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Story Scottie Vickery
Photos by Kelsey Bain

Ten years after buying their dream house on Logan Martin Lake, Deborah Mattison and her husband, Ronnie Harkins, created an outdoor oasis that made their own piece of paradise even dreamier.

After removing the concrete slab that was their patio, the couple created a backyard haven, complete with a cozy fireplace, covered sitting and dining areas, and an outdoor kitchen that rivals many of its indoor counterparts.

“It’s like having another living space, and it’s opened up so many possibilities,” Deborah said. “This makes it so much easier to entertain.”

Like many home-renovation projects, the outdoor living area started with a small idea that took on a life of its own. “I wanted an outdoor fireplace, and it grew from there,” Ronnie said. Four years later, he and Deborah are thrilled that it did.

“I have a stressful job,” said Deborah, an attorney who represents children with disabilities in special education matters. “When I get home from work, we come out here more nights than not and just look at the lake and relax. Being on the lake is really calming.”

Dining al fresco

Although Deborah is the chief cook, Ronnie said he handles the grilling. These days, they eat a lot of fish and chicken, so both the Coyote Grill and Big Green Egg get quite a workout. The outdoor kitchen also features two burners, an infrared cooker, a mini fridge, sink and lots of storage space.

One of their favorite recipes is Cedar Plank Salmon. “For some reason, cooking salmon on a plank makes the fish incredibly tender,” Deborah said, adding that they always keep cedar planks on hand.

She often pairs the salmon with Whole Artichokes with Aioli Sauce. “Artichokes are a unique vegetable with many health benefits,” she said. “They’re low in fat and high in fiber, minerals and vitamins C and K. Most people only eat them in dips, but they are delicious whole.”

They were also part of the very first meal she made for Ronnie when they were dating. “I made him crab cakes and an artichoke. I hoped the artichoke would make me look sophisticated,” she said with a laugh.

The couple met on a dating website and got married in 2002. “He was the first person I ever met online,” she said. She was intrigued that Ronnie, who had long served as chief financial officer for Central Alabama Community College, had started law school one month shy of his 50^th birthday.

That, coupled with the fact that his profile picture showed him in front of a floor-to-ceiling bookcase that held many photos of his family, sealed the deal for Deborah. “I thought Ronnie looked smart and interesting,” she said.

Ronnie, who began practicing law in Sylacauga in 2005 before retiring two years ago, remembers being fascinated by her work and some of her cases. “Early on, she had a case that went to the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “I tagged along with her, and with me attending law school, that was very interesting.”

A piece of paradise

Deborah, who grew up in Michigan, lived on a lake before moving to Alabama in 1993. She didn’t want to give up the lake lifestyle, so she looked for a home on the water that wasn’t too far from her office in downtown Birmingham.

Her first home was on the Talladega side of the lake, and when they married, Ronnie sold his home in Childersburg and soon fell in love with lake living as well. They began looking for a new house and spent a lot of time on the pontoon boat searching for the perfect place and debating whether to renovate Deborah’s home, buy a new house or build. “We used to ride around all the time looking at houses and lots,” Ronnie said. “This was our dream home.”

Around that time, Ronnie’s cousin, Charlie Pepper, and his wife, Willie, moved home from California to help care for their elderly parents. They invited Ronnie and Deborah to dinner, and the couple did a double take when they arrived. “They had our house,” Deborah said.

Ronnie said the visit came at a time when they had gotten serious about finding a new home and had actually looked at six or eight houses that day. “When we got here that night to see Charlie and Willie, it emphasized our love of the house,” he said. “It has lots of windows and 14-foot ceilings in several of the rooms and an open plan.”

The Peppers knew they would eventually return to California, and “they told us they would give us the first opportunity to buy it,” Ronnie said. “We decided it was worth the wait.”

The 4-bedroom house in Pell City is just across from Bird Island and sits on 4½ acres on the point. It boasts 800 feet of seawall and has tremendous views from every vantage point. “You can see the water from every room in the house,” Deborah said.

Making it their own

Over the years, Deborah and Ronnie have renovated parts of the home to make it a better space for entertaining. They updated the kitchen and master bathroom and transformed an office just off the foyer into a small sitting room where they spend most of their time when they’re inside.

They converted a double closet to create the room’s focal point, a beautiful bar area featuring an antique chest flanked with built-in wine racks and topped with granite. An antique mirror and shelves holding glasses and bottles rests on top. In addition, they switched their living room and dining room to create more space for a larger table, which seats 10 people.

Although they like having guests, Deborah also enjoys preparing meals for just the two of them. “I love to cook,” she said. “While I often use recipes for ideas, I typically don’t measure anything, I eyeball it – unless I’m baking, which I very seldom do. I measure then because I don’t have enough of a feel for baking to use my own judgement.”

One thing she swears by is using fresh herbs, which she grows herself. “I grow a ton of herbs – mint, chives, rosemary, oregano, thyme,” she said. “Alabama has such a great growing season, and since these are perennial herbs, you don’t have to do anything but stick them in the pot and let them grow year-round.”

Now that Ronnie has retired, they have started gardening, too. He built some raised beds last year for tomatoes, radishes, onions, summer squash and bell peppers. They also have eight blueberry bushes. “I eat them just about every day when they are in season,” Ronnie said.

The great outdoors

The addition of the kitchen and living area has extended the “outdoor season” for Deborah and Ronnie, allowing them to enjoy lake life even more. They often host football parties and dinners for family and friends, and they find themselves heading outside even during the colder months.

“We love the fireplace at night,” Deborah said, adding that it’s especially cozy when there’s a nip in the air. “I put blankets in the dryer to warm them up, and then we sit in front of the fire for quite a while. It’s like being on vacation.”

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Cedar Plank Salmon

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

• 2 salmon filets
• 1/8 cup Garlic Expressions Vinaigrette, Dressing & Marinade (or any preferred vinaigrette dressing)
• 1/8 cup soy sauce (optional)
• Lemon slices
• Capers (optional)
• 1 cedar plank board, soaked in water for about an hour.

Directions:

Marinate the filets for about an hour in the Garlic Expressions and soy sauce. I use a plastic sandwich bag and turn it over after 30 minutes.

Drain the cedar board and place the board on a grill set at 350 degrees for 3 minutes. Turn the plank over on the grill and place the salmon on it. Cook the salmon for 8 to 15 minutes, depending on how well cooked you like your salmon.

Remove the plank from the grill and plate the salmon. Garnish with lemon and capers. We sometimes add butter and/or marinated ginger.  

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Whole Artichokes with Aioli Sauce

While we like our artichokes with an aioli sauce, they pair well with many dips, such as a butter and lemon sauce or ranch dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1 artichoke per person
• Lemon (optional)
• Garlic (optional)
• Bay leaf (optional)

Directions for Cooking and Eating:

When picking an artichoke, squeeze it to make sure it is firm, and the leaves are tight.

Trim the stem and cut off the small leaves at the bottom of the artichoke. Trim the first inch off the top (the pointy ends of the leaves).

Steam the artichoke for about 30 minutes. You can also add lemon and/or garlic and/or a bay leaf to the water for added taste. An artichoke is done when you can easily pull out one of the outer leaves. Drain the artichoke.

To eat the artichoke, pull off an outer leaf and dip it into the aioli sauce. Place the tender (lighter) side of a leaf on your bottom front teeth, bite gently down and pull it through your teeth, scrapping off the tender part of the leaf. Discard the remainder of the leaf.

Continue with the remaining leaves until you reach the fuzzy part of the artichoke, called the “choke.” Scrape out the fuzzy choke and discard. The remaining part is the artichoke “heart,” and it is completely edible, using the reminder of the dip. 

Aioli Sauce

This is a very versatile sauce and can be used with fries, burgers or salmon. Consider adding any of the following: horseradish, Dijon or stone-ground mustard, pesto or basil, chives and/or chipotle.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of mayonnaise
• 3 cloves of garlic, use more or less to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons of fresh lemon sauce, to taste
• Coarse salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:     

Mix the ingredients and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

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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.”