Spectre, "The Best Kept Secret in the State of Alabama"

The town of Spectre

My trek through my beloved Alabama has taken me to many, many places. Places I never knew existed. Places I did. Most are your normal run-of-the-mill old houses or stores. After seeing dozens and dozens of them they start to look alike. But then there are the really cool things. The, as I call them, Holy Grails of my journey. This one, Spectre, Alabama, was one of my hardest to get to. It's on private land and is behind a gate that requires a code. And $3 a head. Guess that's to maintain the gate I suppose. But fortunately a friend of Forgotten Alabama, Gerald Nix, happen to be one of those with the code. It took a while to get our schedules to match but we did.

The columns from the witch's house

The Mayor's house. Only interior used besides the witch's house. Pie anyone?

I have to say the island (it's actually a peninsula) is quite peaceful. The spanish moss hangs thick on the trees there. I've often wondered why there is such a preponderance of it around Montgomery for something most likely to be seen much further south. As we rode down the gravel road I was getting excited. Like I was entering Alabama's version of Area 51. I could see the rooftops as we drew close and then as we rounded the curve there it was. Time has not been kind to the old buildings but then again they're movie props and not built to code. All show obvious signs of age and deterioration. In retrospect they were mostly still intact. The fake bricks were coming off of the chimneys and walls. None of the buildings had floors save for the Mayor's house. There are two large open and quite obvious spaces in the middle across the street from each other. These were the stores and businesses. Apparently both suffered their ultimate demise as victims of an an accidental fire. How that fire jumped across 30' of road between them is a mystery though.

Looking back towards the Jumping Spider woods. At top is the fake trees as Ed enters Spectre for the first time. The pole at right was one of the poles that held the wire that the shoes were suspended from.

What pretty much every building looked like inside

I watched Big Fish again. Mostly because I wanted a reference to accurately describe things. I have to admit it's worth watching. I didn't give it much thought initially but there were a lot of big names in the movie. Albert Finney was perfectly cast as was Ewan McGregor. It also had Jessica Lange and Billy Crudup. Robert Guillaume, Danny Devito (who was perfect for his role) and Steve Buscemi (who was not). And of course Miley Cyrus made her acting debut back when she was sweet and innocent. Oh...little known trivia (I love that interweb thingy) This was supposed to be Steven Speilberg's movie and he wanted Jack Nicholson to play the elder Ed Bloom. I like Jack Nicholson but there's no way he could have pulled this off like Finney did.

Nothing happened at the church. It was truly a prop

In the big picture (pun unintended) the town of Spectre wasn't really a significant physical part of the movie. The only interior of any building you see is the Mayor's house. Well, the witch's house too but it had fallen into such disrepair that it was removed. Only the piers exist now where it once sat. I have to admit it was quite fascinating walking around Spectre. And equally fascinating seeing a movie set as they actually are. I was told that Tim Burton and his wife stayed overnight at the Mayor's house. I was also told that rather than disassemble Spectre he offered the property owner compensation to let it sit as is. I'm glad he did.






As I've come to discover time and again, it's always a little weird walking around once busy places that are now abandoned.

Spectre was no exception.

1412 Miles In Three Days

My day began at 3am. You may not realize this but 3am is pretty dang early. As is always the case though, I only have so much winter and a lotta ground to cover. Up to this point of the 16 sections I had planned to visit I had made it to a whopping five. And five ain't gonna cut it. Time to step things up a bit. On this particular endeavor I was going to be ambitious. Three of my 16 in three days. 102 separate stops. And, as it turned out, 1412 miles round trip. Granted my trips would best be called circuitous but even I was surprised it was that long.

It was just over three hours, as I was racing sunrise, to get to my first target. As I had mentioned previously I was looking for a windmill. I got a few suggestions and debated their merits. But, oddly enough, as I was coming back from Miami for my job a few days earlier, I rolled right past this perfect example. I was so excited to find it! Funny thing was...as I was leaving to move on to my next stop I saw the sign on the side of the road. Windmill Farms. Heavy sigh. It was a prop for a farm and not abandoned nor forgotten.

C'est la vie...




Not far from the windmill was this cool old sign for WTVY in Dothan. Now, granted, WTVY is alive and well but this was at their old studios in Webb.

There was a time when TV and radio stations went with really extravagant signage. You rarely see them anymore. I would call this an excellent example and I hope they don't let it deteriorate beyond repair. It's worth saving.

About half way between Geneva and Samson is this little gas station with its really cool sign. In business since WWII, the Harry Wilson store is a neat little stop along the way. It's still in business but I just couldn't pass up shooting something so old and yet still in business. I met Mr Wilson as he was closing up for the day and he was a nice guy. Sounds like a character from "It's a Wonderful Life". Everything about the place seemed frozen in 1962 so perhaps the sequel.




Just down the road from Red Level I found this old tow truck. A late 1940s or early 1950s Chevy. Suffice it to say the trees that now surround it are not near as old as that truck was.

Way down in Bon Secour I had two things I had to get. The Morning Star shrimp boat and this boat, the Jamie Jen. Only problem was that neither of them were easy to get to. I was pretty distraught about that until I found a crab fisherman who was about to go out and check his traps. I offered him $20 if he'd run my down the river to see these and he said yes. Trust me. This was the highlight of my day to get these boats and worth every penny. That fisherman, Nathaniel, was a super nice guy and helped me out with backgrounds on both the Morning Star (which you can see on Facebook/Forgotten Alabama) and this boat, the Jamie Jen. Seems she was a victim of Hurricane Ivan. The storm was so fierce (I actually covered Ivan when I worked in TV) that she was lifted out of the water and then crashed down on a pier post which impaled the long-liner to the dock. I wondered why it was still floating till Nathaniel pointed out how shallow it was there. It's actually sitting on the bottom of the river.

So you know, I have plotted out literally hundreds of old and abandoned structures in Alabama. Close to 2000 actually. But in that 2000 I have about 20 I consider my Holy Grail targets. By Holy Grail I mean those are places I have to find and shoot that I consider sensational. This coal tipple I found in Flomaton is one of those. Built in 1943 for the L&N Railroad it sits as a silent monument to steam trains and is a significant piece of railroad history.






1412 miles, 888 pictures, three fillups and a lotta gas station chicken. I will admit to being ready for this trip to end. When I finally finished with number 102 I was happy to be done and heading home. Now if I can get spring to wait a few more weeks I may make it.

I'll just pretend I didn't see those daffodils blooming on the side of the road...

Five Down, Eleven To Go

My cryptic title? Well, I've got my work cut out for me. My goal (ambitious for sure. Practical? Not so much) was to cover the entire state in a single winter. As I have stated previously, I had divided the state into 16 sections. So far I've made it to five. And winter is more than half way over. It's beginning to look like my plan is becoming unrealistic.

(insert heavy sigh here).

Life gets in the way and you have to prioritize things. My job, while only freelance, still cuts into my already busy schedule. And then there's my elderly Dad. I love him but he's slipping away. I figure in a year he may not even know who I am. It's tough to witness this but it is my reality and taking care of his needs is more important. So I rearrange things or change priorities. Such is life...

I can still find some time to get out and see things. Today's venture was more or less (they're all more or less but within a laid out grid) from Alexander City to the Georgia state line, Hackneyville to Pittsview.

I actually wasn't looking for this place but what was next to it. What I think was the old Marble City Cement Company. It's still a sturdy concrete structure (which makes sense when you think about it) but anything that could decay certainly was. This chair was pretty typical of what was inside. Broken glass and collapsing wooden walls were everywhere. There was a calendar on the wall from 1992. As much as this place has declined you would have thought 1962.

Friends of my Forgotten Alabama Facebook page, Kathy Bassett Brown and her husband Ronnie, graciously gave me a tour of Hackneyville. Part of the tour was in the woods near there where this old truck was sitting. Called a "GI" (Govt Issue. Also known as a Deuce & a half) and was used to ferry logs from the woods to bigger trucks that would take those logs to the mills. I think it's fair to say this truck might have been used in WWII.

I did find it ironic that the trees will eventually engulf it.

No trip is complete without the requisite long-since forgotten bridge. This is in Horseshoe Bend military park. All that remains of a covered bridge that spanned the Tallapoosa River. I have to tell you this had to have been an interesting ride. The river's got to be at least a 1000' wide at this point and these piers are spaced a long ways apart. Being a wooden bridge it would have flexed and creaked a lot.

When I first started scouting maps and found Seale I was quite excited to go there. Most of the town moved away from where it was but there was still a strip of old stores that just got forgotten. There were four structures. The old Post Office, a drug store, feed store and the fourth I'm not sure of. All in declining condition. It was neat to see them. Then I found this just down the street. The Bank of Seale, Jan. 1, 1909. Still pretty much like it must have looked 100 years ago. Well...minus a roof and back wall and other minor details.



As my day was drawing to a close there was one thing I absolutely had to find. Not a Holy Grail so to speak but a very important thing that I hoped still existed. And to make matters more complicated it was best guess where exactly it was. All I had was an approximate location. You cannot see it from the air on Google maps. I was getting anxious as I got close to it because the sun was setting and I'm hoping I get lucky. And then Boom...there it is! I was stunned. Just a mere 100yds off of Chambers County 222 and no more than two miles from the Georgia state line was the Chattahoochee Valley Railway depot. Still there. Still standing. To say it's in a significant state of decay is like saying it's cold at the North Pole. As far as I know the only remaining remnant of this little shortline save for an old locomotive in a museum in Georgia. It only had 45 miles of track at its height and by the time it was abandoned in 1992 was down to ten miles. This was a major find in my journey so today was a good day...

I'm still going to try and salvage my tour of the state. Only problem is too much state and too little winter. Even now I still can't believe I dread the end of winter. We'll chalk it up to temporary insanity.

Yep...that works.

It's A Good Day To Shoot

And why, you might ask, is today better than other days? As I have stated more than once, I have such an aversion to winter that mere words fail me. Even bright sunny days are nothing more than nature taunting me into thinking it's nice outside when in fact, as we speak, it's 32 degrees. I must say I feel bad for those of you who feel as I do and still have to go out in to winter's cruel embrace in order to forge out a living. Be that as it may, if I have to endure the cold (pun intended) hard reality of winter I might as well use it to my advantage. As such, I need it to be dark and dreary. I only use available light and at least when it's overcast I'm not fighting the sun. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I had to change my position because my shadow was in the frame. Add to that that the winter sun is much lower on the horizon and this becomes an all day ordeal. I say all this to say today was cloudy and dreary. Just a miserable day. But from my point of view the first good day I've had since I started this season.




Today was day two of my foray into northeastern Alabama. Mostly Madison, Jackson and Dekalb counties. In fact I was so far northeast the GPS sent me through South Pittsburg, Tennessee to get to Bryant, Alabama. I started this morning working my way up through Jackson County. One of the early things I found was in Scottsboro. A large inverted cone shaped thing. And no...I have no clue what it is. It can best be described as an igloo made out of concrete blocks. Most things I can figure out but this one is a mystery.






Further down the road was this piece of machinery sitting on the side of the road just outside of Stevenson. While I have never actually seen one I suspect this is machinery from an old cotton gin. Why it's sitting here is a mystery but it was adjacent to an antique shop so maybe for display purposes.

While in Bridgeport I had encountered a police officer who wondered what mayhem I was causing on the other side of town. I laughed when I saw this a few minutes later as it could have possibly been my new residence had I indeed been up to nefarious endeavors. This is the town's old  jail across the street from Bridgeport City Hall. I shot this through the bars of the front door.The front door was just that....bars. I can only imagine how miserable that would have been on a cold winter day but it would be easy for the town's folk to come by and "see" you.

As I was heading up Lookout Mountain to find something on the other side of Mentone I happened to glance down into the valley to my left. The area, appropriately named Valley by the way, had been clear cut and was mostly barren save for a couple of lone structures. You'll notice the steeple on top which is what caught my eye. I debated turning around right then but figured I would come back this way instead. As it turned out the GPS led me back this way to my next target. What I had thought was an old school was actually a church. It was old for sure. Named "The Spoken Word Ministry", it was now just a run down old building clad in classic fake brick, asphalt shingle siding that has to have been abandoned for quite some time. The steeple was added on much more recently as it's made of particle board and was attached to a tin roof. I suspect whoever ran this little church was trying to make it more homey and appealing.

My last stop of the day. An old dock on the Tennessee River at the base of the mountain from Section. I was happy to see it because I was done for the day and heading home. By this time the temperature was hovering just above freezing and the wind was blowing a good 15mph.

I did see something that amused me. I was never one for fishing. I understand why folks do but I just never really got into it. But as I was leaving I saw this guy out on his boat. In full coveralls with a hood. It's cold, windy and miserable and yet here he is seeing what he can catch. There's the old expression "One man's junk is another man's treasure" to which I amend to say one man's crazy is another man's perfectly normal I suppose...

Dang It's Cold

Yes I know it's winter. And winter is cold. But today redefined cold. My bed was so warm when the alarm went off at 6:15. However winter is short when you've got things to do. I climbed in my truck in the garage and glanced at the temperature. It's 50 degrees down here so I'm sure it will be fine. Um....well no. I watched that digital display drop like a rock. It finally settled on 9. I sighed knowing that this day was going to be a challenge.


The morning sun peeked over the horizon as I climbed up on this old steel railroad bridge. I don't know the original railroad but I suspect the Atlantic Coast Line. Built in 1936 by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company, it spans across Bessemer Super Highway (super in name only...trust me).

I go in every abandoned structure I can. Some are difficult but others you just walk in. This house sits more or less halfway between Harpersville and Vincent on US 231. I was struck by how much was left there. The kitchen table still had utensils on it but the bird's nest in the oven made me think it's been a while since it was occupied. The previous occupants were not what you would call fastidious. Looks like they just gave up and left. I debated checking the size of the suit jacket left hanging in the bedroom but decided against it.








One of my more prolific posters on my Forgotten Alabama Facebook page, Ken Balch, would know what this place was in Dora. If I had to guess it looked very much like the remains of a car dealership. Lots of big  windows and what appeared to be a service bay. It was cool walking through here and imagining a busy business and a lot of activity. Ivy and small trees are its inhabitants now. Btw, there are several old buildings in Dora along the railroad tracks. It's really weird. Like a small ghost town.

Sunday! Sunday! At the Childersburg Speedway. Street stock and late model modified racing! Bring the kids! Free parking!

I remember Friday nights at Huntsville Speedway from my youth. It wasn't a dirt track but many similarities. Sort of Nascar on a TV dinner budget. Those days are long past for this old track way out in the sticks on Plant Road. I found it by accident heading to someplace else. I'll tell you it was really weird walking around this place. It's still mostly intact although the dirt track is filled with rain-eroded ruts. Now the only thing racing on it are numerous yucca plants. It's a strange feeling walking around a place that probably had hundreds of people and dozens of very loud cars on race night. Strange in that the only sound I would hear was the occasional truck pass by. I go to a lot of these places and that apocalyptic feeling always pop up. Like I'm the last person on earth.


I've seen this tractor many times on my way to work. It sits in front of a scrap yard on US 280 between Harpersville (speed trap btw)  and Childersburg. I liked it because it's old and, well, cool looking. This early morning it was covered in frost. I'm sure its seen many a frosty morning in its long and I'm sure hard life.

Cascade Plunge

As I was getting close to finishing my second day out on the road I was following a more or less linear path home as the sun was setting in the west. I knew there was a place I had to get to before I ran out of light. The Elks Lodge #79 up near East Lake. For many years this was THE place to go. An enormous pool. A miniature golf course. A huge ballroom. I did not grow up in Birmingham so I don't know what it was like back in its heyday. But from what I've read this a significant part of people's lives for years. On this day (remember it's cold dang it!) the pool was frozen over except around the fountain and a home for catfish. One of the members showed up while I was shooting the miniature golf course and graciously allowed me to get a few interior shots. I'm guessing it's pretty much unchanged from the way it was 20 years ago but kinda sad seeing it empty now. Oh....it's for sale now if you're curious.

It was a good day but any day I'm out shooting is a good day. I do wish it was warmer though...

It's 4am And Time To Go

First of all you should know up front that I detest winter with a passion. I like mosquitoes more than I like winter. The only good thing about winter is spring. But this year I could hardly wait for winter. For the trees to lose their leaves and the kudzu to abate for the season. I only shoot seriously in winter because winter makes for dark and dreary settings for my photos. Needless to say I was anxious for Christmas to be over so I could focus on my project.

I had spent the summer scouring Google maps of the entire state. Over the course of the last few months I must have spent 300 or 400 hours mapping out every state and US highway plus many county roads. I know where more old houses and country stores are than any normal person could stand. Streetview makes things easy as I knew what most things looked like before I marked them. By the time I had a workable map system set up I had divided the state into 16 sections. Each section had various placemarks denoting an old house or a barn or store or bridge or, well, you get the idea. Some sections had as few as 80 placemarks and some close to 200. I haven't added them up but I'm figuring I've found close to 2000 different places that would most likely qualify as old and abandoned. Now was the time to put all that research to work and the day after Christmas was my start date.


4am comes mighty early on a cold winter's morning but today was THE day. I dragged myself from my warm bed knowing I had a long two days ahead of me. One last check on the cats to make sure they were ok and I was off. On today's agenda was map section UA-Northwest. UA being Upper Alabama (since LA is Lower Alabama why not an Upper Alabama as well?). I pulled into Moulton around 6am (it's still dark at 6am but now I know) and waited for the sun to come up. My first stop was this little country store west of Moulton. The frost on the ground crunched under my feet as I moved around looking for the best angle. I tend to shoot from many angles because it's digital and you can't throw away pictures you don't have. It was very quiet way out in the country but also quite peaceful. I had finally started my winter's journey and today was going to be a good day.

This little former Chevron station east of Leighton looked better on Google Streetview than it did in real life but there were a few things to see. When's the last time you saw an oil can? And yes, it had church key holes in the top.

Just east of Florence is the Shoal Creek bridge. Traveling by car was still more or less a novelty when this bridge was built in 1924. While it looks quite dated now I'm betting this was state of the art back when it was built. It still looks sturdy even though the state has closed it off to even foot traffic.

Friday morning I was up before dark again because I still had a lot of places to go and there's only so much daylight. And add to that that the winter sun sits closer to the horizon and makes for challenging ways to get shots while avoiding getting your shadow in the picture. Thanks to Remember Tuscumbia for posting this former school on my Facebook/Forgotten Alabama page.  It was kinda creepy going through it. A lethal combination of the elements and vandals made this place feel eerie. Add to that that I think the temperature had to be in the upper teens as you can see from the frozen puddle in the picture. I was grateful for my warm car when it was time to move on.



Finally near the end of my day's journey I stopped at the old Meadow Gold Dairy Terminal (Thanks to Stanley N Carol Dean for the tip!) on US 31 between Athens and Decatur. Once again mostly destroyed on the inside. I did notice they spent money on some nice cultured marble on the facade. Not much to speak of inside other than a dead possum and this sign. I had forgotten about Ronnie Flippo. He was a former Congressman from the 5th district who resigned from Congress in 1991 to run for Governor. He wound up finishing 4th in the primary. I wonder if it was because his version of Alabama has a goatee?




By the time I got home I had driven 739 miles and taken about 650 pictures. My system needs refinement but at least I have a system. Before it was random and hope I got lucky.

It's good to be writing again and good to be back on the road. I love Alabama, warts and all, and looking forward to seeing much more of it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate y'all more than you know. 

Things I've Learned Along The Way

This has been an interesting ride and it's not over by any means. It was never my goal to do a blog. I just wanted to take pictures and call it a day. Well...a winter season. My wife suggested I do a blog and I thought why? Who would care? Ahh the things you learn. Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean...well no...we're slow learners. I took her advice because it might be fun. Not that I'm the Laura Ingalls Wilder of bloggers mind you and my little corner of the internet started slow. I would throw out a link on Facebook and beg my friends to take a look. A friend who I only knew through a mutual game we played (Farmville if you were curious) was my first visitor. Thank you Jen. It's people like you that make this a worthy journey.

To be fair my genre is narrowly focused and I didn't expect a lot of people would be be bailing out of Facebook to come take a visit. But I did manage to get folks to come take a look. In fact from all over the world. Google has an easy to use blogger website and even gives you lots of information and statistics about where your readers come from and what browser they use. Little graphs and charts and things like that. Needless to say when I saw I had readers from Croatia and Russia...Romania, France, India, Australia...the United Arab Emirates...I was a bit surprised. In fact it wound up being about 20 different countries. Thank you Al Gore. Your "invention" has given me an audience I would never have thought possible.

I also learned a little about networking. Making friends who follow similar pursuits. I would find interesting pictures taken by other photographers. We tend to be protective of our turf if we find something unusual. But I had one in particular who advised me on a place and to make sure I didn't have Cato with me because he could get hurt. Cato is my baby and I'm very protective of him. I, in turn, told my photographer friend about a place he might enjoy. I met other wonderful people through their Facebook pages. William Hampton has a page called Huntsville Revisited with hundreds of historical pictures. Great guy and I'm happy to call him a friend. Another friend is Beverly Crider who runs the page Strange Alabama. I owe her a lot. She was gracious enough to link my blog on her page. Needless to say when I saw I had gone from a few page views on any given day to 5000 in a single day I was stunned.

I don't really talk to many people when I'm on the road. It's not because I don't want to. The winter daylight is a precious thing and short in supply. Most things I shoot are remote and there's no one around anyway. Usually my subject matter requires a quick stop, shoot, move on to the next target. On occasion I'll see something that requires permission. Practically everyone I met was nice about it whether they said yes or no.

When I make my trips I'm usually alone. Well, save for Cato. I usually drive till I see something I like. More than once I'll push the limits of the truck's gas tank. I'll sweat a little as I go mile after mile and see little evidence of civilization. Much less petroleum related commerce. I'll debate in my mind why I let the truck idle when I could have saved a few cents worth of gasoline. That quick stop that I just knew would take  two minutes turns in to ten. So I gamble. It never came back to bite me. That doesn't mean it won't...

I remember once being way up in northeast Alabama. In the Paint Rock Valley. Trust me when I say it can get quite remote. It's really pretty countryside but very sparsely populated. I watched anxiously as the bright orange stick slid down the "E" like the sun fading in the west. I would debate how far I can go before I have to bail and turn around. Needless to say when I did find gas at $3.80 a gallon I was more than happy to pay the price for my lack of foresight. I logged close to 7500 miles in my three months on the road. Changed the oil twice. My old Dodge has been my constant companion for the last ten years. It's had its share of problems but for a 16 year old truck its been a good, reliable companion.

I have to admit feeling melancholy about the onset of spring. There are few things I dislike more than winter. But winter is a necessary ingredient for my project. With the advancing warm weather that Govt experiment gone awry, kudzu, will once again engulf my quarry. There is still so much more ground I need to cover. Most of northwest Alabama...southeast and southwest Alabama as well. How naive I had to have been to think this would take a couple of months and then I publish my book. No, I need one more good winter (a contradiction to me normally) to collect more material. So much more research I need to do. A more well thought out plan...

Pardon me.....I'm laughing at myself. Good intentions and that road to...well...you know.

Writing this has been a blast. I hate that I have to stop for now. I was just going to write a few, maybe five or six, but that few turned into 20+. I want to thank y'all for giving me a few minutes of your day to enjoy my passion. Dang I hate this part. I came to love my journey. But for now it's time to let it rest till winter once again welcomes me back to the road.

Just a little advice before I go. Get a camera. Just a decent little point and shoot. Take pictures. Lots of pictures. Your friends and family. Your pets. Your house. Your garden. Your car. Your neighborhood. Your church. Where you shop. Where you work. Where you play. Sure lots of these seem odd for now. But ten years from now?Twenty or 30? Then you'll understand. And your kids will thank you. And their kids and....well you get it.

Sadly it's the end of the road for now. See you in December. I am humbled that many of you took a moment to drop by. Thank you....thank you very much!

Old AL 69 as it disappears into Smith Lake