This year’s Recall LaGrange Festival will feature several new exhibits and events, while continuing to pay homage to the first chartered college in Alabama.

The festival is Friday, May 4-Sunday May 6 at LaGrange College [...]]]>

Bradley Skipworth and L.C. Lenz attach a quilt painting to barn at LaGrange College Site near Leighton

This year’s Recall LaGrange Festival will feature several new exhibits and events, while continuing to pay homage to the first chartered college in Alabama.

The festival is Friday, May 4-Sunday May 6 at LaGrange College Site Park, 1491 LaGrange College Road, Leighton.
Among the new exhibits is a barn quilt painting, provided by The Alabama Barn Quilt Trail. The painting was affixed to a log barn at LaGrange College Site Park just in time for the festival.

Another new exhibit will be the original bell from the LaGrange College, which has been housed at Athens State College for more than 90 years. A ceremony to celebrate the return of the historic bell is at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

A new event is the reenactment of a law enforcement raid on a moonshine still at 2 p.m. Saturday. There will be a display of moonshine stills and tours of the nearby Dawson Distillery on Saturday.
Louise Lenz, an organizer of the festival, said LaGrange Living Historical Association, a sponsor of the event, changes some of the activities and exhibits every year.

“We want to keep things fresh,” Lenz said. “We have people from all over who come back every year.”
Some exhibits are mainstays of the festival and are featured every year, including living history displays of life atop LaGrange Mountain during the Civil War. In addition to LaGrange College, a town once stood where the park is now located. The college, along with most the buildings in the town, were destroyed by the Union Army in 1863.
This year’s festival will also celebrate Alabama’s bicentennial.

Other activities will include an antique and classic car display, wagon rides to historic LaGrange Cemetery and musical entertainment. Artists and craftsmen will be displaying and selling their wares. Local author Robert Steen will attend with copies of his latest books. The LaGrange Observatory will be open for tours. Concessions will be available.

The festival is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.
Susann Hamlin, president and CEO of Colbert County Tourism, said Recall LaGrange is an excellent event for families and is one of the most popular festivals in the Shoals. “The organizers and volunteers at Recall LaGrange do a fantastic job telling the story about the history of our area.”

For more details about the festival call Lenz at 256-446-9324 or Colbert County Tourism at 256-383-0783.

SHEFFIELD – A Crappie USA fishing tournament held on Pickwick and Wilson lakes Saturday, March 31, confirmed what many local anglers have been talking about this spring. Big crappie are more plentiful in the lakes than they have been in years.

Henry and Jo Haley [...]]]>

Matthew and Caleb Tosh won the amateur division

SHEFFIELD – A Crappie USA fishing tournament held on Pickwick and Wilson lakes Saturday, March 31, confirmed what many local anglers have been talking about this spring.  Big crappie are more plentiful in the lakes than they have been in years.

Henry and Jo Haley of Carmi, Ill., won the pro division of the tournament with a seven-fish limit that weighed 13.20 pounds. It was the heaviest seven-fish limit ever caught in a Crappie USA event on Pickwick and Wilson lakes.

David and Larry Sisson of Wingo, Ky., caught the largest fish for the tournament, a 3.08 pounds black crappie. It was the biggest fish weighed in so far this year at Crappie USA tournaments across the country and the largest ever for the organization at a competition on Pickwick and Wilson lakes. The father and son team finished second in the pro division with 12.91 pounds.

“The lakes are absolutely amazing now,” said Darrell Van Vactor, general manager for Crappie USA. “There are more big crappie in Wilson and Pickwick than I have ever seen. Not only are the crappie big, there’s plenty of them.”

Henry Haley said he and his wife love fishing in Pickwick Lake. “It’s like a second home for us. We drive five and half hours all the time to come down here and fish just for fun. The crappie fishing down here is great.”
“We spend so much time fishing on Pickwick Lake that they know us by first name at the restaurants, bait shops and gas stations around the lake,” Jo Haley said. “Pickwick is great lake for crappie fishing.”

A trio of Tennessee teams rounded out top five in the pro division. Bart Gillon and Steve Coleman were third with 12.53 pounds, with Shane Moore and John Eubanks finished fourth with 12.07 pounds and T.J. Todd and Brian Hatch were fifth with 11.13 pounds.

The father and son team of Matthew and Caleb Tosh of Rutherford, Tenn., won the amateur division with 11.17 pounds. They also won second place in the big fish contest with 2.46 pounds. Kentucky anglers Robert Massey and Todd Dalton finished second in the amateur division with 10.68 pounds. Alabama anglers rounded out the top five with Chad Brooks of Somerville and John Childers of Union Grove finishing third 10.04 pounds, Wayne and Billy Dickey of Florence were fourth with 9.68 pounds followed by Will Counts of Tuscumbia and Kyle Moody of Florence with 9.24 pounds.

The tournament was sponsored by Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau. Susann Hamlin, President and CEO of Colbert Tourism, said the number of big crappie caught in the tournament will provide a boost for tourism in the Shoals. “Crappie anglers from all over the South and Midwest are going to start making plans to come fish in Pickwick and Wilson lakes when they hear about the size of the fish the Crappie USA anglers caught. It was a great tournament for the anglers who were competing and for our efforts to promote Colbert County as a great place to go fishing too.”

A Crappie Kids Fishing Rodeo at Riverfront Park, that was held in conjunction with the Crappie USA tournament, attracted almost 50 young anglers from throughout the Shoals.

TUSCUMBIA–Automobile enthusiasts from throughout the Southeast and Midwest are headed to Spring Park in Tuscumbia for one of the largest car shows in Alabama on Saturday, June 3.

More than 300 vehicles are expected for the 46th annual [...]]]>

Some of the beautiful HotRods that will be on display this year at Spring Park

TUSCUMBIA–Automobile enthusiasts from throughout the Southeast and Midwest are headed to Spring Park in Tuscumbia for one of the largest car shows in Alabama on Saturday, June 3.

More than 300 vehicles are expected for the 46th annual Muscle Shoals Street Rod Run, which features all makes and models of vehicles made up until 1972. There is no charge to tour the vehicle display that gets underway at 8 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m.Organizers said many of the car enthusiasts who compete in the Muscle Shoals Street Rod run have been attending for years and the show is like a family reunion.

Susann Hamlin, president and CEO of Colbert County Tourism Bureau, said the car show provides a big boost to the local economy. She said the auto enthusiasts stay at Colbert County hotels, eat at local restaurants and shop while they are in town for the show.

For more details on the car show, call Larry Lindsey at 256-762-4953. For more details on things to do and places to see in Colbert County, call Colbert County Tourism at 256-383-0783.

By Dennis Sherer SHEFFIELD – Winning the fourth annual Timmy Horton High School Bass Anglers Challenge on Pickwick Lake was an answered prayer for Hartselle High School senior Briana Tucker. “I was praying all week that God would bless me [...]]]>

Tim Horton, Briana Montgomery, and Susann Hamlin President and CEO of Colbert Tourism

By Dennis Sherer
SHEFFIELD – Winning the fourth annual Timmy Horton High School Bass Anglers Challenge on Pickwick Lake was an answered prayer for Hartselle High School senior Briana Tucker.
“I was praying all week that God would bless me with five big ones,” Tucker said before she placed her five-bass limit on the scales during the tournament weigh-in that was held Saturday, Oct. 22 at Riverfront Park in Sheffield.

The crowd applauded and Tucker had a huge smile on her face as emcee Tim Horton announced that her catch weighed 16.73 pounds. The catch was anchored by the biggest fish caught during the tournament, a largemouth bass that weighed 7.71 pounds. Tucker won two college scholarships totaling $4,500 and a $300 rod and reel..

Tucker plans to fish competitively in college and then hopes to become a professional angler after graduating. Horton, a professional angler and outdoors television personality from Muscle Shoals, said he has been keeping up with Tucker since she was in elementary school and he is confident that not only will she earn a spot on one of the professional bass fishing tours, she will do well. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 25 degrees or 110 degrees, she is out there fishing and she is catching fish. I expect to see her in the Bassmaster Classic someday.”

The students competing in the Timmy Horton High School Challenge fished from boats piloted by an adult who did not fish. Tucker’s grandfather, Jim Garrie was her boat captain.

Rounding out the top five in the senior division were Ross Napier, also of Hartselle High, with 12.32 pounds; Gabe Wallace of Russellville High with 6.49 pounds; Clayton Birdyshaw of Rogers High in Florence, with 6.17 pounds and Brody Montgomery of Vinemont High with 4.45 pounds.

Luke Linley, an 8th grader at Deshler Middle School in Tuscumbia, won the junior division with a five-bass limit that weighed 5.27 pounds. He won a $3,000 scholarship. The junior division is for anglers in grades 7-9. Linley’s boat captain was his father, Kevin Linley.

Thomas “Kole” Key of Northside Middle School in Tuscaloosa, with 5.07 pounds; Dalton Steele of Russellville High, with 3.55 pound; Landon Beard of Muscle Shoals Middle School, with 3.37 pounds and Conner Handley of Vinemont High with 3.34 pounds rounded out the top five in the junior division.
Almost 100 anglers from throughout Alabama competed in the tournament that was organized by Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau. Since the tournament began in 2013, $80,000 in college scholarships have been awarded.
Highlights from the tournament will be broadcast on the Timmy Horton Outdoors television show on the World Fish Network channel. The broadcast date will be announced.