Mobile Bay Magazine - July 2017

Mobile Bay July 2017

THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES

NO WEEKEND LEFT BEHIND Hit summer head on with these 49 fun ideas!

+

A FEAST

STRAIGHT FROM

HAVANA pg. 26

WHARVES THAT WOW! Decked out summer living

Barefoot Mischief

The kids who once ruled the dirt roads of old Spring Hill

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FEATURES JULY 2017

VOLUME XXXIII / ISSUE 7

36

49 Ways to Play Don’t let a single summer day go to waste with MB’s list of essential local activities.

44

Above Board

JOY AND REED GARDNER’S STAUTER SITS DOCKED AT THEIR HOME ON MOORE CREEK / PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

If there’s anything to learn from these three Bay area families, it’s that not all wharves are created equal.

50

Springhellions A childhood in old Spring Hill was one of freedom, fun and a whole lot of mischief.

61

New Orleans Summer Travel Where Mobilians love to shop, play and stay in the Big Easy.

ON OUR COVER

44

Fairhope resident Dayna Jones brings her paddleboards to the Bay in her 1970 Jeepster Commando.

Clothes, hat and jewelry supplied

by Sway, Fairhope.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

 “We used to catch flying squirrels, put them in our coat pockets and go to school,” L.J. Britain says about growing up in Spring Hill.

For more stories about childhood on the hill, check out “Springhellions,” page 50.

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DEPARTMENTS JULY 2017

VOLUME XXXIII / ISSUE 7

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LEFT Wilderness medicine isn’t for the faint of heart. Luckily, medical students have the experienced Lynn Yonge to show them the ropes. PHOTO BY TODD DOUGLAS RIGHT Get inspired by this Cilantro Corn Ceviche and other dishes prepared with a dash of Havana flair. PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

11 11 12 14 16

Editor’s Note On the Web Reaction Odds & Ends Elemental It’s the Humidity It’s in the air we breathe, but what do you know about humidity?

19 Amazing Life Lynn Yonge

One wilderness doctor’s mission to pass down lifelong lessons

24 Tastings Roosters Latin American Food

Frankie Little takes lower Dauphin Street south of the border.

26 Bay Tables Kitchen Diplomacy The flavors of Cuba hop the Gulf to Mobile Bay.

32 The Dish 34 Good Stuff Bold Adventures

Plunge into the great outdoors with help from these useful gadgets.

56 History The Shipwrecks of Mobile Bay

History rests beneath the waves.

74 Bay Boy Point Clear Library

The “world’s smallest public library” is closer than you think.

76 Ask McGehee What is the history of the little red “Chinaberry” cottage on Old Shell Road at the foot of Spring Hill?

The quaint cottage and its story are well worth preserving.

78 In Living Color Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, 1937 Three fishermen display their catch at the famous tournament.

OUT & ABOUT 68 Highlights 70 On Stage & Exhibits 72 August Highlights

 The USS Tecumseh, sunk just off Mobile Point during the Battle of Mobile Bay, still holds 93 Union soldiers.

Read about the many shipwrecks that rest in our waters in “The Shipwrecks of Mobile Bay,” page 56.

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Mobile Bay VOLUME XXXIII

No7

JULY 2017

PUBLISHER T. J. Potts ASSISTANT PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT EXECUTIVE EDITOR

MANAGING EDITOR/WEB

SENIOR WRITER COPY EDITOR

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

ART DIRECTOR

EDITORIAL INTERN

EDITORIAL INTERN

SALES MANAGER

Stephen Potts Judy Culbreth Maggie Lacey Abby Parrott Breck Pappas Chelsea Adams Marie Katz Laurie Kilpatrick Hallie King Lee Tonsmeire

ADVERTISING

Joseph A. Hyland

Adelaide Smith McAleer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

ADMINISTRATION CIRCULATION Anita Miller ACCOUNTING Jody Chandler

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Mallory Boykin, Watt Key, Tom McGehee, John S. Sledge CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Anna Anichkova, Major Adam Colbert, Colleen Terrell Comer, Matthew Coughlin, Todd Douglas, Summer Ennis, Elizabeth Gelineau, Kathy Hicks, Michael Mastro, Elise Poché, Ashley Rowe, Jennie Tewell, Katie Wohlwend ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES

3729 Cottage Hill Road, Suite H Mobile, AL 36609-6500 251-473-6269 Subscription rate is $21.95 per year.

Subscription inquiries and all remittances should be sent to: Mobile Bay P.O. Box 923773 Norcross, GA 30010-3773 1-855-357-3137 MOVING? Please note: U.S. Postal Service will not forward magazines mailed through their bulk mail unit.

Please send old label along with your new address four to six weeks prior to moving.

Mobile Bay is published 12 times per year for the Gulf Coast area. All contents © 2017 by PMT Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the contents without written permission is prohibited. Comments written in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ownership or the management of Mobile Bay. This magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. All submissions will be edited for length, clarity and style.

PUBLISHED BY PMT PUBLISHING INC .

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EDITOR’S NOTE

WHAT’S ONLINE

Get even more local coverage this month on mobilebaymag.com.

Here’s what’s new!

Jump On In!

Maggie Lacey

PHOTO BY KATHY HICKS

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

W

henever someone says the word “summer,” I instantly think of July.

Just the mention of the month conjures images of hamburger cookouts, flapping American flags, fireworks, barefoot kids jumping in whatever body of water is closest and, oh the heat! July is truly the quintessential Southern month.

The season is sweetest when you are a kid with no responsibilities and endless time to explore our South Alabama environs. Looking back, I realize now that my own summers were the stuff of dreams. My dad towed my friends and me at breakneck speed behind a classic wooden Stauter while we grasped the handles of the tube for dear life and screamed with glee.

We picked honeysuckle and blackberries and whatever else was growing in the ditches alongside the road. I probably tried every pool and swimming hole from Spring Hill to Magnolia Springs. And we traveled near and far.

Those carefree days don’t have to end when we grow up, even if Saturdays and Sundays are our only short glimpses of the freedom and fun. This issue of MB is dubbed “No Weekend Left Behind” because it’s a plan of attack to rescue each and every free day of summer. No surrender to the doldrums! Whether it’s cannonballs off the wharf, adventures into the deep woods or a day trip around Downtown Mobile, these ideas will bring back that joie de vivre this July.

I’m thrilled to begin my new role as Executive Editor of Mobile Bay Magazine with such a fun-filled issue. I probably enjoy a good bike ride, picnic or paddle more than most, and the tips and ideas inside this issue will be taped to my fridge for quick reference when we need a Saturday plan. There’s no time like the present and no better place than right here on the Gulf Coast to make the most of warm summer days. I hope to see you out there!

Best of Summer

Online-only gallery: Relish the beauty and unique personality of our town as we showcase some of our favorite snapshots of summer on Mobile Bay.

#MB49

No weekend left behind! We challenge you to try every item on our “49 Things To Do” list on page 36. Post photos of each one on Instagram with the hashtag #MB49. Who knows, there may be a prize involved...

Grill Out

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

maggie@pmtpublishing.com LEFT Darden Cooper, neighbor to the Torberts in Battles Wharf, won’t let a little photo shoot interrupt the summer fun, taking the zip line for a spin.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

RIGHT Some weekends you want to explore close to home, and others you need to get out there and see the world! A recent long weekend trip to Havana inspired a dinner party full of flavorful Cuban recipes. See more on page 24!

Celebrate the Fourth with some of our all-time favorite dishes.

We’ll be sharing go-to recipes for ribs, burgers, pasta salad and more.

Here Comes the Bride

Recently engaged? Tell us your proposal story, some details about the big day and send a picture of the happy couple, and we’ll feature it online — for free!

PHOTO BY MAGGIE LACEY

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MONTROSE INVENTOR MILLER REESE HUTCHISON

REACTION

A PERSONAL HISTORY On April’s “Eureka!”

I was most interested to read the article about Dr. Reese Hutchison and his many inventions in your April issue. He was a close friend of my grandfather, Captain William Buck Curran. His mother, who we called “Aunt Tracy,” stayed with us a short time when I was a child.

I was also delighted to see the picture of Reese and his close friend Thomas Edison, as my grandfather said that Reese spelled out the Morse code on Edison’s hand under the table so that no one knew for years that Edison could not hear.

- Mary Alice Palmer Floyd

BOATLOAD OF RECIPES On May’s Bay Tables “Sea Rations” I enjoyed reading this story so much, and I loved the recipes, too. Thanks for sharing!

- Dottie Hempfleng Great article! I am definitely going to try your recipes, but only on dry land.

Happy sailing!

- Sue Zundel

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DIAMOND DADS On May’s “Home Field Heroes” Very cool that Mobile Bay Magazine did this piece. Not many people know how much guys like this do behind the scenes at their respective parks. Tim Hilpert is an old teammate of mine.

Thanks for what you do at Westside Park, Timmy!

- Jake Ferrill Kudos to all the moms and dads that put in extra time regarding local youth sports!

- Paul C. Barrett Great guys. However, there are too many to pick just these.

- Judson Sanders Thank you Coach Charles Antinarella for everything you do for Fairhope Youth Baseball to help make it a great place for the kids!

- Fairhope Youth Baseball

A THRILLING READ On May’s Bay Boy “Major’s Creek” That reads like a great adventure.

Nobody remembers the boring trips.

- James Lee

PARTY ON On May’s “Summer Cocktails” Looks like a reason to plan a party!

Thanks @MobileBayMag! - @DiningWithMimi

GETTING TO KNOW YOU Do you have an idea for a story?

Share your thoughts and reactions to the issue with us.

EMAIL maggie@pmtpublishing.com MAIL P.O. Box 66200, Mobile, AL 36660 WEB mobilebaymag.com

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text by HALLIE KING

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

A BERRY INTERESTING STORY

OH, THE HUMIDITY!

Though a common plant to our region now, the chinaberry tree is an Asian species native to India, Pakistan and western China. It was brought to the United States as a vibrant, fragrant import used to diversify the Southern landscape. Its purple flowers and small berries were attractive to residents, but they were also attractive to birds. After snacking on berries, birds scattered chinaberry seeds across the Southeast, and the trees became a prolific and fast-growing invasive species.

PHOTO BY ANNA ANICHKOVA

We Mobilians understand humidity, but here are some numbers to spout off next time you’re wiping the sweat from your brow and wishing for fall.

The Chinaberry House on Old Shell Road was named for the chinaberry trees surrounding the lot. Learn more about the house in “Ask McGehee,” page 76.

POP QUIZ

TAS-TEA LEAF LESSONS Which of these abundant berry-producing plants, perfect for steeping a hot cup of tea, is the most caffeinated plant native to the United States? a. Ilex glabra — Inkberry

c. Ilex verticillata — Winterberry Holly

b. Ilex opaca — American Holly d. Ilex vomitoria — Yaupon Turn the page upside down to check your wilderness knowledge, and check out page 8 of the Table of Contents to see what it looks like. Then take a hike over to Amazing Life, page 19, to read about the work of outdoors and wilderness medicine expert Lynn Yonge.

76% 89% JULY 23 90°

Mobile’s average humidity during the month of July.

The morning average humidity for Mobile, measured at 6 a.m.

By 3 p.m., it drops to 62 percent.

On average, this is the hottest day of the year in Mobile and beyond.

The average high temp on the hottest day of the year. Paired with 90 percent humidity, the heat index on this day can reach 100 degrees!

Thirsty for more? Don’t sweat it!

Brush up on more humidity facts in Elemental, page 16.

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is coming July 21 - 23. What began as a group of businessmen creating friendly competition developed into a worldrenowned sport fishing experience led by the Mobile Jaycees that brings thousands to the waters of Dauphin Island each year. After the 78th annual fishing rodeo in July 2011, the tournament garnered a Guinness World Record as the largest fishing tournament of its kind in the United States.

Fishing for more? See a colorized photo from the eighth annual fishing rodeo in 1937 on page 78, and check out more fun summer activities on page 36.

D - ILEX VOMITORIA — YAUPON. APPARENTLY, NATIVE AMERICANS WOULD MAKE A TEA WITH THIS HIGHLY CAFFEINATED PLANT — BEFORE VOMITING IT UP (HENCE THE NAME). DON’T WORRY THOUGH: IT WASN’T THE PLANT’S DOING. IT WAS A PART OF THE NATIVES’ RITUAL.

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PHOTO BY JENNIE TEWELL

JULY 15 - 17, 2011

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ELEMENTAL

It’s the Humidity text by BRECK PAPPAS

Y

ou hear it all the time, most often in idle airport conversations. “It’s not the heat down there on the Gulf Coast that’ll get you,” they say. “It’s the humidity.” But does this observation hold water (pun very much intended),

or is it nothing more than a line from some universally known script of small talk?

Believe it or not, that airport stranger might be on to something.

Upon closer examination, it becomes abundantly clear that humidity has

helped shape much of our identity in the Port City, from the clothes we wear to the architecture we employ.

But what exactly is humidity, and why does it insist on sticking around?

Take a deep breath of that wonderful saturated air — we’ve got you covered.

HOT DIGGITY DOG When the air is crowded with water molecules, odors are more readily transmitted through the air and to your nose. This explains why we are all so familiar with the smell of a wet dog.

As water molecules evaporate from doggy fur, they carry the smell of bacteria into our noses — and living rooms.

IN THE AIR TONIGHT Humidity is defined as the amount of water molecules present in the air. The word “humid” is derived from the Latin “umere,” meaning, “to be moist.”

DON’T SWEAT IT Aside from the respiratory effects of humidity, moisture in the air also interferes with the human body’s ability to regulate its own temperature. When we get hot, our bodies sweat to cool down. In a dry environment, that sweat evaporates quickly, but in high humidity, sweat doesn’t evaporate as fast.

As a result, we sweat more, which leads to dehydration and overheating.

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JUST DEW IT Ever wonder how the Weather Channel arrives at that “relative humidity” percentage? Depending on the outside temperature, air can hold only so much moisture at any given time. Relative humidity, therefore, is a comparison of the amount of moisture in the air versus the amount of moisture the air could hold. A relative humidity of 50 – 60 percent is considered ideal.

Dew appears on your lawn when relative humidity is 100 percent.

BAD HAIR DAY When the air is humid, hydrogen bonds form between water molecules and the proteins that make up human hair, causing the hair to curl. In fact, human hair is so sensitive to moisture that it was used in 18th century humidity measuring devices.

A HUMID HISTORY ◗ “There is a kind of clammy, misty, calm heat here in the South, which already begins to be felt early in March,” wrote English Captain John W. Oldmixon of his visit to Mobile in 1855. “One gasps for breath, and I look with wistful eyes down the street to the waterside and the shipping.” Trust me, John: We know the feeling. ◗ Humidity even played a role in the development of Mobile’s antebellum architecture, particularly in relation to cast iron. “Due to the Port City’s notoriously humid conditions,” writes MB contributor Tom McGehee, “cast iron as an architectural element soon replaced rotting wooden porches or was added to older buildings to make them more fashionable.” ◗ “The source of our water vapor in Mobile is the Gulf of Mexico,” explains local meteorologist Bill Williams.

“Sometimes that vapor will get carried all the way up to New England, and they don’t like it. They call it a heat wave up there.” ◗ Sure, you wear seersucker today because your mama dressed you in it before you could walk, but there’s another reason for the fabric’s popularity down here. In addition to being light, the fabric is woven in such a way that it bunches together, creating wrinkles that keep it off the wearer’s skin. This creates some much-needed air circulation throughout your dapper outfit, which helps combat the stuffiness of humidity. So now you see that mama really does know best. ◗ Because moisture levels in the air affect the elasticity of vocal cords, researchers have determined that humidity directly influenced language development across the world. For example, more tonal languages, such as Chinese and Vietnamese, rarely developed in low-humidity climates. MB

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AMAZING LIFE

Lynn Yonge A wilderness doc shares the healing powers of nature with others. text by CHELSEA ADAMS photos by TODD DOUGLAS

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I

n mid-September 2004, Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Lower Alabama. With wind gusts of 120 miles per hour, the storm was the strongest that Baldwin County had experienced in nearly a century.

Trees fell. Boats in port toppled and sank. Walls and wharves crumbled.

And, in Fairhope, Thomas Hospital lost its electricity. Most of the staff and patients started to evacuate; the few who stayed behind locked the doors and hunkered down. Lynn Yonge, a physician on the Eastern Shore, waited Ivan out inside the hospital’s empty, echoing walls.

“As soon as the hurricane passed, those of us who stayed got the keys, opened up the ER and began taking care of chainsaw accidents and things like that,” he remembers. “But we didn’t have power, we didn’t have other tools we’re used to.”

Situations such as this one are not uncommon. In a flash, Mother Nature can deny us things like electricity and easy access to medicine, ironically at a time when people most need them.

When the going gets tough, doctors have to get creative, and that’s exactly what Yonge is teaching medical students to do.

All in a Day’s Work

Yonge has been taking in the outdoors for as long as he can remember. His family began camping when he was around 9 years old. He became an Eagle Scout at age 16. And around 2002, he stumbled across wilderness medicine, a discovery that shaped his entire career.

“My exposure to wilderness medicine came at a good time for me,” he shares.

“After about 15 years, family medicine was becoming a bit routine. I decided to attend a wilderness medicine conference in Chattanooga that opened my eyes to the discipline.”

A soft-spoken assistant professor at the University of South Alabama, Yonge sits on the board of directors for the Wilderness Medical Society and was once a fellow at the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. After more 20 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

ABOVE Yonge teaches the residents at Pathways of Baldwin County outdoor and wilderness skills, including how to construct fascinating, gravity-defying contraptions. This week, his teens built a “monkey bridge” out of rope and branches. Even the stability pegs were whittled from branches by the residents themselves! After it was done, they clamored to see who could cross it the fastest.

than 100 hours of training, he became certified to teach wilderness medicine to others. His class for senior medical students focuses on how to help others in the event of a disaster, natural or man-made.

“If you’re going to a war-ravaged area or disaster area,” he starts out, “you shouldn’t be a liability to the people you’re trying to help. Your backpack should be filled with the stuff you need to get to work.” One example? Water pressure. Normally, doctors have pressurized water to clean wounds.

What do you do without it? “Get a zip-top bag, fill it with water, cut out a corner and you can use that to clean out a wound,” Yonge shares matterof-factly. “As part of training, I take an orange, cut it in half, grind it in the dirt, then I give a student a zip-top bag and tell him or her to clean the orange well enough to eat it.”

Bridging The Gap

Yonge is a teacher to more than just future doctors. He also mentors groups of at-risk teens through the Pathways of Baldwin County program. “It’s a great job for a doctor,” he says with a chipper smile. “I get to spend the whole

day outdoors, even when it’s raining.

Then we get under a porch somewhere.

We rarely go inside.”

Whether he’s helping the teens — boys and girls alike — sharpen an ax, build a fire or construct impressive bridges and towers, they’re learning more than just wilderness skills. He explains, “I try to use those skills to teach teens to be self-reliant. I use the outdoors as a classroom for life skills, such as perseverance. I’ll tell them, ‘It’s a hot day, but we still have to do our work.’”

Even when he’s not helping the youngsters overcome a fear of spiders or learn how to tie strong knots, just being outdoors is a kind of therapy all its own. Barriers that seem insurmountable in a classroom suddenly dissipate while strolling through the woods. As he explains it, “We’re all out there hot and sweaty, and that’s when someone will get in stride with me and tell me about his life or some struggle he’s having.” A camaraderie springs up, and Yonge feels he can really help.

We’re chatting in an open field right beside a “monkey bridge” built from tree branches and rope that the teens constructed the previous day. Even the

“I try to use those skills to teach teens to be self-reliant.

I use the outdoors as a classroom for life skills, such as perseverance. I’ll tell them, ‘It’s a hot day, but we still have to do our work.’”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP When building their bridges, the Pathways residents take no shortcuts, which means they create everything from the environment around them. They’re particularly proud of the pegs they whittle and hammer in themselves. Under Yonge’s guidance, the residents also built a pine straw baler, and Yonge even pays $4 a bale. The residents also built a chicken coop and raise chickens themselves, alongside a vegetable garden. All of these projects help instill a sense of responsibility and pride in the residents, Yonge says.

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pegs that anchor the entire contraption are whittled from smaller branches. As we talk, a group of boys who had been playing basketball nearby wander over, clamoring to try the bridge themselves.

Lining up, they rib each other in good fun, laughing and chatting with Yonge, too — “Doc,” as they call him.

“I bet I can beat your time!” one shouts, climbing up the rope. They count off, timing each other to see who makes it across the fastest, and “Doc” claps and laughs along with them.

Pride radiates from Yonge like heat off asphalt as pulls out his phone to show off photos of projects he’s guided them on: a 15-foot tower built from branches and rope, a pine straw baler (he pays the kids $4 per bale for clean pine straw), a chicken coop, the monkey bridge standing before us. As he describes the projects, he mentions his gratitude that he was able to build his career and schedule around working with these kids because it’s “one of my favorite things to do.” I ask him why. He’s ready with a heartfelt answer.

“If you step in, you can save a life in a different kind of way. It’s not as dramatic as heart surgery, but if you can change the direction that someone is going in, you may change the trajectory of that life. I find that to be a very hopeful line of work,” he says. His eyebrows furrow as he adds, “Now, they’ll let you down sometimes because they’re kids — you don’t have the expectation that they’ll be perfect the first time. You just have to keep trying. It’s a calling for me. I’m willing to go the extra mile because they’re the kids who need the most.”

ABOVE Yonge stands on the bridge he instructed the teen residents at Pathways Baldwin County to construct. Though the first attempt at the bridge fell short, he came back and helped the teens learn from the failure to create a fun, stable bridge they all had a blast building and crossing.

Sticking With It

Sometimes, a project has to fail before it can succeed. Watching the boys at Pathways cross the rope bridge one after the other, Yonge tells me the story of the first version of the bridge they attempted. The instructions they were following, an updated version of the Boy Scouts manual he used as a child, failed to specify the size of the whittled pegs needed to secure the bridge. Their pegs were too weak and, while testing 22 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

out the bridge himself, the entire thing fell to the side.

“I landed on my feet, which I was pretty proud of,” he assures me, “but the post hit me on the back and it broke a rib.” After he healed up, though, he went right back out and used the fall as a lesson to the residents there. “I just couldn’t let them see it end like that,” he explains.

“You have to persist.” The new bridge

stands strong, as does Yonge.

Once a year, Yonge brings his medical students to Pathways for a day to work with the teens, the perfect melding of both sides of Yonge’s work. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I get to use the outdoors skills to teach life lessons to kids and to medical students, and it allows me to spend time outside.

So I get something, they get something.

It’s a good balance.” MB

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TASTINGS

ROOSTERS

text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELISE POCHÉ

F

rankie Little always wanted to own a restaurant.

He began working straight out of high school and rose through the ranks of local establishments. He always strove to be the best at whatever position he held until he could say he knew the business inside and out. When he decided it was time to open his own place, he knew that it was going to be casual and fun, leaving behind the pretension of the fine dining world where he honed his trade. But the question of what to serve remained. A 2016 road trip through south Texas with a buddy (Haberdasher manager Roy Clark) provided the inspiration. After a week of outstanding food truck tacos, burritos and Mexican tortas, Little crafted a small menu of fresh, authentic Latin American flavors that would become Roosters Latin American Food.

Well-seasoned meats are the heart of the menu, usually presented on exceptional corn tortillas or soft ciabatta bread and topped with homemade sauces. Authentic tacos are served with nothing but diced grilled onion, cilantro and Cotija cheese on top of your choice of meat, just the way they build them south of the border. After only six months in business, Roosters is ready to expand its offering and has started cooking up daily specials that include Gulf shrimp and barbacoa, salads made with local hydroponic lettuce, tortilla soup and more. And by all means, save room for a locally made ice cream sandwich of Cammie’s Old Dutch ice cream and EllenJay cookies.

One of the more unique things about the menu is the alcohol offering. In addition to an impressive selection of Mexican beers (Victoria, for example), American craft beer and wine, Roosters serves more than a half dozen tequilas and Mezcal — the only hard liquors they stock.

It’s part of Little’s theory that you should do one thing and do it really well. But even with just those liquors, tasty possibilities await. The Paloma (tequila, Jarritos grapefruit soda, lime and a salt rim) is exceptional, and the Mezcal Margarita is a must-try. A tamarind syrup rim is dipped in Mexican Tajín seasoning that makes a sweet, sour, tart, spicy and just plain fun cocktail that you won’t find anywhere else in South Alabama.

ABOVE Those in the know stop by Roosters for lunch on Fridays to get their weekend started with the Special Gulf Shrimp Po’boy. The café keeps almost a dozen options of Mexican hot sauce on hand, so add a few dashes if you dare.

The service is quick, making Roosters a great place to grab lunch downtown or even dinner before a show. Chef Little perfectly combines authentic Mexican recipes with South Texas flair, then throws in some Caribbean, Costa Rican and Argentinian vibes for good measure. In short, this is a menu that leaves you dancing the cha cha cha. MB

 Roosters Latin American Food • 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. M - Th, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. F - S • 211 Dauphin Street • 375-1076 roostersdowntown.com • Average entree price: $11 24 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

ON THE MENU TACOS These authentic tacos are topped with nothing more than onions, cilantro and Cotija cheese, just like true Mexican street food! Choose your filling: chicken, pork al pastor, chorizo and plantain, seared steak, rib-eye, Gulf shrimp or veggie. Each one is as tempting as the next.

Then choose one of four homemade sauces to pull it all together.

SURF & TURF BURRITO This enormous burrito is stuffed with spicy seared shrimp and steak, homemade guacamole, fresh pico de gallo, Spanish rice and chipotle cream. The cherry on top of this hearty entree is the melted queso sauce with a hefty sprinkling of chorizo. You’re getting your $15 worth on this one.

BARBACOA BEEF SANDWICH A hearty sandwich to start the week, the Roosters special on Mondays and Tuesdays is a flavorful brisket spiced with three different chili peppers then slow roasted for 20 hours.

It’s finished with homemade cumin BBQ sauce and crunchy slaw and is served on soft ciabatta bread.

GULF SHRIMP PO’BOY

TACOS THREE WAYS: AL PASTOR, VEGGIE AND STEAK

Fresh Gulf shrimp are tossed in the secret Roosters dry rub and seared, then served on New Orleans Leidenheimer French bread. Homemade guacamole, fresh pico de gallo, local hydroponic lettuce and a little citrus aioli complete the perfect po’boy. But take note — this sandwich is only served Fridays and Saturdays!

BAY TABLES

Kitchen Diplomacy A weekend jaunt to Havana inspires a girls’ dinner party with Caribbean flair. text and styling by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

M

uch like the 1960s tourists who were drawn in droves to Havana and hypnotized by its pursuits, I have always been fascinated by the little island 90 miles off Florida, equal parts tropical paradise and forbidden fruit. Young enough that I didn’t live through (or at least remember) the Bay of Pigs disaster or the Cuban Missile Crisis, history didn’t trump my curiosity, and I wanted to catch the first plane that came available. Because of the newly relaxed visa protocol, I aquired the paperwork needed for a long weekend jaunt and checked one gigantic box off my bucket list. Havana, ¡aquí vamos!

There is no way to sum up in a few words what we saw, learned and experienced. But food is the perfect way to get to know a people and its culture. Dining in Cuba has long been under government control, and Communist bureaucrats are not known for appreciating haute cuisine.

However, Cuba’s “Presidente Raul” recently loosened restrictions on private enterprises, including restaurants, and the food scene on the little island is beginning to flourish once again. Paladars, private eating establishments run out of family homes, are attracting international attention for serving inventive and high quality food, despite the many roadblocks the chefs undoubtedly face. Cuba’s cuisine is a melting pot, heavily influenced by their long relationship with Spain and Africa, with a strong dash of Caribbean flair. The flavor combinations are unique and exciting!

There is no better way to share memories of an exciting trip than to prepare a meal with friends. Some of my favorite gals gathered al fresco to try a taste of Cuban treats over traditional Hemingway Daiquiris. Everyone was feeling the tropical vibrations, helped along by Havana Club rum and a bunch of laughs. The island was off-limits for four decades, so let’s waste no more time.

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Cilantro Corn Ceviche SERVES 6 Fresh local fish gets a Latin makeover. This refreshing summer appetizer is eye-catching when served on individual chips or spoons, ready for pickup.

1 pound fresh, skinless snapper, grouper or other Gulf fish fillets, cut into 1/2-inch dice 1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice (about 12 limes) 1 medium white onion, diced 1 cup cooked corn kernels 1 small tomato, seeded and diced 1 jalapeño, seeded and finely diced 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus more leaves for garnish 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste blue corn tortilla chips (for serving)

1. In a medium-sized glass bowl, combine the fish, lime juice and onion. Use enough juice to cover the fish completely with room to spare. Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally, until fish looks “cooked” all the way through when cut open with a knife. Drain in a colander.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the corn, tomato, jalapeño, cilantro, olive oil and orange juice. Stir in the fish and season with salt to taste.

3. Cover and refrigerate if not serving immediately.

4. Garnish with additional cilantro leaves before serving.

Serve with blue corn chips, crackers or tostadas.

CEVICHE IS FINELY CHOPPED SEAFOOD THAT HAS BEEN MARINATED IN CITRUS JUICE UNTIL IT APPEARS TO BE COOKED, ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT. TAKE CARE TO USE THE FRESHEST FISH YOU CAN FIND. ANY FIRM, WHITE GULF OR OCEAN FISH (OR SHRIMP!) CAN BE USED HERE.

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Cuban Black Beans SERVES 8 The easiest way to feed a crowd is with a big pot of beans. They can be cooked ahead of time and kept warm on the stove until you are ready to serve. Add extra jalapeño if you like more of a kick.

1/4 cup olive oil 2 slices thick bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 1 1/2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and diced 1 yellow onion, diced 10 garlic cloves, peeled and minced 1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar 2 pounds cooked black beans, drained and rinsed 2 bay leaves 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 cups hot water cooked white rice for serving (optional)

1. To make a sofrito, heat the olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Add green pepper and onion and cook, stirring, until softened, another 5 minutes. Add garlic, jalapeño, oregano, cumin, black pepper and salt and stir for another minute. Pour in vinegar and scrape any browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon.

2. Place 1 cup of beans in a small bowl and mash with the back of a fork. Add these and the remaining beans to the sofrito pot. Add bay leaves, brown sugar and water, and stir well.

3. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally and add more water if needed.

4. Remove bay leaves. Add additional salt to taste and serve over white rice.

SOFRITO IS A MIX OF ONIONS, PEPPERS, GARLIC, HERBS AND SPICES THAT ARE THE FOUNDATION OF MANY CUBAN AND LATIN RECIPES. SOFRITO COMES FROM THE SPANISH WORD “SOFREÍR” MEANING “TO LIGHTLY FRY.”

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Plantain Chips SERVES 4

These crispy chips make for a colorful accompaniment to Cuban black beans and can be used to scoop fresh ceviche, too. Make sure to buy very green bananas, as ripe ones don’t slice easily.

6 cups vegetable oil 2 green plantains, or 1 1/2 pounds 3/4 teaspoon salt pinch of cayenne pepper (if desired)

1. Preheat oil in a large cast-iron pot or deep-fryer over moderate heat to 375 degrees.

2. Cut each end off the plantains and then cut in half crossways. Remove the peel and discard. Cut plantains lengthwise with a mandolin or U-shaped peeler into strips about 1/16 inch thick.

3. Fry strips a few at a time, turning frequently, until golden.

Transfer with tongs to a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle immediately with salt and cayenne.

4. Serve or store at room temperature in an airtight container. BELOW The writer brings the next dish to the table while (left to right) Hunter Oswalt, Margaret Langdon Hamilton, Marisa Inge and Candace Cooksey enjoy wine, plantain chips and their first taste of a true Hemingway Daiquiri.

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ERNEST

HEMINGWAY

WAS

KNOWN

TO HAVE A SIGNATURE DRINK AT A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT HAUNTS AROUND HAVANA, BUT THE INVENTION OF THE DAIQUIRI AT LA FLORIDITA IS HIS MOST CELEBRATED

CONCOCTION.

HE

WAS

KNOWN TO THROW BACK MORE THAN A DOZEN “PAPA DOBLES,” OR DOUBLES, OF THIS COCKTAIL DURING HIS DAY.

Hemingway Daiquiri SERVES 1

This icy concoction has little relation to what we know as a daiquiri in these parts. This drink is tart and refreshing after a long day in the tropical sun.

1 1/2 ounces white rum 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice 1/4 ounce fresh grapefruit juice 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur ice 1 lime wheel, for garnish

1. Combine ingredients in a heavy-duty blender and blend until ice is smooth.

Pour into a champagne coupe or wine glass, and garnish with a lime wheel.

Serve immediately.

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Spiced Tuna Empanadas MAKES 24

Cuban cuisine developed from a convergence of peoples and their distinct food cultures, all blending into one. West African, Spanish and Caribbean flavors combine to make delicious dishes like these spiced tuna empanadas.

1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 cup finely diced red onion 1/4 cup finely diced white onion 3/4 teaspoon curry powder 1/4 cup seeded, diced tomatoes 2 large garlic cloves, finely minced 1/4 teaspoon coriander 1 tablespoon kosher salt 12-ounce can chunk white albacore tuna in water 2 refrigerated pastry crusts 1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

1. Heat olive oil in a large sautĂŠ pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sautĂŠ for 5 minutes until soft and beginning to brown, stirring frequently.

2. Add curry powder and cook 1 - 2 minutes, until fragrant. Stir in tomatoes, garlic, coriander and salt and cook another 2 - 3 minutes. Gently fold in tuna until well combined. Allow tuna mixture to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until completely cool.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Unroll pastry dough onto floured surface. Cut into circles using a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Place 1 tablespoon of tuna filling on each circle. Fold in half and pinch edges closed. Place on baking sheet.

5. Using a pastry brush, brush egg wash over the tops of the empanadas. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve warm with basil dipping sauce.

Basil Dipping Sauce 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 1 large garlic clove, finely minced juice of 1 lime 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 cup Duke’s mayonnaise

1. Place all ingredients in a small food processor and combine until basil is fully broken down and sauce becomes light green, stopping once to scrape sides of bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use. july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 31

THE DISH interviews by CHELSEA ADAMS • photo by K ATIE WOHLWEND

MB’s newest crop of contributing food fanatics share the local dishes that made them hungry for more this month.

JOHN PEEBLES, Principal Partner, NAI-Mobile

CRAB FRITTERS AT SAISHO “I was served a baseball-sized, crispy ball of jumbo lump crabmeat bound together and resting in a bowl of plum-like mayo.

Breaking through the panko, you release huge chunks of exquisite blue crab into the flavored sauce at the bottom, and the crab flesh, sauce and panko combine for flavors not normally available in this part of the world.”

SAISHO • 455 DAUPHIN ST. • 433-0376 SAISHOMOBILE.COM

GINNA INGE, Owner, The Steeple on St. Francis

DRUNKEN PAD THAI AND THE DETOX “I called Von and asked if she could throw together my favorite Drunken Pad Thai noodles for a recent dinner party, delicious with chicken, great veggies, lots of noodles, peanuts and ginger.

But for lunch I had a Detox grain bowl from FOY, which I tossed in that yummy ginger dressing. I love that FOY now makes their salads with spinach! Those are my two best go-tos downtown.”

VON’S BISTRO • 69 ST. MICHAEL ST. • 375-1113 FOY SUPERFOODS • 119 DAUPHIN ST. • 307-8997

TY THOMPSON, General Manager, Terry Thompson Chevrolet

TRUFFLE FRIES AT CAMELLIA CAFÉ “Camellia Café is one of our favorite spots in Fairhope. My wife and I usually sit at the bar to enjoy the atmosphere.

You can’t go wrong with the menu.

There is usually a delicious fresh catch, and the raw oysters are always a favorite.

But if I am going to be honest, one of my favorites are the truffle fries. We will sometimes order them as an appetizer.

French fries, Parmesan and truffle oil — they may be the best in Fairhope!”

CARLISHA HARTZOG, Principal, Hartzog Consulting

LAVENDER DUCK AT KITCHEN ON GEORGE “I’m constantly seeking dishes that are rich in flavor that don’t involve red meat or pork, and the Lavender Honey Duck Leg did just that. The crispiness of the skin and the texture of the duck made just the right combination. The medley of the sweet potato puree, blackened carrots, green onion and pecan crumble were an unexpected guilty pleasure — like having dessert on your plate, before you’re supposed to order it!”

CAMELLIA CAFE • 61 N. SECTION ST., FAIRHOPE

KITCHEN ON GEORGE • 351A GEORGE ST.

928-4321 • CAMELLIACAFE.COM

436-8890 • KITCHENONGEORGE.COM

 Share your favorite dishes around the Bay on our Facebook page.

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GOOD STUFF

Bold Adventures Gear, gadgets and apparel as vibrant as your backcountry pursuits. text by MAGGIE LACEY

SUMMER SOUNDS Every adventure deserves a soundtrack, and this suction mount Bluetooth speaker is packed and ready. It’s waterproof, sand proof, buoyant and darn near indestructible. It’s also just plain cute.

ADRENALINE • SPEAQUA BARNACLE WATERPROOF SPEAKER IN ALOHA BLUE • $40

GET UP, STAND UP Make a bold splash on a board that is just plain fun. Paddleboards provide a low-impact (and low-hassle) workout with a built-in waterfront view. Fresh air is included with the price. COASTAL PADDLE COMPANY • YOLO STANDUP PADDLEBOARD IN CANDYLAND • $935

HE’S A CUT UP Utility and beauty are not mutually exclusive. This handy dandy knife is available in unexpected shades like hot pink, neon yellow or cool blue.

RED BEARD’S OUTFITTER • MORAKNIV BASIC 511 KNIFE IN BLUE • $20

TAKE A SEAT The perfect outdoor chair is born, with a solid base that won’t sink in the sand or leave you topsy turvy. It folds completely into its base for easy packing. It’s regulation height for music festivals, and it’s crazy comfy.

RED BEARD’S OUTFITTER • THERMAREST UNO CAMP CHAIR IN CITRON • $90

CHILL OUT Orca coolers guarantee up to 10 days of cold, so even your longest backcountry treks will be well provisioned. They come with a lifetime warranty and are made in a dazzling array of colors. (We can’t help ourselves with this pink!)

MCCOY OUTDOORS • ORCA 20 QT. COOLER IN PINK • $189

HOT STEPPER Shoes as fast as your six-minute mile, these innovative joggers are lightweight and made for high performance.

The vibrant color options add a little extra spring to your step.

RUNNING WILD • BROOKS LAUNCH 4 RUNNING SHOE IN PURPLE CACTUS FLOWER / DIVA PINK • $110

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COVER UP Ok, here’s one place that color is a no-go this summer! Avoid the burn with one of the hottest new sunscreens, created by a couple of Florida surfers with active folks in mind.

ADRENALINE • SUN BUM SPF 50 SUNSCREEN LOTION • $16

PEDAL PUSHERS This gal was made for comfort more than speed, with a color palette that screams Cali-style. Phat Cycles makes both men’s and women’s frames in a rainbow of fun colors, but painted rims are the cherry on top!

HEAD STRONG With dozens of bold colors and wacky patterns, these helmets will protect your noggin through every bump and stumble.

The watermelon rind and Evel Knievelinspired designs are especially fun. It has innovative, adjustable cooling vents so staying safe is no sweat.

ADVENTURE EARTH • NUTCASE BIKE AND SKATE HELMET IN AURORA GREEN • $70

ADVENTURE EARTH • PHAT CYCLES SEAWIND 26” IN PINK WITH ORANGE RIMS • $185

IN THE BAG This must-have backpack was, ironically, designed for Swedish schoolchildren in the 1970s. It’s now graduated into the fashion and outdoors mainstream and is available in literally dozens of bold colors. RED BEARD’S OUTFITTER FJÄLLRÄVEN KANKEN BACKPACK IN BURNT ORANGE • $75

RESOURCES ADRENALINE • 328 FAIRHOPE AVE. 990-0699. ADRENALINESURF.COM • ADVENTURE EARTH • 2039 AIRPORT BLVD. 478-1000. ADVENTURE-EARTH.COM MCCOY OUTDOORS • 3498 SPRINGHILL AVE. 473-1080. MCCOYOUTDOORCO.COM • RUNNING WILD • 214 FAIRHOPE AVE. 990-4412. WERUNWILD.COM RED BEARD’S OUTFITTER • 4354 OLD SHELL ROAD. 217-7466. REDBEARDSOUTFITTER.COM • COASTAL PADDLE COMPANY • 314 GULF BREEZE PARKWAY, GULF BREEZE. COASTALPADDLECOMPANY.COM

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NO WEEKEND LEFT BEHIND THIS SUMMER. Grab the kids, call your mom, head out into the neighborhood or drive down to the Bay. It’s time to make the most of every last minute of sunshine, warm weather, no school, no worries. It’s summertime! MB brings you the ultimate list of big and little fun for all ages and interests, taking place in every corner of Mobile and Baldwin Counties. There is something to surprise even those who think they’ve seen and done everything this town has to offer. Get up, get dressed and get out there! text by CHELSEA ADAMS, BRECK PAPPAS and LEE TONSMEIRE

1

JOIN THE FUN!

WHO SAYS SUMMER IS JUST FOR KIDS? ROUND UP THE GROWN-UPS IN YOUR CREW AND MAKE THE KIDS JUDGE YOUR ADULT CANNONBALL CONTEST OFF THE END OF THE WHARF OR IN THE DEEP END OF THE POOL. SLOW MOTION IPHONE VIDEOS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. PICTURED Cousins Murphy Douglas (left) and Christopher Immel (middle) take the plunge in high style with neighbors Mary Lynn and Darden Cooper. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 37

PADDLEBOARD ON THE BAY

GAIN A NEW PERSPECTIVE OF MOBILE BAY — FROM ATOP A STANDUP PADDLEBOARD. TO TEST OUT YOUR BALANCE AND EXERCISE YOUR CORE, RENT A PADDLEBOARD FROM EASTERN SHORE WATERSPORTS IN FAIRHOPE OR GO GO KAYAK RENTALS IN GULF SHORES AND FORT MORGAN. EXTRA POINTS IF YOU CAN STRIKE A YOGA POSE.

HAVE A LEMONADE STAND

3

5

ABOVE Our cover girl and local marathon runner, occasional triathlete and general fitness enthusiast Dayna Jones enjoys a paddle at the Fairhope Public Beach. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

CAMP OUT ON DAUPHIN ISLAND

Spend a night outdoors at the Dauphin Island Campground with access to a secluded beach, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary and public boat launches. Call 8612742 for availability and to make your reservations.

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4

No childhood is complete without a summertime lemonade stand. Teach your kids the value of a hard day’s work while supplying the neighbors with some fresh-squeezed citrus goodness. Set a good example by encouraging the children to donate the proceeds to a local cause or charity.

FIRE THE CANNON Every afternoon, Point Clear’s Grand Hotel honors its military history with a cannon firing and historic presentation. After meeting in the Grand Lobby for tea, guests parade across the hotel grounds behind a troupe of Civil War-era drummers to the cannon, which is fired at 4 p.m.

FLOAT STYX RIVER

6

Styx River Tube and Canoe Rental in Robertsdale offers round-trip services on the windy, sandy Styx River. Sandbars line the route, offering ideal spots for swimming, fishing and picnicking. Find more information at floatstyx.com.

BUILD A TREE HOUSE

7

If you’ve got the spare time and pocket change, what’s more American than building a backyard tree house with the kids?

CLASSIC FUN 9. The Battleship Explore all 680 feet of history aboard the USS Alabama. ussalabama.com

10. Fort Condé

RIDE THE FERRIS WHEEL AT THE WHARF

Tour a replica of the fort that protected Mobile and her citizens for almost 100 years. colonialmobile.com

11. Bellingrath’s

Children’s Workshops Nine self-guided workshops explain the relationship between science, the environment and everyday life.

bellingrath.org/experiences/ childrens-workshops

12. Mobile Museum of Art

Celebrate Alabama’s bicentennial with William Christenberry’s photos through July 9, and observe more contemporary Alabama artists’ pictures through August 27.

Ashley Dukes, accountant, on working at The Exchange

mobilemuseumofart.com

13. Carnival Museum Start or end your day with a sweet Gulf breeze and a bird’s-eye view of the Alabama coast. For just $5 per person, take a ride on one of the Gulf Coast’s tallest Ferris wheels at The Wharf.

mobilecarnivalmuseum.com exploreum.com

SUMMER FOODIE CRUSH Nope, you’re not crazy — everything does taste better during the summer! Cool down with some seasonal treats and enjoy a few classics from every end of Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Visit the River Shack and indulge in a grown-up milkshake, but don’t forget to ask for a rum topper!

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

17

SIP A BUSHWACKER ON DOG RIVER

Learn about the oldest Mardi Gras traditions while looking at extravagant dresses, crowns, scepters and robes.

SPEND A DAY AT PIRATES COVE

Take the whole family — including your four-legged companions — for a day in the sand. Enjoy lunch, live music and family fun, all in your bathing suit and flip flops!

14. GulfQuest Explore all 90 exhibits inside the Maritime Museum. With new admission prices, this is a great excursion for the whole family. www.gulfquest.org

15. Mobile Museum of History Learn our city’s rich history dating back to 1702, when Mobile was founded. www.museumofmobile.com

19

SHELL OUT FOR PEANUTS IN BIENVILLE SQUARE

STOP BY THE SHUX ICE CREAM WINDOW THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN AN ICE CREAM CONE IS A CONE WITH A VIEW! THIS EASY WALK-UP WINDOW SELLS SOFTSERVE, SNOW CONES AND MORE!

ABOVE Best buddies Matthew Sadler and Rett Gibson enjoy a cool cone at Shux on the Fairhope Pier. PHOTO BY SUMMER ENNIS

27. DUCK BOAT

See Mobile like never before on the Gulf Coast’s only land and water tour. The amphibious vehicle shuttles sightseers from Battleship Park to Downtown Mobile, the Mobile River and Bay. A treat for tourists and lifelong Mobilians alike!

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LEARN YOUR WAY AROUND THE KITCHEN The Grand Hotel’s Cooking Academy pairs you with hotel chefs for an in-depth, two-hour cooking course. The monthly Beverage Academy is a one-hour course that teaches advanced cocktail techniques. Both include food and drink sampling, recipes and even a diploma.

BOIL A POT O’ LOCAL SHRIMP OR CRABS ORDER A WEST INDIES SALAD AT BAYLEY’S RESTAURANT

Living so close to this many fresh seafood restaurants, it’s easy to forget the pleasure and fresh taste of simply doing it yourself. It’s time to reclaim the good old days of the DIY seafood boils.

TOURS IN EVERY FLAVOR

21

We all pass by A&M Peanut Shop, but how often do we stop to get some goobers and hang out in the park to munch? Just make sure to protect your stash from overzealous squirrels!

marriottgrand.com

An iconic dish at its birthplace.

Need we say more?

28. AIR BOAT EXPRESS

Explore the shallow corners of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta that motorboats can’t access.

Airboat tours are wildly fun and educational too, allowing an upclose look at the flora, fauna and wildlife that live just outside our reach.

CARS AND TRUCKS AND THINGS THAT GO VROOM

23

Wings, wheels and waves — whew! Whether you’re itching to jump in a boat, plane or car, or you’re more of a spectator, there’s no shortage of ways to have fun with vehicles this summer.

CHEER FOR YOUR FAVORITE STOCK CAR Since 1965 cars have been fast-as-lightning at the half-mile Mobile Speedway track, where you can catch rising NASCAR and ARCA drivers.

24

PHOTO BY ASHLEY ROWE

WATCH THE TUGS WORK THE RIVER

Bring your little ones to Cooper Riverside Park for a peek at the barges, ships and tugs that work the waterfront.

You can be sure your pint-sized captains will have sweet dreams of seafaring adventures for the rest of the summer.

(Hint: A little gelato from Serda’s afterwards is the perfect finale.)

TAKE A BOUNCE OFF A BOAT This ain’t your grandpa’s pontoon boat. The Tarzan Boat is a floating adventure park complete with slides, trampolines, ropes and high dive platforms. Best of all, it can be rented by the hour.

Call Jeff at 689-2300.

WATCH A BLUE ANGELS’ PRACTICE

PHOTO BY TODD DOUGLAS

Avoid the crowds at the annual beachfront show on the first weekend in July by catching a weekday practice in Pensacola instead. Watch in awe as these nimble planes dance in the sky, and then learn more about the squadron of blue and gold at the National Naval Aviation Museum next door. blueangels.navy.mil

29. DELTA ECO-TOURS Let 17 Turtles Outdoors guide you on a personal eco-tour of local waterways by kayak or canoe, or take a powerboat tour led by local outdoor expert Jimbo Meador.

Paddleboards, gear and overnight camping equipment are also available for rent.

30. HELICOPTER TOUR

ORANGE BEACH HELICOPTERS You’ve seen the gulf from a beach chair, but have you seen it from the sky? Add a little altitude to your summer with a helicopter tour of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, departing from Perdido Key and The Wharf.

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 41

RAINY DAY FUN

CRITTERS

Ditch Animal Planet this summer and get up close and personal with some new friends of the four-legged (and finned!) variety.

31. Indoor Golfing at

Fairways in Spanish Fort These high definition simulators offer up to 87 different courses for your golfing pleasure. Players use real golf clubs and balls to enhance the golfing experience no matter your skill level.

Experience an “Encounter” at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, where guests can mingle with kangaroos, lemurs, reptiles, sloths and tamanduas under the close supervision of a zookeeper. Check alabamagulfcoastzoo.com for costs and times.

fairwaysindoorgolfclub.com

GO HORSEBACK RIDING

32. Eastern Shore Lanes

Obviously known for their bowling with more than 15 lanes of fun, Eastern Shore Lanes offers so much more.

Laser tag, an arcade and even a challenging new indoor ropes course will keep you entertained all day long.

Take a trail ride around Oak Hollow Farm’s 300 gorgeous acres of grand oak trees and rolling grasslands. If you’re a bit timid, don’t worry — you’ll be with a professional the whole time. Call 928-4840 to make an appointment.

37

eslanes.com/

33. Breakout!

Breakout Escape Games is a real life adventure where you and your teammates have an hour to escape a room by solving different puzzles and mind games. There are five different Escape Games available to play at the Mobile location, each one featuring a different scenario filled with clues to solve.

SEE SOME GATORS

When they’re blocking traffic on the Causeway, you’ll want to keep your distance. But when you’re at Alligator Alley in Robertsdale, it’s all about getting up close and personal. Watch your fingers! Visit gatoralleyfarm.com.

breakoutgames.com/mobile

34. Catch an IMAX

Stop by the Exploreum to view A Beautiful Planet on the extra wide IMAX screen. After you take in this breathtaking portrait of planet Earth from space, stay for another show from the summer film series, during which the Exploreum will screen more than a dozen other classic IMAX titles.

exploreum.com/imax-theatre

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35

PET A LEMUR

WITNESS A WEIGH-IN

Did you know that the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is the largest fishing tournament in the world? Pretty nifty!

Stop by Dauphin Island from July 21 - 23 to watch more than 3,000 anglers compare their catches.

CATCH A SHOW

SHOP LOCAL

Whether watching a film indoors or grooving to live music outdoors, there’s more than enough opportunity to sit back and enjoy the show this summer.

39

BRUSH UP ON THE CLASSICS

Visit one of the many area farmers markets for a taste that’s fresh from the field!

Some markets are held seasonally and others take place year-round, so be sure to check schedules!

Don’t miss the chance to see some of your favorite classic films this summer at the Saenger Theatre. The Sunday shows include titles such as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Gone with the Wind.”

44. Halls Mill Road Farmers Market 2245 Halls Mill Road Tuesdays & Thursdays 7 a.m. - 12 p.m.

VISIT THE CRESCENT

Catch a film at Mobile’s favorite independent movie theater, complete with adult beverages and honor system concessions. Daily showtimes of 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Arrive early to score a comfy armchair.

45. Market In The Park Lavretta Park on Old Shell Road Thursdays, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.

46. Market In The Park Cathedral Square, 300 Conti St. Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

BUILD A BACKYARD MOVIE THEATER See fireflies and stars while you watch your favorite flick. A big white sheet, a few feet of rope and a laptop projector is all you need to turn your little patch of grass into the theater of your dreams. Popcorn and pillows are a must.

42 43

CATCH A SUNSET CONCERT ON THE ISLAND

What better place to catch live music on the beach than at the sunset capital of Alabama? One Sunday per month through October, bring your beach chairs and blankets to Dauphin Island’s live music series. Visit townofdauphinisland.org to get the scoop on all upcoming performances.

GLOW IN THE PARK

PHOTO BY MAJOR ADAM COLBERT

47. Spanish Fort Farmers Market Spanish Fort Community Center Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

48. Fairhope Outdoor Farmers Market Behind the Fairhope Public Library Thursdays, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.

49. Coastal Alabama Farmers & Fishermens Market 20733 Miflin Road, Foley Tuesdays, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

The Fairhope summer film series returns with family-friendly movie showings at Fairhopers Community Park. Shows start at 8 p.m. and include “The Lego Batman Movie” on July 6 and “Sing” on August 3.

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 43

ABOVE BOARD A great wharf is so much more than the sum of its parts!

These three impressive structures bring over-water living to new heights. text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN

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Standing Strong

When a mechanical engineer watches a wharf get torn to bits in a storm, he does not rebuild the same wharf in the same way only to have it ripped apart again. He naturally sets about to fix the problem, and Point Clear resident Alan Goldberg was determined to do just that.

He created a design using small boards spaced as far apart as his then 3-year-old daughter’s feet would allow. He ran the boards lengthwise, like a ship facing its bow into the waves. “You would never let a boat take the surf broadside! I figured it’s the same thing with these boards,” he remembers.

The design worked, and the structure has withstood many a strong storm, including hurricanes Ivan and Katrina.

The walkways are built low so the tide will rise over them during a storm and spare the boards from the beating waves. The shed is made with removable wall panels so the water can flow through, releasing the pressure. A mini fridge is built high into the wall, above the threat of flood, and a small gang plank that reaches the boat lift raises up and out of the way. Batten down the hatches is the motto here, using plenty of practical, smart design.

It’s not all logic and mechanics, though.

The wharf is full of handmade, artistic touches with sentimental value. He turned a railing that bore the brightly painted handprints from his oldest daughter’s high school graduation party into a swinging bed, perfectly placed for watching the sunset.

An oyster shell garland he made for his middle daughter’s wedding hangs next to a plaque that commemorates the Coast Guard helicopter that crashed in the Bay in 2012.

As he shows us around, two Coast Guard helicopters appear on the horizon and pause directly off shore for training exercises. Goldberg, a veteran himself, was first introduced to Mobile Bay during Coast Guard training in 1975, and he set out to make this place a lasting home from then on.

OPPOSITE The unique design of Goldberg’s wharf has allowed it to survive numerous hurricanes. It was constructed by local wharf builder, the late Tom Clark, and his son Josh has added new touches.

TOP Goldberg collects driftwood and other found objects to add artistic touches to his wharf.

MIDDLE ROW Alan Goldberg shows the ins and outs of his design, including the innovative kitchen and storage shed. The beverage fridge is built high above flood levels, and the galvanized sink pops out for easy removal before a storm.

BOTTOM A handmade swinging bed is suspended by a sailboat’s running rigging and blockmaster. Goldberg purchased the rig in Nova Scotia years ago. july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 45

A Packed House

It’s standing room only on Saturday nights in the summer at Ann and Tommy Torbert’s pier in Battles Wharf. The large, comfortable space that they own with two of their daughters is packed with kids of every age, neighbors, cousins and a couple of dogs thrown in for good measure. People come for the laughs, but they also come for the food.

Down one long side of the wharf you’ll find an outdoor kitchen that was not built all at once, but grew over time like barnacles on a piling. First came the sink, then later someone installed a built-in fryer. A son-in-law added a Big Green Egg, and little by little the perfect outdoor kitchen came to life. From this spot, a million memories have been made over fresh fish, local Silver Queen Corn and Tommy’s famous spiralsliced potato chips.

Every Fourth of July, the Torberts hold a cookoff with the neighbors that has become the stuff of legends. The DITS’s versus the TSM’s (acronyms for the family names) is an epic showdown of the two families’ best recipes and witty roasts of each other’s antics from the past year. The wharf is decorated with signs, sayings and mementos from these parties, each one a reminder of something funny or epic or ridiculous. Some even a bit off-color.

It all settles down on Sunday mornings, though, when Tommy cooks beignets or pancakes for the priests between the two morning services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church next door. The little church holds services from Memorial Day through Labor Day, a schedule that perfectly coincides with the encampment of several generations of family from Mobile. There is always room for one more on the Torberts’ wharf.

OPPOSITE Ann and Tommy Torbert employ bikes with extra large baskets to carry dinner and other supplies from the back house to the end of the wharf.

TOP Hurricane Katrina gave the wharf a slight lean, but it remained standing, strong and ready for the next summertime adventure. Whether you are seeking sun or shade, a spot for the boat or a zipline for the kids, this place has something for every visitor.

MIDDLE ROW A built-in Big Green Egg, deep-fryer and other kitchen equipment allow Tommy and his sons-inlaw to prepare meals for the crowds every weekend.

Tommy’s potato chips are a popular offering.

BOTTOM The wharf has plenty of room for long visits with friends and neighbors. Brightly painted Adirondack chairs welcome whoever stops by.

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Back to Nature

Way up Dog River lies a peaceful inlet called Moore Creek that is lined with grasses, blooming wildflowers and not too much else. Nestled in the trees along this strip of brackish heaven sits a dock that perfectly bridges the gap between civilization and that which lies beyond. Joy and Reed Gardner call this little spot their own.

They are avid outdoorsmen and use the dock in every season. Wildlife abounds with regular visits from snakes, wood ducks, alligators and fish of all species, as well as white pelicans when they migrate through. As if on cue, a manatee breaks the surface in front of the dock while Joy and Reed talk about enjoying their early morning coffee in the Adirondack chairs.

Reed is regularly seen casting his fly rod off the crab wharf, and Joy fishes under the lights at night. She laughs about the time she once caught a bass and a speckled trout on one lure from one cast. The otherwise shallow creek bed suddenly dips to 30 feet off the end of the boathouse, and fish seem to congregate there.

Most evenings they launch their Stauter and cruise the river, visiting friends, spotting wildlife and enjoying time with their dogs. Their daughter, Meg, says, “They don’t have dinner until 10 p.m. and they think that’s normal. They just can’t go inside until they have used up every bit of light and made that one last cast.” Joy is known for her luck (or talent) with the fishing pole. When she goes back for that “one last cast,” she usually comes to the house not long after with fish in hand.

After 10 wonderful years in this spot, the Gardners are moving, but just down the road, as leaving the river was never an option. Reed and Joy are hoping they can create a new dock that has some of the magic of the one they will leave behind. MB

OPPOSITE Joy Gardner always keeps a watchful eye on the water, and if she sees movement, she will be sure to cast a line, regardless of her attire or the circumstances.

TOP The boathouse is her favorite place for riding out an unexpected rainstorm. It has plenty of cover, several seating areas and a handy storage shed for nets, life jackets and gear.

MIDDLE ROW Boating is a regular pastime at the Gardners’. Whether it be kayaks, old wooden boats or new center consoles, there is a vessel for every mood.

BOTTOM The dock runs the length of the property, with plenty of room for docking boats and enjoying the view. july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 49

SPRINGHELLIONS In the days before city livin’ crept up Old Shell Road, childhood mischief was king of the hill. text by BRECK PAPPAS • illustrations by COLLEEN TERRELL COMER • color photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

T

he man at the bus stop narrowed his eyes. It was early, not yet 4:30 a.m., but he could sense somebody was walking toward him up Old Shell Road. Out of the darkness, a figure slowly materialized, and the man found himself staring at a boy, no older than 15, striding along purposefully toward the intersection of Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue. The boy wore no shoes, and in his hands, he cradled a shotgun.

The mysterious youngster came within several feet of the bus stop, apparently unaware of the man’s presence. The boy, it seemed, was wholly fixated on the intersection’s blinking traffic light, much like the insects swarming in its beam. In those days, before Spring Hill was absorbed by Mobile, that light was the only source of illumination for quite some distance. But the boy was here to fix that.

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The boy’s name was Johnny Wilson, and believe it or not, this wasn’t his first clandestine visit to the intersection. In fact, Spring Hill’s first traffic light, installed at this junction in the early 1950s, had been shot out so many times over the previous weeks that the sheriff promised a reward to anyone who could identify the trigger-happy culprits. The average Springhillian knew the guilty parties, but no one ever came forward.

The boy scanned his surroundings, realizing then that he had company. He froze and stared at the man, thinking. After a moment of silence, he nodded toward the light. “You for it or against it?” he asked the man.

“A-Against it!” the man stammered, as if he really had a choice.

Satisfied, Johnny smirked, raised his weapon and fired, and Spring Hill returned to darkness for yet another night.

Identity Crisis

“People don’t realize Spring Hill wasn’t always like it is now,” says Kit Caffey, who was born in the outlying community in 1927. “It really was sort of wild and woodsy.”

Considering Spring Hill wasn’t incorporated into Mobile until 1956, the community had an identity all its own for most of Kit’s young life. A streetcar rattled past her home on Old Shell, barefooted boys hunted squirrels and rabbits in Wragg Swamp, cattle roamed freely outside the country club. In fact, Kit was a young woman before her house even had a real address.

“Until then, we’d just say we lived on Old Shell Road in Spring Hill, the second house east of College Lane,” she says with a knowing laugh.

Today, Spring Hill is one of Mobile’s most beloved residential areas, but it hardly resembles its younger, country self. In short, if a teenaged Johnny Wilson were let loose in Spring Hill tomorrow, chances are he’d run out of shotgun shells.

“People felt like that street light was alien to everything they grew up with,” Ben Wilson, Johnny’s little brother, explains. “And it was just a matter of time before the big city

swallowed up their country playground. Everybody was afraid Spring Hill would lose its identity.”

If you pay close attention to the stories of old Spring Hill, you’ll always find a trace of this sentiment — this disdain for the newfangled. For children like Johnny and his peers, beacons of civilization, such as the traffic light, must’ve stuck out like a sore thumb. Time and time again, as society snaked its way up Old Shell Road, the miscreants on the hill pounced.

They weren’t making some political statement or organized effort. They were just kids, fighting to keep the world the way they liked it, albeit with a “Lord of the Flies” flare. Behind a grin and mischievous wink, these thick-skinned country kids were gonna fight like hell to keep society at bay.

Rascals on the Hill

Spring Hill, so named for its abundance of natural springs, has always been considered an idyllic and healthful place.

With an elevation of 215 feet, the oak-studded hill was a treasured getaway for 19th century Mobilians, many of whom built vacation homes in the area to escape Mobile’s summer heat and yellow fever epidemics.

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 51

Over the years, as summer vacationers gave way to permanent residents, the hilltop community began to formulate its own distinct personality — a sort of wild sophistication. “If it was wild, it was wild with a touch of class,” says Kit Caffey.

Of course, people have a natural tendency to romanticize their childhoods. Memories grow sweeter with time, and stories are tenderly polished with age. But a quick study of any class photo from Spring Hill School (renamed Mary B. Austin in 1943) attests to the wonderful absurdity of an upbringing on the hill. In the black and white images, spanning several years, a majority of the grinning pupils pose proudly on two dirty, bare feet.

“The rule was, if you came to school barefoot, that was fine,” explains Ann Wilson Wesley, a former barefooted student. “If you came with shoes on, you kept your shoes on.” The children, of course, were well aware of this rule — and how to manipulate it. One school morning, Ann’s mother found 12 pairs of shoes hidden away beneath her camellia bushes.

Whether it was a rebellion against shoes or a prank on the

streetcar, you can bet it was done with style and wit. It takes a clever kid, for example, to realize that a little bit of grease on the streetcar tracks made it impossible for the heavy vehicle to manage the incline. Or that, from a distance, a string tied across Old Shell Road and draped with toilet paper looked a lot like a picket fence had been built across the road overnight.

“My first dog got run over by the streetcar,” Kit remembers.

“But before my time, it was a mule-drawn car, and they would attach oxen to get up the hill.” Every day, the streetcar delivered visitors from the city, elementary school teachers commuting from Mobile and city mothers bringing their children to play in the “country.” On such outings, Mobile kids were usually more supervised than their Spring Hill counterparts.

“Town mothers didn’t understand our freedom,” Kit says.

“They didn’t want their children turned loose in Spring Hill.

But we were bad in our own way,” she says of her peers. “We weren’t bad by today’s standards.”

L.J. Britain, born in 1932, worked as paperboy for the Cedars, a small community within Spring Hill. After delivering

ABOVE The 1943 - 1944 fourth grade class at Mary B. Austin Elementary with its many barefooted pupils. In 1943, the school’s name was changed from Spring Hill School to commemorate the April death of beloved principal Mary Belden Austin. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANN WILSON Top (or fifth) row from L to R: Joanne English, unknown, unknown, Betty Gordon, Marvin Cash, Harold Brown, unknown, unknown.

Fourth row: unknown, unknown, Patsy Jordan, Max Rogers, unknown, Ruby Dell Long, Jacqueline Nix. Third row: Francis Walter, Jean Booth, unknown, Joan Miller, Gene Reimer, Bobbie Lou Pittman, unknown.

Second row: unknown, unknown, Luis Williams, Tommy Davis, unknown, unknown, Henry Cole.

First row: Louis Tonsmeire, Anita Lee, Mary Lou Busby, Ann Wilson.

52 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

his daily batch of 47 newspapers, L.J. and his brothers, Francis and Johnny, had plenty of ways to keep themselves entertained. “We used to sit over on Old Shell Road in somebody’s backyard with .22 rifles and shoot at the water tower and see how long it’d take the bullet to hit the tank,” L.J. says. “We could hear it clean back on Old Shell Road, that’s how quiet it was. You’d never be able to hear the bullet now.”

At one time, Spring Hill provided all of Mobile’s drinking water, which was pumped from Three Mile Creek into the water tower and reservoir. The Britain boys were known to skinny dip in the reservoir from time to time. That is, until the caretaker and his dogs would chase them off.

“Kids in Spring Hill never let something like a fence stop them,” Day Gates, another lifelong Springhillian, explains.

Those boys spent a lot of time on their legs, running from trouble across dirt roads or ambling down rocky gullies. The evidence was in the soles of their feet, which were tough enough to extinguish cigarettes they shouldn’t have been smoking in the first place. One story goes that on a winter’s day in Spring Hill, the barber announced to his shop full of customers, “I bet everybody in here that my next customer is gonna be barefooted.” Sure enough, up walked Francis Britain in 20-degree weather, barefooted as a yard dog.

The Pearce brothers on Dilston Lane were another force to be reckoned with, liable to shoot the bluejays in your birdbath or sneak around the country club gigging frogs late at night.

Their grandmother, Annie Starkey Pearce Howard, lived in

TOP A three-year-old Kit Caffey enjoys Spring Hill’s pumping station, a popular swimming spot near Three Mile Creek, in 1930. PHOTO COURTESY OF KIT CAFFEY ABOVE From College Lane looking west down Old Shell, a 1905 view of the streetcar tracks.

COURTESY OF JAMES F. MAURY COLLECTION VIA HOWARD BARNEY, THE DOY LEALE MCCALL RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA.

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what is now the Carpe Diem coffee house. Originally from Wales, Mrs. Howard added an air of sophistication to Dilston Lane. “Tea, darlings?” she’d ask the neighborhood children.

Of course, such high culture did nothing but put a target on Mrs. Howard’s back; her grandsons Mac, David and Peter convinced her that, in America, greetings are exchanged with an extension of the middle finger.

Mac once brought a small alligator back from Gulf Shores that he kept tied up in the family yard. He and Johnny Britain would put the gator on a short cord in the backseat of Johnny’s truck and pick up Spring Hill College boys thumbing for a beer run. “They’d be sitting three on top of one another in the backseat as that gator hissed at them inches away,” Mac says.

And of course, directly across from the entrance to Spring Hill College lived the Wilson kids: Ann, Johnny, Becky, and twins Tom and Ben. The Pearce boys took to hanging the young twins by their belts to a telephone pole on Dilston Lane.

Whenever the boys managed to get down, much of their time was spent in College Lake (now Mirror Lake), daring one another to slip into “Dead Man’s Coffin,” the spot where a nearfreezing cold spring rolled into the lake.

It was a quieter, simpler time. “You could sit on our porch looking out on Old Shell during the summer, and a car might go past every 20 minutes,” Tom Wilson says. “And I could count on one hand the number of times we locked our doors.”

After Mobile absorbed Spring Hill in 1956, it didn’t take long for the city folks to find it. “In the 1960s, it became fashionable to live in Spring Hill,” Tom Wilson explains. Gradually, roads were paved and more traffic lights were installed. Gone were the days of walking down the middle of Old Shell Road or shooting at whatever moved in Wragg Swamp. Some will say it’s for the better, some will say it’s not.

But the next time you drive through the intersection of Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue, beneath the canopy of traffic lights, put yourself in the shoes of the man at the bus stop — eyes locked with a Springhellion and faced with a simple question. “You for it or against it?” MB OPPOSITE TOP LEFT Mrs. Howard’s home on Old Shell Road is now the popular Carpe Diem Coffee and Tea Co. A talented painter, Mrs. Howard is to thank for the painted sailboats that still grace the walls of the women’s restroom.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BECKY WILSON

OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT Twin brothers Tom Wilson (left) and Ben Wilson (right) pose with sister Becky Wilson. Their older brother, the late Johnny Wilson, was one of a handful of Spring Hill boys known to shoot out the community’s first traffic light in the early 1950s. PHOTO COURTESY OF BECKY WILSON OPPOSITE BOTTOM A group of Spring Hill boys in 1940. Back row from L to R: Tommy Gilbert, unknown, unknown, Bobby Knight, John Boudousque, Jack Friend, Rockne “Pee Wee” Lee. Front row from L to R: Billy Armbrecht, Richard Lester, Paul Boudousque, Edward Williams, Stump O’Neill, Lewis Boudousque, Blake McNeely, Jack Cummings. PHOTO COURTESY OF KIT CAFFEY TOP RIGHT Ben Wilson (left) and Tom Wilson (right) stroll down the Avenue of the Oaks at Spring Hill College.

BOTTOM RIGHT L.J. Britain, a lifelong Springhillian, displays a photo of College Lake (now Mirror Lake) on the campus of Spring Hill College where he and his brothers used to swim. The Britain boys were also prone to stealing rotten fruit from behind the local grocery and taking aim at cars on Old Shell.

PHOTO OF COLLEGE LAKE FROM THE ST. JOHN POSTCARD COLLECTION, THE DOY LEALE MCCALL RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA.

 If you know the names of any unknown individuals in these photographs, let us know! Email bpappas@pmtpublishing.com.

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 55

HISTORY

The Shipwrecks of Mobile Bay Take a quick tour through almost three centuries of shipwrecks scattered throughout our local waters. text by JOHN S. SLEDGE

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F

rom the upper Delta to the lower Bay and adjacent Gulf waters, shipwrecks crowd our shores.

It’s little wonder, since people have been navigating these waters for hundreds of years in everything from dugout canoes, shallops and caravels to ironclads, shrimp boats and container ships. The Bay may look placid most days, but as any boater will tell you, things can change fast, and abundant nearby shoals spell trouble for stormtossed craft. Even in calm conditions, captains have to balance omnipresent human fallibility with hazards that include partially submerged logs, shifting currents, dense fog, lightning, inaccurate charts, malfunctioning navigational aids and engine trouble. Add to all of that countless hurricanes and the violent vagaries of numerous wars over three centuries, and it’s easy to understand why shipwrecks are so common.

In fact, a 1983 Mobile Bay cultural resources survey commissioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documented 282 shipwrecks dating from colonial times to the survey year. Some of the vessels listed were already famous in their own right — none more so than the USS Tecumseh, sunk by a torpedo during the Battle of Mobile Bay. The Tecumseh’s grave is easy to spot. It’s marked by a buoy just off Mobile Point, where the vessel rests upside down in about 40 feet of water, covered by a layer of mud. There are 93 Union dead still aboard her, and the U.S. Coast Guard protects the site against damage or looting. To the south and east, fishermen are well acquainted with the Dixey Bar, a long shoal where big bull redfish like to congregate. Less well known is how the bar got its unusually spelled name. It comes from the clipper ship Robert H. Dixey, wrecked there by an 1860 hurricane. The Dixey’s helpless captain and African-American crew lashed themselves to the rigging while their ship broke apart beneath them, and there they perished. Not far away from these brave sailors’ watery tomb is what’s OPPOSITE This painting of the Robert H. Dixey depicts her leaving the port of Marseilles, France in March 1856. Four years later, a hurricane in Mobile Bay smashed her to bits and drowned 19 men. PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF MOBILE

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 57

ABOVE A painting by Thomas Buttersworth (1768 – 1842) of the HMS Belle Poule, the Gipsy and the HMS Hermes. The Hermes was a British Royal Navy 20-gun Post Ship destroyed on Mobile Point in 1814. LEFT A map of the assault on Fort Bowyer, near present day Fort Morgan, showing where the Hermes ran aground and was subsequently destroyed to prevent it from falling into American hands. Lossing, Benson (1868). The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812.

left of another important wreck, the HMS Hermes, an armed English sloop blown to smithereens during the War of 1812. One of the Hermes’ fearsome guns, known as a carronade, currently guards the entrance to Cannongate condominiums on Spring Hill Avenue.

Some of the Bay’s most intriguing wreck stories date from the colonial period, when Dauphin Island was an important port of call for French, English and Spanish ships. Among the earliest colonial wrecks was the Bellone, a French merchant ship carrying indigo, tobacco, dry pitch and beaver skins that sank on the island’s south side in 1725. Other colonial-era vessels include El Volante, a Spanish fragata de guerra (frigate of war) that ran aground near Sand Island in 1780, and the Brownhall, a 16-gun English ship abandoned nearby the same year.

During the Civil War, Mobile waters were crisscrossed by blockade runners, gunboats, schooners, ironclads and steamboats, many of which came to grief and still lie unsalvaged. Besides the Tecumseh, they include the Cremona, a Confederate stern-wheeler loaded with bricks and scuttled as a channel obstruction; the CSS Gaines, an 863-ton wooden gunboat shot up during the Battle of Mobile Bay and abandoned by her crew near Fort Morgan; the CSS Huntsville 58 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

and CSS Tuscaloosa, a pair of clumsy ironclads used as floating batteries and scuttled in the Mobile River at the head of Blakeley Island; the Ivanhoe, a blockade runner lost two miles east of Fort Morgan; and the USS Philippi, a Union side-wheel gunboat sunk and burned on shoals at the Bay mouth. Perhaps the most sought-after but as yet undiscovered Civil War wreck is that of the Pioneer II (also known as the American Diver), a 36-foot Confederate submarine that was a forerunner to the Hunley. The Pioneer II sank somewhere near Mobile Point while being towed through choppy water. Her crew escaped, but the vessel was never recovered.

The adventure novelist Clive Cussler, who discovered the Hunley off Charleston Harbor in 2000, wanted to hunt the Pioneer II as well, but the State of Alabama denied him a permit. If the diminutive submarine boat is ever pinpointed and raised, it promises to be one of the most significant and exciting episodes in Southeastern maritime archaeology.

Seasoned maritime archaeologists agree that area shipwrecks aren’t hard to find; they’re just about everywhere, in fact. Rather, properly identifying them is the challenge. That’s been the overriding difficulty for those seeking the slave ship Clotilda, which was sunk and burned

somewhere north of Downtown Mobile.

Local lore claims that the Clotilda’s ribbing was visible at low tide during the early 20th century, but even if found, accurately distinguishing the schooner’s charred and water-logged old timbers in an area littered with sunken barges, flatboats, steamboats, rafts and skiffs, many no doubt evidencing similar construction methods, will be daunting. Nonetheless, something of the Clotilda is still out there, waiting. Its discovery and identification would be an international story.

Happily, one doesn’t have to be an archaeologist or dedicated researcher to appreciate the romance of Mobile Bay’s shipwrecks. Several are easily visible to everyday passersby, or are within memory of living witnesses, and never fail to elicit interest. Foremost among these is the weathered skeleton of the Rachel, located on the beach near Fort Morgan where it is periodically uncovered by storms. Frequently mistaken for either a blockade runner or a rum runner, the Rachel was rather an early 20th-century lumber schooner shoved ashore by an October gale, where she was abandoned and eventually burned. Farther to the north, at the head of Mobile Bay beside the Causeway, sits the ruined keel of the Chiquimula, an early 20th-century lumber schooner once owned by Jimmy

Buffett’s grandfather. The Chiquimula was towed during the 1950s into Blakeley River, where investors planned to convert her into a restaurant until some reprobate set her afire. Older citizens still recall the anachronistic sight of her battered hull and masts, and even now at low tide her timbers may be glimpsed.

The sea is a harsh mistress, it’s been said, and she jealously guards her secrets. But for those who frequent our beautiful shorelines, tantalizing physical remains of past shipwrecks are visible, and when even those are gone, there will still be the stories. MB

TOP The Rachel was an early 20th-century lumber schooner that was swept ashore near Fort Morgan in a hurricane on the return trip from Cuba. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DE ANGELO FAMILY COLLECTION. BOTTOM 20th century Chiquimula in Blakeley River after time and weather took three of her four masts. After her last run, she was docked and awaited renovations by her team of owners. However, someone snuck aboard and burned the boat to the waterline. One of the earlier owners of the ship was Jimmy Buffett’s grandfather, and the musician references the renowned vessel in his book, “A Pirate Looks at Fifty.” To learn more about the schooner, read December 2016’s Bay Boy on mobilebaymag.com.

 John S. Sledge is currently at work on “Coursing the Furrowed Blue: A Maritime History of the Gulf.” july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 59

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asc Performance is reinventing lifestyle clothing with bamboo-based fabrics

that offer superior comfort and exceptional performance. The family-run, New Orleans-based company has opened its flagship store on the historic Magazine St. in the heart of Uptown. Guests who enter the store are invited to feel the bamboo difference and experience the original groundbreaking fabrics. The premium collection of Men’s and Women’s styles can easily transition and travel with you from the golf course to the gym or to yoga to a day out with friends without missing a beat.

tasc Performance 3913 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115 504-304-5030 tascperformance.com

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B

allin’s LTD. is the Gulf Coast’s premier ladies boutique founded in New

Orleans over 30 years ago. Along with our two original New Orleans locations, Ballin’s serves the Gulf Coast through our stores in Mobile, Covington, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Ridgeland, Mississipi.

Whether you are in need of a one-of-akind item for a once-in-a-lifetime event, a new wardrobe to kick off your career in style, day dresses and suits for teas and graduations or just a few travel-friendly pieces for your next adventure, our goal is to introduce you to latest trends that compliment your lifestyle, your body and your existing wardrobe.

Ballin’s LTD

721 Dante St. 2917 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA New Orleans, LA 504-866-4367 504-891-4502

N

ew Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), the city’s oldest fine arts institution, opened on Decem-

ber 16, 1911, with only 9 works of art. Today, the museum hosts an impressive permanent collection of almost 40,000 objects. The collection, noted for its extraordinary African and Japanese works, continues to expand, making NOMA one of the top art museums in the South. Furthermore, the Besthoff Sculpture Garden is one of the most important sculpture installations in the U.S., with 64 sculptures situated amongst meandering footpaths, reflecting lagoons, and 200-year-old live oaks.

NOMA’s newest exhibition, “Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans,” showcases the personal collection of Arthur Roger.

On view through September 3, the exhibit explores the rise of contemporary art in New Orleans.

New Orleans Museum of Art Ida Kohlmeyer Synthesis BB, 1983 Mixed media on canvas, 68 ½ x 69 inches Gift of Arthur Roger, 2012.121 © The Estate of Ida Kohlmeyer 66 mobilebaymag.com | july 2017

sponsored content

1 Collins Diboll Circle • New Orleans, LA 70124 504-658-4106 • noma.org

JULY / AUGUST 2017 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

ON STAGE & EXHIBITS PG. 70 • AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS PG. 72

JULY HIGHLIGHTS

july 13, july 27, august 3

july 3 - 4

july 4

Southern Grace Dinners

Grand Bay Watermelon Festival

6:30 p.m. - 11 p.m. Some of the country’s best chefs cook up Gulf seafood and craftsman cocktails. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Southern Foodways Alliance. Tickets: $145.

3 p.m. - 7 p.m. July 3. 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. July 4. A day and a half of family fun, arts, crafts, entertainment, food and rides.

Admission: July 3, free; July 4, $5.

Fairhope’s Fourth of July Festival and Fireworks Display

FISHERS AT ORANGE BEACH MARINA FISHERSOBM.COM/SOUTHERNGRACE

july 1 Distinguished Young Women The best and the brightest high school senior girls compete in Mobile in hopes of winning a scholarship, culminating in Downtown Mobile on Finals Night.

MOBILE CIVIC CENTER • 438-3621 DISTINGUISHEDYW.ORG

GRAND BAY FESTIVAL PARK • 865-3456 GRANDBAYWATERMELONFESTIVAL.ORG

july 3 Independence Day Celebration at The Wharf 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. The Wharf will celebrate America’s independence with loads of children’s activities, Spectra the Sound and Light Spectacular shows and fireworks. Admission is free.

THE WHARF • ALWHARF.COM

7:30 p.m. Baldwin Pops concert. 9 p.m.

Fireworks display and patriotic music before and during the fireworks display.

DOWNTOWN FAIRHOPE • COFAIRHOPE.COM

july 4 July Fourth Celebration 5 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Bring lawn chairs and blankets for this traditional July 4th concert followed by a spectacular fireworks show. Festival parking opens at 5 p.m. Concessions sold. No grills, alcohol or personal fireworks allowed.

USS ALABAMA BATTLESHIP MEMORIAL PARK USSALABAMA.COM

 To have your event included in the online or print edition of Mobile Bay Magazine, email calendar@pmtpublishing.com.

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ALABAMA DEEP SEA FISHING RODEO

july 15 Roy Martin Young Anglers Tournament Anglers 15 years and younger take a chance at reeling in a winner in one of 31 categories.

DAUPHIN ISLAND • ADSFR.COM

july 11 - 17 Blue Marlin Grand Championship of the Gulf A week’s worth of fishing festivities culminates in weigh-ins and features spectacular fish on Friday and Saturday.

THE WHARF • THEWHARFMARINA.COM/BMGC/

july 22 FBC Mardi Gras in July 2 p.m. Let the good times roll for summer.

This Mardi Gras celebration features live music and specialty brews. Admission: $10.

FAIRHOPE BREWING CO. • 279-7517 FAIRHOPEBREWING.COM

july 21 - 23 Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo Be sure to catch the world’s largest fishing tournament.

DAUPHIN ISLAND • ADSFR.COM

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ON STAGE & EXHIBITS

through july 31 “Faces of Africa” More than 3,500 years of African tribal art — masks, murals and sculptures — are reproduced in this critically acclaimed collection.

MUSEUM OF MOBILE • 208-7508 MUSEUMOFMOBILE.COM

july 6 Journey 7:30 p.m. The legendary rock band takes the stage at The Wharf with special guests Asia. Tickets: $32 - $240.

THE WHARF • 800-745-3000 • ALWHARF.COM

july 13 Art Talk: Rene Culler 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. Artist Rene Culler discusses her new installation, “The Mobile Delta: Glass and Light.”

MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART • 208-5200 MOBILEMUSEUMOFART.COM

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ART TALK: RENE CULLER

july 14 - 16 End of the Road Short Play Festival 6:30 p.m. F / Sa. 2 p.m. Su. The South Baldwin Community Theatre’s festival features staged readings of nine new short plays. Tickets: $3 - $5.

SOUTH BALDWIN COMMUNITY THEATRE 968-6721 • SBCT.BIZ

july 14 - 15 Florida Georgia Line 7 p.m. The hit country artists take the stage. Tickets: $49 - $229.

THE WHARF • 800-745-3000 ALWHARF.COM

july 21 - 23, 28 - 30, august 4 - 6 “Becky’s New Car” 8 p.m. F / Sa. 2:30 p.m. Su. Theatre 98 presents the Cinderella story of Becky Foster who is caught in middle age, middle management and in a middling marriage — until a millionaire stumbles across her path. Tickets: $12 - $20.

THEATRE 98 • 928-4366 • THEATRE98.ORG

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AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS

august 3 Glow in the Park Summer Movie Series 8 p.m. Bring blankets and a picnic for a special night out with the family.

FAIRHOPERS COMMUNITY PARK • 929-1466

august 4 - 20 “The Little Mermaid” 7:30 p.m. F / Sa. 2 p.m. Su. Watch the Disney version of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale. Tickets: $15 - $20.

CHICKASAW CIVIC THEATRE • 457-8887 CCTSHOWS.COM

august 5 Commemorative of the Battle of Mobile Bay at Fort Gaines 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. The event highlights the role of Fort Gaines in the Civil War battle.

Admission: $4 - $8.

DAUPHIN ISLAND • DAUPHINISLAND.ORG

august 5 Commemoration of the Battle of Mobile Bay at Fort Morgan 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Fort Morgan comes to life as it showcases the role it played in the Battle of Mobile Bay. GULF SHORES • FORT-MORGAN.ORG

august 5 Sandstock Noon. Woodstock comes to the beach.

THE FLORA-BAMA • 980-5118 • FLORABAMA.COM

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COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY

august 5 Kenny Chesney 7:30 p.m. The country star returns to the Gulf Coast. Tickets: $73 - $368.

THE WHARF • 800-745-3000 • ALWHARF.COM

august 6 Founder’s Day 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Celebrate Mr. Bellingrath’s birthday with a free day at the Gardens.

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

august 18 - 21, 25 - 27 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

8 p.m. F / Sa. 2 p.m. Su. The Mobile Theatre Guild presents Edward Albee’s award-winning play. Tickets: $15 - $20.

MOBILE THEATRE GUILD • 433-7513 MOBILETHEATREGUILD.ORG

august 25 - september 10 “Annie” 7:30 p.m. F / Sa. 2 p.m. Su. The Joe Jefferson Players stage the classic musical. Tickets: $10 - $20.

JOE JEFFERSON PLAYHOUSE • 471-1534 JOEJEFFERSONPLAYERS.COM

august 26 Dauphin Street Beer Festival 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Get your mugs ready to sample a bevy of craft brews. Check the festival’s website on July 30 to find out when and where tickets go on sale.

DAUPHIN STREET • SPECIALEVENTSMOBILE.ORG

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 73

BAY BOY

The Point Clear Library Not only is the “world’s smallest public library” in Point Clear — it’s in Watt’s parents’ backyard. text by WATT KEY

M

y maternal grandparents lived about a mile up the beach from my childhood home in Point Clear. Their home was full of strange curios for a young boy to ponder. Corn grew on the wharf in planter boxes. The house chimney had a sinister iron cleanout door at the base that clanked in the wind and held the bones of dead birds and squirrels. The “dungeon,” my brother called it. In the backyard were pear trees with fruit growing inside glass bottles. Next to them was an old wood boat planted with strawberries.

Most fascinating of all on the property was a 13-by-14 foot building near the highway. A sign above the door read POINT CLEAR LIBRARY. Inside were ancient books stacked 10 feet to the ceiling. In the center of the floor was a mahogany roll-top desk with a scattering of yellowed membership cards and an open, handwritten register like the ghostly librarian had only just walked out. On a bench, leaning against a window, was an article from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! declaring it the smallest public library in the world.

The library is still in the backyard of what is now my parents’ home. The white and green trim exterior looks as fresh as ever. The roll-top desk is gone from inside, but the original books fill the shelves. On a table in the center of the room are the blank library cards and the register containing many last names I recognize.

Along with the actual Ripley’s vignette are several framed articles about the library’s history. According to a

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1941 piece in The Mobile Press-Register, the library was established in 1920, the outgrowth of a reading circle run

by Mrs. Theodore Hurlbutt. The building was originally located on the south side of Zundel’s Lane, facing north.

Mrs. Dora Zundel, whose home was nearby, was the first librarian. She worked on Saturdays from 2:30 to 5 p.m., but if a book was needed outside of those hours, all you had to do was knock on her door. Her house was also full of books, and if she couldn’t find something to match your taste, she’d walk over to the library with you and open it.

The library had approximately 2,400 volumes on its shelves. As Point Clear was mostly a summertime community, there were only 20 annual members who paid $1 per year. Non-members paid 10 cents per book per week. Most of the books were donated, but the local ladies also held teas and luncheons to raise money for upkeep and a small salary for the librarian.

According to Mrs. Zundel, the most popular items were Westerns and love stories, with mysteries second and adventure third. She was proud that people from as far away as China had stopped by to borrow something to read during their vacation.

As television became popular in the 1950s, the library’s patronage dwindled until it was no longer feasible to keep it open. The building was eventually moved onto the grounds of the old Point Clear School, about a quarter of a mile east on Highway 32. There, it slowly fell into disrepair until 1970 when my father moved it one last time.

OPPOSITE Established in 1920, the diminutive Point Clear Library was born out of a reading circle run by a Mrs. Theodore Hurlbutt.

Dad is from Texas, but he summered in Point Clear as a boy.

“I remember walking down the boardwalk, holding my mother’s hand, going to check out a book,” Dad tells me. “Nobody had television then.

People came over on the ferry for the summer, and books were all you had.”

Dad’s Alabama summers were interrupted while he was away with the Navy. It wasn’t until he married my mother, a girl he’d known from Point Clear summers, that he returned.

He found the old library with its door swinging open and the inside vandalized.

“There was just something nostalgic about it,” Dad continued.

“It represented a bygone era. A slower time. I wanted to save it if I could.”

Dad approached Mrs. Dorothy Pacey about purchasing the building. Her sister, Ms. Colleen Brodbeck, had been the last librarian. Mrs. Pacey told Dad he could have the library if he paid to move it. Additionally, he could keep what remained of the library’s money, $35 stored in a cigar box.

The Point Clear Library was subsequently moved to my grandparent’s home and onto my childhood stage. To this day, visitors stop by to remember the little building and look through the register for the signatures of family members. As with most old buildings, there are rumors that persist. Nobody’s ever claimed the library is haunted, but some believe a list of names for the unknown soldiers buried in Point Clear Cemetery is shoved somewhere between two books. Over the years, Mom has had calls from representatives of the Daughters of the Confederacy asking if she’s located it. She says she hasn’t and doubts such a list exists.

I’d estimate nobody’s touched the books on those top two shelves in at least 50 years. MB

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ASK MCGEHEE text by TOM MCGEHEE • photo by MICHAEL MASTRO

What is the history of the little red cottage on Old Shell Road at the foot of Spring Hill? A sign painted on the front says “Chinaberry.”

The small red house at 3703 Old Shell Road was reportedly built by George Pfau in 1862.

Where else but in Mobile would a German immigrant build a French Creole cottage? The house consisted of four rooms and contained no interior hallway — a common feature of Creole cottages in the early 19th century. The kitchen was in a detached structure.

In December of 1896, the Mobile Register reported that Mr. Pfau’s “body was found cold in death, lying in the doorway of his house … having died, it is supposed, from an attack of asthma, to which he was subject. He was 76 years of age and had been a resident of Mobile for the past 45 years.”

Little is known about the next 50 years of the home’s history, but sometime in the early 1950s, the house was purchased

by Miss Anne Randolph Crichton who dubbed it “Chinaberry.”

The Crichton Connection

Anne Crichton was one of the five children of Hugh Crichton, a North Carolina transplant who arrived in Mobile in 1891 to serve as vice president of the short-lived Mobile, Wesson & Mississippi Railroad.

In 1895, Crichton went into partnership with Nicholas Felis and ran a cigar and tobacco shop on North Royal Street.

He later dabbled in real estate in an unincorporated section west of Mobile known as Napoleonville. In an effort to

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ABOVE When Anne Randolph Crichton purchased the home on Old Shell Road that she later dubbed “Chinaberry,” it was already around 90 years old. The house once featured elaborate gardens and a private chapel, but today it languishes on the real estate market.

improve property values, he established a post office there which was named in his honor. The surrounding area was renamed Crichton, although no member of the family ever resided there. Anne, who was born in 1898, had a career in the U.S. Navy and worked in Washington, D.C. Her 1938 scrapbook, housed in the archives of Tulane University, reveals her love of travel with mementos from an elaborate trip to France, Germany and Denmark. After retiring from the Navy, she moved in with two of her sisters.

Their unusually designed house still stands at 1651 Dauphin Street.

A Home and a Hobby

“Chinaberry” became Anne Crichton’s

primary home and hobby. She planted elaborate gardens behind the house and built a small private chapel with salvaged antique bricks. Her interest in preservation led to decades of volunteering at the Oakleigh museum house where she shared her love of local history.

As she aged, Anne began to spend more time on Dauphin Street with Susan Crichton, her last surviving sibling. Susan died in February of 1990, and Anne died just eight months later at the age of 92.

“Chinaberry” has been vacant and on the real estate market for some time now. It can only be hoped that the new owner will see the potential in this historic property which Anne Crichton obviously did. MB

july 2017 | mobilebaymag.com 77

IN LIVING COLOR

Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, 1937 Original photo from the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, USA Archives • Colorization by Dynamichrome Limited

Three fishermen pose with their impressive tarpon catch after the 1937 Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo. The anglers were employees of L&N Railroad and are identified, from left to right, as M. Copeland, Jim Hare and A. F. O’Neal.

The man in the necktie is identified as Eugene Thoss Jr., and the identities of the young girl and the barefooted newspaper boy are unknown. The visible newspaper, dated August 10, 1937, hints that the year’s rodeo wasn’t without drama, as evidenced by the headline, “2 Rescued As Rodeo Sailboat Overturns.”

Founded in 1929, the fishing rodeo is touted today as the largest fishing tournament in the world, attracting over 3,000 anglers and 75,000 spectators every summer.

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