Greensport still a destination point for memories – old and new

Story by Leigh Pritchett

Photos By David Smith
Submitted photos from Margaret Green,
Beth Evans-Smith, Tammy Lowery
and Stephanie Evans.

Along the shores of Neely Henry Lake is an expanse that has been in one family eight generations.

Its history holds stories of ferry rides, steamboat races, a comic strip character and a message in a bottle.

It is also a story of drawing the past into the present

to preserve for the future. Six-year-old David Evans IV and five-year-old brother, Josiah, are that future and the eighth generation to live on land called “Greensport.”

The boys’ parents, David Evans III and wife, Stephanie, have mixed amenities with pieces of history and cradled them in family and tradition.

The couple assumed operations of the marina, park and campground in February 2020 and are undertaking many projects to make it a premier destination with a secure, family atmosphere.

With the assistance of developer Dale Owens, 90 to 100 RV spaces, with full hook-up and high-speed wireless internet, already have been created. In addition, the expanse features a beach, in-ground pool, vintage store, bath house, laundry facilities, playground and jumping pillow, volleyball court, cornhole, fire pits, golf-cart-friendly biking and walking trails, dog park, boat storage and fueling areas.

A large pavilion at the tip of a peninsula called “The Island” has become a popular setting for gatherings and weddings.

“There’s not a weekend we don’t have it rented out,” said Stephanie, a marketing specialist.

Day-use picnic pavilions line the shore where, in yesteryear, a ferry docked. Already, the pavilions are booked into summer 2021.

“We stay at 95 percent capacity during the week and that goes up to 100 percent on the weekend,” Stephanie said of the pavilions.

Campers from nearly all 50 states, British Columbia and the United Kingdom have stayed at the RV park, she said.

The couple have further plans for a restaurant right at the lake’s edge, an on-site food vendor, another pool, a 120-foot pier and additional RV spaces so that the park can accommodate up to 150 rigs. An original lake house is to be relocated and repurposed for a game room and laundry.

At the same time, the land retains its centuries-old agricultural legacy and has been named an Alabama Bicentennial Farm. “We raise our own line of cattle … (and) market our USDA-inspected beef in the (park) store,” said David III.

‘Steeped in history’

Those conversant with the history of the surrounding area say its name could have been “Green’s Port” at one time, eventually becoming “Greensport.” Or perhaps, it was always “Greensport.”

Regardless, there was a port and “Green’s Ferry was chartered by an act of the legislature with Jacob Green as the bonded ferryman,” notes the book, History of St. Clair County (Alabama), by Mattie Lou Teague Crow. “… The place became Greensport.”

The generations — Dave Evans III, standing; Dave Evans Jr. seated with Dave Evans IV, AKA Quade, and Josiah Evans

Jacob Green was the first of the eight generations to be on the land.

Beth Evans-Smith, the sister of David III, said Jacob settled in the area sometime around 1818.

Jacob had fought in the Revolutionary War as a teenager and in the War of 1812, Beth and David III said. Beth said it is possible Jacob received the acres of “Beaver Valley” farmland as compensation for his military service.

A narrow Coosa River meandered through the farmland, Beth continued.

Greensport is “really steeped in a lot of history,” said Beth, who still lives on the family land. Soldiers during the War of 1812 and the Civil War crossed the Coosa River at Greensport. Native-American artifacts reveal that it held significance for them, too.

Margaret Green of Ashville, a distant cousin of Beth and David III, said Native-American fish weirs have been seen when the water was low. Beth added that David III has a corn-grinding stone one of their ancestors was given by a Native American who befriended them.

Farmers brought their cotton and other crops to the port to be transported to market upriver. Shoals made the river going southward unnavigable, Beth said.

Between 1879 and 1890, three locks were built in an attempt to open navigation south of Greensport. The locks were about .68 miles, 3.86 miles and 5.24 miles below Greensport, according to History of St. Clair County. “The dam for the fourth lock was completed by 1892, … 26 miles below Greensport. The locks for this dam were never (built).” Thus, the river was unnavigable beyond that. “… When the railroads gained a monopoly on freight, and Congress failed to appropriate sufficient funds to cover operational costs, the locks were no longer used.”

The first steamboat to travel the Coosa River sailed from Greensport in 1845. It was the U.S.M. Coosa and transported mail to Rome, Ga., notes History of St. Clair County.

“Throughout the 19th century, Greensport was an important port in the trade routes of the state,” the book continues. “… There were steamboats coming to Greensport every day.”

Periodic steamboat races drew excited crowds along the route, Crow writes.Margaret, who taught in Pell City schools, has three binders of photos and information on the area and probably “a picture of every steamboat that went through Greensport.”

As a port town, Greensport bustled with activity. “It was a big to-do,” Margaret said. “It wasn’t just a little, tiny nothing. It was a thriving community.”

The onboard happenings of one steamboat, the Leota, provided ideas for the character “Popeye.”

“Tom Sims, a cartoonist who wrote ‘Popeye the Sailor Man,’ drew inspiration from his own experiences on working on a

steamboat,” Justinn Overton, executive director of Coosa Riverkeeper, states on the website, coosariver.org. “… Tom lived in Ohatchee, Ala.,, and used the sites, the people, and his father’s steamboat, the Leota, as inspiration for the comic strip.”

The Greensport ferry garnered interest of its own.

An article from the Sept. 19, 1928, edition of The Anniston  Star notes that using the ferry would cut 30 miles off a trip from Birmingham to Atlanta.The newspaper’s June 20, 1954, issue states the ferry was quite busy some football Saturdays. “They say that when Alabama used to play Georgia Tech, the cars would stack up for a mile waiting to get across the river,” David Evans Sr., the grandfather of Beth and David III, is quoted as saying. The ferry was also a Sunday destination, as people came just to ride it across and back.

David Sr. and son David Evans Jr. were the last two operators of the ferry, David III said.

The ferry was still in operation in 1957. Beth’s father, David Jr., piloted the ferry until he took a steel plant job. She said a man often brought his special needs child to ride the ferry, and her dad always helped the child embark and disembark. One time, her dad mentioned needing another job, and the child’s father suggested applying at Republic Steel in Gadsden. When her dad did apply, that man happened to be the interviewer, and David Jr. started work immediately.

David Sr. served as St. Clair County’s sheriff for a time, Beth and David III said.

Of the land that stretches in every direction from the store, David III said, “It’s been part of my life since the beginning.”

As young children, he and Beth lived in the home their grandfather had built. David III pointed to a place in the lake to show where the home sat.

In their youth, he and Beth raised heifers and horses. They learned to work, be responsible and deal with the public, Beth said. “We learned a lot.”

On weekends, people who knew their grandfather when he was in the coal mining business in Bibb County often camped on the property. Those, Beth said, were always fun times. “We had a great childhood.”

“Pop” Hoffman, a man known for killing and stuffing rattlesnakes, lived on the premises as well. “He took care of us during the day,” Beth said, referring to her and David III. “(Pop) was our babysitter. … Pop was a grand person. I didn’t know he wasn’t related to me when I was young.”

Dave Evans Sr. at the store

A prominent memory for her cousin, Margaret, is of her and Beth playing on the newly built piers before the lake appeared.

“We’d just run and jump (off the piers) like we were Superman,” Margaret said.

The marina and park hold a lot of memories as well for Allen Beavers of Attalla.

The 51-year-old said he has been going there since age 5.

As a teen, “(every) Saturday and Sunday during the summer, we were there,” Allen said.

He and wife Tina now vacation there three to four weeks a year, with future plans to stay for months at a time.

Following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis seven years ago, Allen vowed to go every weekend, rain or shine. The couple reserve a day-use picnic pavilion, enjoy the scenery and talk with other picnickers in a setting that Allen describes as “family.”

“I love the place so much,” he said. “… Even if I’m in a wheelchair, I want to be down there.”

Tammy Lowery can understand. She has fond, childhood memories of summer fun and family time on the land. “We would go there and swim for the day and barbecue with the family.”

After vacationing there in 2020, Tammy and husband Dale decided to sell their home in Attalla, buy a fifth-wheel rig, and become permanent residents of the RV park. Son Mason is at college, but son Brayden has an RV in the park as well.

Tammy and Dale now serve as camp hosts, assisting campers after hours.

“We just loved it so much, we never went back home,” Tammy said.

Finding a treasure

A bottle that was floating on the lake at Greensport RV Park was as ordinary as any other bottle floating on a lake.

Day use pavilions perfect for outdoor enjoyment

But its contents and 34-year journey were not ordinary at all.

The bottle and the lives touched by it are highlighted by Fred Hunter of Birmingham’s WBRC-6 in an Aug. 24, 2020, post on wbrc.com.

The post reveals that, in 1986, Argin Hulsey wrote a message, put it in a bottle and prayed over it. Then, he tossed it into Nance’s Creek near Piedmont in Calhoun County – far upstream from Greensport RV Park. Argin trusted that God would put the message in the right hands at the right time.

When the Evanses’ friend, Brandi Rhoades of Springville, found the bottle in the summer of 2020 as she was helping to clean the river banks, she knew it was something special. She called Stephanie and David III to look at the contents, where they opened the message together.

According to the post, this is Argin’s message that traveled through time to reach the Evans family:

“God intended marriage to be a reflection of the unity of The Godhead, an earthly portrait of his Divine Image. Since there are no perfect people, the achievement of that unity requires a choice, a commitment and acceptance of responsibility to the mate and to the children who will be influenced in the family setting.”

Logan Martin’s Aristotle

Carl Wallace builds lake fan base with social media posts

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Kelsey Bain

Grab a cup of coffee and Lets Chat

Carl Wallace

And so begins the weekly blog of Carl Wallace. Some may call him a critical thinker, something akin to an Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who covered such weighty subjects as logic, ethics, metaphysics, politics, natural science and physics. He simply calls what he writes – and thinks – “Lake Ramblings.”

On social media, he’s gathered quite a following, numbering in the thousands at daybreak each Saturday morning when his ‘ramblings’ appear. His photos, his thoughts on life and lake and his conversation starters up and down Logan Martin’s shoreline community have made him a local celebrity.

And his fans snap up his books – four of them to date – to preserve the special memories, snapshots and perspectives of life on the lake his writing evokes.

“This is lakelife right here,” he says with an animated sweep of his hand motioning lakeward from his usual perch deckside of his Logan Martin home. It’s his ringside seat to what he calls paradise. “We’re incredibly lucky,” he said, noting that he and wife, Marcia, known as “Mar” to regular readers of his blog (Why use two syllables when you can get by with just one?), are “blessed.”

Fishing at sunset a favorite pastime

The genesis of Ramblings was in 2014 when he occasionally posted on Facebook a series of random thoughts about life on the lake and life, in general. People connected, and the following grew. It evolved into every two weeks and then when COVID hit, one of his followers messaged, “You need to go weekly.”

The writing came naturally. An engineer by trade, he had done technical writing over the years. As a hobby, he raised beagles, and he wrote about them in magazines, too. He talks of left brain, right brain and how a chemical engineer could become a writer, and this natural born storyteller made an easy transition. “I said, I’ve done this chemical engineering thing, I want to try this other side for a while and see what else I am.”

Now his storytelling travels over a neighborhood he describes as “50 miles long,” the length of Logan Martin Lake. And this vast ‘community’ looks to their neighbor for news, weather reports, predictions about lake levels and flooding, comings and goings on the lake and even a song lyric or two. “I do a lot of research,” he notes. He tells of origins and history of the everyday occurrences he might encounter and write about. He even tests new products for his readers like the time he bought the Bug Assault, a gun that shoots insects. “Lake people like toys,” he says.

His life, he adds, resides on a laptop and 3 x 5 cards. “I’m observant, but my memory is not so good,” he adds. “I have to make a note or text Mar” to make the note for him.

The storyteller in him

It all eventually winds up in his Saturday morning dialogue with his community. He posts in social media groups, All Things

Logan Martin Lake and Love Lake Logan Martin, which he described in his first book, Lake Ramblings, Heaven Can’t Be Too Far From Here! as “a group of human beings interested in life on Logan Martin Lake, located in central Alabama.”

In the foreword, he tells readers: “I suggest you read one Ramblings per day. I also suggest that you read it aloud to

someone you love. My hope is that you smile together.”

Facebook may have what it calls a conversation starter post, but Carl is the ultimate conversation starter. “Storytelling is a dialogue in the form of stories,” he explains. “It’s the way conversation starts.”

He learned that in Yazoo, Miss., where Jerry Clower lived and worked at one time for the same company as Carl. Clower eventually became a standup comedian, and his stories about the South earned him the moniker, “Mouth of the Mississippi.”

At Carl’s company, he says he was lucky to hang around with some of the older guys who would tell stories of days gone by. They entertained and engaged their audience. That art wasn’t lost on him.

So, every Saturday morning, he engages his “fellow human beings” with random tales of the week, thought provoking questions and observations, and he ends with a few song verses for good measure.

The song lyrics, he says, were an evolution in his writings. “It’s become a huge part of it. You never know when a song verse is going to touch someone.” It’s not unusual for a song verse to bring out a chorus of ‘I remember when’ comments from his readers each week.

How does he pick them? There is a common thread. “I preach love, tolerance and fun,” he says.

Sunsets aplenty

Sunsets play a starring role in his posts and in his life on the lake. In dedicating that first book, he thanked all his friends and followers and dedicated it to all who live on Logan Martin. “I must also thank the Lord for putting the most awesome sunsets in the world on Logan Martin Lake and for putting us here to appreciate them.”

His books are filled with sunset photos he has taken, and some of his favorites have been made into enlarged photos on canvas hanging in a place of honor reserved in the great room.

But they’re not the only source of his inspiration for writing ramblings. He draws inspiration from just about anything in front of him and gives it a little twist – a double entendre, one might say. “We saw a jet ski out and about around Thanksgiving – cool – literally,” he wrote.

He committed his ‘ramblings’ to book form so his daughter may pick one up in the future and here him. His writings are countless examples of everyday occurrences that lake people can relate to. “Left? Or right? That’s the big decision you have to make to go ‘tuning!” he wrote in another post. For non-lake folks, tuning means riding on a pontoon boat. “Are we going downstream? Or upstream? Toward the dam? Or toward I-20? Tough

decisions (smiling emoji inserted). It’s a big relief once you’ve committed – whew!”

By Lake Ramblings, too, “ya gotta love the lake,” he added thousands more members to his dedication list but went a step further: “Let’s also include the millions of lake lovers everywhere – I suspect we have a lot in common.”

By his third book, Lake Ramblings Again, “still lovin’ the Lake life,” he added more fans and followers to his dedication, singling out “those special fans that understand me more than 50 percent of the time.”

The latest is Lake Ramblings IV, “welcome to paradise,” and a fifth is due out in May. He warns would-be readers in Lake Ramblings IV: “So, here’s the premise, the setting – me and you, sitting on our upper deck, daybreak, overlooking the lake, right now, drinking coffee and chatting – yes, I will hog the conversation.”

And lucky for the Logan Martin community, the conversation continues every Saturday morning about daybreak.

You’ll read about the lake wildlife he named, like Genghis, the great blue heron; Larry, the lizard; Crack, the squirrel; Fred and Maggie, the Mallard couple; Stump, the chipmunk, and a seeming menagerie of others.

You’ll hear about humans, too, like Neighbor Dalton and Long Company Hugh. They’re all part of Carl’s Saturday morning community conversations.

How did they get here from there?

When it was time to retire eight years ago, the Wallaces knew they wanted to be on the water, and Alabama was a good choice because their daughter, Shannon Atchenson, lived in Birmingham. “I’m a spoiled bass fisherman,” he says, noting that Guntersville real estate was a bit high. They couldn’t find what they wanted on Lay, and someone mentioned Logan Martin. “I had never heard of it,” he recalls, so he said, “Let’s go look.”

Carl and Marcia “Mar” on the deck

They found the perfect place with a near 360-degree view, and they more than settled in. They are regular fixtures at community events, and he often uses his Saturday morning posts to promote them. Chapel in the Pines – the come as you are church at Lakeside Park – is a regular feature. “It’s a cool thing, he says, to comment that you “get in the boat and go to chapel.”

Retirement looks good on Carl. He was in the chemical industry for 33 years, enjoying a successful career as an executive. But when it came time to retire, he said he was ready.

“When I was 27 years old, I knew I was going to be good at retirement. And I am.”

Editor’s Note: In addition to every Saturday morning on Facebook, you can read Carl’s posts on

LakeRamblings.com. His books are availble on Amazon.com