Downtown Gadsden’s signature event returns, building bigger and better traditions
Story by Carol Pappas Submitted Photos
Just like an old friend you haven’t seen in a bit, Downtown Gadsden’s First Friday is back and ready to pick up the conversation – and the fun – where it left off in October.
No shortage of live music
First Friday returns April 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., building on what began with one small business in 2006 to a full-blown tradition that attracts people from multiple states from April to October each year.
“We’re looking forward to another great year,” said Downtown Gadsden Director Kay Moore. From the classic car show to the entertainment, downtown Gadsden becomes a destination point each month for this free, family event.
Broad Street, downtown’s main street, is closed to automobile traffic on First Friday, and food vendors to handle the overflow crowds set up shop in the 400 block. On 2nd, 3rd, 4th and possibly the 600 block, entertainment plays to diverse audiences. “We have jazz, R & B, rock ‘n roll, bluegrass, line dancing, the cowboy church band – a little bit of everything for everybody,” Moore said.
If one block doesn’t quite fit your musical tastes, “just keep walking,” she suggested. “You’ll hear something you like in the next block.”
As has been the custom with First Friday, the classic car show is a huge draw that attracts thousands of car enthusiasts from all points in Alabama and throughout the Southeast. And it just keeps getting bigger and better every year.
Organizations like Main Street Alabama and Main Street America have taken notice of Gadsden’s successful efforts to bring people back to downtown. Gadsden’s many honors include Top 10 awards for its promotional activities.
“We remind people we have a good downtown,” Moore said. “It’s the heartbeat of the community,” stressing that efforts reach well beyond First Friday. Promotions and events – from a chili cookoff to a St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl – ensure that downtown merchants benefit from the increased activity drawing prospective customers their way on a regular basis.
“They like coming to our downtown,” she said.
Vintage cars on display
Downtown Gadsden Inc. efforts don’t stop there, though. The organization is involved in beautifying and revitalizing the downtown area. The Pittman Theatre stage is being expanded and the ceiling is being dropped to improve its ability to host concerts.
Downtown Gadsden has entered into a public-private partnership with Walnut Gallery and Gadsden Museum of Art, leveraging its own $10,000 grant into a larger pool of $25,000 to place an 18-foot kinetic wind sculpture on the corner of 1st and Broad Streets. Just a short distance from the river and recognizing the water’s roots in Gadsden’s history, the sculpture resembles a fish with parts moving with the breeze.
“We’re really, really excited” about the sculpture coming and what the future holds for downtown, Moore said. There is no shortage of “great ideas” from the new mayor and administration that can be part of the planning that lies ahead.
“There’s a lot going on in Gadsden this year,” she added. First Friday and all the rest have been “a huge success for our downtown merchants and everybody else.”
Story Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Richard Rybka Photos contributed by Tony Parton
Goldenrods, a golf cart and a vision. That’s what led Tony Parton down the path, literally and figuratively, to the development of Alpine Bay Golf Course.
Parton lives in East Winds, a subdivision near the course, which first opened in 1972 as Point Aquarius. It’s situated along the southern shore of Logan Martin Lake in Alpine, a small community in Talladega County. Parton was a member there for 15 years prior to its closing in 2014. But he never dreamed he would one day buy that dead course and bring it back to life. Enter the goldenrod and golf cart.
“It was January 3, 2015, and my wife, Jan, and I rode our golf cart through a path in the woods behind our house and came out on the 8th green. It was covered in goldenrods,” says Parton, who retired in 2010 from the federal prison system.
Jan and Tony Parton
He pulled up some of the weeds and wondered what the green would look like without them. The next day, he returned on his John Deere zero-turn mower and took a crack at clearing the weeds that used to be Alabama’s state flower.
“I started in the center of the green,” he recalls. “The deck was set as high as it would go. By day’s end the mower deck was at its lowest.” What he saw after the mowing was potential. “It showed me there was hope,” he says. “I called the Realtor and made an offer. He turned it down, but I stayed in touch with him.”
An auction in June of 2015 brought a high bid of $120,000, which apparently wasn’t enough to net a sale. Parton didn’t participate in the auction but called the Realtor in August of the same year with another offer. It, too, was turned down. “Then in October, the Realtor called and asked if my offer was still good,” Parton says. “I met with him and gave him some earnest money.”
Parton didn’t want to risk his life savings, so he enlisted Mark Calhoun, a friend who lives near the course at Water’s Edge, to go in with him on the venture. They decided if they could raise half a million dollars they could open the golf course debt-free. “I figured 100 shares at $5,000 per share,” he says. “But 23 invested and we raised $525,000.” They formed an LLC, which actually owns the property. He and Mark have roughly a fourth interest each.
It took about five months to whip the course into playable shape. That included more mowing, fertilizing and getting at the roots of those pesky goldenrods. Parton and his wife, Jan, along with fellow investors Calhoun, Ray Ferguson and Percy Jennings, used claw hammers to pull them up so the weeds wouldn’t return.
That left big holes that needed to be filled. There was a large pile of sand on the property, but Parton had no way to move it. Enter Frank Hall, who wanted to put $5,000 into the venture. “He said he had something else we needed, an old tractor with a bucket and cutter and a tandem-axle (dually) truck with a dump bed,” Parton says. “We traded him two shares for them. I went to his house and got them.” They opened the gates on July 1, 2016.
A New Vision
Parton and his investors believe Alpine Bay Golf Course has a lot going for it, starting with its designer. The 6,518-yard, par-72 championship layout was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., namesake of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. It’s a links course, meaning it does not make a turn at the clubhouse after nine holes. In fact, Number Nine is as far away from the clubhouse as you can get and still be on the property. Normally a beverage cart runs on Fridays, holidays and weekends for folks who want a break at that point.
Original plans for Point Aquarius called for two golf courses, but the second closed after a short time. Parton and his investors didn’t buy that section of land. Managing the 144-acre property they own, which includes the golf course, practice range, putting green and small clubhouse, is a full-time job for Parton, but he finds it very rewarding. “All those people who left have come back, and we’re growing,” he says. “We have about 140 members.”
The small clubhouse has a grill that sells a variety of sandwiches and a modest pro shop that has the essentials for golfers, like tees and shoes. “Shawn Reider, who worked with the previous owners, was our pro when we opened,” Parton says. “I brought him back because I knew nothing about running a golf course. He was a big asset, but he developed brain cancer and died. We don’t have a pro right now.”
Birdie and Bogey
Hundreds of empty lots surround the course, and they’re owned by individuals all over the United States. Only one house was ever built overlooking the greens, and it burned down. Parton would love to see someone develop those lots.
“Since we opened, neither Mark, nor me and my wife have gotten any money from it, and we’ve paid no dividends to investors,” he says. “Every penny that comes in goes right back into the course.”
Speaking of money, it costs a lot to run a golf course. It will take $750,000 to replace the outdated manual irrigation system. Last July they had to dig up the invasive Zoysia grass and put in Bermuda – at several thousand dollars per green. They bought custom-made tarps to cover all the greens during freezing weather – at $1,000 each.
“We had 18 tarps but had to order another one this morning because one was stolen last night,” Parton says on the January day of this interview. “Ironically, it won’t do anybody any good, won’t protect anything from wet weather because it has holes in it to let the water through. I wish I could be there when whoever stole it finds that out after a rainy night!” Chemicals (for fertilizer) are his biggest costs, however. “This is nothing but a glorified sod farm.”
The price of a basic membership is $1,200 per year plus a $20 cart fee per game. Unlimited membership costs $3,000 per year but includes cart fees. That isn’t enough to handle all the costs of running a golf course, though, so Parton is always brainstorming ways to bring in extra revenue.
“We have members-only events, like a (February 2023) dinner with live entertainment,” he said. “We encourage people to come and eat breakfast or lunch before tee-time, then have a snack after their game. We have lots of tournaments scheduled. I can get people together and organize events that people will enjoy.”
One of the highlights of his time redeveloping the course came in 2021 when Parton got to play golf with Robert Trent Jones Jr., eldest son of the course designer. Junior and his son, Trent, were in Birmingham for an Architectural Summit near Birmingham staged by Golfweek magazine. They were at Alpine because Golfweek scheduled a day there. This was the first time for either Jones Jr. or Trent to visit the course that Jones Sr. had designed a half-century earlier.
Ray Ferguson, one of the original investors, is maintenance supervisor. He has been involved with the golf course since it opened as Point Aquarius in 1982. “Our goal when we started was to get it up and running,” he says. “Someone had been looking at the property to put a trailer park here.”
Two shepherd-type dogs showed up one day and started following some of the golfers around. Dubbed Bogey and Birdie, they quickly became the course’s mascots. Bogey (the male) died recently, but Birdie (the female) is still there. “Bogey used to follow me home when I’d play golf. He’d stay the night, go back to the course next day,” Parton says.
Inside the clubhouse, Percy Jennings works in the modest pro shop. “I helped dig up the goldenrods with claw hammers and a 5-gallon bucket,” Jennings says. “We sat on our haunches and pulled them up.” He pauses to call out the names of the next players, telling them it’s their tee-time. He staggers the times so as not to crowd the greens.
Probably eight to 10 men are hanging out at the clubhouse today, either awaiting their turns or relaxing after their rounds. There are white-haired men in khakis, golf shirts and ball caps, some with white sunscreen on their noses, cheeks and chins, as if headed for the beach. Younger men in their 30s and 40s enjoy a beer or one of Bogey’s Grille’s famous cheeseburgers. Boisterous laughter erupts now and then, as friends tell tall tales about their golf scores.
Bogey’s is also a full-service bar with your favorite adult beverages. The Grille also serves breakfast sandwiches and plates, hot dogs, chicken fingers and chicken salad. It’s open Tuesdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You don’t have to play golf to eat there, either. One of the regulars, Bill Camp, 87, drops by at least once a week for a large hamburger, even though he no longer plays. Lester Drummer is 93 and an honorary member. He may shoot a few balls, but mostly fishes in the pond at the back of the clubhouse.
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Tony and a “few” of his friends tee off. There aren’t but 26 of them today, but on a warm and sunny summer day, that number goes out the roof. “Last week there were 36 of us,” Ray Ferguson says. “We eat and play golf.”
Parton says he doesn’t have any goals going forward, because he has already achieved what he wanted: To get the golf course opened and people playing there again. He just hopes the former “ghost town,” as he calls it, grows and people continue to enjoy it.
“God is in this,” he says. “I feel like He called us to do it, because this community (Alpine) needs this golf course.”
If walls could talk, the stately 18-room lakeside home would speak volumes. Once called the “Mansion of the Valley,” it was well known in the community of Easonville and was home, at one point or another, to several of the community’s most prominent families.
It stood in the heart of Easonville, a busy farming community on the outskirts of its big sister, “Pell City.” But by the 1950s, people in Easonville began to hear rumblings of something in the works that was to change them forever.
John Abbott with picture of grandfather’s store
In June of 1954, then President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law legislation that paved the way for dams to be built along the Coosa River for the purpose of producing hydroelectric power.
Construction on the second of those dams began in 1960 and would be called Logan Martin, after William Logan Martin Jr., a circuit court judge, Alabama’s attorney general and attorney for Alabama Power Company. The resulting impounding of the Coosa River would form the 15,263-acre reservoir known as Logan Martin Lake.
The “Mansion of the Valley” is one of just a handful of homes still in existence today that survived the onslaught of water that consumed the sleepy community of Easonville. Known now as the Maddox-Abbott home, it only survived by being moved, as many were in that day. Unlike most of the others, though, its only movement was up. To keep it safe from the coming waters, workers raised it by two and a half feet and skirted the bottom with brick.
“My earliest memory of this house was as a young kid at Easonville Methodist Church,” says current owner John Abbott. “We’d be going home, and I’d ask my dad to drive us through the driveway here because it looked haunted. I was scared to go up there on my bicycle.”
It was not haunted then, nor is it now, reports Abbott. It is, however, filled with some fairly fierce-looking creatures. An avid game hunter, Abbott has filled the rooms with trophies from his various exotic hunts and has stories to tell about each of the mounts, like the bear that leans out over the sofa in the living room, teeth bared. Coming out from behind a waterfall, that one, he tells, almost got him.
Before the water came
Beautiful millwork highlights the craftsmanship of the historic home. Currently configured as a four bedroom, five bath home, it features a reading room, formal living room, a formal dining room, office, kitchen and a large porch facing the waters of Logan Martin Lake.
The home is filled with antiques, which Abbott admits to having hated as a youth. “My mother made me sand them and get them ready for her to refinish,” he recalls. “It was a lot of work.”
The Maddox-Abbott home was built by William Notley Maddox for his new bride, Minerva, and was completed in 1914. It would have been completed earlier had it not been for Maddox’s generosity and his support for the local Methodist church. Those facts were revealed to Abbott many years later by a writer whose own grandfather helped Maddox build the house with pieces from a mail-order house kit.
Easonville Methodist was building a new church at that time, and Maddox, a church trustee, gave the building team all the support beams that were in his house kit. He had to reorder those beams in order to begin construction of his home.
After the water came
Abbott bought the house 25 years ago, in part, because he had always been interested in its historical significance and beauty, but also because of the history it shares with his ancestors. Among the other dozen or so owners was another Abbott, a distant relative. Robert Edgar Abbott and his wife, Eliza, owned the home for several years before selling to the J.L. Manning family in 1928. Other Easonville notables to own the “Mansion of the Valley” were G.W. Ingram, Kathleen Gholston and Loyze and Mavis Roper.
Kathleen Gholston was an Easonville schoolteacher who owned the house when John Abbott was just a boy. During that time, she closed in the two sleeping porches and outfitted them as rental apartments. Abbott’s uncle, William Abbott, rented one of those apartments while building his home in Birmingham. Gholston eventually sold her home when talk of the impounding of the Coosa River began.
She sold the house to the Ropers, who continued renting it out. Among their tenants was Abbott’s uncle, Ludford Harmon. Abbott visited the mansion in the ’70s when his Uncle Ludford used it as the venue for the wedding of his daughter, Abbott’s cousin Vivian.
John Abbott has lived in the Pell City area all of his life. He has seen a lot of history being made around him. He watched with curiosity as the community of Easonville was displaced and dismantled to make way for the impending flood of water. His father, J.D. Abbott, bought the Easonville school building and tore it down to save the lumber to use in his homebuilding business.
“I was about 13 or 14 going to school in Pell City,” recalls Abbott. “I remember my dad and Charles Abbott, Pick Cosper and Booky Fraim moved a lot of dirt, building up places for Easonville homes to be moved to and to make places to build new ones.”
The home that he grew up in was moved to one of those built up lots in what is now Rock Inn Estates. His grandmother Abbott’s house was also built up to bring it high enough to withstand the rising water. The home of his maternal grandmother is no longer standing but was on the property that is now being developed as Easonville Park subdivision.
The Maddox-Abbott home is not the first meeting of the two families. The same Maddox who built the home Abbott now owns also built the cotton gin that Abbott’s uncle, Ludford Harmon, bought and had to move before the floodwaters came.
As a business owner for most of his adult life, Abbott understands the sense of loss the landowners and business owners felt when they had the choice to make of moving their buildings or selling out.
But, he adds, they did eventually see that property values went up as the water came up.
As he sits on his screened-in porch, looking out at boats going by, he knows the sacrifices that were made that allow him to continue to enjoy this old home – this piece of history that no longer sits in a valley, but that stands proudly on the edge of the waters of beautiful Logan Martin Lake.
Shelia Bunch’s work revolves around all things fishing, but the Tennessee businesswoman doesn’t have time to enjoy the pastime herself. She’s too busy running the show – literally.
Now Bunch, who has organized the East Tennessee Fishing Show and Expo for the past 14 years, is bringing the inaugural Alabama Fishing Show and Expo to Gadsden March 10-12 at The Venue at Coosa Landing. She’s hoping the lure of hundreds of vendors from all over the country, prizes and pro angler seminars will reel in fishing enthusiasts from all over Alabama and beyond.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for the past two or three years, but then COVID struck,” she said. “There’s no fishing shows in Alabama, there’s only boat shows,” she said. “There’s a big difference between fishing shows and boat shows.”
From fishing poles to kayaks, everything is on display
When Bunch decided to take her show on the road, she considered Georgia and South Carolina before deciding Alabama was the perfect fit. “You guys have some of the greatest fishing talent in Alabama, you’ve got great lakes, and so many great fishing tournaments,” she said.
After taking over the show that had been held in the Knoxville area for 30 years but was struggling, Bunch vowed to make it bigger and better than ever before. Since then, the Tennessee event has grown to include more than 300 vendors from all over the country and Canada. Visitors from 12 states have attended, searching for gear for both salt and freshwater fishing.
“Our goal is to provide a family-friendly fishing event for everyone who has a passion for fishing,” she said. “We focus only on the fishing industry. You’re only going to see fishing boats here. We have tackle vendors with products you’ll never be able to see anywhere else. It’s exciting to pull all this together.”
So far, local vendors, as well as some from Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana have committed to Alabama’s show. Bunch said many more will register over the next few months, offering everything from boats, tackle, custom lures, rods, reels, clothing, electronics, fishing accessories and more.
Second Career
In her former life, Bunch owned a hair salon. “It’s a different type of work for sure,” she said before adding that she’s had plenty of experience helping out in her husband Curtis’ boat dealership. She also loves a challenge. “I’m great at planning events, I’m very organized, and I’m fair,” she said. “At first, the vendors did not like having some little short woman come in and tell everybody what to do. But over the years, I’ve been very open-minded, and they’ve really supported me.”
That’s because Bunch offers them a lot of support, as well. “I believe in small business,” she said. “We have everything from big-name vendors to small-name vendors, and some get their start at our show. I do my best to support their products because they need a chance to build their business like everybody else.”
One of Bunch’s favorite things about the show is that it gives families a chance to build memories. “We have so many people come in and say they remember when their grandfather took them to a fishing show,” she said. “If you want anything to do with fishing, this is where you come to. If you don’t fish, by the time you leave, you’ll wish you did, or you’ll have plans to start.” l
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free Submitted Photos
For most of us, life along the Coosa River is pretty peaceful. Whether we’re headed out to wet a line or just cruise around in the pontoon boat, we probably don’t think much about the bold warriors and soldiers who needed this water to survive. Nor do we envision the battles that took place near the water’s edge. Few reminders of those battles remain today.
Control of waterways and water crossings was a prize to be won in many skirmishes, as was the case in 1864 in the Battle of Ten Islands. The engagement ended badly for the Confederate troops when, vastly outnumbered by the Union forces, they tried valiantly to keep the opposing forces from crossing the Coosa River at the Ten Islands Ford.
Today, the importance of this battle is commemorated at Ten Islands Historical Park in Ragland. A historical marker looking out over the water just north of Neely Henry Dam reminds observers of the history made there.
Union General William Sherman had ordered Major General Lovell Rousseau to lead a raid into Alabama with the mission of destroying the railroad that connected Montgomery to Opelika. If he could destroy that section of rail, he could disrupt the supplies to the Confederate army.
His secondary mission, Rousseau was told, was to destroy any ironworks or furnaces that made weapons along his route.
Forth Strother monument
On the Confederate side, Brigadier General James H. Clanton and a cavalry of 300 were charged with protecting both Janney Furnace and nearby Cane Creek Furnace and keeping Rousseau and his band of 2,300 raiders from crossing the Coosa River. Rousseau’s raiders persevered and were able to defeat Clanton’s men. Having found out the location of the two furnaces, Rousseau sent a detail to destroy them both.
“Rousseau picked Captain Ed Ruger and told him to burn down Janney Furnace and any buildings that supported it,” tells Janney Museum Director Tom Norton, describing events leading up to the attack. “After he burned the place down, he wrapped the small chimney in dynamite and blew it up, too.”
The raiders destroyed the Cane Creek Furnace, but only destroyed the infrastructure of the Janney Furnace. What remains today is what didn’t get burned or blown up. That they didn’t completely destroy the stone structure supports the theory that the Janney Furnace was not fully functional at the time of the attack.
The furnace had just been constructed and was likely not quite ready for production. What businessman Alfred Janney had built, hoping to produce 15 tons of pig iron per day, likely did not have a chance to support the Confederate war effort at all.
That theory would later be supported in a 2006 study of Janney’s 50-foot high remaining stone structure. Jacksonville State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Harry Holstein led a study of the ground in and around the hearth.
“We didn’t find any evidence of charring or burning on the bricks,” said Holstein. “That, coupled with not finding any slag or sand on the casting floor, indicated that it was highly unlikely that the furnace had ever produced any pig iron at all.”
After being destroyed by Rousseau’s Raiders, anything left at the Janney Furnace was hauled away or sold for scrap. In the 140 years that followed, the stone structure was nearly reclaimed by the earth. When Calhoun County Commissioner Eli Henderson helped to establish the Janney restoration project, the furnace was so hidden by overgrowth, that it could barely be seen.
“It was really covered with vines, kudzu, poison ivy and pine trees,” said Holstein. “Eli Henderson really pushed the effort to reclaim the furnace and highlight the history that was made there.”
It since has been cleaned up and is now able to be seen at the site of the Janney Furnace Museum on Janney Road in Ohatchee. A monument erected on the site pays homage to local soldiers who died in the Civil War. Visitors can also see a one-room log cabin like one that would have been in the Janney Furnace workers village.
The Daniels House was built in 1843 and was heavily damaged in a deadly tornado in 2011. It was disassembled and moved five miles to its location near the furnace.
Commissioner Henderson was also a champion in the effort to save another local piece of history. Barely five miles from the Janney Furnace is the site of a military fort that was instrumental in the Creek Indian War of 1813-14. It is overgrown by weeds and woods and all but lost to history now.
Less than a mile from Henry Neely Dam, a simple engraved rock now commemorates the significance of Fort Strother, the first military installation ever built in what is now Alabama.
The Battle of Tallushatchee and the Battle of Talladega might have ended very differently had it not been for this fort built by General Andrew Jackson in 1813. Shawnee Chief Tecumseh was rallying tribes to resist the expansion of the United States into Native American lands.
Ten Islands historic marker overlooking water
General Jackson was sent to Alabama to stop Chief Tecumseh’s warriors who were intent on driving out the frontier settlers there.
On a hill overlooking the Coosa, just past the Ten Island Ford, he built Fort Strother, a supply base and forward command post that served to support the efforts in America’s battle with the Creek faction known as the Red Sticks. From this base, he planned to launch attacks against nearby Red Stick villages.
One such attack took place Nov. 3, 1813, when Jackson sent Brigadier General John Coffee and 900 of his troops 10 miles southeast of the fort to destroy the Creek village of Tallushatchee.
Among those troops was a well-known frontiersman named Davy Crockett, serving in the Tennessee militia. By the end of the day, nearly 200 Creek had fallen at the hands of the American force, which logged it as their first military victory of the war.
Six days later, General Jackson marched from Fort Strother to Talladega to help Coffee win the Battle of Talladega. The two wins at Tallushatchee and Talladega caused considerable casualties for the Red Sticks, which set up for an American victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Tallapoosa County the following March.
After General Jackson marched on toward New Orleans to defend the city in 1814, the fort was abandoned and fell into disrepair.
Archaeologists from Jacksonville State and the University of Alabama have studied the site, as recently as 1999, revealing hundreds of artifacts. Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), the team noted the location of at least 60 pinch-toed coffins aligned in military fashion.
“There are actually 80 marble headstones sitting somewhere in Ragland, last I knew,” said Holstein. “Local historians had raised the money to purchase headstones for those soldiers buried there. But the restoration never got off the ground. You can’t just identify the graves and then not protect the cemetery.”
Despite the fort being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, proposals to have it reclaimed and rebuilt have proven too costly and, so far, not a high priority.
Today, what remains of the fort is hidden in dense woods, along with the unmarked graves of soldiers who died there. The campaign to reclaim the fort seems to have died with the passing of its champion, Henderson, in 2020.
These relics of war, some well preserved and others shrouded in the growth of years of neglect, sit as a reminder that our waters have not always been a place of peace and tranquility. Our comfortable homes and businesses are built on the bravery of those who walked these shorelines before us. l
Editor’s Note:You can learn more at the Janney Furnace Museum in Ohatchee. www.janneyfurnace.org
For every chili recipe, there’s a cook who thinks his or hers is the best. That’s why the members of Downtown Gadsden Inc. look forward to hosting a friendly competition each year. Because when it comes to dishing out bragging rights, they just can’t resist stirring the pot.
“We open it up to people who think they have the best chili and invite them to come and prove it,” Kay Moore said of the 15th Annual Downtown Gadsden Chili Cook-off. Set for February 4, the contest promises to be one of the hottest events in town. “It’s all about having fun and camaraderie, being downtown and enjoying a lot of good chili,” said Moore, director of Downtown Gadsden, Inc., which organizes the event. In past years, they’ve had about 35 entries and crowds ranging from 700 to 1,000 have gathered to treat their taste buds.
Visitors line the streets to get a taste of the competition.
“We ask the cookers to bring enough to feed a bunch of people,” she said, adding that there’s a $40 entry fee for the cooking teams and anyone can enter the competition. “We’ve had people enter from Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville and as far away as Kentucky,” she said.
Whether your tastes run from mild to spicy or you prefer the traditional variety, white chicken chili or vegetarian chili, you’re sure to find a batch you love. The judges, however, seem to have a “type.”
“We have all different kinds of chili but for some reason, it’s your good old fashioned regular chili that always wins,” said Moore, adding that the competition is judged blindly. “We have runners who take the chili to the judges and each cup is marked with only a number on the bottom.”
Winning recipe
2022 Chili Cook-off winners
Jeff Martin and his fellow cookers seem to have cracked the code. His team, Dowdy’s Office Equipment, has won the competition the last three years, and he believes they have taken top honors five of the last seven. “We always use the same recipe,” Martin said of his team, which consists of his business partner Lewis Couch and friends David Couch and Ross Hudak. “It’s a recipe we’ve had for 25 years. I think somebody stole it from somebody else.”
Their chili is so good, in fact, that Ted Gentry, a founding member of the band, “Alabama,” bought the rights to the recipe last year. The chili is the menu headliner for Gentry’s Blue Ribbon Chili Wagon that’s often parked at the Alabama Fan Club and Museum in Fort Payne.
“Apparently he went all over the state looking for the best chili,” Martin said. The fact that Gentry has the rights doesn’t mean that the Dowdy crew is out of the running this year, though. “The only provision is that we still get to use it in the chili contest,” he said.
Although the winners earn some prize money and a Crowd Favorite is chosen, as well, the event is mostly a fun way for the community to get together and raise funds to support downtown projects. “Our job is to continue the growth of downtown while keeping our historical heritage,” Moore said. “A downtown of any small town is the heartbeat of the community.”
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Richard Rybka Submitted Photos
Quinten Edward Lumpkin had a vision. He believed in family, community, the Golden Rule and the American dream. It was his vision that eventually led to a beautiful development of seaside-inspired homes on the shores of the Coosa River. Though he would never see the first home built, the lighthouse on the peninsula was built with him in mind.
He only had $21 to his name when “Buck,” as he’d been called since childhood, came home from the Navy in 1948. When he didn’t find a job in his hometown of Gadsden, he figured he’d just open his own business.
He found a storefront in downtown Gadsden that he could rent for $12.75 a month. Not wanting to use more than half the cash he had to live on, he got his brother-in-law to co-sign on a $150 loan. With that, he opened an engine repair and sales shop that evolved into Buck’s Boats.
The old storefront location didn’t work for long, though, as there was no rollup door to bring in merchandise. They had to turn boats on their sides to fit them through the standard doorway. It was so small that only three aluminum boats would fit inside, with enough extra room for five or six outboard motors.
They moved to a former Buick dealership, which gave them more space, but still only 10 boats fit in the showroom. In 1969, Buck borrowed enough money to purchase 13 acres on the shores of the Coosa River. He had sold his home to help raise the deposit on the property, so he and his wife, Pauline, had a partially sunken houseboat dredged up and pulled to the property.
They cleaned it up and lived there while they figured out how to fund the building of the store. The boats were sold and serviced under a revival tent they got when an evangelist, who was one of their customers, fell behind on his boat payments and offered the tent as a partial payment.
Always the creative thinker, Buck saw his chance to fund his building when he read an ad in the newspaper of a Gadsden foundry seeking bids to demolish their building. He bid $10.
The next lowest bid was $56,000 from a construction company. The foundry owner refused Buck’s bid, thinking he would likely not have the means to complete the work on time.
Undaunted, Buck took out a bond for $56,000 to protect the owner and completed the demolition with two weeks to spare. Then he took the parts and reassembled it on his own 13-acre plot of land.
After a 17-year career with Mercury Motors, Buck’s son, Tony, bought the business in 1989 and renamed it Buck’s Island. Now located just minutes from the shores of Neely Henry Lake, it boasts a staff of 33.
Three generations of the family are now involved in the business. Mary, his wife of 32 years, runs the day-to-day operations. Their daughter Katie is in the sales department, while another daughter, Angela, runs the service department with her master technician husband, Israel.
Fishing boats fill a large space in Buck’s showroom.
“As a kid, I loved being here as much as I do now,” says Angela. “I remember wandering around in the old attic space and seeing things brought back from other countries by my grandfather.” She also remembers the fun of jumping from boat to boat in the showroom, a love that her own daughter now shares.
Tony, too, grew up spending his days with his dad at the business. “We didn’t have money for daycare,” explains Tony. “Mom worked in the sales tax office for the State of Alabama, so I’d come to work every day with Dad until I started school. He took a broom one day, cut the handle in half and handed it to me and said to get to work. I helped in the business all the way through high school.”
One day after he had earned a degree in industrial design from Auburn University, Tony asked his dad how he had learned his business skills. “I knew my dad had quit school in the 8th grade to support his mother and sisters after his dad died. So I said, ‘Dad, how’d you learn to run a business?’ He said, ‘Son, I learned in Sunday school. I learned that if you treat customers the way you want to be treated, you’ll never want for business.’ ”
That Golden Rule philosophy still drives the business today. “We do a lot of business – about 10 times the business the average boat dealer does. What that means is that we have more stock than most,” explains Tony. “We also don’t sell boats. We help facilitate people in buying a boat and guide them through the process. We try to step into the customer’s shoes and have empathy with the customer. We just treat them like we’d want to be treated.”
Yet another vision
So what does Buck’s Island, the boat sales and service business, have to do with Buck’s Island, the housing development? In short, it was Buck’s dream from the time he purchased the land that one day he would move the boat business to build homes on the water’s edge.
“My dad had told me about his vision of building homes on the 13 acres whenever city water was available. We had to get new zoning regulations passed to allow the houses to be built the way we wanted,” said Tony.
The lighthouse that identifies the development is a tribute to Buck.
He partnered with a builder and in 2000, built the first 10 houses in what they called Harbor Point, a peninsula on the grounds of the property. Three years later, they moved the boat business to a temporary rental building in Rainbow City so they could tear down the building to make room for the rest of the subdivision on the 13-acre plot.
As they were building the new housing on the property, they began building their new boat showroom and service center in a new location on Highway 77. The highway location has provided greater visibility and boosted their business.
The builder has almost completed the last home on the Buck’s Island development, capping the number at 47 homes. The lighthouse Tony built to draw attention to the property on the banks of the Coosa is also a tribute to the man who inspired the development of the brightly colored waterfront homes.
He loved visiting the Caribbean islands and guided Tony in planning the development. “He said to make everyone feel like they’re on vacation when they come home every day,” explains Tony. Sadly, Buck passed away in 1993 before seeing his vision become reality.
What Buck started with his $150 investment has fueled a deeply rooted passion for giving back to community. Buck’s Island sponsors Fish Fest, a day of fishing and seminars, and sponsors more than 40 high school fishing teams. “They’re our future,” Mary underscores.
Editor’s Note: You can find Buck’s Island at 4500 Hwy 77. Their inventory includes Bentley and Crest pontoon boats, as well as Skeeter, G3, Avid, Falcon and RescueONE Connector Boats. They’ve also added fishing kayaks and a tackle shop.
One of Tony’s RescueONE connector boats is ready to join a first responders team.
See a need and fill it
Buck’s earns worldwide reputation for first-responder boat
Story by Roxann Edsall
Coming up with a product that is sold worldwide and helps first responders to be safer and more efficient is something to be proud of. Southside native and business owner, Tony Lumpkin, is profoundly thankful for such an opportunity.
He developed a boat that will connect together with others to build a large floating platform of any shape or size. The design is particularly useful for water rescues, recoveries, dive operations and flood evacuations.
Called RescueONE Connector Boats, they are virtually impossible to tip over when connected, according to Lumpkin. Sold by his Marine One Corporation and assembled at Buck’s Island, the boats are used by emergency rescue teams worldwide. “They’re all over the world and in every state except Alaska,” says Lumpkin. “The Thailand navy has 105 of them, Philippines has 35. We sell about 100 of them a year.”
The idea got started in 1992 when two guys from the Calhoun County Rescue Squad came in to Buck’s Island looking at jon boats for their rescue operation. “They couldn’t find anything that fit their needs,” explains Lumpkin.
“So I listened to what they did and even went out with them on a rescue operation so I could understand what they needed. Then I worked on designing one for them.”
The boats are specially designed to hook together through an interlocking frame design. Figure eight lashings give the connection added stability. Add-ons include a retractable dive platform, a portable fire pump and a stacked boat trailer that can haul two connector boats at the same time.
“In many cases, volunteer rescue squads give their own time to give families closure,” tells Lumpkin. “If I can make something to make their jobs a little easier, I’m happy to do it.”
Traffic rolls by the faded sign on I-759 East in Gadsden, the drivers completely unaware of the oasis that lies below. Just off Exit 4B, on the banks of the muddy Coosa, 20 acres of peace and tranquility lie accessible by boat or vehicle.
River Rocks Landing Resort is a little bit of heaven tucked away near a busy city, so close to downtown Gadsden that you can see city hall from the front porch of its office building.
“Look at this view,” says Stacey Windom of Rainbow City, waving toward the river, where a great egret has just taken off with a fish in its mouth. Windom is seated at the bar of the campground’s latest addition, Current Market & Deli, enjoying a pizza. “This campground has all the amenities: pool, water, walkways. This summer, I watched the bass tournament as boats went up and down the river. I camp here a lot with my family, and I bring folks here for dinner, because it’s so convenient.”
As if to illustrate the campground’s amenities, a woman pedals by Current on a bicycle, while a couple strolls hand in hand on one of the gravel paths. Even though it’s September, another woman drops her towel onto a lounge chair by the pool, enjoying the remaining warm days of summer. Overhead, interstate traffic whizzes by, but the woman at the pool can barely hear it. If she were at the back of the campground, she wouldn’t hear the traffic at all.
In weather like this, you might find campground manager Carson Dabbs in a rocking chair on that office porch, his laptop on his knees and a notepad open on the porch railing in front of him, next to a Bluetooth speaker connected to Spotify.
A tiny house, one of seven available for rent
“People don’t understand how nice it is here,” says Dabbs, who lives on the property with his wife and two preschool daughters. “It’s secluded, but it’s so close to some of the best food in the state and shopping, too. We’re family-friendly and a home away from home. I greet folks when they come in because I know them.”
One reason he knows them is that so many return year after year for a weekend or a week, and a few even stay there permanently. Formerly known as River Country Landing, the campground has existed almost 30 years. The old sign is still visible from U.S. 759, and it still says River Country, although the letters are faded. River Rocks plans to redo it this fall.
“We changed hands three years ago,” says Dabbs. “The widow of the original owner ran it after her husband died but was ready to retire. The owner now is Wes Long of Guntersville. He also has a new Fairfield Inn in Albertville and a Hampton Inn in Guntersville and Jacksonville.”
River Rocks has 169 campsites, including the tiny houses and rental camper, along with a boat dock. Then there is the Banana House, a three-story building on the point that earned its nickname because it’s yellow and is surrounded by banana trees. The five-bedroom house, with its wide porches, looks like something from a travel brochure of a Caribbean resort. It sleeps 10 and has its own boat dock. The point itself can be rented for weddings and other special events.
The campground’s main dock has 28 slips, some rented by the year, others by the day, almost all of them rented by campers. The latter come in all ages. A lot of them are locals, but many come from surrounding states such as Georgia and Tennessee. “A group comes down from Canada every year,” Dabbs says. “Our name is beginning to spread among campers. Word of mouth is most of the advertising.”
Long has added to and improved the campground’s amenities. There are now three swimming pools, including an infinity pool (its edge appears to blend with the river); a 4-foot-deep heated pool and a kiddie pool that’s connected to a splash pad. He also added the restaurant, seven tiny houses and a camper for rent.
“We’ve also just opened up our tree house, which sleeps six, and includes a mother-in-law bedroom downstairs,” Dabbs points out.
The tiny houses, built by Clayton Homes of Addison are brought in on wheels and stay on wheels. Some have lofts just tall enough for kids to sleep in. Each tiny house has a name, such as the Sunset House. A small chapel on the riverbank seats 20. A local church started a Sunday service there but had to move it to a room in the office building to accommodate the number of worshippers.
A new basketball court is behind the children’s playground. Several community firepits are scattered about the grounds, along with picnic tables and wooden swings under tall shade trees. The swing facing the water near the restaurant is Dabbs’ favorite spot.
CurrentMarket & Deli opened in March and features pizzas, a catfish po’ boy and Dabbs’ personal favorite, loaded fries. It’s open seven days a week serves breakfast on weekends, and is accessible to non-campers who park outside the gate via a gravel path. In addition, boats can tie up at the small dock next to the market and enter from the river.
“Jessica and Jason Wilson, Chris and Christi Robinson are partners in the restaurant,” Dabbs says. “Chris owns Blackstone Pub & Eatery, and Jason started Back Forty Beer Company, both in downtown Gadsden. Jason also owns Coldwater Mountain Pub in Anniston.” Jessica is Current’s manager.
Dining space for about 50 people is available inside or on the deck, where a fan keeps the breezes blowing on warm days. Each morning, a family of ducks, including both parents and five ducklings, preens under a weeping willow tree next to the river, across the path from Current. They’re waiting on the lunch crowd to toss them their scraps and are known to follow diners down the path toward their cars.
“We have to make use of all our space, so we built a patio over the storm shelters next to Current,” says Dabbs, explaining more of the campground’s amenities. “In spring and fall, we have live music on the patio, weather permitting, usually Friday or Saturday night, sometimes both during holidays. We feature local groups.” The music most requested by campers and diners is traditional country and Southern rock from the 70s and 80s.
Willow tree shades restaurant
Those who attended Riverfest the first day of October were treated to some of those styles of music. Drake White, a traditional country singer who grew up in Hokes Bluff, entertained the crowd. So did Anderson East from Athens, a blues and Americana musician who was nominated for a Grammy Award in the American Roots category in 2019. Sponsored for many years by the city of Gadsden, the festival had a small version as a test run last year at River Rocks.
“It rained all weekend last year, but we took it on the chin and decided to really go after it this year. It went really well. We had about 1,500 people to turn out for the music, food trucks, arts & crafts and entertainment. Buffalo Rock and River Rocks were the primary sponsors, but we had 10-12 smaller ones, too.”
Another entertainment venue for River Rocks is its annual Drive-Through Christmas Lights display. Beginning Thanksgiving night, the grounds will be open after dark for cars to drive through and view the colorful lights, Nativity scene, blow-ups and animated characters. The cost is $3 for children and $5 for adults.
Dabbs’ daughters, two-year-old Raelynn, and Baeleigh, who will be five at the end of October, consider River Rocks Landing their personal playground and all the guests they meet their friends. “We’ll be driving through, and Baeleigh will say, ‘Daddy, there’s people in my pool,’” he says, grinning like a proud daddy. “Here, everyone is her friend. Both my daughters love it when we turn on the Christmas lights.”
It’s hard to say what Casey Cambron loved best about Lakeside Live 2022. When he talks about the latest version of the music festival and car show he debuted a year ago, his list of favorite memories is as wide and varied as the features of the event itself.
It had everything one could imagine in a fall festival – bands, Combat Park kids’ area, vendors galore, 170 show cars, food trucks, Battle of the Badges, an army of dedicated volunteers and a VIP pavilion catering to sponsors who helped make it happen.
Firefighters give it their all
As he recounts the day, Cambron finally settles on a common thread throughout as his true favorite – “the smiles.” Whether it was a child atop a military tank, a vendor meeting and greeting hundreds of passersby, a couple dancing to their favorite band’s tune or the prideful look of a car show entrant, smiles were as abundant as that day’s sunshine – not a cloud in the sky.
“It was overwhelming,” Cambron said. “The music was outstanding. All around, it was fantastic.”
Growing up, Cambron always loved outdoor music festivals. Over the years, he developed a passion for car shows, too. So, it was only natural that he would combine the two, add more features and present it in his new hometown, Pell City.
He founded the nonprofit, Five 16 Foundation, whose mission is “shining our light through fundraising, service and good works in our community,” derived from Matthew 5:16. The money raised from the event goes back into the community for worthy causes.
Police officers holding the line
This year’s Lakeside Live raised over $8,000 for the police and fire departments, who played a starring role in “Battle of the Badges” – a three-event challenge. They each won a challenge, and a tug-of-war determined the champion. A hard-fought contest to the end, firefighters finally emerged as winners and keepers of the championship belt for another year. They won the inaugural challenge in 2021.
“I’ve never seen a tug-of-war challenge better than that one,” Cambron said. Pulling and tugging nearly to a draw at one point, the competition was fierce, but the enjoyment was outstanding. “It was pure fun and laughter. That’s what it is all about.”
Normally, you think of police officers and firefighters in intense situations. This was a chance to see them from a new perspective – “in a different light and having fun,” said Cambron. “It was the most amazing feeling.”
A crowd favorite was the centerpiece, the music featival. Tunes boomed from a nearby stage throughout the day and into the evening with seven bands playing their brands to suit just about any musical taste. Headliners were: Leverton Brothers, Still Broke, Bolee 3, Kudzu, The WingNuts, Deputy 5 and Sweet Tea Trio.
Favorites for the kids were Combat Park’s military vehicles, inflatable obstacle course, shooting jelly ball and inflatable axe throwing. Hundreds of kids had their picture taken atop a military tank. Looking ahead to next year already, Cambron noted that plans call for an expansion of children’s activities.
170 cars on display during show
Car enthusiasts had their pick of favorites with 170 cars and trucks on display. Vendors – food trucks and other businesses – had a steady stream of customers throughout the event.
The cornhole tournament was a hit as well.
But behind the scenes, another success story unfolded, Cambron noted. Staff, volunteers and sponsors all made the event one to remember. The staff and volunteers “worked extra hard” to make sure all needs were filled and the event ran smoothly – from directing parking to assisting vendors and attendees. Sponsors, he said, were the real heroes with financial and in-kind support to ensure the event was bigger and better than ever and that it was kept free of charge. “All the sponsors and vendors were the sweetest, genuine, nicest people to meet. That’s what makes these events fun to do.”
“Paddleboards are like a surfboard. Nose at the front, tail at the back. The most stable part is the middle of the board where the handle is at, so that’s where you’ll stand up.”
Carrie Machen, co-owner of GadRock, a rock climbing and paddleboarding facility located on the banks of the Coosa River in Gadsden, is explaining the basics of paddleboarding to this newbie. The sun is finally peeking out from behind the clouds on a day that began with a storm producing sheets of rain of Old Testament proportions.
Convinced that the weather is safe for a little paddleboarding, Machen continues her instructions. “Now the paddle. You want that blade to angle away from your body, you want one hand at the top of the handle, one halfway down the shaft,” she says.
“The most dangerous part of the handles is the ‘T’ part, so be sure that you’ve got a hand on that paddle at all times,” Machen explains, making a special point to emphasize that the upward thrust of the paddle as it moves through the water could force it to pop up and smack the rider in the chops if he/she isn’t careful. Unlikely to happen? Sure. Unpleasant when it does happen? Absolutely.
“The stroke is bending at the waist and thinking about pulling your body to your paddle. You want your paddle to be pretty straight,” Machen continues. “The paddle goes in as far as you can get with that stretch, bend at the waist, and it comes out at your feet. As you come back past your feet, you’re pushing the nose of the board into the water.”
Following a few more minutes of demonstration on dry land, it’s time to toss the paddleboards over and jump into the water. For the next hour, we paddle along the Coosa River, parallel to I-759, the laid-back gurgling of the water drowning out the traffic on the busy interstate.
Before there was a paddleboard, there was a vision
Gadsden native Carrie Machen and a friend, Kate Wilson, initially conceived GadRock as an indoor climbing gym to support the growing rock-climbing community in Northeast Alabama and to promote the sport to a new generation. Machen also gained an interest in paddling sports while attending Auburn University and envisioned GadRock as a place to introduce the region to the joys of paddle sports.
“I took a kayaking class at Auburn and kind of fell in love with paddling on the water. I’m not hardcore like a lot of people, but I do enjoy being out on the water,” Machen says.
“At first, I thought about kayaks but then I tried stand-up paddling for myself, and I loved it,” she adds. “There’s freedom in it. You can stand up or sit down on your boards and they’re lighter in weight than kayaks.” Machen went on to explain the many options in stand-up paddleboards, from entry-level recreational boards, competition boards, boards designed for fishing, and even inflatable boards which can be inflated and deflated quickly and are a cinch to travel with. “The inflatable paddleboards are very easy to transport. I’ve flown with mine before,” says Machen.
Machen has been a certified paddleboard instructor for the past five years and enjoys introducing the sport to newcomers of all ages. While it may seem like a complicated activity to master, Machen says it’s quite simple once you get the hang of it. The most difficult aspects are learning to stand up on the board, which is optional by the way, and learning to climb back on the board when – not if – you fall into the water.
“Some people are a little intimidated by it,” Machen says. “They think they’re going to fall in. You do fall in, but that’s no big deal. “Maybe a little bit intimidating, but it shouldn’t be because it’s not a hard sport to learn.”
Although based in Etowah County, Machen is familiar with the waterways of the surrounding areas, including Henry Neely and Logan Martin lakes, and says both are well-suited for paddleboarding.
Part of the Alabama Scenic River Trail, a 650-mile-long trail through many of Alabama’s major rivers, including the Coosa River, Neely Henry and Logan Martin are points along the trail and offer paddleboarders unique opportunities for exploring the diverse and fascinating wildlife throughout the area.
“There are points along the trail in our area on Neely Henry and Logan Martin where there are islands in the water and you can camp,” Machen explained. “There’s a lot of boat traffic in some places, but if you stay close to the shore it’s not a big deal.
“The Creeks are a lot of fun to explore,” she added. “Sometimes instead of going out to Neely Henry, which is fun to do, I like to go in the creeks that feed into Neely Henry and explore those. They are full of wildlife – herons, egrets, cormorants, turtles, bald eagles – and you’re able to get into some of the areas that you can’t get into with a kayak or a canoe.”
Meanwhile, back at the paddleboard lesson
After a spectacularly clumsy and downright hilarious fall into the water during an attempt to stand up, this rookie paddleboarder decided to experience the rest of the adventure on his knees. It doesn’t take long before some basics of paddling, turning and stopping are mastered.
We paddle toward a small island, thick with green vegetation and pine trees, where a flock of white gulls mills about in the marsh. Clearly used to Machen and other paddleboarders, only a handful of these large, graceful, white birds fly off as we paddle closer.
After a few minutes of birdwatching and enjoying the relative silence in the middle of the inlet, we turn our boards around and paddle to the dock – back to the hectic, busyness of dry land.
What’s SUP?
SUP is the acronym for Stand Up Paddleboard, and GadRock features special SUP tour packages designed for beginners, nature lovers, even yoga and fitness versions.
Readying for adventure
The SUP Eco Tour teams paddlers with knowledgeable guides to learn more about Lake Gadsden’s wildlife, tributaries and historic lore. “Sunset tours are especially fun!,” according to its website.
Beginners are welcome for the SUP Intro Tour. Make sure your techniques are correct and learn the basics en route to more advanced tours available.
Yoga on a paddleboard? That’s right. This tour combines the basics of paddling and an hour of practicing “balance, control and mindfulness.”
What a way to stay in shape with the SUP Fitness Tour. It’s quite a workout focusing on paddling and control, speed, stretching, strength and balance.
Want something a little more laid back? Try the SUP & SIP Tour – a sunset exploration of tributary creeks and wildlife. A relaxing atmosphere, music and a complimentary beverage holder contribute to the ambience of the evening on the water. And if you want to imbibe, BYOB.
