Transcript :
Melea Hames: [00:00:00] You're listening to the Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama Podcast, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network.
Welcome back to this week's episode of the unexpected adventures in north Alabama joining us this week is David Denton and we're going to be talking about the Natural Bridge here in Alabama. David, thank you for being here today. We're so excited for this episode.
David Denton: [00:00:30] Thank you. Glad to be with you.
Melea Hames: [00:00:31] Yeah, I'm so excited to learn more from you about the longest Natural Bridge east of the Rockies. I mean, how cool is that? But before I get too carried away David, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and your connection to Natural Bridge, please?
David Denton: [00:00:47] Sure. It's a family business that my family purchased in the fall of 1980. I come from a family of 10 kids. I grew up in the Midwest. Mom and dad of course are both from the south, dad from Mississippi, mom from Alabama. They wanted to move back toward retirement. So that's what their plan was. And it's a beautiful thing for me growing up in the Midwest to have that bridge and go back home as it were to Alabama.
Melea Hames: [00:01:16] Yeah, that is so cool. Especially you get to just visit and explore whenever you wanted to.
David Denton: [00:01:21] Yeah.
Melea Hames: [00:01:24] That is cool. Well, thanks again for being here with us. We've got some fun things to talk about. So let's get started with talking about what is a Natural Bridge for our listeners.
David Denton: [00:01:35] Well, I'll tell you it's one of the things that just sticks up in the air. And once you come around the corner at the park and see it 60 ft in the air. It's 148 ft long. The cool air comes from inside the bluff there. It's fascinating. It's a sandstone arch with the veins of iron ore and that's what holds it together. Just like a bridge, you would see that's well-designed. It's a fascinating sight to see.
Melea Hames: [00:02:04] That is so cool. And it's even more cool that you get to visit the park and explore pretty much anytime you want to. Huh?
David Denton: [00:02:11] Yeah. It is an amazing time. I'm back and forth between Saint Louis and in the park. So I get to experience the park in this natural pristine beauty. The other is seeing tourists. I love the people and some are repeats that have been there before bringing family and friends. That being said, it's a unique experience, especially hidden in the hills of North Alabama.
Melea Hames: [00:02:42] Yeah. And I was very surprised the first time that I visited the park that I didn't have to hike a long way to see the Natural Bridge. You just kind of go up this little path and then it's right there in front of you and it is so breathtaking and it's huge and amazing when you walk around that corner. So yeah, so what else could someone expect to see as they walk through the park and around the bridge area?
David Denton: [00:03:11] You will see rock formations along the way. They're unique. They're like five cutouts along the bluff all the way down to the end of the trail and there's a little waterfall at the end. Then you come back on the lower trail. It is amazing to see different types of foliage, and the trees that are there as well. Certain seasons bring about certain beauty as well. May pops popped up now, planting them. Someone just made a recent remark, I've never seen that many little may pops all in one place. Dogwoods tend to bloom in the spring, and azaleas right around the building. So you're going to see a variety of things. Of course, change of colors in the fall.
And then one of the things that happened when the foliage was off of the trees. My dad looked up at the corner of the bluff and not far from the entrance right there at the gift shop at the point of the bluff, there's an Indian face etched into the corner of the bluff. And it was a Eureka moment for my dad to look up and say, oh my goodness. And no one had ever noticed that since we've been at the park since 1980. So it was about maybe, I don't know, 20 years ago my dad pointed that out to unique things that are there.
Melea Hames: [00:04:32] Yeah, I remember seeing that there's a little sign there that tells you to make sure that you do not miss that. But yeah, it is so cool because it really does look like an Indian’s face there. It's amazing. I've got a picture of that.
David Denton: [00:04:48] They were there way before us traveling through North Alabama. So it's a beautiful place as it is natural to us now as natural to them then.
Melea Hames: [00:05:00] Yeah. So do you know about any native American history in that area? Like what they might have used that area for the bridge and the kind of little cave-like area.
David Denton: [00:05:09] Well to happen upon that would be the most fascinating thing to see a natural arch sticking way up in the air. Of course the Alabama native history, there is plenty of talk about Cherokee, Choctaw Creek, but that's something that I haven't spent a lot of time researching, but I know some of the folks at the university have done a lot of work on Indians in North Alabama.
Melea Hames: [00:05:39] Yeah, I can imagine coming up on that. It would just be amazing to be able to use that as some shelter and way back what, thousands of years ago. So that's really cool. That is really cool. So you mentioned the waterfall at the back of the park. How long is the trail that takes you back there? Like how long would you have to hike to get back there and then come back out?
David Denton: [00:06:02] So it's at the turnaround point. Once you get there you drop back on the trail. The trail totally is almost a mile around. And so there is plenty of hiking up along the upper trail and then a little easier on the way home on the lower trail.
Melea Hames: [00:06:18] Yeah, I took that little trail and walked back there and I was very pleasantly surprised to find a waterfall because I love waterfalls. So of course naturally I'm taking videos and pictures of the waterfall and it's very pretty back there. So yeah. so would you say the hike was a pretty easy hike for people to make?
David Denton: [00:06:38] Up to the bridge, yes. Then there's the upper trail, some twists and turns there. So it's a little more rugged on the top than on the lower trail.
Melea Hames: [00:06:48] Okay. So maybe easy to moderate than a hike.
David Denton: [00:06:51] Yes.
Melea Hames: [00:06:51] Okay. Alright. That's good to know because we get a lot of people asking about hikes and easy hikes for people who are older people with children, things like that. So that's always good to include in there. Now is it a dog-friendly place? Can you take your dog if it's on a leash?
David Denton: [00:07:08] Yes. Yes. That's been more common back in the day. Go back 40 years ago. A lot of people didn't bring their dogs as they do today and people were traveling they’re taking their critters with them. We get all kinds and it's been a unique experience. Just watching people bring all different sizes and shapes and colors of dogs, different breeds. They become part of the family to them.
Melea Hames: [00:07:35] That's right. That's right. Their fur babies. Got to bring them along on the vacation. That's cool. Okay. So what else is included then in the Natural Bridge experience? What else would we encounter when we visit the park?
David Denton: [00:07:52] So when you come in you'll come in and sign the guest registry that's in the gift shop. And we have a gift shop that my sister-in-law has really put a lot into. For her, it's a real passion and it's not a tourist trap gift shop. As many times you would see there are some tourist gifts there. However, get some t-shirts, get pottery, and cedar. There are all kinds of gifts, candles, and lotion. You can get it. There just is such a great variety that my sister-in-law has put into it and my brother as well. They work hard to have a great gift shop.
Melea Hames: [00:08:35] Okay. That's cool. Or is it mostly like locally-made things or Alabama-made items that are in the gift shop?
David Denton: [00:08:42] Yes, we do try to buy things from Alabama and we have some suppliers in Alabama but others in the Midwest and east as well. So we have a variety. Yeah, that variety where we want people to have a great experience when they come to a gift shop that they're going to take something home with them because they're thinking about themselves or someone else.
Melea Hames: [00:09:10] Yeah, a little something to remember their visit. I always like to take something home when I go somewhere too. So I appreciate an amazing gift shop and I've been there. Y'all do have a really good variety of things in the gift shop. So that's cool. So what about picnic areas? Can people take food and spend the day?
David Denton: [00:09:33] Sure. There are picnic tables around the parking lot on either side of the lots and a lot of people do come and bring a picnic basket. Some come while traveling some as family comes in to visit or a meeting place where people meet a good central location to come to the park.
Melea Hames: [00:09:56] Yeah. So you could pack up a picnic lunch, take it, eat it, hike, spend the whole day. It sounds like a fun day to me. Cool. So what is your favorite part of the park?
David Denton: [00:10:10] I think for me and I'm kind of biased. I love being at the park. There are so many things that really accent the beauty, different kinds of trees. The wild magnolias are fascinating to take a regular glossy magnolia leaf that's thick and shiny. The wild magnolia is also called the cowcumber. It's about 3 ft in diameter. The whole bloom. The bloom is similar to a regular Magnolia. It's just cropped out and it's one of those beautiful features. The hemlocks are there, dropping their little small cones. The ferns are beautiful. There's so much that you could talk about.
My favorite part is really people, people come and go and some when they come back they remind you I was here 20 years ago, I talked to your dad. Dad since passed away In 2018 and dad sat in a rocking chair and he greeted a lot of customers. Some go back as far as the early ‘80s. They say I remember when I was through here, there was a little white Dalmatian dog, my brother picked up on the highway. Someone dumped him off and we call him Spotty. He was deaf. But he was the best tour guide we could ever have. Just tried out to the cars to see people walk into the gift shop and then go on the trail with him. He was tremendous.
There are so many things, but people are important. People are your business, that's your life. And my family has been there to cater to a lot of people. Some have been repeat customers. They come or just want to stop by and say hello. Some will write a letter or a card, but the compliments that they had about my parents, it has always been tremendous or my brother and my sister-in-law, they have given compliments. And some become almost like your family.
Melea Hames: [00:12:14] That is so cool because it's just really neat that this park is owned by your family and you've got those kinds of relationships because a lot of big attractions they're owned by businesses so you don't have that kind of intimate relationships with people that own it, so that is so neat. That's cool. And I love Spotty. He sounds like an amazing dog.
David Denton: [00:12:37] Yeah. Sure do miss that dog.
Melea Hames: [00:12:39] Aw, Spotty. I love it. So do you have any specific fun memories in the park that you'd like to share with us?
David Denton: [00:12:48] I believe it was the summer of 1980. We were down to Jasper visiting my grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. So mom and dad thought, well we're going to stop by and we had a great time. It was a real adventure for my siblings. We’re teenagers. Yeah, it was a fun experience. So being in the south, that's where our roots are. That was my favorite experience. Early to go there for the very first time. Then my parents later bought the business and after high school, as I said earlier, I went down and lived there, and developed that stronger southern accent. When I would come back to Saint Louis, people would make fun of me.
Melea Hames: [00:13:31] That's funny. Yeah, sometimes we do get made fun of for our Southern accent, but you know, hey, it's unique. It's cute. It's, yeah, it's endearing. That's what it is. It's an endearing accent. That is so neat. So any last information that you'd like to share about the Bridge?
David Denton: [00:13:51] Yeah. So there was one feature that they drilled for a well-hidden artesian spring. It's been flowing since the ‘50s. It just doesn't stop. Has a unique flavor to the water. But At one time they flowed, they gauge 160 gallons a minute. So it was really putting out water. But the fascinating thing is you hit a vein and it continues to be an artesian spring that some people come just to get a few gallons of that water and then they're on their way.
Melea Hames: [00:14:27] Yeah. So does it make you younger if you drink this artesian water? I'm teasing.
David Denton: [00:14:32] Yeah. I'm not so sure about that.
Melea Hames: [00:14:37] We've just started a rumor right there now. Have people showing up. We heard –
David Denton: [00:14:41] Yeah – from all parts of the world.
Melea Hames: [00:14:44] Oh, well, each time we do a podcast episode, we always ask our Facebook followers if they have any questions that they would like answered in the episode. And so this week's winning question was, can you walk across the Natural Bridge?
David Denton: [00:15:00] Okay. To answer that. For insurance purposes, we do not allow that. Some people have tried, one lady ended up in the hospital after a huge fall and her husband said, “I told you not to do that.” But yeah, there are some people who try to stretch their limits. I think that's in all of us.
Melea Hames: [00:15:21] Right.
David Denton: [00:15:22] But yeah, it's not permitted.
Melea Hames: [00:15:25] Okay. Well, this was such a fun episode. Thank you so much for joining me, David. And for all of our listeners out there, where can we find Natural Bridge on social media?
David Denton: [00:15:36] Okay, so on the North Alabama website, you can find it there. There are some links there. And as you said earlier, we hit the top 10. Right?
Melea Hames: [00:15:48] Yes. You are always at the top of our searches on our website. So yeah, northalabama.org.
David Denton: [00:15:54] Yeah. We've been a part of that organization for I think nearly 40 years. And as I said before, Jenny Brownlow, we talked about Jenny, the nicest lady she would come or call. Great, great person. And that was the beginning of a long-standing relationship with the great organization.
Melea Hames: [00:16:17] Well, we sure appreciate your family being one of our members for a very long time. So it's very appreciated.
David Denton: [00:16:26] It's a mutual thing. We do really enjoy it. Great folks there.
Melea Hames: [00:16:31] Well cool. Yeah, well, great. I appreciate you talking to me about Natural Bridge Park and North Alabama's social platforms are linked in the description. Thanks for joining us. And we'll be back next time with more about Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama.
This has been another episode of the Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama Podcast, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network, hosted by Melea Hames and produced by Relic.
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