elmore county living 2011

SUMMER 2011 • COMPLIMENTARY

Elmore County

LivingM A G A Z I N E

Elmore County Living • Summer 2011 1

his issue of Elmore County Livingis dedicated to all of the stormvictims in Elmore and Tallapoosacounties who realized on April 28

just how severe the storms of a day ear-lier had been. For many in the two coun-ties, it was a night of terror.

We are also dedicating this edition tothe thousands of neighbors and manytotal strangers who came to their rescue.

Our reporters and editors saw it first-hand while interviewing hundreds ofpeople, and for a month now they havetold the stories of survival and sadly,death.

They waded through the downed treesand debris the night of the storm to getto the victims. The killer tornado had cuta swath through Elmore and Tallapoosacounties 44 miles long and a half-milewide. From the air it looks like some-body used a giant weed eater and wentalong chopping down and tearing downeverything in its way. It is hard to imag-ine, but that is exactly what this killerstorm did.

It took lives. It displaced hundreds offamilies from their homes. Many ofthem lost everything. Everything. And itcould not have come at a worse time formany people in these trying economictimes.

But as our fellow man always does,they came to the rescue. Hundreds ofvolunteers responded to help clear de-bris. Thousands donated food, clothesand money. We turned our office into acollection point and when we announcedit in the newspaper, our lobby quicklybecame a temporary grocery store.

Thousands of items were brought inby caring people, some even sent via

overnight delivery from as far away asRenton, Wash. It came from a formerresident of Millbrook. Employees at M-tek in Prattville delivered a truckloadand a trailerload. Faculty, students andparents at Edgewood Academy addedthree truckloads of goods, too. Wal-greens in Wetumpka brought in hun-dreds of items they collected. One afterthe other, people responded.

Jay Goodwin and Kevin Taylor of ourstaff delivered the last of the goods toEclectic as ECL was going to press. Itwas a sight for sore eyes seeing our vanloaded down with water, food andsundry items. It made one feel good toknow that when people need help, car-ing Elmore Countians and others re-spond.

It will be a long time before manyareas return to normal. In some placesthe huge trees are still being clearedfrom the roadways. Hundreds of treesfell that horrific night, broken like tooth-picks.

Dave Commander, who oversees theRussell Marine division for RussellLands on Lake Martin, and his wife,Lynn, live in the Windemere neighbor-hood, in the Elmore County portion thatwas hit hard. They survived, and theirhouse was not destroyed. But he said itwas the sound of those huge trees fallingthat really had him concerned. Snappinglike twigs and falling to the ground, thetrees shook his house and made “anawful sound,” he said the other day, re-living the story one more time.

Stories like his and hundreds of otherswill be told for a long time. Alabamahasn’t seen a deadly tornado outbreaklike that in almost a century. Nearly 240

of our fellow Alabamians lost their lives,and the count is still rising becausemany are still missing.

The University of Alabama cancelledclasses and students will not graduateuntil August because one of 28 torna-does on April 27 wiped out a 15-blockarea, destroying more than 5,000 build-ings, killing more than 40 and injuringmore than a thousand.

Unfortunately, it was like that in Guin,Huntsville, Hackleberg and Phil Camp-bell, and in many other cities across ourstate. Massive destruction and death formiles. More than 440,000 were withoutelectricity. Thousands of homes andbusinesses were destroyed.

It was a day that will live in infamy inAlabama.

Kim N. Price is president of PricePublications, Inc.

publisher’smessage

April 27, 2011 willbe rememberedaround herefor a long time

T

Jay Goodwin and Kevin Taylor load The We-tumpka Herald van with donations bound forrelief centers in Eclectic to aid victims of April'stornadoes. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD

2 Elmore County Living • Summer 2011

t has been amazing to witness first hand boththe devastation the recent tornado causedacross parts of Elmore County and the out-pouring of support from people seeking to help

the victims. The local community has respondedwith open hearts, flooding our office and numerousother collection points with donations of both sup-plies and money. The contributions have arrivedfrom much farther afield as well. Many people havealso volunteered their time and efforts to help thosein need -- cleaning up, cooking, sorting donations,opening their homes and more.

By and large, these generous folks are not look-ing for recognition -- they only want to be of assis-tance. And those who lost family and possessions inthe storms are working hard to help themselves,too. While they appreciate every bit of support theyreceive, they aren’t waiting idly for someone to rideto their rescue. The same scenario is playing out allacross our great state.

Equally impressive is the number of “celebrities”

who have pitched in for the cause without alertingthe media beforehand (including one who visitedEclectic). You will likely never hear about the goodmost of these people did. Many of those you haveheard about was only because someone on sitecalled their local newspaper or television stationwhen they spotted them. And guess what? The ma-jority of these selfless individuals are from righthere in the South.

All of it serves to make me proud to be from El-more County, Alabama and the South. I think it’sobvious most of us adhere to the belief that “TheLord helps those who help themselves.” People inAlabama are proving that every day.

And just a quick note about this issue of ElmoreCounty Living -- there are plenty of interesting sto-ries we’ve gathered to share with you. We hope youenjoy all of them.

Peggy Blackburn is managing editor of PricePublications, Inc.

editor’snote

Community spirit willprevail over tragedy

I


InsideA Little Kindness 14

How an Eclectic ministry helpedprepare volunteers for disaster.

Working in Wood 12A Titus man turns logs and scraplumber into unique, useful items.

Music Man 16Baltimore native’s musical

dream thrives in Eclectic.

Mounted Shooting 20Bama Bandits test their skillin challenging family sport.

Sweet Treats 26Tallassee man’s homemade

marshmallows are a hit.

Riverside Inn 28Wetumpka hotel enjoyed

nearly 60 successful years.

32 Doggie ‘I Do’s’Elvis and Dolly tied the knotin a ceremony with family andfriends at the Hillbilly Mall.

36 Feature HomeA Wildwood home offers spaciousliving, a quiet neighborhood androom for outdoor entertaining.

38 Out and AboutElmore County residents and visitors were captured at eventsand locations around the area.

49 Golf ResortThe Renaissance World VillageGolf Resort offers a getawayfor golfers and their families.

53 CalendarA guide to local events fromlate May through August.

4

20

24

49

Elmore County Living magazine is published by Price Publications, Inc. in conjunction with The Wetumpka Herald, The Eclectic Observer and The Tallassee Tribune. Copyright 2011 by Price Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Any reproduction of this publication is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher.

Kim N. Price - President/Publisher David Goodwin - Political Editor TallasseePeggy Blackburn - Managing Editor Kevin Taylor - Copy Editor Ashley Vice - Multimedia Manager Jay Goodwin - Operations Manager Griffin Pritchard - Sports Editor Willie Moseley - News EditorShannon Elliott - Ad Manager Christy Cooper - Ad Sales Lauren Newman - Staff Writer

Porsche Ferrell - Classified Advertising Stephanie Weldon - Ad Sales

P.O. Box 99 • 300 Green Street • Wetumpka, AL 36092 • 334-567-7811

Inez Gates filling grocerycarts for storm victims.PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN


ith hundreds lefthomeless after thedevastating tor-nado that torethough the Eclec-tic area, the com-

munity sprang into action tofeed and clothe victims who’dliterally lost everything.

But that’s not the kind of joban average citizen knows how

to do. And generous donationsto the victims in Eclectic leftthe town almost drowning incanned goods, clothing andhousehold goods.

But a few local volunteersalready had the space, organiza-tion and know-how to handle it.And it just so happened they’dspent the last year training forit, though they could never haveimagined the multitude of needsleft in the twister’s wake.

“I think the Lord was gettingthis group ready to handle the

response to this disaster,”Johnny Gates said. “Withoutthis last year of the KindnessMinistry, we would have noidea how to handle feeding somany people.”

The Kindness Ministrybegan just over a year ago inthe basement of First BaptistChurch of Eclectic. Stocking itsshelves with help from theMontgomery Area Food Bank,the Kindness Ministry aimed tomake sure no Eclectic familywent hungry.

HELPING HANDS

Kindness blossomsin disaster

Linda Reed restocks theshelves in the KindnessMinistry in Eclectic.PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN

ByDavidGoodwin

W


For its first year, it averaged 45 fami-lies per week on a two-day, six-hourschedule, volunteer Linda Reed said.Then an EF-4 tornado ripped a path ofdestruction more than 40 miles from theDexter community, through Eclectic,and into Tallapoosa and Chambers coun-ties.

Ninety homes were destroyed, in-cluding a mobile home park on MiddleRoad that saw more than 20 homesshredded and four residents killed. An-other 96 homes had major structuraldamage, according to county EmergencyManagement Director Eric Jones.

The Kindness Ministry linked up

with other volunteers and the Town ofEclectic to rush help to the victims. By 8a.m. the following morning, volunteerBecky Webb was driving past shatteredhouses on Middle Road, her SUVloaded with coffee, bottled water andsausage biscuits.

Residents were just returning to seethe havoc the tornado had wrought ontheir homes.

“I can see God in it, all over theplace,” Webb said. “He gave us a yearto practice, to work out all the kinks.Then we were ready.”

As donations began to flood in, thevolunteers honed their process down toa science. Someone would bring in atruckload of donations, which volunteerscarried to a stairwell that led to thestorm shelter where 50 residents soughtrefuge during the storms.

One of those victims was wheelchairbound, so volunteers built a ramp for herthat laid atop the five steps. That rampbecame a chute, where boxes of foodand bags of paper towels or diapers wereslid down to the storm shelter, whichwas transformed into a warehouse.

Webb said the Kindness Ministry

A log book of donations contains more than 200 names of people, churches and other groups thathave donated items to the Kindness Ministry since the tornado struck. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN


goes far beyond First Baptist.“It’s amazing how the churches

in the area have all come to-gether,” she said. “We’re blessedto have the space for people fromall over to come pitch in.”

Denise Greer, who Webb calledthe ministry’s “organizational ex-pert,” attends Agape Church ofGod just down the road.

“There are no denominations inthis,” she said.

Other regular helpers hail fromFirst Baptist of Wetumpka, Eclec-tic United Methodist and otherchurches in Montgomery,Prattville, Tallassee and beyond.

Greer categorizes everythingfor easy retrieval. There’s an un-loading room, a row of shelves fordry goods, a room of canned fruitand vegetables and one roomstacked to the ceiling with bottledwater.

As the supplies upstairs at theheart of the kindness ministry runlow, Greer, Webb and others pullfrom the basement. Upstairs, othervolunteers pull a variety of staples

Becky Webb, Inez Gates and Linda Reed sort supplies donated for victims of the April 27 tornado.PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN


Jennifer Turner drops off some donated food and supplies to Becky Webb at the Eclectic Kindness Ministry. PHOTO BY DAVID GOODWIN

and load them into three grocerybuggies preloaded to get families inand out without delay.

At the height of the need, a fewdays after the storm struck, JohnnyGates said they packed 66 buggiesand took them to victims in a singleday. They’ve loaded or deliveredmore than 120 three-buggy loadssince the recovery effort began.

Each load consists of food andwater, cleansers, buckets, papertowels, clothing and blankets and, ifthe family has children, a few toysto brighten their day.

“And we’ll ask if they have dogsor cats,” Marilyn Dorminey added.“Their pets are important, too.”

The Kindness Ministry even hasa stash of “sweet feed,” said JohnnyGates, in case the family owns goatsor a mule.

In the proud, independent South,getting people to accept help is

often the hardest job of all. “There was a family I knew who

had a lot of damage out near Mt.Hebron Road, but I knew theywouldn’t ask,” Johnny Gates said.“So we loaded up a van and deliv-ered it to them. They lost every-thing, but they were too proud toask.”

“Some of them want to comearound and hug everyone’s neck inhere,” said Inez Gates. “They saythey didn’t know what was going tohappen without it. Some breakdown in tears, because they’venever had to take anything in char-ity.”

The Kindness Ministry is onefacet of an impromptu relief net-work that assembled before tornadovictims even had the chance to askfor help. Like Webb’s sausage bis-cuit deliveries, residents outside thetornado’s path were clamoring for a

way to help their neighbors at firstlight the morning after disasterstruck.

A “Recovery Row” of donationsorting, victim assistance and vol-unteer registration centers sprang updowntown. At more than a half-dozen Eclectic addresses, hundredsof volunteers worked long days forthe next two weeks.

Inez Gates said the volunteersand the church are being used asconduits by a loving community toget help to all those who need it.

“We couldn’t do this without thecommunity’s generosity,” she said.

At a candlelight tribute to thehundreds statewide who lost theirlives or homes in the tornado out-break, First Baptist Youth PastorBrandon Roney gave a message in-spired by the 23rd Psalm.

“God gets us ready for things be-fore they even happen,” he said.

hether a log orscraps of dis-carded lumber,pieces of woodare transformedin the hands of

Bob Gantt of Titus. In theworkshop outside of his

home, the wood “tells” Ganttwhat it wants to be andspoons, bowls, mugs andother items emerge.

“I had been working withwood all my life,” said Gantt.“My son B.J. is in Scouts andseveral years ago his leader

was involved with doingreenactments, like at FortToulouse. He wanted me tohelp him make a woodenspoon and bowl because hewanted everything to be au-thentic.

“I told him I had been read-

ing about making them al-ready and wanted to learn todo it anyway,” he said. “So Igot to playing with it.”

Gantt began with makingspoons.

“It evolved from there,” hesaid. “I was making so many

Craftsman listens when wood talks

Bob Gantt uses a band saw to cut out thebasic shape of a spoon.PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN

W

ByPeggyBlackburn


bowls and spoons, we had them every-where. We began giving them away asChristmas presents and gifts, but prettysoon we had given them to everybodywe knew.

“That’s when my wife, Deborah, saidI either had to quit making them or startselling them.”

The couple soon started exhibiting atarts and crafts shows as vendors.

“We’ve been going for five or sixyears,” Gantt said. “We go to about nineshows a year -- three in the spring andsix in the fall.”

He said fall shows are where he sellsmost of his creations, but noted that hefares “pretty well” at the spring ones.

“Sometimes we trade with other peo-ple for their items,” he said. “Then wewind up using most of what we trade foras gifts for our family and friends.”

Spoons and bowls represent the lion’sshare of items Gantt produces, but healso carves mugs and scoops. And he isopen to new ideas as well.

“After we started going to shows, alady who owns a shop in Huntsville wasat one and asked me if I made Frenchtasting spoons,” he said. “She explainedto me what they are, and I began makingthem. She pretty much buys all of thoseI can make.”

A French tasting spoon has a small,round spoon at each end. The handle be-tween the spoons is also carved out.When one end of the spoon is dippedinto soup or sauce, the user then tips thespoon so the liquid flows into the otherend. The soup or sauce cools as it trav-els, and the design of the spoon also pre-vents the food being contaminated bythe person tasting because the un-touched end can be used to dip again.

Gantt recently began building trapsfor carpenter bees because “someoneasked me to make some.”

The traps appear to be birdhouseswith no holes in the sides. There is alarge hole in the bottom with the ringfrom a canning jar attached around it. Ajar is screwed onto the ring.

Several holes are drilled at an angleinto the bottom edges of the “birdhouse”-- the size of those made by the bees.The bees go into the holes and head to-ward the light that’s let into the jar.Once they are in the jar, they aren’t ableto escape.

Gantt said he can use most types ofwood in his work, including poplar, dog-wood, mimosa and persimmon.

“My favorite is cherry and dogwoodis number two,” he said. “Cherry has arich, beautiful grain to it. But I use aboutanything except pine. And I only useoak to make stirring paddles.”

Despite the large quantity of wood heuses to create the items he sells, Ganttrarely has to cut a tree.

“Most of my wood is from trees thathave blown down, or trees that otherpeople cut down,” he said. “My friendsand neighbors know what I do, so theybring me trees they’ve cut or ones thatblow down in their yard.

“And, when someone clear-cuts, theyleave everything but the pines, so I willget wood in those places. With the tor-nado that went through at Eclectic andWindemere, there are a lot of downedtrees and I’ve wound up with some fromover there. I very seldom have to cut atree to make anything.”

Gantt explained that most of his carv-ing is done with green wood becausedry wood is difficult to carve. Somepieces, like mugs, are set aside to dryafter being shaped to his satisfaction.

“I just wait and hope they don’tcrack.”

The large bowls he makes require aslightly different process. After the carv-ing work is complete, Gantt places themin plastic garbage bags where they re-main while they dry. The procedure pro-duces dark lines and patterns calledspalling.

“It’s actually where the wood starts torot,” he explained. “The lines add to thebeauty of the finished bowl.”

In addition to his popular bowls and

spoons, Gantt likes to make other itemsfrom the type of wood most people pur-chase at home improvement stores. Buthe typically doesn’t buy any lumberhimself.

“My favorite thing is to take lumbersomebody else was going to throw awayand make something useful out of it,” hesaid.

For example, Gantt’s dining roomtable was created from strips of wood,each no more than three or four incheswide. He also built the island in theirkitchen, his son’s bedroom suite, theircomputer desk, a blanket chest, their tel-evision cabinet and many more of thefurnishings in their home. But he onlybuilds furniture for his family’s personaluse.

Gantt demonstrated the procedure formaking a spoon, starting with a sectionof dogwood log. His first step was touse wedges and split the log to removethe “heart.”

“You have to get the heart out becauseif you make anything with it, it willsplit,” he explained.

After dividing the log in half, Ganttused a hand axe to roughly straightenthe inner face. From there, the sideswere sheared off using a large powersaw to trim it to a basic rectangularshape. The piece was then shaped into amore exact rectangle using another saw.

“A piece of woodwill talk to you ...

If you listen, it willtell you what itwants to be.”

The shop where Bob Gantt makes his one-of-a-kind wood items. PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN


In the next step, Gantt useda pattern and a black markerto draw the outline of a spoonon the block of wood. Usingyet another saw, he cut thewood to the outlined shape.

After drawing a center line,he used a chisel and rubbermallet to first chip awaywood from what would be-come the outside of thespoon’s bowl. The chisel wasthen used to gouge out the in-side of the spoon’s bowl.

Shaping by a large piece ofsanding equipment was fol-lowed by more detailed shap-ing with a hand sander.

When he was satisfied withthe spoon, Gantt burned hisinitials, the date and the typeof wood into the spoon’s han-dle. To finish, he rubbed thenew spoon with mineral oil.The total time to transformthe rough log to a smoothspoon was about 30 minutes.

“When I work on items atcraft shows, I do it all by

hand because I don’t have allmy woodworking equipmentthere,” he said. “If I tried todo everything by hand, Iwould never make enough tosell. It probably takes abouttwo hours to make a spoonentirely by hand.

Gantt said he planned the

demonstration of spoon mak-ing so he could show thewhole process.

“I picked a nice, straightpiece of dogwood I knewwould probably agree to bemade into a spoon,” he said.“But I don’t always knowwhat the wood wants to be

when I start.“A piece of wood will talk

to you. If you listen, it willtell you what it wants to be ...what God wants it to be.”

Gantt can be reached byphone at 334-567-7896 or byemail at [email protected].

In about 30 minutes, Bob Gantt transformed half of a dogwood log into a spoon. PHOTO BY PEGGY BLACKBURN

Tony Buenger in the mixingroom of his studio.

PHOTO BY KEVIN TAYLOR

ess Meuse knew shewanted to work withTony Buenger whenshe noticed his shoes.“I knew he was coolbecause he was wear-

ing Van Halen sneakers,” shesaid. “He’s not a grown-upold fart who has nothing elseto give. He is experienced,but he still acts like a kidsometimes.”

Buenger is a Baltimoretransplant who made Ala-bama his home in 2002 whileenrolled in Air Command andStaff College at Maxwell AirForce Base. He rented ahome just south of Equalityand enjoyed the small townatmosphere of Eclectic. Itwas where his kids went toschool.

It’s also where Buengerbuilt Guest House Studios,where he records and pro-duces musicians from acrossthe United States and evenacts from outside of the U.S.

“I liked the location,”Buenger explained. “I lovethis small town, and it wasmuch more affordable tobuild here than in Washing-ton, D.C.

“I could have built a studioin a place like Montgomery,but let’s face it, studios are adime a dozen down there.

They come and they go. Iwanted to build a studio closeto Montgomery becausewhen you really think of it,this area is a music mecca.”

The Montgomery area iscertainly music-rich given theacts which have originatedfrom the region, includingHank Williams, LionelRitchie, Nat King Cole andTommy Shaw of the rockgroup Styx.

“There’s a lot of great mu-sical talent which has comefrom this area, so it only

seemed fitting to build a stu-dio here,” Buenger said.

The music behind the manMusic has always been a

part of Buenger’s life. Hewas one of 10 children in hisfamily and all played an in-strument or two.

“Dad was the only one whodidn’t play an instrument. Hecouldn’t play or sing a lick,but he loved music,” Buengersaid. “He would have anElvis record on, or he wouldput one of my KISS 8-tracks

in the player.”He was given his first gui-

tar at age 8.“My parents played a trick

on me,” he recalled. “Theyput a bunch of jackets on thesofa and asked me to hangthe coats up. I, of course, didbegrudgingly and at the bot-tom of the pile was a red andblack acoustic guitar with acard for six lessons.”

Buenger later taught him-self to play guitar at age 9and then took jazz and classi-cal guitar lessons at 12.


Music manBaltimore native plants

musical roots in EclecticByKevinTaylor

Tony Buenger and Jess Meuse work through riffs on electric guitar. PHOTO BY KEVIN TAYLOR

J


Buenger eventually stepped up to anelectric guitar before performing in anumber of school and garage bandsthrough his teens.

His most successful band was StormWarning in 1977-79.

“We played a bunch of parties andeven played a party for the governor ofMaryland,” he said.

A few years later, Buenger enlistedin the Air Force.

He was a military man, but therocker was not gone.

“I was stationed at Keesler Air ForceBase in Biloxi, and I remember in1981 when AC/DC’s Back in Blackalbum was released. There was an areawhere we could check out musical in-struments like guitars, and we wouldget together and play all the songs onthat album,” he said.

Buenger said there were alwaysenough people in the unit to put to-gether a band and play.

“We would get to Thailand, andthere was a place there where theowner of the club would open the stagefor us to play every time we werethere,” Buenger said.

The man behind the musicAfter playing in a number of bands,

Buenger soon learned how to manage asound board by watching what otherswould do.

In 1994, he bought his first piece ofequipment – a four-track cassetterecorder – to start recording music.

“I didn’t want to put too muchmoney into that stuff until I had builtmy own place,” he said.

In 2007 Buenger began building hisstudio and had it finished on Pearl Har-bor Day (Dec. 7).

Within two weeks of completion ofhis studio in Eclectic, he had cus-tomers.

Since then Buenger has recordedhundreds of demos and fully produced30 albums.

In addition to albums and demos,Buenger is now doing video recordingsof music acts.

“You now have some club ownerswho want to see what these acts looklike on stage before booking them,” hesaid.

Some of Buenger’s early successstories who have recorded in his studio

include Alexander City native RextonLee, who recently signed with a musiclabel and Talladega-based southerngospel quartet Damascus Road.

Buenger’s latest success story isHoltville’s Jess Meuse who recentlyreleased her first album, whichBuenger produced.

“My objective is to develop talent togo to the next step,” Buenger said.“That’s what I’m doing right now withJess.”

Meuse and Buenger first met at anopen house for another local musician,and they instantly hit it off.

“We’re both rockers, and we enjoythe same sound,” Meuse said. “He hasgreat ideas to only make me better.”

Meuse could have worked with anystudio in the area, but she choseBuenger for his passion and apprecia-tion of music.

“He always makes it a comfortableatmosphere to work in,” she said. “Butwhen it comes to work, he’s strictlyabout work. He backs artists all theway, and that’s what I appreciate abouthim.”

And the cool shoes may help, too.

Jennifer Young explodes aballoon during a BamaBandits shoot at Iron HorseRanch in Wetumpka.PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD


hots rang out in thepeaceful May morn-ing as a mixture ofsmoke and dustfilled the skiesaround the IronHorse Ranch in

Wallsboro. The ranch —owned by Bruce and DotFaust — is the home base ofthe Bama Bandits, a CowboyMounted Shooting club.

“There was a small groupthat got together first,” saidDot, vice president of theBandits. “Some of our friendstold Bruce and I about it andwe went to a clinic. Withintwo weeks we had people ask-ing if we could start doing itat our ranch.”

And the rest, as they say, ishistory.

“We shoot single-action re-volvers and period revolversfrom the 1800s,” said BanditsPresident Eddie Vanderslice.“I’ve done rodeo in the past,but nothing is as fun as this.”

Cowboy Mounted Shootingcombines a mixture of focus,balance and luck.

“The way this is set up itdoesn’t matter the experienceyou have with horses,” saidVanderslice, “You can runwide open or you can go atyour own pace. We have sixdifferent skill levels andeveryone starts at a one, sothere is constant room for im-provement.”

Vanderslice added that thesenior men’s division could bethe toughest.

“They only compete against

other senior men,” said Van-derslice. “But don’t let theirage fool you. Some of thoseold men will smoke yourbutt.”

Competitors enter the arenaand have to navigate their waythrough various patterns,shooting different colored targets.

“There are over 60 differentpatterns that can be set upwith 10 balloons,” said Faust.

The rider with the fastesttime and most accurate runthrough the course wins.

“My husband and I havebeen married 46 years andhave been involved in horsesthe entire time,” said DorothyTurnbow, who with her hus-band Mickie, are members ofthe Bama Bandits from Ver-bena. “We’ve done barrels,poles, fast stuff, slow stuff,pleasures. We saw mountedshooting on television.

“We made a deal that whenour last child graduated we’ddo something different. Ithought climb Mt. Cheaha orgo to the caverns. The firstthing we did was go to see amounted shooting show innorth Alabama.”

One of the couple’s friendsgave Mickie the chance to gofor a ride.

“He shot for the first timeand won his class,” said Turn-bow. “All the way home fromBeaverton, all he could talkabout was this. The next thingI know we are dragging ourhorse trailers up and down theroad again doing CowboyMounted Shooting.”

The Turnbows, along with ahost of Bandits, converged onIron Horse May 7 for a club

shoot in preparation for theCowboy Mounted ShootingAssociation’s Alabama StateChampionship May 28-29.

“My husband and I share ahorse and he was used in CivilWar reenactments, so he’sused to the noise,” said Shan-non Andress, who participatesas a member of the Banditswith her husband, Allan, and11-year-old son, Sam. “Ide-ally, you don’t want to use thesame horse because that canwear him out. I let my hus-band have him and I’m tryingto break this one in. This is afamily sport. If my husbandand son weren’t involved, Iwouldn’t be. That’s what Ilove about it.”

The family atmosphere per-meates events at Iron Horse.

“We’ve got a lot of hus-bands and wives that aremembers,” said Vanderslice.“We’ve got one little girlthat’s nine or 10 and all she

does is ride. We have about 65to 70 members and averageabout three to five new mem-bers each time we have anevent.”

Geni Payne of Jackson’sGap falls into that category.

At the May 7 shoot, she andher horse galloped into thearena for the first time.

“My boyfriend does this,”said Payne. “He loves horsesand thought this would besomething fun we could to-gether. He said, why don’t Itry it. I tried on his shootinghorse and had so much fun Ibought my own and have beenshooting ever since.”

Payne said she plans toshoot during the upcomingstate competition.

“It’s a load of fun,” shesaid. “We (Payne and thehorse) are just learning how todeal with each other. She’sgetting used to the gunfire.She’s a little slow, but is get-ting better and is behavinglike a good girl.”

The key to the competition,according to Turnbow, Van-derslice and Andress, is find-ing the right horse.

“A lot of the competitioncomes down to your horse-manship skills,” said Andress.“This is a very green horse.I’m still trying to break himin, so I don’t expect the kindof performance out of himthat I would from a more ex-perienced horse. His problemright now is that he’s very ear-shy.”

Vanderslice said horseshave to become accustomedto the constant pops from therevolvers.

“The most difficult part of

Shoot, fire!Bandits enjoy riding challengeByGriffinPritchard

Michelle Cummings takes aim ona target during a competition atIron Horse Ranch in Wetumpka.

PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD

S


all of this is getting your horse to thepoint it accepts gunfire,” said Van-derslice. “You get them accustomedto hearing the noise and then you gofrom there.”

The Turnbows use shotgun shellsto acclimate their steeds.

“All of our’s had won at cutting,”said Turnbow.

“This mare was very humble. Thatmare was my granddaughter’s break-away roping horse she used allthrough high school. She took to thislike a natural.

“We came home from that firstshoot and started shooting .22 shellsaround them to get them used to thenoise. This mare still flinches everyonce in a while when you fire aroundher on the ground, but it doesn’tbother her when you are riding. Thegelding my husband rides is stillnew. He doesn’t mind the shooting atall.”

Sometimes it’s the movementmore than the sound.

“The horse we have with the rac-ing blinders on, gunfire doesn’tbother him,” said Turnbow, “Butwhen your arm goes out it scares

him. So we put the blinders on andhe’s just fine.”

Vanderslice pointed out that a lotof the sport is trial and error.

“I love being able to shoot and runfast,” said Michelle Cummings ofTitus. “I’ve been doing this since theclub started in 2009. Before doingthis I shot some and showed horses.”

Along with being proficient on ahorse, participants also need to besound with a firearm.

“I’ve ridden horses all my life,”said Vanderslice. “But I’ve neverhunted. I had to learn the dos anddon’ts with guns. The toughest partwas learning not to run faster thanyou can shoot.”

Competitors take the course armedwith two five-shot revolvers. Theammo is black powder bullets.

“The cone of fire that comes fromthe end of your barrels is what burststhe balloon,” said Andress. “Itreaches out and touches that latexand makes it explode. So ideally youwant to engage your target between15 and 20 feet.”

Andress added that even thoughthe ammo is mostly for show, there is

Cody Ivey keys in on a target during competition at theIron Horse Ranch. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD


an element of danger.“We’ll take a watermelon or

a soda can and put it at point-blank range and blow a holein it,” said Andress. “So if youaren’t careful, you could dis-embowel yourself with thisammo.

“If you are farther than 20feet, it’s iffy if you are goingto hit your target. If you arecloser than 15 feet, the percus-sion will blow the balloondown and it will pop back upunharmed. You finish thecourse and look back at theones still standing. You’rethinking, ‘I know I shot thatballoon.’ If you can’t put thehorse where you need to be ona run, then you are going to bein trouble.”

The youth who compete –under age 11 – aren’t allowedto use firearms.

“I’ll start shooting in Octo-ber,” said Sam Andress.“Right now, the best part isbeating people and winning. Iget to make new friends. It’s

fun. I enjoy riding and shoot-ing and this is the perfectcombination.”

During the May 7 event,Andress competed againstDylan Galler of Enterprise.

“My aunt has some friendsthat told her about it andthought it would be fun,” saidGaller. “I’ve done speedevents – barrels and poles –but nothing like this. This isfun.”

Along with the revolvers,competitors give a nod to thepast, dressing in period cloth-ing. Competitors dressed incowboy fashions of days goneby also wear specially madeholsters. The custom madeholsters are angled above theshooter’s waist, making it eas-ier for the rider to draw.

“The requirements with theCMSA is either late 1800s at-tire or traditional cowboy at-

tire,” said Jennifer Young ofPiedmont. “I enjoy doing thetraditional. It puts you in themood and brings an elementof showmanship to it.”

Young is new to the sport,but no stranger to performing.

“For me that’s what I grewup doing was the showman-ship part,” she said. “I workon my costuming and my per-formance depending on whereI am competing.”

Ross Cramer sprints through the course at Iron Horse Ranch. PHOTO BY GRIFFIN PRITCHARD

Chris Humphries workson making a batch ofhomemade key limemarshmallows.PHOTO BY LAUREN NEWMAN


hey’re little pillowsof sugar, flavoredand shaped how-ever you choose ifyou decide to cookthem yourself. And

that’s how Chris Humphriesbecame interested in makingmarshmallows.

After watching Food Net-work host Alton Brownmake marshmallows and de-scribe them as “the firstcandy,” Humphries said hebecame intrigued and de-cided to find a recipe to ex-periment with.

“You can buy the massmerchandised ones,”Humphries said as he beganto whip up a batch of keylime marshmallows. “Butlook at the fun you have withthese.”

Humphries’ marshmallowsmade their Tallassee debut atDecember’s Christmas Mar-ket and quickly became pop-ular among market-goers.

“They went off the chartsat the Christmas market,”Humphries said.

Some of the marshmallowflavors featured at the holi-day market were vanilla andeggnog.

“It’s amazing that I luckedinto doing it with the Farm-ers’ Market. I don’t know ofanyone else that’s doing it.”

Patricia Elliott,Humphries’ friend and ownerof Ann Street Cafe, often of-fers her restaurant’s kitchento Humphries to makebatches of marshmallows.

“I’ll admit that I do notlike marshmallows you canbuy at a grocery store,” El-liott said. “But I love these.They’re a different texture.They almost melt in yourmouth.”

Humphries said it is reallyup to someone’s imaginationas to what flavor, color orshape they want their marsh-mallow to be. Some of themore popular marshmallowflavors Humphries has madeare key lime, cinnamon rolland toasted coconut.

“We’ve had so much funwith flavors,” Humphries

said. “You can also use foodcoloring, but we haven’t re-ally gotten into that yet.”

And the feedback he’s got-ten from customers has beenoverwhelmingly positive.

“Folks love it,” Humphriessaid. “They say, ‘When areyou going to try this? Whenare you going to try that?’Toasted coconut was the oneeverybody talked about.”

As far as flavors thatmissed the mark, Humphriessaid he has not found a badone yet.

“I heard about a guy whodid a ghost pepper-flavoredone,” Humphries said. “Andthat did not go over well.”

But it’s all about trial anderror with recipe experimen-tation. And Elliott warns thatanyone who attempts tomake homemade marshmal-lows should be patient.

“You have a lot more pos-sibilities when you makeyour own,” Elliott said.“Something like this wouldbe something fun to do on asnow day or a hot day with

your kids. It takes a fewhours, but the end result isgood.”

Each batch of marshmal-lows, once spread into a pan,needs to set at least threehours. Humphries said hesometimes lets his batchesset overnight.

Humphries’ marshmallowsare not available at everyFarmers’ Market Saturday,but he is taking special or-ders.

To place an order or in-quire about a specific flavor,call Ann Street Cafe at 334-252-0016. Minimum order isa pan, which usually yields48 two-inch marshmallows.Humphries said he can getmost orders turned out in 24to 28 hours.

At the end of the day,Humphries said it’s abouthaving fun doing somethingyou like.

“Like I said, you could buythe store-bought ones,”Humphries concluded. “Buthere, you get to play. We’restill playing and having fun.”

ByLaurenNewman

Homemade marshmallows are a hit

Sweettreats

T

Patricia Elliott with a flower-shaped marshmallow.PHOTO BY LAUREN NEWMAN

ByPeggyBlackburn

Hotels andboarding housesonce dotted the We-tumpka landscape.In the 1800s, watertransportation wasthe quickest andmost economicalway of movinggoods before the ad-vent of the railroad.

Wetumpka wasthe northernmostpoint steamboatscould travel on theAlabama and Coosarivers with their car-gos. The city’s loca-tion made it a hub ofcommerce, and ac-commodations fortravelers were in

Looking back at

THE RIVERSIDE INN

high demand.“Wetumpka was at

the head of navigationgoing all the way toMobile and on to NewOrleans,” said localhistorian Joe AllenTurner. “That’s whythere were so manyhotels. People wouldbring merchandise

and supplies from fur-ther north to be shippedsouth, and goods fromNew Orleans and Mobilewould come here to besent back north.

“It was really a thriv-ing busy place, and gotoff to a fast start,” hesaid. “At one point in the1840s, the population

went as high as 15,000.But when the steamshipbusiness declined becauseof the railroad, it sort offizzled out.”

Coosa Hall, later re-named Riverside Inn, wasperhaps the most success-ful hotel in Wetumpka.Built in 1846, it was lo-cated approximately on

the current site of the ElmoreCounty Museum (old We-tumpka Post Office).

In addition to the three-story brick hotel with morethan 50 rooms, the complexincluded outbuildings and astable. The hotel stable occu-pied the space where We-tumpka City Hall nowstands. The hotel faced South

Main Street.Howell Rose owned the hotel

at the time of his death in 1866.It was then sold to ThomasWilliams. In 1880, the propertywas purchased by David andFlora Campbell, and then oper-ated by Archibald GrahamCampbell.

Continued on

elmore county living 2011

Documents

long time

hundreds ofvolunteers

thousands of items

hundreds of otherswill

hundreds ofpeople

hundreds of treesfell

elmore county portion

worse time formany people