Pleasant Gap
Gene L. Howard

5.25 x 8 - 64 Pages

The region around the southern end of Cherokee County was once a thriving business and industrial center. This book relives some of the economic energy that made it unique and commercially successful. Several communities prospered through the 1940s, primarily with the mining of iron oreóthe most prominent was Bluffton, once a mining town of some 8,000 people.

The Pleasant Gap community shared in that era of prosperity. During World War II, the Congregational Methodist churches in northeast Alabama began building a permanent camp meeting site in the village. The tabernacle was raised using the timbers and lumber from the old Signal Hotel at Bluffton, by then a ghost town.

This story describes details of how two menóChester Arrington and C.B. Davisóled the effort to build the camp meeting facilities. It will be of vital interest to regional historians and those who recall the "glory days" of Pleasant Gap.

Gene Howard graduated with a BA from the University of Alabama, with majors in English and History. He retired from corporate communications in 1997. He is the author of several other books: History of the Rubber Workers; Death at Cross Plains: A Reconstruction Tragedy; and Wayfaring Stranger: A Reconstruction Story. He is currently working on an authorized biography of John M. Patterson. He and his wife, Janice have three grown children, four grandchildren, and one great grandchild.