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Charlie Ard’s custom
watercraft are works of art

Story and photos by Graham Hadley
Additional photos courtesy of Charles Ard

Most people looking for a new boat to take out on the Coosa buy one from dealers along the lakes.

Pell City’s Charlie Ard, on the other hand, simply builds one from scratch – sometimes in as little as four days.

Moored to the dock at his girlfriend’s house is one such shining example: A 24-foot, center-console mahogany boat that is truly a work of art named the Corabell. And not only is she a thing of beauty, but the all-wood boat is fast, too, powered by a big inboard V8 engine.

“I built her from the ground up in 2009, starting with just a pile of lumber,” he said.

“I built my first boat when I was 12. It was based on a boat in the Pogo comic strips. I had always admired that little boat. Now this was my 10th boat built since then.”

Charlie’s father was an engineer, and he grew up around his father’s shop, so taking on the complicated process of building wood boats was almost second nature to him. Originally, Charlie’s wood shop was in Birmingham, but the retired HVAC technician moved the entire operation to his shop attached to his house in Cropwell years ago. Like his boats, Charlie designed and built both his house and shop – and much of the furnishings, tables and storage cabinets there as well.

The Corabell’s distinctive mahogany build gives the boat that classic antique look, but Charlie chose that wood for more than its looks.

“Mahogany is durable, as durable as fiberglass,” he said. “And it does not take much maintenance. The urethane I use is good. The Corabell has had one coat in the past 12 years. … The mahogany is actually lighter than fiberglass and does not soak up water like other woods.”

He is quick to point out the mahogany he uses is plantation grown, so his boats don’t contribute to over logging or damage the environment.

Charlie credits not only his father, who was also an amateur woodcarver, with inspiring him, but also a host of other people in his life. “I learned a lot from the woodcarvers guild. I am actually the past president of the Alabama Woodworkers Guild.”

Add to that training natural inborn talent for his craft (lots of natural talent), and the end result is a boat builder who can create remarkable and unique watercraft and do it in a surprisingly short period of time.

Boat hulls are complicated creations – because all of the curves and structural strength needed to make a seaworthy vessel, the individual strips of wood are almost abstract creations. The flat piece of wood bears little resemblance to the way it looks on the completed boat.

Charlie says he uses standard measurements for his hull designs, but there is still a large portion of the design that is all his.

Working from a large drafting table outfitted with a rare left-handed drafting machine, Charlie (who claims lefties are more creative) draws out full-size blueprints for his boats. He then takes those designs to his workshop, where he lays them out on a table and builds the boat over them, projecting right from his original drawings.

Despite the complexity and the attention to detail – there are more than 4,000 screws holding the hull of the Corabell together – Charlie builds his works of art in record time.

“The Corabell only took a few months to build,” he said. His shortest time for a build is four days – a beautiful rowboat he put together between Christmas and New Years shortly after his father passed away in 2008.

That rowboat sits in his boat shed on his Cropwell property, complete with the oars he made especially for it.

“I built this in honor of my Daddy. Dad rowed recreationally. I think he did that to irritate me. I like big V8s, but he said, ‘I don’t need a motor, I will just row.’”

Like most of his builds, the rowboat is mahogany, and Charlie said it is the perfect boat for some of the lakes in the national forest where motors are not allowed.

Charlie also honored his father with some of the design elements on the Corabell.

“My father made dulcimers – like the Appalachian musical instrument, so I made a finial based on that design on the bow,” he said.

Though the Corabell is not his biggest build – there is a 30-foot twin screw that he put together but no longer owns that is used as a fishing boat in the Gulf Stream out of Bimini – she is one of his favorites.

“She has turned out to be a good boat, no vices, an all-around successful project,” he said.

From bow to stern, the Corabell is full of custom designs, and Charlie’s attention to detail is evident in every piece of work. The top is even made out of canvas stretched over laminated wood bracings.

One of the most impressive features is the center console, which folds forward to expose the engine. The boat has a modified V-shaped hull, with a “good bit of keel,” and between the hull design and the engine, the Corabell will flat-out go.

“This boat will do 40 mph. I have never skied behind it – my only motorboat I have not done that on,” he said. Even though the boat is all wood, it only weighs about as much as a Ski Natique.

Despite its speed, Charlie prefers to cruise around Logan Martin Lake at a more leisurely pace.

“I like to get up, get my morning coffee, and cruise around the lake at about 10 mph,” he said.

The Corabell is moored to a dock at Charlie’s girlfriend’s house. He built the dock with her blessing – and a covered area for her boat, so he would have a place to tie up on Logan Martin.

Parked up on a trailer on the same property is another Charlie Ard creation – the flat-bottomed boat, Cooney Bonet.

His boat names all have special personal meaning – the Corabell is named after a favorite teacher who made a huge difference in her students’ lives, “mine included” – and the Cooney Bonet is no exception.

“He waded ashore at Omaha Beach in World War II. He was a great American,” Charlie said.

The 16-foot, again mahogany, flat-bottom boat was built for getting around all parts of the lake.

“It will float in 3 inches of water, and with the motor up, you can pole it along. It was not intended for speed, just kvetching about, to have fun in,” he said. While speed was not the original intent, “I designed it for a 10-horsepower motor. Then I got this 18-horsepower motor. This thing will fly.”

Charlie’s love of the water is apparent. The walls of his shop are lined with charts of coastal regions, lakes and rivers, fishing gear and other memorabilia. Equally apparent is his love of woodworking. If you look among the decorations, you can find an award he received for one of his work benches and cabinets he designed and built.

Like so many of Charlie Ard’s creations, it is both functional and a work of art. It sits among his other hand-made cabinets and benches in his shop awaiting his next project.

In its heyday, Pine Harbor played
central role in lake community

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos courtesy of Sue Pat DuBose, Mr. and Mrs. Roy H. Holladay II, Chris Spivey, St. ClairNews-Aegis (1977), St. Clair Observer (1975)

Growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, Dr. Thomas Ingram Jr. walked through neighbors’ fields near the Coosa River, enjoying those pastures and woods for what they were.

In the 1960s, Thomas Casady and H.G. Fraim looked at the fields and saw potential … lots of it.

Casady envisioned a complex that would include an 18-hole golf course, hotel, restaurant, lounge, pro shop, marina, country club, swimming pools, tennis courts and a chapel.

Fraim, known as “Bookie,” saw a vibrant neighborhood springing up around the complex.

Both visions came to fruition.

Locals knew Casady’s complex as Pine Harbor Marina, Pine Harbor Country Club and, in its final years, Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club.

Not only did this golf course entertain celebrities, but it and the rest of the complex also bonded the neighborhood it produced.

“We just had our own wonderful world out here,” said Deanna Lawley. For 50 years, she has been a resident of Pine Harbor, the neighborhood Bookie envisioned.

Casady built his complex in 1964, according to a May 29, 1975, article in the St. Clair Observer, a weekly newspaper at the time.

Casady, a seasoned businessman and a veteran of the Army Air Corps, rising to brigadier general and serving as national CAP commander, put his knowledge and experience to work for his vision. He was president of ElCasa Enterprises Inc., director of Union State Bank in Pell City, vice president of V.J. Elmore Stores in Birmingham, and a founding member of Canterbury Methodist Church in Birmingham, according to Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters in Montgomery at the time of his death in 2010. He also was inducted into the CAP Hall of Honor and Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame.

Mrs. Lawley credited Fraim with the foresight to develop two residential communities nearby along Logan Martin Lake – Riviere Estates and Skyline.

Golf course

The golf course was the second phase of Casady’s development, said Jo Ann Winnette, Fraim’s sister.

Recollections of those interviewed indicated that the golf course was likely the facet with the most impact on the community. “Golf and grandchildren” brought Roy Dye and wife Joanne to the Pine Harbor neighborhood from Washington state. “When we found Pine Harbor, we said, ‘This is where we want to be,’” explained Dye, who served as treasurer during the golf course’s later years.

Winnette, who lives in Riviere Estates, said part of the land on which the golf course was built was donated by her mother, Robbie Sue Fraim. Additional property was acquired from J.A. Masters, according to Winnette, and a 2002 worship service program from the campus’ outdoor, lakeside church, Chapel in the Pines.

Winnette said her brother had a real sense of what Casady’s Pine Harbor could be. He believed it could attract Birmingham people to the area to play golf, get away for the weekend and enjoy the lake. He promoted Pine Harbor, creating Riviere Estates from lots from their mother’s farmland.

During its peak, Pine Harbor’s golf membership exceeded 400, sources said.

The golf course “was a point in the community, a hub in this community for a long time,” said Chris Spivey, state amateur golf champ and national senior amateur champ, who has lived in Pine Harbor since 1974.

“Probably a lot of business got done on the golf course or in the clubhouse,” said Jud Alverson, president of the Pell City Council and former president of Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club.

The golf course and Pine Harbor complex were assets in recruiting industry to Pell City, noted Ron Helms, Pine Harbor resident and former president of the club. “It was a very good addition to the city.”

Having noted golf instructor Jimmy Ballard on staff did not hurt either. Ballard was nationally known for the very specific technique he taught.

“There were quite a few professional golfers who came there to take lessons from him,” said Reed Alexander, who served on the board of directors. J.C. Snead, Leonard Thompson, Curtis Strange, Fuzzy Zoeller and Jim Colbert were among the pro golfers who reportedly received instruction from Ballard at Pine Harbor.

Plus, touring pro Mac McLendon made Pine Harbor his home course while he was on the PGA Tour in the 1970s, Mrs. Lawley said.

Encounters with the famous were not uncommon.

Mrs. Lawley and husband Barnett played tennis doubles with Mr. and Mrs. Zoeller. Alverson and a group of guys shot impromptu rounds with pro golfer Boo Weekley. Blind golf champ Charley Boswell was a regular.

Long-time Pine Harbor resident Sylvia Martin said she got to meet former NBA star Charles Barkley there. Florida State University’s noted football coach Bobby Bowden and University of Alabama coaching legend, Paul “Bear” Bryant, played the course, too, said Roy H. Holladay II, who lives in Pine Harbor.

The golf course was an outlet for different ages and abilities.

Cole Giddens of Cropwell was able to fulfill his wish of golfing every day in retirement and even managed the course and clubhouse for a decade.

Alverson was playing at Pine Harbor before he was old enough to rent a golf cart. He was club champ as a teen.

Kim Wilcox of Moody was Pine Harbor’s golf pro and course manager in the 1990s, and her son, Will Wilcox, played the course as a youth. He went on to the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, according to Kim, who became executive director of Birmingham Golf Association and women’s golf coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Sue Pat DuBose’s son, Brent, played in amputee tournaments at the course. “We had people to come all the way from London, England, to those tournaments.”

Spivey (“Chris Jr.”) saw golf and Pine Harbor’s course transform her mother, “Chris Sr.”

This started in the late 1970s. Chris Sr. was completely uninterested in golf. Chris Jr. got her mother to caddy for her in a Mississippi tournament. Chris Jr. finished with a national ranking, and “Mom went absolutely bonkers over golf.”

Chris Sr. learned to play golf. After her husband, Bob, became president of Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club, Chris Sr. managed the golf course. Chris Jr. said the course did well in the 1980s under her mother’s care.

Until Chris Sr.’s death in 1986, Mr. and Mrs. Spivey ran the golf course seven days a week almost by themselves, said Chris Jr., who was the weekend cart person.

Leading up to Chris Sr.’s management, the course sat unused for a time because of an ownership change, according to Mrs. Lawley.

To get the golf course reopened, Pine Harbor residents did what Pine Harbor residents do when situations arise: they banded together and took action, said Chris Jr.

“Everybody got on their lawn mowers and went over there and cut the fairways and cut the greens. Mother redid every single one of the sand traps herself … before they put the sand in them. Ruined my grandfather’s tiller (in the process),” Chris Jr. said with a laugh.

Hotel, restaurant and marina

The hotel, restaurant and marina were part of the first phase of development, said Winnette. The marina also featured covered and dry storage.

The hotel and restaurant sat side by side. A lounge, pro shop and swimming pool finished out that portion of the complex.

Mrs. Lawley said actress Sally Field and her family stayed at the hotel in 1975 during filming of the movie, Stay Hungry, in Birmingham.

Barnett Lawley and Field’s husband played tennis together during that time, and the Lawleys’ son, Cannon, swam with Fields’ children in the Lawleys’ pool. The Lawleys entertained Field and her family in their home, and the two families became friends.

One particular day, news spread quickly around the neighborhood about Field’s degree of undress while sunbathing at one of Pine Harbor’s pool, the Lawleys said.

The restaurant’s formal dining area could accommodate about a hundred patrons, Mrs. Lawley continued. That was in addition to the downstairs and outdoor dining areas.

The restaurant’s large windows offered an unhindered view of the marina, brilliant sunsets, and sailboats and other vessels bobbing up and down in the multitude of slips.

Bear Bryant tried to dine at the restaurant one time but drew such a crowd that he could not eat his meal, said Winnette.

At Casady’s request during Bryant’s visit, Fraim very secretively took the coach and Mrs. Bryant for an evening boat ride on Logan Martin Lake. Winnette said Bryant sent her brother a letter, thanking him for the excursion.

Mrs. Lawley noted that Casady began developing the Pine Harbor complex before Logan Martin Dam went into operation, which created Logan Martin Lake.

“(He) set piers (for the marina) before there was a drop of water,” Mrs. Lawley said.

For years, Maurice “Pops” Wyatt managed the marina, hotel and other aspects of the complex, said Holladay. The Wyatt family lived in a house on the premises.

Pops believed in giving patrons exceptional service, Holladay noted. For example, Pops made certain that people who spent weekends at Pine Harbor found their boat fueled and waiting in the water when they arrived.

At the height of the complex’s popularity, all of the slips in the marina were occupied, with a waiting list, said Barnett Lawley.

Chapel in the Pines

Part of Casady’s plan was for the people of Pine Harbor to be able to worship together. Casady built Chapel in the Pines for that reason, notes a 2002 chapel service program quoting the June 3, 1965, St. Clair News-Aegis. The first service at the outdoor chapel was June 6, 1965. First United Methodist Church in Pell City was sponsor of the services and a different pastor preached each week.

On Sunday mornings during summer months, families came to the chapel on foot, by car or boat to what became known as the “come as you are” church.

“We really enjoyed that,” said Mrs. DuBose, who with husband John had only to walk across the street.

Following the worship service, many would eat breakfast together at Pine Harbor’s restaurant, said Martin.

The residents gave much support to the chapel, she continued. Before the first service each summer, they came with brooms and rakes to clean around the pews and podium. That little lakeside chapel tucked among the pines was also the site of many weddings, Martin said. The receptions often were at the country club.

Clubhouse

In its lifetime, Pine Harbor had two different clubhouses.

The first one was across Pine Harbor Road from the hotel and restaurant.

Themed parties, fashion shows, galas, Christmas festivities, the Chevy 6 band, and dances featuring Dale Serrano and the music of Bob Cain and the Cane Breakers filled the schedule. The clubhouse had a pool, too.

In 1984, the DuBoses purchased the property from Ballard and lived there until 2010.

Ballard went to the exclusive Doral Golf and Country Club in Miami, Mrs. Lawley said.

Mrs. DuBose, a golfer, loved that her home was right next to the course. The tile in the bathrooms bore scuffs from golf-shoe traffic during the country club years. Though the DuBoses remodeled the home, they left the scuffed tile in one bathroom, just for nostalgia.

On occasion, the DuBoses had unexpected visitors – with golf clubs in hand – who thought the home was still the clubhouse.

The final Pine Harbor clubhouse was a smaller house near the golf course. It was where Wyatt’s family had lived when Pops was manager at the complex, said Holladay.

Changing times

Through the years, ownership of the Pine Harbor complex changed several times.

Sometimes, the efforts of a new owner were successful and, sometimes, they were not.

“It really had its highs and its lows,” said Barnett Lawley, former commissioner of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

In the 1970s, Lawley, Ballard, Billy Church and Eddie Lawrence formed a partnership to rescue the Pine Harbor complex from receivership, where it had gone under the previous owner, Mrs. Lawley said. As owners, the four partners worked to attract celebrity golfers and name-brand entertainment, demonstrating the value of Pine Harbor to the area. Club membership soared to its highest and Pine Harbor enjoyed its greatest popularity.

“And it stayed that way a long time,” Mrs. Lawley said.

The final owner in Pine Harbor’s history gave Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club (an association consisting of the membership) a long-term lease on the golf course and tennis courts.

Yet, circumstances eventually took their toll. First, an economic downturn in 2008 significantly reduced the number of golf memberships. Then, the lease expired. The City of Pell City’s efforts to negotiate a lease agreement with the owner failed.

Years earlier, the owner had razed the hotel and restaurant and filled in the nearby swimming pool. Subsequently, the second clubhouse was demolished too.

Chapel in the Pines moved to a spot in Pell City’s Lakeside Park, and the marina is home to University Marine at Pine Harbor Marina.

Now, remnants of the greens and fairways sit as quiet reminders of what used to be.

Recalling Pine Harbor’s glory days, Chris Jr. said, “The complex was fantastic, just a little ahead of its time. … We were so blessed to have that in our community for so long.”

Additional assistance with this article provided by Roger Pate and Savannah Pritchett, MS, RD, LD.

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Memories of Pine Harbor

            Just the mention of Pine Harbor’s golf course and the rest of the complex brings to people’s minds the memories of milestones they achieved, the special times they experienced and the funny things that happened there.

Here are but a few:

• “The only two holes-in-one I’ve had in my life were (at Pine Harbor and) on the same hole – No. 5,” said Jud Alverson.
• Robin Glenn of Cropwell admits she knew nothing about golf when she went to work at the clubhouse in 2009. One day, a lady golfer ordered a sandwich to take on the course with her. Glenn prepared and gave the sandwich to the woman. Later, when the golfer returned to the clubhouse, she told Glenn that someone might find a sand wedge on the 18th hole. Curious as to why the woman had tossed the sandwich, Glenn asked, “You didn’t eat it?”
• Chris Spivey Sr. was resourceful during her years of managing Pine Harbor’s golf course. Wanting to make the course’s grass lush, she enlisted a chicken farmer’s help to put manure on the fairways. “It did a good job,” chuckled her daughter, Chris Spivey Jr., in telling the story. “But you couldn’t go to the golf course for a week because of the smell.”
• In the 1980s, some bigger courses limited weekend playing time for women. Chris Spivey Jr. believed women should be able to play any time and be accepted into men’s tournaments. Her parents – Chris Sr. and Bob Spivey – instituted both of Chris Jr.’s suggestions while they ran Pine Harbor’s golf course.
• Chris Spivey Sr. was instrumental in starting Pine Harbor’s bridge club, even though she knew nothing about the game. “She loved every minute of it,” Chris Spivey Jr. said.
• Pops Wyatt’s daughter, Cathy, ran a concession stand while her dad was manager of the marina and other parts of the Pine Harbor complex. Roy H. Holladay II met Cathy through her work … and married her.

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Giant outdoor tournament fishing park and much more

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Graham Hadley and David Smith
Architectural renderings submitted

There was a time when the only thing on I-20 between Birmingham and the Georgia state line that drew crowds was the Talladega Superspeedway.

Over the past decade, though, that has changed, with signs for the Civilian Marksmanship Program park, TOP Trails Outdoors, Bass Pro Shops, Barber Motorsports and more lining the interstate.

Now the City of Lincoln will soon be adding another sign to that list directing people to its massive fishing tournament and outdoor park on Logan Martin Lake.

Located just down the road from Honda Manufacturing of Alabama at 740 Travis Dr., Lincoln’s Landing, which is still under construction but already hosting fishing tournaments, will have space for upwards of 500 vehicles and boat trailers. Its massive boat ramp has room for 10 boats to launch at once and, when completed, will have runway-style lighting marking the lanes.

Park Director William “Les” Robinson, said work is progressing fast. “When I was out here first week in February, all that was out here were piles of gravel and leveled ground. Now we have water lines run, the cement is poured, and contractors are working on the restrooms, pavilions and a large boathouse,” which will be used to store the fire department rescue boat.

“We have already had tournaments here. We have one scheduled for this weekend and at least five more this year and 25 planned for 2022,” he said. Even when the park is not being used for tournaments, there are usually 10 to 12 boats being launched there every day.

The park covers 38 acres of property that used to be a sod farm. It is accessed by a road built with the help of state funding during Gov. Bob Riley’s administration to allow residents in that part of Lincoln to get around trains stopped on tracks that bisect that section of the city, said Mayor Lew Watson. “Lincoln has long needed a place for the public to launch boats. Originally, we were looking at land owned by Alabama Power, but … that did not work out, and we found this land. And then the idea was able to grow from just a public boat launch to a fishing tournament park.”

That will mean big things for Lincoln and the surrounding communities,” he said. “It means more business for our city, hotels and restaurants. It’s located right off a major interstate exit and not right in the middle of a dense residential area. It is right off the main channel on the lake, with year-round water. It is the perfect place for the park. It’s like, ‘If we build it, they will come.’”

In addition to the pavilions, large, paved parking areas and more parking space on the grass, the allure of Lincoln’s Landing goes way beyond just a fishing attraction, with a waterfront boardwalk and piers, trails and eventually, a sand swimming beach.

Robinson said the large pavilion will be great for events, even use as a wedding venue, with plenty of fans and a giant fireplace.

“A few decorations, and you are ready to say, ‘I do!’”

But what’s more, he sees the park as a giant opportunity for youths in the area to get in on competitive fishing.

“Bass fishing is the fasted growing high school sport in the state right now.”

And it’s not just for the boys. Robinson said he hopes the park attracts more women and girls to the sport. “There are a lot more fishing scholarships for girls now, but a lot of them go unclaimed because there are not as many girls out there. If the girls come out and start fishing – and they have to fish competitively – the scholarships are there for the taking. They could get a full ride.”

Like so many of the public works success stories in the region, Lincoln’s Landing is a cooperative effort, Watson said. “The McCaig family donated some land, the railroad worked with us, as did Alabama Power. … And we cornered the market on management of the park,” pointing to Robinson.

Watson said the city was very lucky to get Robinson to head up Lincoln’s Landing. He has served in the military and as the maintenance supervisor for Ashland in Clay County.

“You could say we kind of poached him.”

Right now, the parking, piers and boat launch are available for public and tournament use, but the rest is quickly taking shape.

“We have had some weather setbacks,” Robinson said, and the focus right now is on getting all the buildings and bathrooms completed.

Then things like the almost mile-long walking trail and swimming beach, 24-hour lighting and surveillance cameras come next, he said, hoping to have most of the project done by the end of the year.

Use of the park right now is on an honor system, but they will eventually have an electric kiosk in place – similar to what many large cities use for fee-based parking lots – that will take cash, credit or debit cards.

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One woman’s passion for environment

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Graham Hadley

She glides through her weedless gardens with the grace of a gazelle, calling each flower by name. She pauses to stroke the back of a fuzzy bumblebee that is feasting on swamp milkweed, the bee ignoring the fact that a human has just touched it. Butterflies flit between her and the purple coneflowers, barely acknowledging her gentle presence. It’s as if they know she is their mistress, the planter of the food sources they so eagerly seek.

These are the gardens of Jessica Thompson, whose property around her Logan Martin Lake home is covered in flowers that she never has to water or fertilize. Some of them so rare that they are found in only one or two places outside private gardens.

Her secret? She plants species that are native to Alabama. They don’t need extra moisture between rainfalls, and they’ve adapted to our soil.

Jessica and her husband, Scott, live on Rabbit Branch. Their property was all lawn when they moved there from Atlanta two years ago. A month after their arrival, Jessicasmothered the lawns with leaves, which suppressed all but the aggressive turf grasses. “I had to dig them out,” she says. As the grasses died, she started expanding, and now, almost all 2.6 acres are covered in native plants and flowers.

“I was attempting 100% natives in my landscape, but I couldn’t find many of them,” she says. “The nearest native nursery is in Fayetteville, Ga., or you have to order them online.”

She started growing them herself from seeds, and soon had an excess. So, she began selling them. That led to her business, Recreative Natives. Word-of-mouth and a Facebook page brought so many customers, she soon sold out of her stock. “I wish I had grown more,” she says.

Native plants take one to two cold stratifications (winters) to germinate. But she learned how to trick them by using a refrigerator so they would germinate in four to six months. Once her gardens started blooming, she knew she could not go back to traditional landscaping.

Home again

Jessica grew up in Cropwell, and her mother lives just four miles from her. She gardened with her grandmother as a child, but it took her years to realize someone could make a career of that. While living in Atlanta, she decided to go back to school and study horticulture at the University of Georgia. She became a landscape designer. Then in 2014, she read a book that would change her trajectory and give her a mission in life.

“I read Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy, an entomologist who says it’s up to backyard gardeners to save our native insects,” she says. “The reason that’s so important is because it goes up the food chain from birds to carnivores. He said private-property homeowners have more acreage than all national and state parks combined, which puts them in a unique position to help the ecology and nature or bio-diversity.” She began incorporating native plants in the gardens she designed, slowly phasing out of traditional landscaping and into habitat restoration.

“At first, I would sneak a few natives into my designs, but then I became more open and tried to convince homeowners to plant 70% natives,” she says. “That spiraled by word of mouth, and I went totally into designing backyard wildlife habitats, many of them for people who wanted to get wildlife certifications.” She started turning down folks who did not want to include 30 percent to 70 percent natives. “I got pretty snobby about it,” she admits.

Despite her formal education in horticulture, Jessica is largely self-taught when it comes to natives. “I’ve done lots of Googling and studying range maps,” she says. “Alabama has a really good website owned by the Alabama Herbarium Consortium and the University of West Alabama called floraofalabama.org, which maintains an Alabama Plant Atlas. It’s good for pinpointing the counties where natives grow.”

Walking through her yard is like walking through a fairyland filled with flowers and the many types of insects that feed on them. She has an edible section that includes some herbs and plants that aren’t native, such as basil, tomatoes, peppers, sage and squash. It’s modeled after a French potager (meaning “soup pot”) garden that usually includes a structure in the center and mixing veggies with flowers. Her structure is a metal gazebo.

Her edibles include a couple of “sacrificial” tomato plants, where she moves the occasional tomato or tobacco hornworm to keep it off the plants she wants to harvest for her kitchen. “I also have a patch of horse nettles I move them to,” she says. “It’s their native host plant.”

 Past the edible garden is a metal arch covered with crossvine, which leads to a short but winding path of pine bark bordered by bits and pieces of tree limbs. “I laid that to recreate a forest floor. Everything growing in this area would grow in a deep forest,” she says. In the midst of this forest setting is a sitting area placed over a septic tank so it can be moved aside easily when the tank gets cleaned out periodically. Along the path is a small Eastern hemlock that seems incongruous in her lively grounds because of its loose-branching limbs. “It’s my Charlie Brown tree,” she says.

Despite its appearance, it’s a very healthy 40-year-old tree, and probably the most expensive purchase for her yard because of its scarcity. “The entire East Coast of the United States and Canada is losing the Eastern hemlock to woolly adelgids, an imported pest that resembles aphids, she says. “It will become extinct in my lifetime. Mine will likely make it as a single tree and not a stand, and because it’s in a simulated habitat.”

The path also winds among a patch of native Hydrangea aborensces (commonly known as wild, smooth or nine bark hydrangea). “Most people think the oak leaf is the only hydrangea native to Alabama, but that’s not true,” she says. The area contains a few non-natives, such as hostas, anda cast iron plant,in tribute to her husband. “I tried torecreate a design that incorporated his favorites,” she says. “He likes the moonvines and lenten roses, which I have in a pot. I still have 98% natives here, but if I keep him happy, he digs holes for me.”

On the peninsula that ends at their neighbor’s pier, Jessica maintains what she calls her “Flood Plain Garden,” because everything planted there can go under water when Alabama Power opens the dam and floods the area. “This is an experimental area and a man-made environment,” she says. “I’m still doing trial and error here.”

This is where she planted flag or Louisiana iris, swamp mallow (hibiscus family), bee balm, garden phlox, Michigan lilies, salvia, cabbage leaf coneflowers and wild indigo. “The cabbage leaf coneflowers are native to Mississippi or perhaps West Alabama, but they aren’t documented in Alabama,” she says. “You can crush the indigo to make ink or dye.”

The swamp mallow closes after blooming for one day, and she stops to open one so a visitor can see the bees sleeping off their nectar drunk. She also has swamp milkweed, a host for monarch butterflies. “They do not drink the nectar but lay eggs on its leaves,” she says. “The bees love it for its nectar.”

She pauses at the coreopsis to pet a bumblebee, literally stroking it with her index finger. It’s something she shows the home-schooled children when she gives them tours. She has never been stung by a bee. “They don’t sting you, they just try to shoo you away,” she says.

She planted ironweed and swamp sunflowers because they have varied bloom times, enabling the bees to eat all year. Monarchs and skippers swarm around her as she tramps through plants looking for black swallowtail caterpillars. “It’s my favorite thing to do,” she says. “I have a borderline unhealthy obsession. I would spend every waking hour here if I could. In fact, it’s hard to go away for more than a couple of days because I can’t wait to get back to my gardens.”

Bees, butterflies and birds

While she walks freely among the bees and butterflies, she has quit feeding the birds at man-made feeders. “By now (mid-July) they are nesting and feeding their babies, and they feed them exclusively on caterpillars and insects,” she says. Also, there’s a mysterious virus going around at bird feeders, and she doesn’t want to spread it. “It started in (Washington) D.C., and it’s moving southeast,” she says. “It has been found in Tennessee. Luckily, growing natives helps the birds. They feed from the plants, eating their seeds and berries and the insects that feed on them.”

Her busiest plant, however, is the clustered mountain mint. Stand near it long enough, and you’ll see 30 different species of insects, including carpenter bees, honey bees, thread wasps, dirt daubers, banded wasps, silver-spotted skippers and buckeye butterflies. “When they’re buzzing around you, they are just checking you out,” she says. “Make them scatter, and they come right back. They are single-minded.”

Continuing the garden tour, Jessica points out a coral honeysuckle, a native plant that she sold out of during her first day of business last spring. She pauses to watch a carpenter bee work its way around the straw-colored stamens of a passion vine, a purple flower that looks more like it was crocheted than grown. As he drank from the nectaries, the bee was bumping the stamens and getting pollen on his back, which is how pollen is spread. Nearby, other bees and insects feasted on a yellow giant hyssop and aroyal catchfly, the latter a threatened species in Alabama and an endangered one in four other states.

Jessica says Alabama is unique with 28 endemic plant species. “Georgia has 11 and Maine only one,” she points out. “Endemic means it doesn’t grow anywhere else. What makes Alabama unique is its varied regions. We have the Appalachian mountain chain, the Piedmont region, the Gulf Coast and the limestone over in Bibb County. The Cahaba River and its limestone bluffs create threeecological regions that have 10-15 of those native plants.”

She has sown some Alabama leather flowers (Clematis socialis), a creeper whose population has been reduced to just three locations, with two of those in St. Clair County and one in Georgia. “The Coosa Plains used to be along the Coosa River, but it’s all forests now,” she says. “These plains were grassland prairies that stretched from Rome, Ga., to Coosa County, Ala. The flooding of the Coosa (to create dams for hydroelectric power) was the largest ecological disaster in U.S. history from the standpoint of extinction, because we lost more plants, animals, fish and clams to this than to anything else.”

The loss of plant species is still undocumented, she says. No one knows for certain what was lost, because they don’t know what was there, except for remnants left behind like the Alabama leather flower and the one population of Cahaba lily on Logan Martin Lake. “Botanists at Auburn University and Davis Arboretum are trying to go back and document the lost plant species based off 100-year-old plant specimens. They have also asked for anyone who has a picture of a plant species from before the damming of the Coosa, even if in the background of a photo, to please send it to them.” (See sidebar for address.)

The St. Clair County locations include one plant in a ditch on the side of the road that the city of Ashville knows not to spray or mow. “It’s a creeper, not a vine,” Jessica says. She does volunteer work for the Nature Conservatory as well as for Birmingham Botanical Gardens in their efforts to save native plants. Alabama Power is contributing to these efforts, too.

One of those natives is the Porter’s goldenrod, which became extinct in Alabama in 2003. Jessica has germinated 13 of them and still has four in her gardens. “A friend of mine is a forester and found some in Hartselle, and documented them, but they were on private property and the property owner destroyed them,” she says. “I have a lot of natives that are expired but live on through cultivation or simulated habitat.”

Back near her patio, hummingbirds come up to the Turk’s cap mallow (hibiscus family) and the woodland sunflowers, but they get the most aggressive at the native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens).

Jessica rarely sits and relaxes in her garden because she can’t stay still long enough. She’s always planting, pruning or picking. Although she doesn’t spend time watering or fertilizing her natives, occasionally she’ll use a bit of compost. “But I make my own compost tea,” she says.

Ironically, while she does not believe in chemicals in gardens, she slathers insect repellents containing DEET on herselfwhen entertaining friends on the patio because gnats, mosquitoes and other biting insects seem to love the taste of her skin.

“I’ve never been a religious person, but now I am more spiritual from seeing my connection to nature,” she says. “I’m on a mission. I want to get these native plants into traditional gardens. Once people see them, they love them.”

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Resources

If you want to further explore natives, Jessica suggests the following websites:

• gardenia.net/native-plants/alabama
• wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=AL
• floraofalabama.org
• southeasternflora.com
• wildflower.org/plants-main
• missouribotanicalgarden.org
• plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx

Note: You can send photos of plant specimens from before the damming of the Coosa to Patrick Thompson, Arboretum Specialist, at thomppg@auburn.edu or by ‘snail mail’ to the College of Sciences and Mathematics, Donald E. Davis Arboretum, 101 Rouse Life Sciences Building, Auburn, AL 36849.

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Why plant natives?

While people have been planting natives for many years, it has become more popular in the past decade, according to Jessica Thompson. But by choosing natives for your landscape, you are not only helping wildlife but creating a healthier world in which to live. Here are some of the benefits of planting native gardens:

1. Ecological services. You help feed insects and birds, which spread pollen and feed critters on up the food chain.

2. Water runoff and filtration. Trees, shrubs and perennials filter 80% of our runoff. Turf lawns only filter about 20 percent. “Logan Martin Lake tests high for E. coli. I have a theory that it’s due to cutting down trees and making more lawns and walking paths,” she says. “We’ve cut off our water filter.”

3. Water conservation. “I don’t have an irrigation system. I never water my natives gardens. I let rainfall do it. Even in droughts I don’t water them. They perform so much better that way.”

4. Less maintenance and less soil amendments. “They have evolved to grow in our rocky clay. They don’t need peat and topsoil added. Peat is a non-renewable resource. Most of our peat is only available from Ireland, Scotland and Canada. When those old bogs are gone, they’re gone.”

5. Better for the climate. “Natives are more effective at sequestering (taking from the air) and storing carbon long term.”

6. Healthier places for people. “Lawns and traditional gardens are notorious for requiring pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides. Lawns on average have 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre than farmland.”

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Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos from Phyllis Murphy; John Lonergan Jr.; Vicki Davis Mize
(her collection from her time growing up across from Avondale Lake)

From his back deck, Thomas Ingram Jr. can look through treetops to a spot far down the shore of Logan Martin Lake and see Avondale Lake.

Or rather, he can see where Avondale Lake was when he was a boy.

“Growing up, we had free range to roam,” said Ingram. He would walk or ride his bicycle across his family’s farmland to get to Avondale Lake.

Ingram lives in Pell City on a portion of that same farmland. Now, though, acres upon acres of Logan Martin cover most of the farmland and have engulfed Avondale Lake.

The one part of Avondale Lake that did not disappear when Logan Martin formed are the memories of fun, adventure and special times that happened there.

“I have a vivid memory of it,” Gerald Ensley of Cropwell said about Avondale Lake. “I can see it all.”

Avondale Lake and a large farm surrounding it were the property of Avondale Mills in Pell City. Avondale Mills purchased them from Grover C. Waite, the Easonville businessman who had developed the lake, notes the May 19, 1955, St. Clair News-Aegis.

According to a 1947 issue of Avondale Sun (the newspaper for Avondale Mills), Avondale Lake was about 15 acres in size. It had been acquired “chiefly” as a water source for the Pell City plant, yet quickly had become a popular recreation site.

The lake, its recreational amenities and the dairy that operated on farmland at the lake were added to a long list of provisions that Avondale Mills gave employees of the Pell City plant. Numerous sources said the company provided houses in the “Mill Village,” a hospital, school, laundry, barbershop, clubhouse with concessions, sports facility and activities, outdoor movies and entertainment and cookouts, among others.

“They took care of everybody,” said Ensley, a member of a mill family and a mill worker himself for a time. “… They were good neighbors to the town.”

Pete Rich, whose mother Pauline, taught decades of children in Avondale Mills’ kindergarten, agreed. “The Comers – they really cared about people.”

(The Comer family owned the mill; Comer Avenue in Pell City is named for them.)

David Murphy of Pell City, whose work at Avondale Mills covered decades and two states, said the company established recreation areas wherever it had a plant. For many years, the company also operated Camp Helen, a retreat in Panama City, Fla., that offered an affordable family vacation option to Avondale Mills employees.

Rich was a lifeguard at Avondale Lake during high school and at Camp Helen while in college. He described Avondale Lake as “a busy place,” where people could swim, fish, picnic, bowl and camp out as scouts.

“You could play volleyball, badminton, horseshoes,” added Ingram, a historian and retired educator who taught at Avondale School early in his career.

Joann Winnette of Pell City said the building that housed the bowling alley also included dressing rooms, a concession area and a dance floor with a jukebox. When she went to the lake as a young girl, “the only restroom at that time was a two-holer (outhouse),” she said with a laugh.

At the lake were a dock, diving board and paddle boats. The picnic area, with pavilions and barbecue pit, was a frequent meeting place for scouts, 4-H Clubs and other groups, Ingram said.

Vicki Davis Mize, Julia Skelton and David Murphy’s wife, Phyllis, each remember going there for church picnics. Phyllis Murphy said a creek served as a refrigerator to cool the watermelons.

“Occasionally, we went there as a class,” Mary Isbell of Pell City said about students at Easonville School, where her dad, Lester Bryant, was principal. “… (Highway) 231 wasn’t even a paved road then.”

Rich emphasized that it was quite an attraction. “Avondale Lake was a big thing. … It was about the only place there was back then.”

Ingram said Avondale Lake drew visitors from other areas. “People came all the way from Sylacauga up here to go to the lake.”

The Avondale Sun article goes even further, calling the lake “one of the most popular spots in Alabama for persons seeking relaxation and pleasure.”

Even though Avondale Lake was technically for mill employees and their families, “the whole community from Mount Pisgah to Cropwell went,” said Randall Harmon of Cook Springs. “… It was just a good place to hang out for young kids.”

Many of Harmon’s youthful, summer days were spent swimming at Avondale Lake. He lived in the Mount Pisgah-Easonville area at the time and would hitchhike on Old 231, when necessary, to get to the lake. “It was safe to do stuff like that then.”

Around 1947 or 1948, Avondale Mills bought a school bus and provided a shuttle service from the Mill Village to Avondale Lake during the summer, Ensley said. “Jellybean” Clemons drove the bus and transported families to Camp Helen.

Avondale Lake “was a pretty nice place in those days,” said John Lonergan Jr. of Chula Vista. “… I went there from the time I was old enough to wade in the water until I was 8. I learned to swim there, too.”

Lonergan once rode his bicycle on Old 231 all the way from the Mill Village, where he lived, to Avondale Lake. The only reason he stopped going regularly to the lake was because the City of Pell City, in the 1950s, built a pool on 19th Street South. The pool was not far from the Mill Village.

While Avondale Lake was a fun place to Lonergan, he said he also had a harrowing experience. One day, he fell off the inner tube on which he had been floating. He remembers being on the bottom of the lake looking up and a lifeguard pulling him to safety. He believes that lifeguard was either Pete Rich or French Whitten.

Phyllis Murphy reminisced about special times of being at the lake with her sister Joan Deason and their dad, Norman Smith. “We were little. Daddy would usually swim with us.”

Many churches, Winnette said, held baptismal services at the lake. “Nobody, except maybe First Baptist, had baptistries at that time.”

Winnette, Harmon, Isbell and Mize are a few who were baptized in Avondale Lake. Winnette, in fact, was baptized when it was Waite’s Lake before Avondale Mills acquired and renamed it.

“Lots of people in Pell City were baptized there at Avondale Lake,” Mize said. “I have a picture of my daddy (the Rev. Harvey L. Davis) baptizing me at Avondale Lake.”

A useful resource, too

Not only did the lake property provide outdoor recreation and dairy pastureland, but it also boasted a working grist mill. The mill was situated next to a spillway of the lake.

“We would shell our corn in the barn, put it in a tow sack, and we would take it down and grind it on the shares,” Ingram said. (“On the shares,” he explained, meant the grist mill received a portion of the ground corn as payment for services rendered.)

People could stand on a ramp at the mill to watch lake water rush in from the spillway to turn the mechanisms that ground their corn, Ingram explained. Afterward, the water was discharged down a steep slope into a creek.

“Now, that was fascinating,” Winnette recalled.

What was even more intriguing to Ingram was the replica of a World War II B-29 bomber hanging over the grist mill doorway. Ingram said the replica was six to eight feet in length with an impressive wingspan. He wanted that model badly. “But they wouldn’t let me have it.”

Adventures aplenty

The memories that Glenn Evans of Pell City has about Avondale Lake are of the hours spent hunting on some rear acreage. He said his dad, James Evans, who was plant manager at Avondale Mills, would let him hunt there occasionally in the late 1960s.

Ingram, too, has Avondale Lake hunting stories – one in particular about opposum-hunting with his uncle Grant Watson. He said Watson put the captured critters in a croaker sack that Watson flung over his back. That was until the opposums grew antsy and began biting Watson through the bag.

One of Avondale Lake’s more slithery characteristics was its snake population.

Mize, who does not like snakes at all, is amazed that she could enjoy swimming in the lake. Jokingly, she said, “Nine-thousand snakes were killed in that lake.”

The environs had their share, too.

Lonergan said he was walking with a group one night on the road around the grist mill and saw 13 snakes.

It was not unusual, Ingram said, to see snakes in the vicinity of the scout camp – the same area where he and others would soon be sleeping on the ground in tents. “You’re camping out and snakes crawling around!”

Harmon had an up-close encounter when he and a friend went frog-gigging one time. In a flat-bottom boat left at Avondale Lake, the two friends floated along looking for frogs. As they did, a water moccasin kept circling the boat. Harmon’s friend got the bright idea to gig the snake. After he did, he held the snake right over the head of a surprised, scared and scrambling Harmon.

Spring-fed lake

Avondale Lake was clean, with fresh spring water flowing through it constantly, Harmon said.

“(It) had a lot of springs in it that were cold!” Winnette added.

The spring activity was quite visible, according to Ingram. “(You) could see water just bubbling up.”

The lake was a good fishing spot, too. Lonergan recounted a time that he fished at a second spillway at the back of Avondale Lake, caught a catfish and ate it for supper.

The second spillway drained excess water if the lake level rose too high, Ingram said. That spillway fed Harmon Lake, which was created when overflow from Avondale Lake was dammed. Tol and Stella Harmon owned the Harmon Lake property.

Beyond Harmon Lake laid Easonville Creek and then the Coosa River, which was narrow enough for Randall Harmon to swim across it as a boy. He explained that the spring water that fed Avondale Lake traveled from one waterway to the next until it eventually reached the river.

Although the spot where Avondale Lake sat is a distant sight from Ingram’s back yard, another portion of the Avondale Lake property is close and readily visible. Ingram pointed to houses directly across Logan Martin Lake and said that they sit right where Avondale Lake’s scout camp was.

Rich, Lonergan and Ensley – like Ingram – have adventures to tell about camping at Avondale Lake as scouts.

“I thought it was the most wonderful place in the world,” Ensley said, “especially for an old country boy who hadn’t been anywhere.”

Ensley said the scout camp existed many generations before Avondale Mills acquired it. When Avondale Mills bought the property from Waite, the camp had crude log cabins. Avondale Mills made improvements.

 Scouts from other parts of the country where Avondale Mills had plants would come to the camp too, Ensley said.

Arthur “Chick” Moore oversaw the camp property, as well as the lake and farmland, and had such an integral role that his name frequently is mentioned in Avondale Lake stories.

Ingram said Moore lived on the premises, and Mize said Moore and his wife hosted community gatherings at the lake.

Randall Harmon’s wife, Vicki, said Moore sat in a certain chair looking out at the lake while people were swimming. He was “always laughing and talking and carrying on with us.”

Moore would hire young people to work part time in the summer. Ensley got to be one of them, a “clean-up boy,” around 1953 or 1954.

As a child, Mize went to Avondale Lake “just about every day during the summertime.” Sometimes, her mother, Rebecca Davis, went along to fish. But Mize’s parents did not mind if Mize went to the lake unaccompanied because “they trusted Mr. Moore.”

The store that Mize’s parents operated – H.L. Davis General Merchandise – was right across the road from the lake’s gated entrance. The store was a frequent, snack-buying stop for lake visitors.

Cherished among Mize’s collection of photos of that time in her life is a picture of her dad reclining on a chaise lounge, the gate to Avondale Lake prominently in the background. She commissioned local artist Wayne Spradley to create for her a painting of the gate.

Just as the 1960s were a time of great revolution, drastic changes came to the landscape during that time.

In a project to develop the Coosa River, Alabama Power Company formed Logan Martin Lake and put Logan Martin Dam into operation in August 1964.

Logan Martin Lake grew vastly wider than the Coosa River had been, consuming great expanses of land and encapsulating both Avondale Lake and Harmon Lake.

H.L. Davis General Merchandise was under water. The home next to it – where Mize and her parents had lived – was sold to Ludford Harmon, who established a mobile home park. What once had been the driveway to the home became a boat ramp, Mize said.

As for the pastureland at Avondale Lake, Glenn Evans said it is now River Oaks subdivision. The deep part of Logan Martin Lake in the slough of River Oaks is Avondale Lake.

Avondale Mills continued to operate in Pell City for another four decades, before closing in 2006. Its altitudinous, brick smokestack and most of the buildings have since been demolished. The iconic water tower, though, still holds a prominent place in Pell City’s skyline.

The creation of Logan Martin Lake did claim a lot of farmland (hundreds of acres from Ingram’s family alone) and covered sites brimming with memories. But Ingram observed that much good came from it. The lake and dam now generate electricity for people in Alabama and other states. In addition, the lake is a popular fishing and recreational outlet that, in turn, generates revenue for local businesses.

“Alabama Power dammed it for a business venture, and it turned into much more than that,” Ingram said.

In many ways, he said, all the recreational and commercial benefits of Avondale Lake were just a “mini version” of what was to come with Logan Martin Lake.

Additional assistance with this article provided by Danny Stewart and Susan Mann of Pell City Library; Patti Sims and Linda Sims.

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Story and photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted photos

It’s not unusual to see row after row of beautiful, new boats on display at Logan Martin’s LakeFest celebration. Dealers put the best they have on display for new and returning customers – everything from tritoons to the fastest bass boats on the lake.

But this year, a group of boating enthusiasts rivaled the new boats on display.

While new boats are beautiful in their own right, few draw the eyes of boating enthusiasts like the sleek lines of a pre-World-War-II , barrel-back vintage wood Chris Craft or the raked fiberglass hull and retro fins of a 1956 Sea Sabre.

The Logan Martin Antique and Classic Boat Show at LakeFest was a cooperative effort between Sam Marston, Paul Zimmerman, Ronnie Lyle, Brett Bell and others to show off their special watercraft and to talk to people about what it means to own, restore and maintain one of these beautiful boats.

Chris Craft Icons

This year, the group had 10 boats on display as part of their show, but the first two that usually turn heads are the stunningly maintained wooden Chris Craft boats. With their distinctive hull lines and wood decking with each plank outlined in white, Brett Bell’s 19-foot 1939 Barrel Back and Sam Marston’s 19-foot 1956 Christ Craft Capri are show-stoppers.

A“This boat is all original. It has been preserved, not restored,” Brett said, pointing out that a key to maintaining that is keeping the wood on the boat around water. “It can’t be allowed to dry out,” he said.

The boats are powered by inboard six-cylinder flathead Hercules engines, and while they are some of the most beautiful watercraft ever built, they do have their limitations. Both Sam and Brett say they are cruisers, with flat rounded bottoms, and are not really built for rough, choppy water.

“We run them on the lake early in the morning or in the late afternoons when the water is calmer,” Sam said.

Alongside Sam’s Capri is a special project of his. He had a matching one-person hydroplane built to match his bigger boat, right down to the wood decking. And though the little boat is not technically vintage, it looks right at home next to the other two Chris Craft.

Not all fiberglass and wood

Tucked in next to the wood boats is Sam’s personal favorite. Its simple metal design might be overlooked alongside the sculpted wooden hulls on one side and the retro-styled fiberglass boats on the other, but he says there is something special about his small, metal 12-foot Orlando Clipper runabout.

“The front plows up when you first start moving before it planes, and you can feel the water bouncing off the bottom of the hull under your feet,” he said.

He bought the boat in its current condition in 2004 from an ad in the Birmingham News. He had Mazda’s advertising moniker, “Zoom,

Zoom!” painted on the boat – explaining he loves the way it moves through the water. “It’s a great family boat. Lots of fun,” he said.

Ronnie and Pat Lyle’s 1952 12-foot Feather Craft Deluxe runabout sits next to the Orlando clipper. It’s metal hull painted a bright, fire-engine red with chrome accents and a matching red Mercury Mk 55 outboard.

It’s a bright, dashing contrast to the Orlando clipper next to it and is just as special to its owners – with careful attention to every detail, including the standout paint job and chrome trim on the Mercury outboard engine.

Retro Fiberglass Wonders

Starting in the 1950s, fiberglass was moving to replace wood and metal as the chief hull component for most recreational boats of all sizes because of its durability, ease and maintenance and the flexibility it gave designers.

That flexibility in design was very much on display at LakeFest with a number of classically retro boats, several sporting curved

windscreens and fins commonly found on cars of the day.

Ronnie and Pat’s 19-foot 1975 Aristocraft is a prime example, with its sliding canopy to provide shade from the sun while out on the lake and its teal on white color scheme.

Ronnie’s father had been a truck driver and delivered regularly to the plants in Atlanta where both their boats were built. “I always wanted one of these,” he said.

He has tried to keep the fiberglass boat as close to the original design as possible, though it is still a work in progress. There was a small fire in the engine compartment for the inboard/outboard that had done minor damage to the fiberglass that he is still working on making just right.

Still, the boat sports both the original Aristocraft badge and the dealer sticker on the side.

Another Aristocraft with similar styling was next in line and also still had the original badge on the site. This one is part of Paul Zimmerman’s collection. His Competitive Upholstery business has played a key role in his love of boats, not only filling his upholstery needs on personal restoration jobs but trading out work to acquire some of the boats in his collection, particularly from Buck’s Island in Southside.

Paul said he picked up some boats in much need of restoration from Buck’s in exchange for doing some work on their boats – an offer he was quick to take them up on.

Two of Paul’s boats at the show have some of the most distinctive sterns of any of the other fiberglass boats there, featuring large fins on the aft quarters. His red and white 1957 Larson Thunderhawk Jr. and teal 1957 Sea Sabre both draw heavily from the space-age car designs of the period, and not just with the fins. The boats are adorned with wrap-around wind screens and chrome trim and upholstery appropriate for the era. His wife, Ann, was quick to point out the teal Sea Sabre is her boat – a project she is extremely proud of.

The last boat in the lineup is another one from the Zimmerman family – a late 1960s or early 1970 orange Checkmate speed boat that has truly been a family project, with much of the work being done by Paul’s grandson, Levi Driver, with help from his friend Hayden Davis and dad, Justin.

“We took it out that first time and had the trim wrong on the motor, then trimmed it out and heard a big boom – our stainless prop was

A mishap the first time it went in the water cost them a prop.

just gone,” Levi said.

Despite that setback, they are well on their way to getting the boat ready to float again, and still adding touches, like a top-of-line sound system, underwater LED lights and other features.

Looking to grow

All of the members of the new Antique and Classic boat group, which now has a Facebook page, are looking forward to the group’s future. Several of them have numerous other project boats in the works, and they are also considering reaching out to vintage boat owners on other lakes to participate in future events.

The members are quick to point out – these boats are beautiful, but are also a labor of love, requiring lots of regular maintenance.

That has been one area where the members say the group has been particularly helpful – networking on which people and businesses are best suited to handle repairs and other work on their boat that are outside the scope of their ability to do themselves.

Sam and Ronnie said they very much hope to make their participation in LakeFest a regular event venue for them and hope to have more people with more boats next year.

Follow Logan Martin Antique and Classic Boats on Facebook.