Springville Is Booming

Emphasis on ‘good growth’

Story by Linda Long
Photos by Graham Hadley

“Growing like gangbusters!” That’s how Springville Mayor Dave Thomas describes what’s going on in his town.

To those who think of Springville as the quintessential small, quaint, Southern town with sidewalks and antique shops lining Main Street, that might seem a contradictory remark. But to quote Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a-changin.”

“The antiques have given way to boutiques,” said Thomas. “A portion of our population wants Springville to never change, but I’m afraid that’s not reality. We’re going to continue to grow. So, the best we can do is to properly plan and manage the growth. We just need to do what it is we want to do and can do with our community, and what we don’t want to do is just as important,” he said.

Pink Hill Organics

“It’s quite a juggling act. Sometimes, it feels like your juggling chain saws,” Thomas said with a laugh.

Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council, understands the mayor’s challenge. “Springville is not the largest city in St. Clair County, but that’s not their goal. Springville is focused on quality over quantity. It may mean they grow slower, but the growth they have brings tremendous value to the community.”

While Springville is not the largest of all the municipalities in St. Clair County, it does have the highest median household income in the county of almost $84,000, and the homes are probably among the most expensive.

“Their median household income is the same as Homewood even though Homewood is about five times larger,” Smith noted.

Calling it Springville’s vision for its community, Smith said, “they have always put their money and their efforts toward supporting small business and focusing on quality of life, safety and supporting their schools. Folks that live there in Springville take tremendous pride in making their community the best it can be,” Smith asserted, “and they are well on their way.”

“Personally, I think Springville is a hidden jewel in the region,” said Nikkie Posey, president of the Springville Chamber of Commerce. “As a community, it is very welcoming, and there are affordable options for shopping, living and visiting here. There is a great vibe in the city right now for small business with a lot of community following, which is one reason I opened my business downtown in Springville and got so involved with the Chamber.”

Springville Antique Mall is full of amazing antiques and collectables.

Posey, owner of Pinkhill Organics said she named her shop for the town’s original name, Pinkhill. “Nobody knows where the name came from,” said Posey. Because of many other businesses already using the word spring in their names, she opted for something different.

“So, I did some research and discovered Pinkhill and just ran with it,” she said. “Springville is becoming a place to come to stay, shop, to live,” said Posey. “People want that small-town feel that, as a community, we feel we have. As a community, that is something we want to maintain. We want to have good growth – controlled growth – without losing that small, hometown feel.”

According to Smith, in looking at new businesses or projects for Springville, “we always want a good fit. Many times, projects by residential developers have been turned away because they didn’t want to build the quality development that city officials wanted.”

The mayor remembers one such proposed development. “This young man, actually homegrown, wanted to do something in his community. He wanted to build, in his words, ‘high density, affordable housing.’ These would be on tiny lots just packed. I told him your business is not mine. My business is what’s good in Springville.”

Continuing, Thomas said, “I like to see opportunities available to locals, not just corporate chains, big box stores, and developers who are interested in nothing more than making their money and moving on to the next project.”

One project it seems almost everyone can agree is good for Springville is the Forever Wild Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve set to open just north of town. According to Smith, the preserve “checks all the boxes on what is a good fit for Springville. It will have walking trails, biking trails, horseback riding, kayaking and canoeing in Big Canoe Creek and will allow people in Springville and outside the area to come and enjoy outdoor activities.

According to Thomas, a lot of folks in Springville are concerned at how neighboring Trussville has, in his words, “continued to explode” in growth over the years with strip malls and more and more subdivisions.

“Now, I’m not knocking Trussville,” he said, “but we don’t want to be them. We want to continue to be Springville. Of course, we’d like to get more storefronts filled, and we’re working on that. Things are happening in that regard.”

He points with pride to a new restaurant similar to Vestavia’s successful Backyard Market that will be opening, as well as a new bottling operation. “It’s from the same folks who bottled the water at Blount Springs. Now they’ll be doing the same thing with Springville water,” said Thomas.

Nichols Nook

He said the group already has a contract with Publix to develop local label products to put on their shelves. “They’ll be using Springville’s finest bottled water as a marketing hook.”

Promoting small business throughout St. Clair County falls to EDC Retail and Marketing Specialist Candice Hill. Toward that goal, Hill is working with chambers of commerce with what she calls Relevant Roundtables.

“We hold these every quarter as a way to touch small businesses and provide educational opportunities,” she explained. The meetings cover topics like social media and accounting practices among others. Hill said the resource is for all small business whether they are continuing to grow or just starting up.

Remembering back to when he first moved to Springville some 30 years ago, Thomas said, “Springville was lined with antique stores. The town had a Norman Rockwell-esque feel to it. Well, the antique stores are mostly gone, but what makes downtown appealing hasn’t changed. It hasn’t gone anywhere. The essence is still here. Everybody shares the same sentiment. Springville really is exceptional.”

Architectural rendering of the Depot

The Depot construction begins

Another sign of Springville growth

Story by Linda Long
Photos by Graham Hadley and submitted

There’s yet another sign of ‘good growth’ in Springville these days. The Depot, a facility now under construction in Springville, gives new meaning to the term multi-use. The first two phases of the 60,000-square-foot project on 20.43 acres on U.S. 11 will open next fall. The complex is planning space for just about everything – from physical fitness and education to arts and worship.

Mike Ennis, pastor at Faith Community Fellowship Springville Campus, says the project has been under way for the past four years. “It started with the opening of our church campus here in Springville and realizing the community was very centered around athletics. It was birthed out of some of the challenges facing Alabama.”

Because Alabama ranks low nationally in economics and health, “We felt like rather than building a church, we’d rather build a community center. Something the entire community could use. Something that would hopefully improve both the economics and health of our community and provide athletic opportunities.

Explaining that the center is “not just for young people and not just people who are a part of our church, we really wanted to build something that would serve the community at large. That’s been the driving factor behind it from the beginning.”

The Depot includes a community café and catering kitchen, multipurpose areas, conference rooms, coworking spaces, a teen center and independent living.

The center also includes an auditorium which the church will use, Ennis says, but his church won’t own the building. It will be a tenant. “We realized to make a decent impact and provide the most opportunity, we needed to hand it off to a property management group,” he said.

Surgance, Inc., 501(c)(3) nonprofit group, is overseeing and managing the project.

Ennis, who served on Springville’s strategic planning committee, said the committee decided Springville needed a facility like this one, which will include two auditoriums, banquet and meeting rooms, school grades K-8 and a preschool called Esteem Academy. Surgance is also partnering with the St. Clair County Board of Education, providing space for its virtual academy.

Representatives of regional, state and national organizations have been involved with the childcare and education committees to help with planning. It will include early childhood education, virtual school, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) Academy.

“There’s really nothing like it on this end of the county,” said Ennis. “We’re hoping to reach out to Springville and beyond. We’ve had a super positive response from everybody we talk to. I think there’s a real need for something like this.”

Phase I of the project is a 10,000-square-foot building, which is expected to be completed by June 2022.

Grave Dowsing

Finding where the bones are buried

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

About 50 people gathered inside Reeves Grove Baptist Church on a fall Saturday, listening attentively as The Backwood Boys sang Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold This Body Down), Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and other old spirituals.

They heard a brief history of the church and received apples from the apron pockets of several women dressed in the fashion of the late 1800s, when the church was established.

But the main attraction was outside, after these presentations, when two grave dowsers approached the old church cemetery, dowsing rods made of wire in their hands. Dowsing has been used for centuries to locate water, graves, pipelines and other underground objects by watching the motion of a pointer – usually a forked stick or paired bent wire. At Reeves Grove, the group was locating graves as part of its ongoing restoration project at the historic church.

Backwood Boys Mark Willingham, Marlin Galloway and Adron Willingham play at grave dowsing event.

It didn’t take long for Wayne Gregg’s rods to cross, indicating a grave. According to the marker, that grave belonged to Elizabeth McCorkle, wife of the original owner of the McCorkle Plantation upon which Reeves Grove now stands. Something wasn’t quite right, though. The markers weren’t where they were supposed to be. His rods indicated the presence of a second body that wasn’t represented on the grave marker. “We think it might have been Elizabeth’s husband,” says Linda Moyer, chairperson of the Reeves Grove Historical Committee.

The group soon moved on to the slave section of the cemetery, where the graves have no stones. The committee wants to mark those graves and give the folks buried there the recognition they are due, even if their names are unknown.

Gregg, who is from DeKalb County, wasn’t the first dowser to notice the anomaly of an extra person in a grave, however. “I went up there one afternoon with some members a week before they had the official event,” says Frank Waid, a Springville grave dowser who studied under Gregg. “We laid out the McCorkle Cemetery and marked a bunch of graves with flags. (Moyer says they put ribbons on the graves of the church founders.) One kept giving all kinds of problems. I was getting readings of male and female bodies. I said, ‘Something’s wrong here. I think there’s two people in this grave, but I’m not sure, because I’m not as experienced as Wayne Gregg.’ So, when they had the special day and demonstrated dowsing for the people, Wayne started walking in the spot where I had been walking and said, ‘There are two people buried here!’”

The dowsing event was another effort to raise awareness and money for the restoration of the original church building. The church historical committee is restoring the sanctuary and its attached fellowship hall to be used as an event venue.

But restoration wasn’t uppermost in the minds of those in attendance on dowsing day. People were so interested in Gregg’s presentation on grave dowsing that their questions and his answers pushed his allotted 30-45 minutes on the program to an hour. “They were fascinated,” says Moyer. “They also enjoyed Macki Branham’s brief history of the church and Glenda Tucker showing off a fashionable dress from the McCorkle era.” The dress was once worn by Eliza Elizabeth (Moore) Keith, (December 16, 1827-January 8, 1891), the great-great-grandmother of Glenda’s husband, Harry Tucker.

The Backwood Boys – Gallant musicians Adron and Mark Willingham on guitars, Marlin Galloway on mandolin – continued to play as the audience filed outside behind Gregg and Waid for the actual grave dowsing. Gregg narrated while Waid demonstrated dowsing techniques.

“I use two wires I got from Wayne,” Waid says. “If they cross high, it’s a female; if low, it’s a male. Lots of times (during the 1800s) women died in childbirth and they buried mom with her baby on her chest. Wayne can tell that, but I don’t have that experience yet.”

Waid noticed that all the graves in the slave section were small and wondered whether they might be buried in a fetal position. “They wouldn’t have had the resources for caskets, so they probably wrapped the bodies in blankets,” he said. “Most of these slaves came from South Carolina, and they were Caribbean slaves, so some of their beliefs determined how they were buried.”

Waid took a grave-dowsing class from Gregg about three years ago at his wife’s urging. She is a member of area historical and genealogical societies and thought grave dowsing might add depth (no pun intended) to that type of research.

“He gave a long, interesting class that morning, we had lunch, then went to an old cemetery,” Waid says. “We started practicing dowsing. Somehow it seemed to work for myself and Joseph Williams, also from Springville and part of the Springville Preservation Society. It was amazing! There were some people there who couldn’t get the hang of it, or it didn’t work for them, but for Joseph and me and one other lady, it did.”

In a self-published booklet titled, Dowsing for Fun and Profit, Gregg writes, “In Peru, a rock carving more than 9,000 years old depicts a man holding a forked dowsing stick,” he writes. Modern dowsing begins to appear in records around the 15th century in Europe.

Members of the Reeves Grove Historical Committee placed white ribbons on the graves of the church’s founders.

Although most scientists are skeptics, Gregg says dowsing has been proven many times. “I recently read a German government 10-year report recorded by a physicist at the University of Munich,” he says in his booklet, which he published several years ago. “He described how dowsing was used to locate water sources in arid regions of Sri Lanka, Zaire, Kenya, Namibia, Yemen and other countries. The success rates by dowsers in 691 drillings was an amazing 96%, where a success rate of only 30% would be expected from conventional techniques.”

Gregg got interested in dowsing when he went to work for Southern Bell telephone company in 1963. “The older guys who repaired underground cables taught me,” he says. “We didn’t have the modern devices we have now.”

Although dowsing is sometimes related to spirituality and witchcraft, Gregg says he doesn’t have any special powers, nor is he gifted in any way. It has nothing to do with witchcraft, because “it works for the majority of those who try it, and I know we are not all witches.” At times he has thought he discovered what makes it work, such as disturbance of the earth’s energy fields, only to find it was not true, particularly when it comes to determining the gender of a person in a grave. “Albert Einstein referred to dowsing as quantum physics, yet unexplained,” he says.

Still, people for whom the stick worked were called “water witches” by our ancestors, who hired them to locate underground water. “Rods work for a large percentage of first timers,” Gregg says. “Forked sticks work for only a very small percentage.”

For grave dowsing, he uses wire rods, which can be made of any stiff wire. The most common are coat hangers. The rods are made by bending the wire into an “L” shape, with the handle being the length of the dowser’s hand and the long part extending in front of him for 12-18 inches. “Rods will work for a large percentage of those who try for the first time,” he writes in his booklet. “They will never work for some, no matter how hard they try. Excessive jewelry, cellphones and other items worn on the body will sometimes make a difference.”

In his booklet, he explains how to hold the rods (elbows at waist, forearms parallel to the ground). He cautions NOT to place one’s thumbs over the bend of the handle, as this will restrict movement. Don’t grip too tightly, he cautions, only enough to keep the rods parallel. Approach the gravesite walking very slowly. “The rods will cross in front of you when you are over the grave. Once you step off the grave, they will uncross.”

He says the rods will respond the same to any burial, including stillborn infants through adults, even animals. “It makes no difference if the body was buried wrapped only in cloth, in a wood or metal coffin, or a coffin inside a vault,” he writes. “The age of the grave makes no difference. It can be recent or hundreds of years old.”

He says in order to more easily find unmarked graves and determine gender, it’s important to remember that most cemeteries in the United States bury their dead in a Christian manner. Their bodies are laid on their backs with their heads pointing west and their feet pointing east, as if they’re looking east for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

“You will discover that unmarked graves in an established cemetery will be buried in the same rows as marked graves,” he writes. “In a cemetery with no markers, it will be necessary to determine east and west directions to know the position of graves. Locate unmarked graves by walking slowly across the area you suspect. If graves are present your rods will cross and uncross as you move from one grave to the next.” Above all, he says, practice, practice, practice to get good at dowsing.

At 80 years of age, Gregg doesn’t dowse as much as he used to. He doesn’t have plans to conduct another workshop, either, but his booklet, which also discusses dowsing for water pipes and buried cables, is available, along with two wire dowsing rods, for $10.

Several folks at the Reeves Grove dowsing event bought the package, and just about everyone came away with a new perspective on the subject.

“Through the years, the McCorkle property gradually got sold bit by bit to various people, and we found out the day of the dowsing event that the original cemetery probably extends into what is now the Fant property,” Moyer said. “Now we know where the graves actually are in the old slave section.”

Editor’s note: For more about the restoration project, go to discoverstclair.com/back-issues and scroll down to April 2019, page 42.

Call Gregg at 256-706-3262 for information on how to obtain the booklet and rod set.

Eric Bell: Auburn’s No. 1 fan

By Carol Pappas

For the Bell family and all who know them, it’s nearly impossible to think of the Auburn-Alabama rivalry without mentioning Jimmy and Yvonne’s late son, Eric.

Born with Down syndrome, Eric grew into arguably the biggest Auburn fan around. His Uncle Mack said, “When I think of Auburn, I think of Eric. When I think of Eric, I think of Auburn.”

At event honoring Bo Jackson and his Heisman Trophy at Auburn, fans could take photos with the trophy to look like a Sports Illustrated cover. Of course, Eric’s on the cover.

Jimmy and Eric spent years traveling to the Plains together in their motorhome, spending time in the Loveliest Village that are a cascade of memories – good ones. Jimmy’s description of those days sounds much like the title song of the television show, Cheers, “where everybody knows your name.”

Because of Eric’s natural, gregarious spirit, everybody knew Eric’s name. He got to know everyone around the stadium. “Eric even knew the trainers,” Jimmy said. “They gave him a helmet. Aubie (Auburn’s mascot) came over one day and sat at the motorhome with Eric. He got everybody’s autograph, even the people who cut the grass.”

Bar none, “Eric was the biggest Auburn fan ever,” said his aunt, Vicki Merrymon.

Jimmy said the highlight of his own life was seeing how much fun Eric had. “He had a good time. If you were an Alabama fan, he’d tell you, ‘Roll Tide.’ I learned so much from him. He had no hate.”

Even in an Alabama defeat, he found a way to comfort an opponent. Leon Clements, a local convenience storeowner and huge Alabama fan, was friends with Jimmy and Eric. For years, they parked the motorhome on a lake lot they owned near the store.

When Jimmy and Eric returned from an Iron Bowl game where Auburn emerged victorious, Jimmy explained to Eric that Leon would be upset about Alabama’s loss. Just tell him you’re sorry, his father advised. Otherwise, it would make Leon feel bad.

And Eric expressed remorse to his friend – his way. He put his arm around him and said, “Leon, I’m sorry Alabama sucks.”

Eric passed away in 2009 at the age of 31. His framed photo in traditional attire – an Auburn jersey – sits prominently in Jimmy and Yvonne’s living room, reminding them of his love for Auburn and their love for him.

Royals and Rebels

The story of Judge James T. Green and his family

Story by Robert Debter
Photos submitted

From its nondescript exterior, it looks just like many a building scattered throughout Alabama, just an old National Guard armory that has seen better years. But what or who – lies underneath – is the story here.

It may mark the end of an era for this St. Clair County couple, but it preserves the story behind the beginning of their life and lineage in the county, rooted long ago in royalty.

 James Thomason Greene was born on Feb. 2, 1849, to John Greene, who was born in Cork County, Ireland, in 1814, and came to America in 1832, and Elizabeth (Thomason) Greene, a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scots.

   Elizabeth’s father, James Thomason, served as St. Clair County’s first probate judge from Nov. 20, 1818–Nov. 20, 1819, and her brother, John Isham Thomason, also served a probate judge from Dec. 13, 1845–Jan. 15, 1848, and Jan. 30, 1850–June 8, 1850.

Her grandfather, John Duett Thomason, was a Revolutionary War soldier who held a commission in the Carolina Regiment and was wounded at the Battle of King’s Mountain. After the war he made his way through South Carolina and Georgia, he came to St. Clair County. He had acquired many acres in modern day Springville and St. Clair Springs through a land lottery for men with Revolutionary War service.

Gardner Greene

It was this patriot who married Elizabeth Stuart Diamond, and their final resting place is underneath the Ashville Armory. Elizabeth’s mother, also named Elizabeth, was born into the House of Stuart and was listed in Burke’s Peerage until her name was removed after she married a commoner named John Diamond.

Charles Dickens once said, “In love of home, the love of country has its rise.” It seems a fitting proverb for John Duett Thomason and one that was transferred to his granddaughter and great-grandson. Elizabeth was an ardent Southern patriot who, in the tumultuous and dark military rule of Ashville following the subversion of the Confederate government, raised the Confederate flag on a fishing pole line each morning. According to legend, she slept under the flag each night for she said that this gave her a sense of complete safety and security.

At the age of 13, James enlisted as private in the Confederate States Army and served until ill health forced him to leave service.

The young James was a public, spirited man and in 1871 and began reading law. The next year saw him admitted to the bar and also appointed to register in chancery, a position which he would hold until 1880.

From 1876–1881, he served as chief clerk to Judge Leroy Franklin Box, later state superintendent of education, at his office in Montgomery. Greene would go on to represent St. Clair County in the Alabama State Legislature from 1884 to 1886 and during his term was chairman of the Committee on Education.

He continued to serve the people of St. Clair County as probate judge, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle, from Sept. 14, 1887–Nov. 1, 1892. Judge Greene practiced law in Ashville from 1872–1876, 1881–1886 and 1892–1901. He also opened the “Law Office of Inzer & Greene” with Judge John W. Inzer in Ashville. His son, Gardner Greene, would one day study law.

On October 13, 1873, he married Margaret Ashley and to them were born 10 children: Otis, Claude, James Gardner, who be known for his heroism in World War I, Postelle, Evelyn, Ethel, Margaret, Marie, Nelle and John Benjamin. 

Judge Greene was a Mason and a member and Worshipful Master of Cataula Lodge No. 186 in Ashville, a member of Lodge No. 443 in Anniston; a royal host of Anniston chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Chancellor Commander of Anniston lodge, No. 46, Knights of Pythias. He was also an Elk and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Judge Greene died on April 10, 1910, in Pell City while trying to recover from a severe cold that had settled on his lungs. His obituary notes, “He was one of St. Clair’s most distinguished citizens and by his strength of character and kindly disposition had held the love of our people for several generations.”

His son, the gallant World War I hero Gardner Greene, was born in Ashville on April 16, 1878, and after finishing his primary education, studied at the Inzer & Greene Law Office, run by his father and Judge John Washington Inzer at Ashville. He was licensed to practice law in 1897.

At the age of 20, the young lawyer volunteered for the Spanish-American War and served with distinction as a private and non-commissioned officer. In 1900, he entered the George Washington University Law School, graduated in 1901, and soon after, he entered service in the United States Census Bureau. In 1908 he opened a law office in Pell City and continued to practice there until he entered service in the Army.

Greene organized the Pell City Guards, known as “Company C” Fourth Alabama in 1915 – before the regiment was demobilized, war was declared on Germany, and the Fourth Alabama became the 167th United States Infantry. It was one of the regiments of the now famous “Rainbow Division.” 

Captain Greene, in command of Company C, sailed for France and entered the trenches of the Toul sector early in 1918. He served continuously with his company until July 31, when he was gassed, but under skillful treatment recovered and returned to command his company in late August.

On September 12, 1918, while leading his troops into battle with the German forces in the Saint Mihiel sector, fire from a machine gun struck him in the forehead, and he died instantly. He was buried at the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial in Lorraine, France.

Greene was universally loved and respected and was popular in his regiment. He was a Mason, a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and one of the leaders of the St. Clair County Bar.

Nearly a century before, his ancestors would be laid to rest in Ashville’s first cemetery, where the armory stands now. On a corner of the building, a plaque commemorates the royalty – both of historic nobility and local legends.

It simply reads:

ELIZABETH DIAMOND THOMASON

1739-1829

7th Gen. from Mary Queen of Scots

John Thomason, R.S.

1724-1825

Editor’s Note: The name in all capital letters denotes her royal roots, niece of Queen Anne of the House of Stuart. The R.S. following his name signifies, Revolutionary Soldier. The plaque was dedicated in 1989 by the Broken Arrow Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Right Path

Pell City native discovers his future along hiking trail

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos courtesy of Bennett Fisher

When Bennett Fisher agreed to hike the Appalachian Trail with his father after his high school graduation, he thought the trip would buy him some time before making major life decisions. But somewhere along the 2,189-mile trek he took to avoid thinking about his future, the Pell City native discovered it instead.

Bennett Fisher, also known as Jolly, on Continental Divide Trail in Tetons

“I didn’t know where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to do, and I figured it would allow me to put the decision off a bit,” said Bennett, a 2015 Pell City High School graduate. “But while we were backpacking, the people we met were really cool, the gear was really cool, and I started thinking it would be fun to be a designer.”

Seven years later, Bennett’s dream, which started taking shape on that trail, is a reality. Last October, he launched his online company, Jolly Gear (jollygearapparel.com), which offers the hybrid sun shirt he designed to meet a hiker’s every need.

It’s fast drying, offers sun and odor protection, and unlike most outdoor shirts available, it’s a vibrant, colorful creation that looks great in photos. He named the shirt the Triple Crown Button Down Sun Hoodie, a nod to the Triple Crown of Hiking: conquering the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide.

“It’s where fun meets functional,” said Bennett, quoting the tagline on the Jolly Gear logo. “I really enjoy the outdoors, and I like to problem-solve. I wanted to design something and make it different, better and special. People are buying them, and I’m just overjoyed.”

The first steps

The summer before Bennett’s senior year of high school, he was at the beach with his parents, Henry and Vicki Fisher, when they saw a father teaching his son to catch a wave. “I was joking around and said, ‘I wish my parents were cool enough to teach me to surf,’” he recalled. “My father said, ‘Well, if you want a cool dad, why don’t we hike the Appalachian Trail next summer?’”

Bennett agreed, and a few months later he posted about it on Instagram. “My dad texted me and said, ‘Oh, you’re serious. I guess we’re doing this,’” he said. “We’d never backpacked before. I grew up camping, and we’d take day hikes, but we’d never loaded up a backpack with four days of food and set out with no vehicle or anything. I knew nothing.”

His father researched gear and got what they needed, but Bennett didn’t give the trip a lot of thought in advance. “The day we left was the first time I’d fully loaded my pack,” he said. “My friends asked all these ‘what if’ questions – what if you get hurt, what if the weather is bad – but my plan was that I was just going to walk.”

The trek, which stretches from Georgia to Maine, took 5 ½ months, and Bennett was a different person when they finished in December. “I had some of the most real conversations I’d ever had with my dad,” he said. “He told me that he wanted to prove to himself that he could still do something that was epic.”

Bennett didn’t know it then, but each step he took brought him closer to his own epic adventure: designing a product, launching a brand and becoming a business owner at 24. “Right now, this is a side hustle, but I can see it becoming something much bigger,” he said.

The winding trail

Bennett, now 25, has always loved the outdoors, but he was surprised at how many other people seemed to, as well. Hikers were everywhere on the Appalachian Trail, and “I thought, ‘There are jobs here; people are doing this,’” he said, adding that the hiking community has grown tremendously since 2015.

He came home, enrolled at Jefferson State Community College and graduated in the spring of 2017. During his last semester, he began preparing to hike the Pacific Crest Trail with a friend while also researching options for the next phase of his education.

He stumbled across Utah State, which offered a major in outdoor product design and development. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I’d had the idea to work for a brand like Osprey or Patagonia, and I thought I could get a degree in this and work for a company like that. Plus, I’d always wanted to go to Utah. It seemed like kind of a mystical place to me.”

To make it work, Bennett needed to save some money. He decided to take a gap year and enroll in the fall of 2018. In the meantime, he and a buddy set off to conquer the 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, which starts at the Mexican border in southern California and winds through Oregon and Washington before ending at the Canadian border.

It was a lofty goal, and Bennett made it halfway before breaking his ankle. Although he was disappointed, he wasn’t giving up on his hiking goals or the dreams for his future. He found jobs at an outdoor apparel store and an indoor climbing facility, put some money aside and learned he’d earned a scholarship that made his Utah adventure possible.

“Before school started, I finally did the whole Pacific Crest Trail that summer,” Bennett said. In addition to marking the hike off his bucket list, he got the inspiration for the Triple Crown Button Down he would eventually design.

“You become pretty close to people pretty fast when you’re backpacking because you spend so much time together,” Bennett said. “You meet folks out there, and they become your trail family – the people you camp with, eat with, hike with.”

One hiker he met was a guy named Max. “He was wearing his mother’s gardening shirt, which had a hood, long sleeves, and buttons,” Bennett recalled. “At the time, everyone had to choose between a sun hoodie, which didn’t have buttons (allowing you to open the shirt to catch a breeze), or a fishing shirt. The rest of the trail, I kept thinking that I wanted to design something like that.”

Triple Crown design

The thought made him even more excited about school, but once in Utah, he grew discouraged. “All these people had been in art classes growing up, and they were all light-years ahead of me,” he said. Being several years older than his classmates didn’t help either, and “it was pretty intimidating to be around such talented folks.”

Despite his doubts, Bennett continued to do what he’s always done: he just kept going. Two sewing classes were required for his major, and that’s when everything started falling into place. In the first class, he had to make either a jacket or a shirt, and his Triple Crown Button Down first came to life. “It took me 72 hours to hand-sew that first prototype,” he said.

The shirt was a combination of a Performance Fishing Gear shirt and a sun hoodie. Thumb holes in the sleeves offered sun protection for the hands while the hood protected the neck. Two zipper pockets on the chest are perfect for holding a phone or wallet.

“I combined a button down and sun hoodie into one; there’s no more compromise,” Bennett said. “At that point, I thought I had just made the shirt for myself, and I was pretty proud of it.” His confidence grew when he earned a perfect score, and the shirt was named runner-up in a vote by his classmates.

His final semester, he took a class on logo design and branding. “We had to create a fake company and a fake clothing line,” he said. The logo he designed was an outline of a man’s face with a long beard, which is actually an image of a pine cone. He landed on Jolly Gear for the name, in honor of the nickname he got on the Appalachian Trail.

“They called me Jolly because I was very positive and optimistic,” he said, adding that long-distance hikers go by nicknames. “Most of the time, people give you the name. My dad was Powerslide because he slipped on the rocks a lot but still managed not to fall.”

Continental Divide Trail, 2021. From left, Wildcard, Rocket, Turbo, Jesus, Poison, Jolly, Walkie Talkie, Mittens and Salty

Launching a dream

At the time, Bennett thought he was just completing a class project, but graduating in May 2020 in the middle of a pandemic made him rethink things. “I graduated when no one was hiring, and everyone was getting laid off,” he said. “All of these outdoor companies were letting people go. How was I, a guy with no experience, going to get a job over people who had been doing this for 10 years?”

He found a job as a software tester and decided to launch Jolly Gear on the side. He offers hats and T-shirts, as well, but the star is the Triple Crown Button Down, which features all of Bennett’s must-haves. The four-way stretch fabric is extremely lightweight, odor-resistant and offers UPF-50 sun protection.

In addition to thumb holes, there’s a hair hole and cinch cord in the hood, and most importantly, it’s bright and colorful. “I wanted to have fun patterns” so it would stand out from the typical solid khaki, gray, light blue or yellow options. Long-distance hikers typically wear one shirt for weeks or months at a time, and “I wanted to create something you’d be proud to show in every single picture on the trail,” he said.

In an effort to earn his own Triple Crown, Bennett was hiking the Continental Divide, which spans some 3,100 miles through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, when the first samples were finished last summer. He had some shipped to himself, and he and a few members of his trail family picked them up together. “We literally ripped our shirts off in the post office and tried them on,” he said.

“I had never seen the print in person, and the size of the flowers was exactly what I had imagined,” he said. “Eight of us wore them on the trail and out to dinner. They got a lot of attention, and everybody loved them. People have told me it’s the fastest-drying shirt they’ve ever had.”

While Bennett hoped to earn his Triple Crown while wearing his Triple Crown Button Down, he fractured his left foot 1,650 miles into the trip. He plans to pick up the trail where he left off and finish the hike this summer, but he’s thrilled that one of his seven friends who wore the shirt finished and earned his Triple Crown in style.

Despite having been worn for thousands of sweaty miles, the shirt “still looks beautiful,” Bennett said. “He actually wore it on a date a few days later. I was so excited – it’s everything I hoped for and more.” 

Southeast Regional Slingshot Tournament

Competition finds home at Horse Pens 40

Story by Paul South
Photos by Mackenzie Free

There’s something on target about one of the newer events, the Southeast Regional Slingshot Tournament, to come to Horse Pens 40.

The park, an ancient ground settled by native peoples – including the Creek and Cherokee – centuries ago has been transformed through the years through war and new settlers, but its ancient trees and boulders remain largely unchanged.

Admed Alfrookh demonstrates for his father, Mohammed

While owned today by the Schultz family, the park has a simple mission, driven by the presence of more than 60 rare, threatened, protected or endangered species, as well as the other flora and fauna in the park: “Leave No Trace” of human hands.

By the 1950s, Horse Pens was home to craft fairs. By the 1960s, the new phenomenon of outdoor music festivals drew bluegrass and Americana roots music legends like Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Lester Flatt, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss and Birmingham’s own Emmylou Harris, delighting audiences hungry for the high lonesome sound.

Music still rings, and artisans and craftspeople still show their wares there, but now, there is even more to what has become a global destination point

The park is known as one of the best bouldering courses in the world with its massive rocks beckoning climbers from near and far. Horse Pens is home to the Triple Crown championship of bouldering, raising its profile much higher than the allure of its boulders that draw competitors from around the world.

Sling shooting thriving atop Chandler Mountain

Add to its already established bouldering reputation the competitive slingshot tournaments, one of only a handful in the United States, and Horse Pens is becoming a sports destination point all over again. A one-time weapon of war older than the Scriptures became a kid’s toy in the 1940s and is now part of a small but growing sport. The roots of the slingshot can be traced back 2,500 years.

Competitively speaking, what once meant knocking a Campbell’s soup can off a fencepost with a rock is now nailing tiny targets from more than 30 feet away.

 In late September, Dan Ambrosius of Steele won the most recent Southeast Regional tournament at Horse Pens, one of five such tournament titles he’s captured nationwide.

Growing up in the jungles of the Philippines as the son of American missionaries, he began shooting slingshots as a toddler. But make no mistake, Ambrosius’ first slingshot was no toy, but a survival tool.

“As jungle missionaries, when I was a small child, all the tribal people had slingshots. I was introduced to a slingshot at three or four years old.

“Over there, we ate whatever we shot – birds, small animals, all kinds of stuff. So, coming to this country, I’d always had a slingshot and always been interested in it. About seven or eight years ago, I found out through social media that tournaments existed. For all I knew, I was the only one in this country who was good with a slingshot, period, because I’d never met anyone that could shoot as well as me, ever,” he says.

When he entered his first competition, the prestigious East Coast Slingshot Tournament in Alverton, Pa., he learned quickly that there were indeed others who could shoot as well, if not better. Ambrosius finished in the top 10, but competitive sling shooting had won his heart.

He quickly learned others were better, and the pressure of competition was far different than tracking animals in steamy Filipino jungles.

“I didn’t realize how accurate you had to be,” he says. “My slingshotting up until tournaments was always designed to kill things. It was about the biggest ammo as fast as you can shoot it and kill the game. In tournament, it’s either you hit the target, or you don’t.”

Tourney winner Dan Ambrosius, center, poses with other competitors

While the Pennsylvania tournament is highly regarded in slingshot circles, the Southeast Regional at Horse Pens is perhaps the sport’s fastest-growing competition in the United States because of a growing number of shooters in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. About 60 shooters competed in the 2021 event, renewed after COVID-19 forced cancellation of the 2020 event.

Horse Pens 40 Park Manager Ashley Ensign said that bouldering remains the biggest draw at the park, which makes it a big economic driver for St. Clair and neighboring counties.

“The largest rock-climbing competition in the world is the Triple Crown Bouldering Series and Horse Pens is part of that,” Ensign says. “Even with the current situation we have now (the pandemic), we had over 300 competitors and roughly 400 spectators, and all from out of state.”

Horse Pens also hosts an annual Songwriters’ Festival, Ensign says. But she gives high marks to the slingshot event. “It’s not something you see every day, so it’s always fun,” she says.

While sling shooting is growing slowly in the United States, it’s wildly popular in other countries, particularly in Europe and Asia. As of now, China is the world’s superpower in the sport. Asked to compare the sport’s popularity overseas to the United States, Ambrosius doesn’t mince words.

“It’s not even close,” he says. “In the United States, there are 10 to 15 of us that would be considered world-class shooters – that could go overseas and compete in a tournament. I’ve been invited to China, Italy, Spain, England, all expenses paid, because they want Americans to come over and participate.”

 He adds, “There are only a few of us (in the States), whereas in China, there are millions and millions of competitive shooters. Gymnasiums are full of shooters all over the country every weekend in China with competitive slingshot shooting. It’s a huge, huge business.”

 The reason slingshots are so popular? More restrictive gun laws.

 “They don’t have the freedom with firearms that we do in this country,” Ambrosius says.

There’s a push to make it an Olympic sport. Once that happens, Ambrosius believes the sport will take off in popularity.

Companies are banking on that. The internet features a variety of sites, where shoppers can find slingshots ranging in price from $5 to high-tech versions up to $1,000 or more. The iconic American toy company Wham-O first marketed the slingshot after World War II.

And unlike other competitive sports where the competition is sometimes cutthroat and money pulls the strings, the slingshot – a sport propelled by an elastic band – is not about money, but about camaraderie. Trophies for the winners – not cash – are the only tangible rewards.

But there’s another reward to the slingshot, Ambrosius says. Taking aim with this childhood toy seems to melt away the years like ice on an August Alabama sidewalk.

“It just takes you to a different place,” Ambrosius says. “You become younger and more playful. It takes you to a place that’s not so much in the present. You’re a kid again, and you’re doing something that’s really, really fun. It’s just so fun to hit a can with a slingshot. It’s just fun.”