Detours on the Literary Traveler’s Road

Visiting a site I’m researching for my book often propels me on a different path. I’m suddenly rushing to the library or bookstore or logging on to Amazon.com to find a book someone has recommended about the place or the writer. Nearly a hundred authors are included in A Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola, and I’m trying to read something by each of them, even if it’s a small portion from google books or Project Guttenberg.

The trouble is – a snippet isn’t enough. Just reading a few paragraphs or pages doesn’t satisfy my quest for thorough documentation. Plus, my love of a good story gets in the way. I justify the hours I spend reading (rather than writing) by saying “it’s research for my book.” That allows me to curl up with a good book with the best of intentions. Besides with ninety-eight writers included in my manuscript, I’ve got some serious reading ahead to live up to my introductory remarks, “For each new author I discovered, I read one of their books, short stories, essays, or poems.” 

To be honest, I get sidetracked and usually read several or the entire series.

A Literary Traveler’s Guide focuses on popular reading. Fiction writers dominate my manuscript and that includes a multitude of subgenre – mystery, romance, young adult, historical, detective, humor, women’s fiction.

Beginning near the east, the Apalachicola part of my title parameters, I’ve discovered:

Apalachicola

Flight Patterns by Karen White. In this mystery, the main character, an expert in china patterns, returns home to Apalachicola after a decade’s absence. The author deftly takes the reader on walks around Apalachicola viewing the sites – along the waterfront, from parks to piers, to the library and museum. Her descriptions of locations are so detailed, a reader can almost smell the exotic fragrance of the pittosporum or find the fictional house overlooking the bay where the main character’s family lives. The plot adds even more local color as it features beekeepers and tupelo honey. That’s a great clue to the title’s meaning.

Wewahitchka and Panama City

Author Michael Lister captures most of my reading time. I’m fascinated with his John Jordan clerical detective series. A two-time Florida Book Award winner, Lister lives in Wewahitchka and has set almost all of his thirty-plus books in the area. As a former prison chaplain himself, Lister brings authenticity to his “Blood” series which features prison chaplain John Jordan in gritty and realistic, yet touching and philosophical reading. I’m so in awe of Lister’s series I even bought an out-of-print first edition transformed into Christmas art to support Lister’s philanthropies.

Port St. Joe

“The Still Waters” suspense series is co-written by Dawn Lee McKenna and Axel Blackwell. I asked for these books for Christmas and was so involved with the main character that I finished reading all three books before New Year’s Eve. The character, interim Sheriff Evan Caldwell, lives at the Port St. Joe Marina. Grieving the hospitalization of his comatose wife, he survives on grouper sandwiches from the nearby Dockside Café. (Both the marina and café were destroyed in Hurricane Michael in 2018.) He is a “reluctant” detective, working to pay his wife’s hospital bills. I anxiously await the fourth book in the series to see how the team of authors deals with the aftermath of the hurricane and the main character’s inner turmoil.

Forgotten Coast

Claire Matturro’s Smuggler’s Daughter was recommended by both the bookseller in Apalachicola and a writer-friend who shares the same publisher. The book’s setting along the Florida Gulf Coast is rich with lonely beach nights, swamps, sinkholes, and a frightening snake-bite chapter. It kept me reading into the wee hours of the night. The past deeds of the main character, a reference librarian, have her living in fear twenty years later. Detectives, childhood friends, and teenage enemies all play a role in the murders of the state attorney and a lawyer, plus a hit and run victim.

Back on track, I recently visited Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis’ last home located on the Mississippi Coast. After that visit I rediscovered Charles Frazier, award-winning author of Cold Mountain. I had read Cold Mountain the year it won the National Book Award, and, of course, I saw the film version starring Jude Law. When I learned Frazier had written an historical fiction novel of Varina Davis’ days following the end of the Civil War I rushed to the library – eight minutes before closing — to check out their only copy and see if Beauvoir was mentioned. I was hooked from the first page. Frazier’s unique account of Varina’s last years revolves around a series of conversations with Jim Limber, Jefferson and Varina Davis’ adopted black son. Varina is reunited with Limber and tries to help him piece together his past while telling her own story. I loved reading Varina and now I’m off to find a copy of a book the Beauvoir tour guide recommended, The Mysterious Life of Jim Limber.

That is, right after I finish Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe – Jo Watson Hackl’s young adult novel inspired by Ocean Springs artist-author Walter Inglis Anderson.

Literary Traveling: Artist and Writer Walter Anderson

“Walter Anderson was a master of social distancing.”  That clever six-foot warning adhered to the floor of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art gave me one of the best belly laughs of the pandemic. Yes, that man rowed a dinghy eight miles a day to socially distance.

I saw the sign during a recent visit to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, when researching A Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay Saint Louis to Apalachicola.  I’d always heard about the artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965) from my mother, also an artist. Only when I began working on my book did I think of him as a writer.

Ocean Springs is a sleepy little town with sprawling oaks, a tree-lined business district, cute shops and galleries, and a quaint harbor. It’s been a popular place with artists and writers for decades.  One of its greatest assets is the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. The museum features the work of Walter along with his modes of transportation – boat and bicycle. Within the museum is “The Little Room,” A painted room relocated from his studio cottage at Shearwater Pottery. Every inch of the room –ceiling to floor to windowsills and walls—is illustrated.

Seeing the museum, Walter’s massive historic-cultural murals in the attached Community Center and his brother’s art in the old high school makes an Ocean Springs visit well worth spending a day.  I also stopped at Shearwater Pottery, the Anderson family business, for a quick visit to look at their pottery creations. Along with pottery of every shape and purpose, they have a niche museum of their history, and gifts and books for sale.

Anderson family history

Museum of poettery creation with new items for sale

Walter Anderson moved to Ocean Springs after studying at prestigious northern art schools (one is now Parsons School of Design). In Ocean Springs, he worked in the family pottery business.  On and off, he traveled the South, bicycling hundreds of miles – Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky. He wrote about these regional excursions and his travels to Hong Kong. 

Nearby settlement Gautier (pronounced Go-Chay), about twelve miles to the east, also played an important role in his story as a writer.

While recuperating from hospitalization for mental illness, Anderson, his wife and children lived at Oldfields, an antebellum home on the Mississippi Sound in Gautier. No longer working in the family pottery business, he farmed and entertained his children with art and stories. From Oldfields, he’d launch his boat and row or sail the eight miles to the Horn Island wilderness to paint, write in his logbooks, and study nature. He’d often spend days at a time observing the island’s creatures – crabs, insects, birds — at times seeking shelter from storms by beaching his boat and climbing underneath it. These experiences are recorded in The Horn Island Logs. The book, published posthumously, is a record of his life, experiences, and observations of nature on Horn Island, the largest of the four barrier islands off the Mississippi coast.

From a visit to Oldfields in April 2021

Oldfields, originally a pecan plantation, belonged to his wife’s family. His wife, Agnes “Sissy” Grinstead Anderson (1909-1991), a poet, wrote the memoir Approaching the Magic Hour: Memories of Walter Anderson. His daughter Leif Anderson (1944- ), a dancer and artist, wrote Dancing With My Father and Dancing Through Airth.

Officially known as the Lewis-Oldfields House, the abandoned homestead is on the state’s list of Ten Most Endangered Historic Places.  Severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina, it is located at 1901 Water’s Edge Drive in Gautier. 

It’s right at the end of the 1970s’ style subdivision on a bluff overlooking the Sound. Glorious in its decay, Oldfields was purchased in December 2020 by the Mississippi Historic Trust. 

When I stopped to verify the location for my book, I was able to walk around the property. From the back yard I could see the islands across the sound. To stand on the rise and think about Walter Anderson rowing to study nature and write was enchanting. I understand now why watercolorists tour Horn Island to recapture that magnificence of nature – far from society.

Horn Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and accessible only by boat. It is a designated wilderness area, but private tours, like for those for watercolorists, are available with authorized commercial operators listed on the National Park Service website or at the Gulf Islands National Seashore office at 3500 Park Road, Ocean Springs. Or you can take your own boat.

Now that government properties are reopening after COVID, I plan to go back to Gautier to visit the Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge.  In 1944, Anderson, a visionary environmentalist, recorded log entries describing a walking tour north of Gautier to a colony of sandhill cranes. In 1975, ten years after Anderson’s death, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge for the endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane and its disappearing wet pine savanna habitat. Only about 100 of the cranes are still in existence, and the bird is considered the rarest in America.  Anderson’s painting of the sandhill cranes at dawn adorn a portion of the east wall in the artist’s “The Little Room” in the museum. I’d like to be inspired by seeing the real sandhill cranes and write about them too.

 

Mississippi’s lost literary landmark still inspires writers

Beauvoir, between Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, has rich literary history for Southern women writers. Most people think this is the back of the house, it’s actually the front.

I stood in the very house where Oscar Wilde and Samuel Clemens once stood.  And I walked on the same solid cypress plank floors where three famous women writers walked. Southern authors Sarah Dorsey, Varina Davis and Winnie Davis all lived and wrote at Beauvoir. It is also the same historic site where Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States, wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

For me, that house, Beauvoir is definitely a literary landmark and an interesting site to include in my Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola.  I visited Beauvoir recently to see why its literary landmark was revoked by United for Libraries. After my two-hour tour of the home, library cottage, museum and Presidential Library I was convinced Beauvoir is a literary landmark – despite its paranormal investigation events, weddings and Civil War association. This property inspired writers in the late 1800’s, and Beauvoir’s stories inspired me.

Located along the Mississippi Sound on Highway 90 between Biloxi and Gulfport, Beauvoir, was built in 1852 for the wealthy Brown family. It served as a summer home for them as well as its second owner, writer Sarah Dorsey (1829-1879). A Natchez socialite and wife of wealthy lumberman Samuel Dorsey, Sarah traveled in literary celebrity circles in the U.S. and Europe. Guides at Beauvoir say she was present at the first reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and also at one of Charles Dickens’ salon readings.

She wrote six novels, four of which were published in books form, the other two serialized. She penned the biography of Louisiana Governor Henry Watkins Allen, a rare task for a woman at the time. Biographies were usually reserved for male writers.  She came from a wealthy and literary family – her two aunts were authors and publishers.  Before her death, Dorsey, who had been fascinated with Jefferson Davis, willed Beauvoir to him – going to great extremes to write her own family out of the will. Nonetheless, her descendants include notable Southern Mississippi writers William Alexander Percy and Walker Percy.

In her literary travels, Dorsey was also acquainted with Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) and, according to a tour guide at Beauvoir, Clements visited Dorsey at Beauvoir. But it was the Davis women, the wife and youngest daughter of Jefferson Davis, who captivated Oscar Wilde while on his American literary tour. Wilde had said the one American he wanted to meet in America was Jefferson Davis, perhaps because of a family connection. Davis knew Wilde’s uncle (Wilde’s mother’s brother) who was a judge and lawyer in Louisiana. Wilde’s cousin also died while serving the Confederacy.  Oscar Wilde visited Beauvoir several times, according to the tour guide, but was disliked by Jefferson Davis. If Davis liked someone, he placed his hand on the guest’s shoulder and another on his dog’s head, introducing the dog to his guest. Not the case with Wilde. Consequently, the dog, Traveler, wouldn’t allow Wilde to walk the grounds of the house. The dog kept Wilde inside the house, while other guests leisurely strolled the sprawling estate and gardens.

On one documented visit, Wilde spent the night of June 27– Winnie’s 18th birthday — with the Davis. Wilde entertained three Davis women–wife Varina, daughter Winnie, and cousin Mary –long after the elderly Jefferson Davis had retired for the evening. No doubt the dog kept Wilde in line.

What stories this place holds for the literary traveler.

Adjacent to the house, stands a replica of the library cottage Sarah Dorsey rented to Jefferson Davis after his release from prison. The original was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, Beauvoir itself was not destroyed. Eighty-five per cent of the original home is intact.

The recreated writing cottage and setting still offer the breezes and the view of the Mississippi Sound that Davis would have experienced – well, without the bustling highway or sandy man-made beach.  The library cottage, contrary what it looks like from Highway 90, actually sits behind the house. The front of Beauvoir faces Oyster Bayou, allowing breezes to cross the veranda and through the home from the Mississippi Sound to the bayou. This photo from the Rice University archives of Davis on the library cottage porch could easily be restaged today. Missing from the scene, however, is writer Sarah Dorsey assisting Davis with his manuscript. Some scholars attribute some of the language to Dorsey.

TOP: image from Rice University archives: Jefferson Davis writing his book at the library cottage at Beauvoir. BELOW: May 2021, the replica of the writing cottage destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Both Varina and daughter Winnie moved to New York to work for Joseph Pulitzer on the New York World following Jefferson Davis’s death. The widow finished her husband’s autobiography and wrote regular columns for The World. In 1888 Winnie published her first book, An Irish Knight of the 19^th Century about Irish revolutionary Robert Emmet. Before her early death at age 33, Winnie also wrote two novels, The Veiled Doctor and The Romance of Summer Seas.

Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis (right) She shared the first name of Varina with her mother. Image public domain from Wikicommons

Beauvoir’s hearty construction has withstood hurricanes, storms and social unrest as the Sons of the Confederate Veterans continually maintain and restore its beauty. The trompe-d’loeil murals and furnishings take the visitor back in time to when writers and musicians gathered in parlors to entertain each other with the art of fine conversation and storytelling.

Beginning in Bay St. Louis: the real Visitor’s Center

No more rummaging through tourist information racks for me. From now on when I travel, I’m stopping at the destination’s library first. When fact-checking for my upcoming book in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, I stopped at the Bay St. Louis-Hancock County Library.  It’s an American Library Association Literary Landmark and I’d never seen one before.

I wanted to photograph their literary landmark plaque and explore their treasure trove about Stephen Ambrose, the writer who earned the library its designation. An American historian, Ambrose’s name is a household word thanks to books like Undaunted Courage and movies like Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.  Stephen Ambrose used this local library when doing research for his books. That’s what I knew before I went into the library.  But once inside, I discovered so much more.

Not only do they have the plaque, they have Ambrose’s entire personal library, which his family donated upon his death. There’s a super “READ” poster featuring his image, biographical placards, and the bronze Literary Landmark distinction plaque.

I walked out of the library with more information that I could imagine – more than any visitor’s center could offer. One young librarian, excited about the community where she lives, recommended places to eat and jotted down names of her favorite restaurants and coffee shop. She told us about Old Town Bay St. Louis, its cute shops, and the independent bookstore. She wrote down directions on small pieces of paper – the kind you write Dewey Decimal call numbers on when you look for a book in the stacks.

I knew Ambrose lived and wrote on the beach in the “house with the windows,” and I knew he had built a writing studio there.  But I didn’t know where it was. The librarian in the Ambrose collection searched for the address of the house for me. Her search encountered the same obstacles I had faced, but she had a new tactic: contact the local historical society. She wrote down their contact information on little paper.

Before leaving the library, my friend and I made a quick tour of the magical children’s section complete with a shady front porch, rocking chair, Rapunzel and her tower, Jack and his Beanstalk, Peter Rabbit —  a non-Disney world of imagination. The placed was filled with creativity from ceiling to shelves. I barely noticed the computers, hidden on the front porch. Thank goodness my friend took pictures – I was too in awe to even take one picture in the children’s section.

Bay St. Louis-Hancock County Library children’s section. Photos by Marion Keener

Before we could make it to the historical society, we stopped at Bay Books, where the bookseller magically produced a copy of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi: 1699 Celebrating the first 300 Years. And there it was – on page 22 — a photo and the address of The Ambrose House, the lovely home where Stephen Ambrose lived and wrote.  We drove off to find it. A wooden stake with the house number still stands on the overgrown vacant lot.  I suspect Hurricane Katrina washed away the “house with the windows.”

As I headed north on South Beach Blvd. I spotted a historical marker with a familiar name – no, not Stephen Ambrose, but Pearl Rivers, an early crusading woman journalist from New Orleans. She had a summer home on this beach, now also washed away.

The quaint, beach town of Bay St. Louis seems to be the perfect place to begin my book,  A Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South” Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola. I start my quest on the Stephen Ambrose Memorial Highway in Bay St. Louis and continue my literary trek all the way to Apalachicola, Florida. I hope you’ll join me.

 

Left: Pearl Rivers enjoyed a summer home in Bay St. Louis. Address marker on right was the location of Stephen Ambrose's "house with the windows."

Trees worth writing about

A tree is a tree is a tree is definitely not a tree when it comes to literary traveling along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  I visited two massive live oaks, older than the country we live in, that have inspired storytellers and poets for at least two centuries. Photographing them for my book posed a challenge. No matter how far back I walked, I still couldn’t get the entire tree in the camera frame. Finding one of them was almost as challenging as taking the photo. The hard-to-find one is in Ocean Springs, the other, its marker pictured above, is on a college campus.

The massive Ruskin Oak in Ocean Springs spawned a delightful legend. The story goes that in 1885 the British naturalist, art critic and poet, John Ruskin attended the Cotton Exposition in New Orleans and traveled to Ocean Springs to visit his English friend John B. Arnold, who was president of the Cotton Exchange in New Orleans and owner of a beachside cottage in Ocean Springs. The story continues that the Arnold family and Ruskin enjoyed an English tea sitting under a majestic live oak tree.  Of course, there’s no evidence Ruskin ever visited America much less Ocean Springs, but as a naturalist, he would have appreciated the tree now named in his honor. The Ruskin Oak measures more than twenty-eight feet in circumference. It stands, well more like it sprawls, in the shady, quiet residential neighborhood, Ruskin Oaks. It takes up what appears to be an entire neighborhood lot. The branches touch the ground, and it looks more like a wall of shrubbery than a tree. No wonder it has inspired a legend. And that’s why the Ruskin Oak will be in my book, The Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South. According to Ocean Springs’ archives, the tree was once part of the Many Oaks Estate, but in the 1950s the estate was replatted as a subdivision. The tree is almost 400 years old.

,

The dark area in the center barely visible is the trunk of the tree. Photo by Marion Keener.

The Ruskin Oak covers the average sized neighborhood lot.

I am compass-challenged but can usually find “south” if there’s water nearby. So I researched its location and was pleased my directions led me directly to the tree. It is on private property in a quiet neighborhood, but slowly driving by didn’t seem to bother the residents. To see the Ruskin Oak, from the center of downtown Ocean Springs take Porter Ave., go west to Saint John’s Episcopal Church on the corner of Porter and Rayburn. Take a left on Rayburn and go one block to Cleveland, then take a right one block to Ruskin St. The oak is at the end of Ruskin on the right (westside).

The Friendship Oak at the University of Southern Mississippi on the Gulf Park campus in Long Beach.

The stories of the even larger and older oak are fact, not fiction. The Friendship Oak is located on the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach on Highway 90. Under this 500-year-old oak under poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) taught college women in 1923 and 1924. For seventeen months, Lindsay, a popular poet who drew large crowds performing his rhythmic poetry across America, taught at Gulf Park College, a newly opened two-year finishing school for girls. It is now the site of USM.

The college’s first president recruited Lindsay, his old college friend, who had come to Gulfport to recuperate from surgery. As the poet-in-residence, Lindsay both wrote and taught poetry. Young women learned poetry in several picturesque places including a platform built around the Friendship Oak. They also studied in a cabin they called “the hut” and by the moonlight and bonfires on the beach. At Gulf Park, the poet produced some of his best work after finding his muse, a college student from Tennessee, who eventually spurned him. Lindsay preferred the celebrity lifestyle and declined a salary but asked for paid housing at Gulfport’s luxurious Great Southern Hotel. He walked the three miles along the beach from the hotel to campus, wearing a dapper white linen suit, complete with white socks. During his brief stay at Gulf Park, he wrote some of his most creative poetry, experimenting with new styles. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is mentioned in his work written while at Gulf Park as well as the seven remaining years of his life.

The majestic tree’s low-lying limbs are supported with assists and markers tell the story of the famous tree, here long before Columbus.

 

UFOs lure literary travelers to Pensacola Beach & Gulf Breeze

Note the alien peeking out the backdoor of the Futura UFO house on Pensacola Beach.

One of the weirdest, quirkiest parts of the book I’m writing sends readers just up the highway from where I live. That’s where the UFOs were sighted in 1987 — or so husband and wife Ed and Frances Walters claimed in their book The Gulf Breeze Sightings, published in 1990.

There’s plenty to research about the Gulf Breeze sightings. Plus, Molder mentions them in the first episode of The X-Files. So of course they’re included in my Literary Travelers Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola. This part of my research is providing plenty of entertainment along with some legitimate searching in my neighborhood.

Reports vary on the number of UFO sightings around Gulf Breeze, Florida, between 1987 and 1988, up to 170 sightings and 135 witnesses. Twenty-five years after the sightings, people are still talking about the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings, though the “proof” (and the book) was officially debunked in 1990.  

Back then, Walters’ UFO sightings and Polaroid photographs sparked a cottage industry of publishing along with a media frenzy. Walters wrote three books, The Gulf Breeze Sightings, UFO Abductions in Gulf Breeze, and UFOs Are Real: Here’s the Proof. In pure Florida tourism fashion, Gulf Breeze and the surrounding towns cashed in. They named a bar and a used car lot with UFO terms like “Area 51.” Restaurants added extraterrestrial items like UFO sundaes to the menus, and entrepreneurs sold alien souvenirs and T-shirts with drawings of aliens on the beach. Tour buses visited and organizations hosted international UFO symposiums at Pensacola Beach. 

Local singer Ken Manning’s music video “Gulf Breeze UFO” won one of Florida’s film and motion picture association’s top awards in 1999, even after the debunking. And this music video is a hoot – toe-tapping lyrics with aliens popping out behind Mister X in a trench coat! Watch it and I promise you’ll belly laugh loud enough to be heard in outer space! It’s on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AaIl-vHIns

You see, in 1990, after Ed Walters moved out of his home at 612 Silverthorne in Gulf Breeze, a tiny model UFO made of Styrofoam plates resembling the one he claimed to have photographed was discovered in the attic. Also, in 1990 a witness, using only his first name and living in Chicago, told City of Gulf Breeze officials he had been present during the UFO fake-photo session. But at late as 2006, Ed Walters, no longer married to Frances, told the Pensacola News Journal he still stood by what he saw.

612 Silverthorne, Gulf Breeze, Florida Below: Inscriptions from the Estate Sale copy book To “Bobby,” from Ed Walters “We must live our livesas if it is not read but the truth is strange. Your Friend, Ed” From Frances Walters, “Gulf Breezians like you & your parents have made this easier for us. Thanks for your support. Frances”

There’s a sadness to this story, though. I bought a copy of the Walters’ book at an estate sale in Gulf Breeze a few years ago. The book is autographed by both the authors, who must have known the book’s original owner, Bobby. The personal inscriptions point to a story behind the story, unspoken troubles in Paradise. The couple, after all, were well-respected leaders in the community.

Despite the debunking, locals still love the lore. And it’s understandable. Driving along U. S. Highway 98 through the Naval Live Oaks, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore,it’s common to spot strange lights and shapes in the pitch-black skies. Even now along that stretch at night, I look up to the dark skies, wondering.

And sure enough in 2019, a credible sky watcher reported nighttime, flashing beacons of  light to a local TV news stations while watching the skies over his backyard. https://weartv.com/news/local/florida-man-captures-video-of-ufo-sighting-in-gulf-breeze.

In the summer of 2020, a Pensacola Beach hotel group revamped its putt-putt golf course using a UFO and alien space theme. The 18-hole mini-golf course, now named UFO’s, is a kitschy tribute to the sightings complete with alien mannequins in golf attire.

My research includes some interesting photos of drive-by sights including the house on Silverthorne in Gulf Breeze , the kitschy, clever miniature golf course, and two Pensacola Beach “alien” homes – one with an alien peeking out the back door.

1305 Panferio’s front door is the landing pad. The house backs up to Via de Luna on the Soundside of Pensacola Beach. It dates to the late 1960s or early 1970s..

1005 Ariola represents a new spaceage architecture. It’s on the Gulfside of Pensacola Beach not too far from the Futura House (left)

All that excitement right in my own backyard, where we have a clear view of the Southern skies, a good view of the International Space Station whisking overhead, and then, occasionally, some things fly by and we just can’t identify them.

Before Audubon, this writer-artist documented the Gulf South

Before Audubon, came Bartram, canoeing and hiking through the West Florida territory, exploring, documenting, and sketching images of flora and fauna and Native Americans.

William Bartram came a decade before John James Audubon was even born, though Bartram isn’t a household name. He traipsed through the untamed wilderness of what is now parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee and wrote about it – leaving his mark in scientific and literary circles. I recently traced his footsteps in part of the Florida Panhandle —  not on foot or in canoe. I drove.

He visited the Pensacola area in 1775 and his observations are recorded in his book, now considered by some as the first environmentalist book. Its official name is Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians. 

Phew! No wonder folks call it Bartram’s Travels.

His literary style –filled with flourish, ornate description, and poetic language, influenced the romantic movement, according to Bartramtrail.org, in particular, writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge. 

I know he influenced Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Florida’s greatest woman writer and author of The Yearling. In her 1941 cookbook Cross Creek Cookery, Rawlings mentions Bartram’s food references to bear and rattlesnake and his fondness for pilau. Though the University of Florida special collections lists her copy of Travels as eaten by termites, a digital copy of the original Bartram’s book is available online at the Library of Congress.

Bartram’s visit to Pensacola was almost accidental – he was visiting the Perdidio River, Mobile, and parts of Baldwin County, Alabama, when he ducked into the Pensacola area. He almost has more historical markers than hours spent here. 

• 

  William Bartram, with a sprig of Jasmine in his lapel, and some very observant eyes
  (Photo Credit Library of Congress LC-USZ62-38487)

• 

  William Bartram Park overlooking Pensacola Bay in Pensacola, Florida, is named in his honor. The view of the marina is lovely (top photo)
  (Photo Credit: Diane Skelton)

When verifying literary landmarks for my book, I thought Bartram would be easy – six historical markers installed by garden clubs along with one city park. I’d been to William Bartram Park before for bustling art shows and festivals. This time I went for a peaceful, early morning stroll around the park overlooking Pensacola Bay. I walked the sidewalks, studied the abstract sculpture, read the DeLuna Fiesta monument (in need of repair) and witnessed where Hurricane Sally had washed the soil away from the roots of some giant oaks (also in need of repair). 

The 2.6-acre public park is near the historic district and downtown Pensacola (211 Bayfront Parkway). Bartram described Pensacola Bay in his 1791 book as “safe and large enough to care for the combined havens of the world.”

I’d like to think this park is where he stood when the British governor of West Florida invited him to stay a while and dine with his family. The view of the bay is beautiful here, even with the bridge under construction. It’s also a good place to see some snazzy boats moored at the small craft marina.

Across Bayfront Parkway is historic Seville Square and University of West Florida’s museums, preserved and restored historic homes, and the Old Christ Church from colonial days.

One other marker-spotting expedition was successful but required several laps around the block due to the crowds and busy parking lot. The marker at the Oar House Restaurant at 1000 South Pace Boulevard is out front near the sidewalk, but on a busy Saturday, the people waiting in line and the check-in hostess’ podium blocked its view. (Those waiting in line won’t be disappointed — the food is really good, here).

My next stops in Bartram’s trek ended in disappointment. I couldn’t find the historic marker at the I-10 rest stop east of Milton even though I walked every square inch of it. Further research indicates it was removed.

At Fort Pickens on Pensacola Beach, after several loops in the car, I went inside the gift shop and asked the park ranger the location of the William Bartram marker. She answered, “I’ve never had the question before. I have no idea.” She then handed me a Fort Pickens guide so I could look for myself. 

Fortunately, an environmentalist writer-friend in Bowling Green remembers the marker – it’s on a walking trail. So I guess I’m going to have put on the big boots and grab a walking stick and hit the Bartram Trail across the dunes. Locating the markers at the Lillian Bridge on the Perdido River and at the Alabama Welcome Station are going to have to wait until I survive my hike!

 

Without this writer, no road, no Gulf Islands National Seashore

I never met Earle Bowden, but I enjoyed a delightful ride on his road yesterday. His beach view is breathtaking — all seven miles of it. J. Earle Bowden Way, a scenic roadway, connects Pensacola Beach and Navarre. It just reopened after a five-month closure due to damage from Hurricane Sally. Finally, I was finally able to drive along it and take photos for my upcoming book, The Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola.

This stretch of County Road 399 is named for Jesse Earle Bowden, the writer-editor-artist known as the “Father of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.” This view captures the most picturesque beach in my book and is certainly the best street named for a writer from Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola.

It’s a two-lane road with a creeping speed limit of 15 mph and speed humps (no, not bumps!). At times, you’re so close to the water’s edge you can almost feel the surf’s spray. The leisurely drive offers a magnificent, breathtaking view of pristine nature, where the sea meets shore. Around Memorial Day, birds nest the sand near the roadway, so traffic crawls even more. Cyclists and roller-bladers glide silently by, slowing to absorb the beauty of the sugar white sands and emerald waters.

I wish I had known Earle Bowden. He was the type of newspaperman that made me want to study journalism. His articles and editorials were meaningful. He led campaigns and crusades and made a lasting difference.

When Presidents Kennedy, then Johnson, were establishing the national seashores, Bowden led the charge for Pensacolians to save their beaches from development and join in this recreational seashore protection plan.  His 1994 book Gulf Islands: The Sands of All Time: Preserving America’s Largest National Seashore tells how the coastal towns of West Florida and Mississippi “helped persuade the U.S. Congress to establish the Gulf Islands National Seashore.” Bowden’s beautiful pen and ink drawings of birds accent the book while his editorial cartoons depict the obstacles he and other conservationists faced. (It’s a hard-to-find book — thank goodness for local library Florida collections).

Gulf Islands National Seashore encompasses slightly more than 139,000 acres, including five islands and mainland sights in Ocean Springs and Pensacola.  Three of the islands – Horn, Ship, and Santa Rosa –  and both cities have literary sights included in my book. It’s no surprise such majestic, natural beauty, and historic forts inspired poets and writers as well as artists.

The citizens of Northwest Florida honored a hero-writer and named a road after Bowden — the man who rallied their crusade to save their seashore as a recreational, undeveloped gem of nature. And this road is a survivor – with the help of the National Park Service. Parts of it washed away in Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Sally. But yesterday I drove easily along this seven-mile stretch, though the soft, sandy shoulders look a bit crumbly and orange standards narrow the road.

Today, Gulf Islands is our nation’s largest protected seashore, a place where visitors lounge on undisturbed beaches under striped umbrellas, take their children on tours of the historic forts that once protected the Gulf, and, in some spots, pull in the RV or pop-up the tent for a weekend’s respite.

In 2019, more 5.6 million of these people visited the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Though the seashore entrance is marked, there’s no sign naming the road, but literary travelers can read about its namesake in my book.

Thank you, Earle Bowden, and all the others who saved this American beauty.

• 

• 

Above, a single shell touched only by the tide that washed it ashore. The entry marker to this section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore doesn’t say J. Earle Bowden Way, but you’re here when you pass the sign. The sign also took a beating in Hurricane Sally and leans towards the camera.

• 

In the distance, a family enjoys the emerald waters under a striped umbrella. PHOTO CREDIT: Diane Skelton

Writing a travel book in a pandemic, from quarantine

Traveling by ferry to Fort Morgan during COVID-19. The seagull traveled free — in more ways than one.

A Literary Traveler’s Guide

When the pandemic began, I started writing my latest book, a literary traveler’s guide. Crazy idea? Write a travel guide when no one is traveling –when parks, campsites, museums, galleries, libraries are closed?  COVID has halted almost all my first-hand travel experiences, but it’s stimulated serious road-trip research from the confines of my home.

I have escaped quarantine three times in the past year, twice for literary day trips. Each time I sneaked out was an exciting, genuine getaway – mostly from the confines of my car. It was as if I had fresh eyes and every sight was marvelous, memorable and masked. I gained a deep appreciation of things nearby.

Now that I’ve had both doses of the Moderna vaccine, I’m a card-carrying traveler and plan to visit every location in my book. My first draft for the manuscript, The Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South: From Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola, is complete, sans index and photos. My mission is to provide the reader glimpses into the quaint downtowns where authors walked, see the historic oaks where writers penned a page or two, and walk the beaches that inspired lines of romance, poetry and mystery. From Tennessee Williams to William Faulkner to contemporary best-selling authors, this book takes you – and me – to places I never knew were so interesting.

The yearlong writing adventure has introduced me to new writers, reacquainted me with old favorites, and surprised me with interesting facts. I knew yellow fever converged upon the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But I never thought about interstate travel and quarantines. But sure enough, history has repeated itself with a slight twist. In the early days of coronavirus, Florida placed troopers at the Florida state line stopping incoming vehicles from Mississippi and states with higher virus rates.  In fellow fever times, Mississippians along the Coast, fearing a New Orleans yellow fever outbreak might spread “announced a quarantine against interstate travel – enforceable by bayonet.” (Hidden History of the Mississippi Sound, p. 81) A quick search on newspaper.com reveals scores of regional articles about yellow fever quarantines, including shotgun and musket enforcement. The hardships families faced were similar to what we face today – but they did it without air conditioning, television, internet, streaming services, Grub Hub or Zoom.

My Literary Traveler’s Guide to the Gulf South spans 335 miles from Bay. St. Louis, Mississippi, to Apalachicola, Florida. Interstate 10 is the northern limit, while the waters of the Gulf are as far South as it goes with a few barrier islands included. This blog will travel along with my research. The Gumbo Diaries will post fewer gumbo recipes, review more seafood restaurants (if they’re open) and focus on the Gulf Coast as a literary destination. It will become more of a “literary” gumbo diary. Most of all, I hope to share some lively literary travel stories and encourage readers to discover their own backyards via day trips.

• 

• 

• 

Augusta Evans Wilson was the first woman to earn $100,000 from writing. The ruins of her early home are on the left. (LOC image and public domain Wikipedia image) She was Alabama’s first published writer. Her later home stills stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places in Mobile, Alabama.Contemporary female author Fannie Flagg writes about “Lost River” in her book Redbird Christmas.The fictional setting is based on Magnolia Springs, Alabama, right.

My manuscript includes at least a hundred writers, more than thirty-five towns plus four islands. Most of the authors write popular fiction, poetry, plays or screen plays. Many of the characters and authors are household names, like Forrest Gump or Jimmy Buffett. Few scholarly works are included since this book is for travelers not necessarily scholars – but I do acknowledge environmental works since my book’s setting is “the Coast.”

If you know of a writer inspired by this area, born or raised in the area, or have a favorite book set along this stretch, please leave a comment or email me. I particularly like to include places where writers have visited, like John Grisham’s favorite restaurant in Biloxi or Dawn Lee McKenna’s favorite coffee shop in Apalachicola. Of course, I respect the writers’ privacy, but readers and literary travelers are a respectful lot and driving by where a writer used to live rarely causes a traffic jam. Please send me your ideas and writing and author trivia — from Bay St. Louis to Apalachicola.

Stories of community, told around a pot of gumbo

On Christmas Eve I make our family’s traditional Christmas Eve meal — gumbo. Seven miles from here, across the Bob Sykes Bridge, Barb Stahl cooks gumbo for her family on Pensacola Beach. We’re both using different ingredients and different recipes, but each pot of gumbo represents the spirit of community – and comes with a personal, family business story.

Sam Greenberg views the remains from the fire at Greenberg Turkey in Tyler, TX.
.PHOTO CREDIT: gobblegobble.com

I’d never heard of Tyler, Texas, until a neighbor in Metairie, Louisiana, shared some leftover Greenberg Smoked Turkey with me – the best turkey I’d ever eaten. Greenberg’s turkey, along with roses, put Tyler on the map. Ten years later, after moving to Tyler, one of our favorite neighbors was a member of the Greenberg family. Firsthand, I witnessed how Greenberg’s serves as a vital part of the Tyler community. While family members enliven the spirit of the community, their family business boosts the economy. Greenberg’s distributes more than 200,000 turkeys a year, in part thanks to Oprah who added them to her Favorite Things list in 2003. Tragically, 2020 was especially cruel to the Greenberg Family. On November 6, a catastropic fire roared through their Tyler plant, ruining 87,000 turkeys and forcing the cancellation of almost all turkey orders. Fortunately, no one was injured.

We didn’t have a Greenberg Turkey this year. Instead, son Nick smoked a turkey for us. I used it to make Greenberg’s Smoked Turkey and Andouille Sausage gumbo.  While we dined on gumbo, we reminisced about our seventeen years in Tyler, where all three sons lent a hand working at Greenberg Turkey during the busy holiday season. Thank you, Greenberg Family, for both memories and wonderful turkeys through the years. We know you’ll be back, better and stronger than ever, making Tyler proud and prosperous.

and meanwhile on Pensacola Beach . . .

While our family was talking about the Greenberg Family, on Pensacola Beach Barb Stahl was cooking a pot of her prize-winning gumbo for her family. She credits a local business for her honors. Barb’s Olde South Gumbo won the People’s Choice Award and Overall Winning Recipe honors in Our Lady of the Assumption’s Gumbo Cook-off competition in 2019.  To make her gumbo, Barb uses frozen Olde South Gumbo Base, a specialty product created by Margaret Rainey of Fairhope, Alabama. Barb describes Margaret Rainey’s company as an awesome supporter of numerous charitable events in the area. The Olde South Gumbo owners won the Gulf Breeze Rotary Gumbo Cookoff in 2013 but have been supporting the Rotary’s cookoff much longer. Every year their small business donates gumbo base to the event as well as supporting other local charities in Northwest Florida and South Alabama. Gulf Breeze’s Rotary Gumbo Cookoff provides tens of thousands of dollars in college scholarships to local students, thanks to generous vendors like Olde South Gumbo Base and hardworking Rotarians like Barb and husband Mike Stahl.

Rainey invented her gumbo base from her own cooking experience. For years she caught her own seafood on Mobile Bay and knew the flavors of fresh seafood make the best gumbo. The base captures those fresh seafood and brown roux flavors. In 30 minutes, cooks can replace the hours often required to cook a gumbo base. It’s available at seafood markets and some produce stands. Here’s the recipe Barb cooked for her family on Christmas Eve, using Olde South Gumbo Base and some Conecuh (Kah-neck-ah) Sausage from a family business in Evergreen, Alabama.

BARB STAHL’S OLD SOUTH GUMBO

Recipe reprinted with permission from Barb Stahl, as it appeared in Our Lady of the Assumption Food for Body & Soul, Vol. III Cookbook (2019)

2 (32 oz.) tubs of Olde South Gumbo Base

8 oz. Conecuh Smoked Sausage, spicy & hot, sliced in rounds

My Christmas gifts included a copy of this cookbook from the Catholic church on Pensacola Beach. The winning gumbo recipe is included.

8 oz. Conecuh smoked Sausage, regular, sliced in rounds

1 TBSP olive oil

1 1/2 cup chicken stock

1 lb. fresh crab meat, picked over

1 rotisserie chicken, dark meat only, shredded

1 TSP garlic salt

1 TSP dried thyme

1 TSP dried basil

Salt & pepper to taste

2 lb. small, raw shrimp (or larger ones cut in half or thirds)

Rice, prepared according to package directions

Directions: Thaw tubs of gumbo base in hot water. In a large dutch oven, saute both flavors of smoked sausage in olive oil and drain off excess fat. Add thawed gumbo base, stock, crab, chicken and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, for at least two hours. Add shrimp and cook, stirring often, five minutes or until shrimp are fully cooked. Serve over rice.

The Olde South Gumbo Base team took first place honors in the 2013 Gulf Breeze Rotary Gumbo Cookoff. PHOTO CREDIT Diane Skelton