in love fast would be an understatement. By June of the same year, they decided they were ready to get married and eloped to the courthouse.
However, having a celebratory wedding was never officially off the table and after a few months, these newlyweds decided it was time to start planning their big day.
We’ve really known each other forever. I was his daughter’s daycare teacher, and he messaged me asking if he needed a babysitter for Addalynn, would I do it?
I never talked to him until I was Addalynn’s teacher, and we would just talk about her when he’d pick her up, but I was always friends with Dalton and Derrick, his brother and cousin, so it’s crazy how I ended up with Zach.
We started dating February 2023 and got married at the courthouse June 2023. We literally got matching tattoos a month after being together.
Zach said “because my wife is a bright person,” I did NOT want a fall wedding because I couldn’t stand the thought of a dark wedding. It’s just not me. The flowers and bright colors really do match my personality.
I also wanted it to be fun for Addalynn. I remember asking her what colors she wanted, and she said pink,
https://www.newlifemethodist.net/
blue, purple … and brown. I said, ‘How about brown (chocolate) cake?’
I just thought flowers would be simple and fun, and I wanted everyone to be able to wear whatever color they wanted.
Mom said the florist told her she was so happy I chose color because she gets tired of everyone just wanting white bouquets. She was super sweet.
I wish we would’ve had the wedding closer to home so more people would’ve come and so everyone would’ve stayed longer. But then again, the chapel really was perfect.
I’m so thankful Addalynn was included in our vows. She made the whole wedding. It was her day, too. I love how she gave her very own speech. We had no idea she was going to do that.
I didn’t know Dalton was giving a speech until day of either. So, I think the thought of an open mic at a wedding would be super fun.
A key decision in any wedding plan is capturing those special moments on the big day. After all, these memories last a lifetime.
In an interview with Mackenzie Neely of Neely Creative and Lara Wilkerson of Laura Wilkerson Art, here’s some advice from those who know – the photographers who make it happen.
Would you guys mind telling me one piece of advice you would have for a couple in preparing for their wedding day?
Makenzie:
“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your family. Try to let your vendors take on the things that need to be done day of so you all can be in the moment. Everything falls into place when you just enjoy the day!”
Lara:
“One piece of advice I would tell a bride and groom is to make their wedding day genuinely, and wholly about each other. You and your future spouse are unique. Make your wedding reflect yourselves. I feel we often get consumed with friends’ and family’s opinions and compromising what we want to make others happy. Your wedding day is YOUR day to celebrate each other as a couple. Celebrate it however you want.”
and other details of the
well
The Renew Our Rivers program, originated by Alabama Power, has grown into one of the largest river cleanups in the nation. Over 117,000 volunteers have come together to remove 16 million pounds of trash from our Southeastern waterways. We have shown up again and again to preserve the beauty and to create a community that is powering a better Alabama. For 25 years, we’ve been renewing more than rivers.
Scan to view volunteer opportunities.
Behind the scenes shots of wedding photographers Mackenzie Neely (top) and Laura Wilkerson (bottom) while working wedding days
What is something you wish more couples would do or incorporate into their big day?
Makenzie:
“I wish couples would do things that are more their personality than a trend. Trends fade. You will never regret making your wedding unique and you at the end of the day. “
What are your favorite photos to take at weddings?
Laura:
“Some of my favorite photos I have ever taken during a wedding is when the couple can just be themselves. This often happens when they get a moment alone together to take the day in. Wedding days can often be a blur. If you’re planning your wedding day, plan at least 30 minutes of alone time with your spouse (and photog *wink*). This “alone” time can be during a first look or after the ceremony during bride and groom portraits. Slow down and breathe for a moment. During this time is usually when I capture the most candid, raw and genuine emotions of the bride and groom.”
Is there anything you’d like to see more of at weddings?
Makenzie:
“Couples making the day for more their personality than trends.”
Welcome to BJ’s Diner
Photos by Graham Hadley and submitted
Two women returning to their rural roots now run businesses in Ashville, one serving coffee and sweet treats, the other full Southern meals. Bonita Johnson and Ashley McWaters are part of the growing list of female-owned businesses now thriving in the city.
Johnson opened BJ’s Diner in Ashville Plaza on U.S. 231 in January. It was the brainchild of her husband, Darrin, who saw it as a way to repay her for all she did for him during a lengthy illness a few years ago.
“My husband has been a chef for 30 years,” Johnson says. “He was at Flemming’s, Perry’s and other upscale places around Birmingham. Chef Dee is his professional name, and I met him when he worked at Whole Foods on Highway 280. At Whole Foods, you picked your own foods from the grocery section, and he prepared it for you. I would not eat there when he wasn’t cooking. He stopped working there in 2017.”
When they met, she told him she would be rich one day and would hire him to cook for her. “He said he would cook for me for free,” she points out. They married in 2017, and within three or four days of their wedding, Darrin went into kidney failure. Bonita nursed him back to health.
The couple lived in Birmingham during the first few years they were married but wanted to get back to their rural roots. “I’m from Boligee, and he’s from Greenville,” she says. “We live in Oneonta now.”
Their hallmark is Southern foods made from scratch using as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. “Our recipes are from watching our grandmothers cook and tweaking their recipes,” Johnson says. “We buy fresh foods as much as possible, and our goal is to serve no canned foods at all. Our salmon croquettes are from canned salmon, but the croquettes are made by hand. We are connected with local growers on Sand Mountain, in Blount County, and at area farmers’ markets.”
Their entrees and veggies change daily, except for one particular dish. “The only thing that does not change is the ‘liquid gold,’ which is our macand-cheese,” Johnson says. “We always have some kind of greens and some kind of beans, too.”
Other dishes include meatloaf, beef stew, fried or blackened catfish filets, fried or blackened
No shortage of sweet treats at McWatering Hole
Gulf shrimp, catfish nuggets, grilled or fried pork chops and D’s Crack Fried Chicken. They serve traditional sides such as potato salad, corn or onion hushpuppies, garlic mashed potatoes and several types of greens, plus their own Hawaiian coleslaw, which has pineapples in it. Desserts include peach cobbler and banana pudding. They’ll soon be adding homemade ice cream to that mix.
They start prepping as early as 8 a.m. “This isn’t fast food,” Johnson says. “It takes time to hand-cut fries. It takes four hours to make our chicken and dumplings because we roll out our own dough. We also make chicken and dressing. Our veggie menu changes depending on which fresh ones we can get that day. We do have to import some due to seasonality.”
She says Darrin does not season vegetables with meat but has his own special seasonings. He prepares purple potatoes when they can get them out of Pennsylvania.
BJ’s is decorated like an old-timey diner, too, from vintage tin signs advertising RC Cola, Dr. Pepper, Shoney’s Big Boy and various old service stations. She has a juke box on order. The diner seats 75 people and has truck parking available. A big sign is slated to go up next to the road soon.
The printing on BJ’s door says, “Open 7 days a week,” but in truth, it isn’t open every Sunday. “We’re here one Sunday per month,” Johnson says. “We put a sign on the door and post on our Facebook page which Sunday.”
Employees are part-timers who the Johnsons consider family. They also like to bring their customers into the family fold. “It’s not about the dollar, it’s about family,” Johnson says. “We want to know not just how they like our burgers, but did they get that job or raise and, ‘How are your babies?’”
Sometimes customers will give them money to pay for other peoples’ meals when those folks cannot afford to eat.
“Sometimes people come in to use the restroom or get a glass of water, for example, and we feed them.” She has dubbed this the Mathew 25:35 Initiative because that passage of Scripture reads, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
The Johnsons don’t want anyone to leave their diner hungry or thirsty.
BJ’s is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m.; Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. The one-Sunday-per-month hours will be posted on their Facebook page and on their front door.
Ashley McWaters worked as a dispatcher in the St. Clair County Sheriff’s office in Pell City for 13 years. Born, raised and residing in Ashville, every time she passed by the old Canoe Creek Coffee location on U.S. 231 South in Ashville, she would mutter to herself, “That place really needs to reopen.” One day, she decided she would make that happen. And that’s how the McWatering Hole was born.
“I love this town, and I wanted to be back (working) in Ashville,” she says. “I love to cook, and I like to love people with food. Coming home, seeing people I know and went to school with, keeps me smiling all the time.”
Although not a barista, Ashley has learned through experimentation over the two years she has been open. Her Hot Mama, for example, is an espresso named in honor of her mom, Misty Pruitt, because the latter never drank coffee until a few years ago and would not drink espresso at all because it sounded too bitter. “This one contains Americano coffee with caramel sauce and cheesecake syrup, and a dash of heavy cream,” Ashley explains. She uses only Red Diamond Coffee because it’s local. (The plant is in Moody.)
She offers a Red Bull Refresher for people who don’t like coffee. It contains coconut water and Red Bull in flavors such as Dessert Pear and Blue Raspberry. “It’s a caffeine kick, but you are hydrating as well,” she says.
Blueberry muffins, sweet and savory scones, sausage balls and mini-quiches top her list of edibles to go along with the 20-40 cups of coffee she sells per day. She uses local blueberries for her muffins and features seasonal flavors such as pumpkin scones in the fall. Right now, her seasonal feature is lemonade poppyseed muffins.
“Our sausage balls sell out every day,” she says. “They are about the size of a meatball, and one serving is seven or eight balls, depending on their size that day.” The size varies because she and her mom eyeball everything during preparation. “We don’t use a scoop,” she says. “We stop when our ancestors tell us to stop.”
She developed her menu through trial and error, not knowing what would sell until she tried it. Most of her recipes came from her own home, and many had been in her family for two or three generations. “Momma cried the first time she remembered making some of these recipes with her grandmother,” Ashley says of her primary employee. “I remember making some with my own grandmother, too.”
Her best-selling sweets are the banana pudding cookies, which require an early-rising customer to sample because they’re gone by 9:30. “Mom and I had been saying if we ever opened a shop, we would sell these,” she says.
She used to serve sandwiches, making the chicken salad filling from her mom’s recipe. But they didn’t sell as well as the sweets, and she frequently had too many left over at the end of the day. “We sold sandwiches for the first six months, then went back to the basics,” she says. “That has worked.”
The newest additions to the menu are the mini-quiches. She makes them in a muffin tin on alternate days than her sausage balls, so she always has something savory on the menu.
As for decor, several tables made by the owner of Canoe Creek Coffee remain, because Ashley didn’t want to erase their imprint from the shop. She has added a vintage record player that is awaiting a new needle and felt pad before it can play those vinyls again. “It’s a 1948 model,” she says. “That’s the
year my Maw-Maw was born.”
Weekday clientele consists of locals, while on weekends she gets more interstate traffic. That was boosted when she got the shop listed on Yelp!, Google Maps and I-Exit. “People look up ‘coffee shop near me,’ and we pop up,” she says. Employees besides Ashley and her mom are Meghan Frondorf and on some weekends when Ashley needs a day off, her niece, 16-year-old Kiki Walker. “We’re a family-run business,” Ashley says.
In addition to drinks and treats, she sells logo tees, crystal jewelry by local resident Cody Syler, who owns Unicorn Man Crystals; hair bows by Ashley Mills of Beauty from Ashes; and potted cacti from Terri Goolsby. “Terri is doing a project to catch, spay and neuter stray cats,” Ashley says of Goolsby, another local vendor. “Her proceeds go to her Shoal Creek Community Cat Project.”
She keeps crayons and games to occupy children who come in with their parents or grandparents. During the school year, her own two kids can be seen coloring or studying, because she home schools them and takes them to work with her. “My kids get to see me doing something I love and to see my dream become a reality,” she says. “It lets them know they can do whatever they want in life.”
The McWatering Hole, 36245 U.S. 231, is open TuesdaySaturday, 7 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Submitted photos
It has not even been a year yet since Pell City Square opened and already, predictions and promises are right on target.
Two new eating places are about to call Pell City home – one a national brand sit-down restaurant and the other a national fast-food chain.
Whataburger is already under construction on an outparcel near the south end of Pell City Square and is expected to open in a few months. Outback Steakhouse is clearing ground to make way for its arrival in late 2024 or early 2025 on an outparcel next to it.
Whataburger was founded in 1950 in Corpus Christi, Texas. As its history of its name goes, the aim was to serve a hamburger so big it would take two hands to hold it and after a single bite, the customer would say, “What a burger!”
From that single stand the chain grew to more than 890 locations across the country.
Construction on Pell City’s newest addition to the dining scene began about three months ago, according to Pell City Manager Brian Muenger. “They’re moving at a pretty good pace,” he said, noting that the storefront is already in. Company officials projected opening would be in the third or fourth quarter of 2024. “They’re definitely on pace to hit that.” Meanwhile, excavation work has begun on Outback in preparation for the company’s general contractor to begin the build. Projections call for opening in the fourth quarter of 2024 or first quarter of 2025.
The Outback project has been much anticipated. The city, in its agreement to lease the property, required location of a national sit-down family restaurant, preferably a steakhouse. “Outback is a very established brand,” said Muenger. “This is a new type of restaurant for the city. We don’t have a name brand out there.”
Outback’s location of a 187-seat restaurant in Pell City should serve as a signal to other corporate restaurants to follow suit.
The Australian-themed restaurant began in 1988 in Tampa and is owned by Bloomin Brands, which operates Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar.
It is the latest economic boost in what officials had envisioned for the city when it assumed ownership of the old St. Clair County Hospital property.
But while the focus has been on the Pell City Square and surrounding property of late, retail and restaurant development in other areas has not stopped in areas like Vaughn Drive and Hazelwood Drive, Muenger said. Interest is growing, and “feedback from prospects has been very strong. Looking forward, people will see a lot more of sit down dining. We’re a viable location. We’re actually working through the
development process.”
It’s all part of an ongoing quest by the city, Muenger said, to grow its retail and restaurant community and “provide shopping closer to home so we can keep dollars closer to home in Pell City.”
St. Clair Economic Development Executive Director Don Smith agreed. “The city and county officials have done a great job working with everyone to bring retailers into the Pell City Square that draw from the region, and not just locally. This has opened up more potential customers coming into the city, which then grows the market so more retailers are attracted to invest in the community.”
It’s a family affair at Healing Vine – from left, daughter Exie McKinney, Dr. Steven McKinney and wife Janella McKinney
Story and photos
by Carol PappasWhen Dr. Steven McKinney and his wife, Janella, decided to open his chiropractic practice in Ashville, it was a homecoming of sorts.
Originally from Boaz, the couple bought a farm just outside Ashville a few years ago. They established their church home there, too. While he was practicing elsewhere, church members asked him to participate in the Ashville Health Fair that was being held there. He agreed and soon came to realize that there was a need to be filled.
A suite became available in the shopping center just across U.S. 231 from their church, and Healing Vine Family Chiropractic Center was a step away from becoming reality. He closed his Boaz practice and opened April 1 in Ashville.
McKinney shouldered much of the cosmetic work himself. The end result is an impressive chiropractic center with exam rooms, office and reception area, offering services from pediatric to geriatric. A former football player, Dr. McKinney also specializes in sports injury and prevention.
Why Healing Vine? The name comes from a piece of artwork displaying the Chiropractic Prayer given to McKinney by his daughter. It featured a vine as the art with the prayer. McKinney put the two ideas together – the healing hands of chiropractic medicine and the vine as a Christian symbol of sustenance.
By combining the two, he said, it expanded the meaning and mission as a Christian-based chiropractic center. Serving families, it is built around his own family with his wife and daughter both working there.
Since the opening, “Ashville has been really great,” said Janella McKinney. “It brings health care to Ashville it was in need of.”
Sometimes the ‘Amen’ must come before the prayer.
Sometimes we must have full trust in the ending before we’ve even begun.
As in the garden, we plant and sow good seeds and then we whisper up, ‘Amen’ (which by definition, means ‘so be it’)
Our prayers come later...
Often paired with our productivity.
Our diligence, perseverance and tired bodies become a part of the prayer process.
We dirty our hands and cleanse our souls out in the garden.
And often find that forgiveness, too, can grow out there in the dirt if, like the proverb says, we try our best to “plant kindness and gather love.”
But we won’t always get it right... ...in the garden or life.
Growth isn’t always what we want it to be. Some things suffer blight, drought or grow weak by insufficient light.
But we learn from our mistakes, trust we must let go of what we cannot control, press on into a new season, plant again... ...and whisper, ‘Amen.’
- Mackenzie FreeWife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama
