Episode 3803

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by. Over the years, some of our biggest winners actually have been in the classroom. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have awarded more than two million scholarships and grants. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways. Discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history and more made-in-Tennessee experiences showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at TNTrailsAndByways.com. Amazon, a proud supporter of programming on public television. Amazon focuses on building long-term programs that have a lasting impact in communities where employees live and work. More at aboutamazon.com.

- This week on "Tennessee Crossroads," Vicki Yates visits a tasty trolley in Rock Island. I'll take you to an old stable making new spirits in Franklin. Miranda Cohen meets a photographer who creates art with animals, and we'll take a trip to the park with Joe Elmore. I'm Laura Faber, and that's the lineup for this week's "Tennessee Crossroads." Ice cream parlors are pretty easy to come by in Tennessee, but Vicki Yates found one in Rock Island that's out of the ordinary, to say the least. It has a unique design and a hardworking owner who's still in high school.

- [Customer] Large strawberry shake.

- Two butter beers, do you know how to do those?

- [Co-Worker] No.

- Has anybody started on 'em, you think? I can teach you how to do 'em.

- [Vicki] This is just an average day for 17-year-old Bella Morgan. She's making sure that her co-workers, several of them classmates of Bella, are prepared for the already busy day.

- [Bella] Ginger!

- [Vicki] That's because not only is she the manager of the very popular Rock Island Trolley Stop, she's also an owner.

- So the Rock Island Trolley Stop started out to be just a small ice cream business for me and my brother, just so we can have a little summer draw making some money. And before we knew it, we started added on to more things whenever I started out as 13, going on 14. And we've been open for four seasons now, and I'm 17, going on 18, and it just kind of blew up.

- [Vicki] And that's pretty obvious. On this rather warm morning, customers stopped by the ice cream stop, which is located at the entrance of Rock Island State Park, an 883-acre park located on the headwaters of Center Hill Lake. It's known for its waterfall and its water sports.

- [Bella] Jackson Kayaks started here. Professional kayakers sometimes are going up and down the river. Multiple people bring their kayaks, in general, just to go down there and fish.

- But today it's not the fish luring the customers to this part of Rock Island. It's the Trolley Stop. Becky Martin's late husband worked with state parks for 40 years, seven of those here at Rock Island. She admits she's seen some changes and one of the best has been the Trolley Stop.

- The Trolley has really, really helped the community and we laugh when I come up to visit my sisters. We laugh and say, "They've got so many people at the park, I mean at the Trolley," and I said, "I'm glad."

- [Vicki] So exactly what is it that brings the customers in? It's ice cream and cold drinks. And what kind of ice cream are we talking about?

- We have ice cream, just regular scoops. And we also make specialty shakes where they're just, like, big and decorated. They're, like, freak shakes, we call 'em. We have kid sections where they can do kid sundaes, mermaid tails, shark tails, et cetera.

- To see just what Bella means by freak shakes, let's go to the prep area and take a look at some fan favorites. Do you like pecan pie? Well, this one has an actual pecan tart garnishing it, complete with caramel sauce and whipped cream. Then this freak shake is a chocolate lover's dream. It's called the Miss Morgan because Bella's relative, Miss Morgan, has a real sweet tooth for anything chocolate, and it fills the bill. If you like your chocolate ice cream covered in whipped cream, chocolate syrup, Hershey's chocolate squares and topped off with a full-sized brownie. When you come to visit the Rock Island Trolley, it would be a sin not to try some of the goods. So, do you want the Nutty Buddy or do you want the Miss Morgan? Miss Morgan! By the way, there are two trolleys on the property and we followed Bella inside the other one where the sandwiches are prepared.

- [Bella] We usually just do one hot dog, so we cut it down the middle so it fits the whole sandwich.

- [Vicki] Bella is making a Trolley specialty. They call it the weenie panini. Bella's great at just about everything, but even she has her limits.

- Sometimes I hate whenever I have to be the boss on the weekends and be like, "Hey, do this. Make sure you're doing this. Put your phone away. Stop, don't have an attitude," because I'm just like, "Don't be mad at me because I'm still your friend. I'm just having to do my job." Okay, y'all are good?

- [Vicki] And where did Bella and her brother, who used to work on the Trolley, get their great work ethic? From their parents. Her father owned a body shop and her mother is Attorney Cindy Howell Morgan. They bought the Trolley cars online, along with an inflatable igloo that they use here in the winter.

- And I think they learn social skills, they learn business management, they learn inventory control, they learn all the skills that will put them out in the real world. Bella, most days she loves it. Other days she gets overwhelmed, and, of course, she's 17 years old. It's understandable that she gets overwhelmed, but I think that she understands it's a good basis for her building a future in whatever business she wants to go into in the future.

- [Vicki] But don't expect Bella's long-term plans to include food.

- I am going to be opening up my own business again it's gonna be a bridal boutique. I feel like I can do that. I'm very, very creative on my aspect.

- [Vicki] However, the Trolley Stop is still growing.

- This year, our stage, and it's still a work in progress so that we can host different bands and musicians and generally we'll have from a full band to single solo artists who will come and play music on the weekend.

- [Vicki] Bella has learned to be a boss, but her mom and dad taught her more than just that. What's the best piece of advice you've been given about being a person in the business?

- Always show kindness, especially to customers, especially if, like, a customer is getting a little irritated with the wait or whatever. Just always show kindness.

- Spirits are running high again in downtown Franklin, the first distillery inside city limits since prohibition is open for business and officially on Tennessee's whiskey trail. And as we found out they aren't horsin' around.

- We are in historic downtown Franklin. This is a building dating back in the 1800s. In 1890, John Blackburn renovated the building to be a livery stable and it transitioned after that, many years after that, to our local newspapers. Now we are a distillery with a bar built around the stables.

- [Laura] Beth Goodwin is one of the owners of the Stable Reserve, located on the iconic Main Street in Franklin.

- We wanted to be coffee-to-cocktails all day, but we wanted it local and something you could only do in Franklin. So, we started on a hunt for what the local spirits would look like, what the local coffee would look like.

- [Laura] The coffee is roasted locally by Narrow Gate Coffee, which is mission-based.

- They train guys coming out of hard situations or just looking for a reboot on life and they might time out of orphan care and there are men that train them in coffee roasting, leather, woodworking, auto repair. And so we just really liked what they were doing in our community and wanted to partner with them.

- [Beth] The spirits are made down the road at Stable Reserve's warehouse, vodka, gin and whiskey

- From this end and then out through the line arm. Hunter Yeager owns Stable Reserve alongside Beth.

- We're at Stable Reserve's warehouse, which houses our still. The still here is a 200-gallon hot still with a column on it. It's got a four-plate column. Today we're running gin, so we're distilling gin. We're using our non-GMO vodka base.

- [Laura] The profiles of these spirits are distinct. The vodka distilled 10 times and charcoal-filtered. The gin features 14 botanicals and a citrus-forward, rather than juniper, and finishes with white pepper.

- So we've got three of the botanicals that we're showcasing. We've got chamomile, which, I mean, you can smell it. It has just a super fresh, awesome, it's all organic. We've got the orris root. The orris root turns out to be the root of the state flower, the iris.

- Oh, yeah.

- Here in Tennessee.

- I read that, that's cool.

- Yeah, so we incorporated that one, and then of course it's juniper, which juniper's gonna be the leading in any gin, which makes it a gin.

- So you've got glasses here, so what does that mean?

- [Hunter] Yeah, whoever's brave can taste, but I'm probably-

- I have to smell it.

- I mean, yes, yeah. I would definitely recommend smelling it. So, you'll pick up definitely, definitely a hint of the gin. And it's gonna be hot, again, it's 160 proof. You're gonna detect the high alcohol in this.

- Should I do it?

- How brave are you?

- I mean.

- It's gonna have a kick.

- Okay.

- It's a little bit much. Maybe you wanna wait 'til noon, but.

- Cheers!

- You just roll it until the bung is straight down. Keep going, there you go.

- [Laura] I'm helping dump a single barrel selection of the Stable Reserve's eight-year weeded bourbon, coming out about 113 proof and smooth. Hey, that's the charcoal.

- [Hunter] That's the char, yep, yep.

- [Laura] That's what makes it bourbon.

- [Hunter] That's what gives it flavor right there, yep.

- [Laura] Every day is a good day for Hunter.

- It doesn't feel like work, so yeah. Yeah, it's a good day.

- [Laura] They bottle at the warehouse and will eventually bottle more on Main Street so the public can watch. Brody Arbiter is a former firefighter, but now does a little of everything at Stable Reserve, including bartending alongside Lindsey Fisher. The goal with all the spirits here is to make sure they hold up in the cocktails made on Main Street. We got a taste of four of their most popular. The South Side is made with gin, mint and lime.

- [Lindsey] But this is a great drink for spring or summer. It's very refreshing.

- [Laura] You won't find this vodka cocktail anywhere else. It's Lindsey's personal creation.

- I'm using our vodka here at Stable Reserve and I'm infusing this with fresh jalapeno for 24 hours. So that's the base of this cocktail.

- [Laura] Add grapefruit, lime juice and agave syrup.

- [Lindsey] We're gonna garnish this with some fresh jalapeno pepper and a little piece of lemon, and there ya go.

- [Laura] Stable Reserve is known for its Old Fashioned, but the most requested drink?

- This is the Espresso Martini. This is our flagship cocktail 'cause all the ingredients used are our own. This is our own coffee cream liqueur that we put in it. Shake it up, throw a couple garnished espresso beans on there. Alright, there we go.

- [Laura] Echoes of the past remain and help make the atmosphere what it is. Columns from the original livery stables still stand. The two-inch thick walnut floors are original. Even the tasting boards are made from the building's old wood floors.

- So this is our Taste Five, five different of our spirits.

- [Laura] While Stable Reserve has already won national awards for its cream liqueurs, bourbon and gin, the spirits are secondary. This place was created by two Franklin natives who love their city and wanted to create a gathering place for their community.

- Yeah, the feedback we get is very in line with, "This place feels different when we come in." Hometown, authentic, genuine. We want it to be not ours, but for everyone.

- Nature photographers capture pictures of beautiful animals from around the globe, with just the click of a camera. the image is stored in a fraction of a second. Miranda Cohen recently met a Murfreesboro woman whose method of capturing images takes a little longer than a click, but it's just as breathtaking.

- [Miranda] When Brenda Bond sits down at her favorite spot, some of nature's most beautiful creatures just seem to come to life.

- I kind of, like, always like to start with the eyes and I kind of have to get them in the right place, and you have to get the eyes right, 'cause if you don't do that, it's not gonna look like the person's animal, 'cause that is part of the soul.

- [Miranda] It's as if the totally self-taught artist is seeing much more than fur and feathers. She is seeing the animal's spirit and putting it down on paper. Today, she is working on a commissioned piece of a cherished member of the family.

- [Brenda] The animals love so much, unconditionally, you know? And they look at you and they adore you, and everybody else can get mad at you. You're dog and your cat never do.

- [Miranda] Bond will simply look at a photograph and will start to draw exactly what she sees. With every stroke and movement of her pencil, an almost more real version of the animal will begin to appear.

- [Brenda] I don't know how I do it. I kinda don't know how you can't do it. Does that make sense? I don't know, I can just see it here and put it here. I love animals.

- [Miranda] Brenda will sketch almost anything, but there is one creature where she draws, or should we say, doesn't draw the line.

- [Brenda] People are so critical of themselves and I just didn't enjoy drawing a person. I like the fur. I like the texture of the animals that are furry.

- [Miranda] With meticulous and precise attention to detail, her true gift pours out on the page, and as a true master, she finds the entire creative process relaxing. Some might even find it a little too relaxing.

- [Brenda] Sometimes I'll sit for eight hours a day just drawing. Sometimes I'll sit down for an hour, 45 minutes. I draw every single morning on something while I drink my coffee with my cat in my lap. It's very relaxing. I really enjoy doing it, and I just get into it and I don't wanna stop.

- [Miranda] And with any great masterpiece, knowing when to stop is often the most difficult part.

- [Brenda] But sometimes I have trouble deciding I'm done and I'll stare at it for a while and move back and look at it from different angles. And I'll sign it, once I've signed it, take it outta the pad, ready to spray it.

- When you look at a piece of Brenda's art, it looks like it took hundreds of different pencils in hundreds of different shades, when actually all the magic comes from Brenda herself. In fact, she uses very few tools. A number six pencil and a Q-tip.

- I use a number six pencil. My overhead's pretty cheap.

- [Miranda] She is starting to experiment with color, and the results are stunning, but she prefers the looks of blacks and whites, and by expertly blending thousands of shades in between.

- [Brenda] I really like the black and white. I'm real comfortable with black and white.

- [Miranda] Bond started out drawing cats and dogs. But when her work was noticed by the Smoky Mountain Art Gallery, she knew her work had to get a little more on the wild side.

- I drew a whole bunch of things I thought would be Gatlinburg-ish, you know, the bear and the otter and the wolf and the wild animals. And I really enjoyed doing 'em.

- [Miranda] Bears, rabbits, mountain lions, chipmunks, birds and beloved family pets stare back at her from the pages, all captured in graphite. Animal Art by Brenda is the name of her website and her store on Etsy.

- [Brenda] Most of what I sell is the commission. I want it to look perfect. I fret over, I'm like crazy.

- [Miranda] And her fretting shows. Each piece will take about 20 hours to create. Every thoughtful and calculated stroke and turn of the pencil, contouring and shading, finally revealing an exquisite image, mesmerizing to look at and impossible to forget.

- If you are looking for a day trip in Middle Tennessee, filled with natural beauty and intriguing history, have we got a place for you. Our buddy, Joe, paid a visit to Montgomery Bell State Park a few years back and tells us why you should, too.

- [Joe] It covers about 4,000 acres of scenic Tennessee beauty. Only a few miles from Dixon, yet once inside you feel like you're worlds away from, so-called civilization, surrounded by natural splendor that beckons to be explored and enjoyed.

- We're very blessed. We've got a whole lot of different opportunities, outdoor opportunities, indoor opportunities, and a lot of history, too. So, it's kind of a good combination of everything.

- [Joe] Eric Runkle loves his job. He's a ranger here at Montgomery Bell State Park and considers himself lucky to live and work in this natural playground.

- Best part is the variety. I've got a little bit of everything. Some days I'm talking to folks, giving 'em guidance on where different things are in the park. Some days I'm out helping them for whatever reason. Could it be injured visitors, could it be lost hikers? You know, the variety of things I get to do in a day is just amazing.

- The park was developed in the late 1930s and early forties using labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Workers' Progress Administration. It officially became a state park in 1942. The park's namesake moved here in the late 1700s to buy an iron works operation. Eventually, his furnaces were producing everything from farm tools to cannon balls. In fact, those cannon balls helped General Jackson's army beat the British in the War of 1812. Ironically, the main furnace on the grounds wasn't owned by Bell, but remnants of the once bustling iron industry, more like this piece of slag, can still be found today.

- Back in the 1800s, the the area we're in right now, which is our Church Hollow area, would've been an iron furnace area. And, so, of course, they'd have harvested the iron ore outta the ground, brought it to a forge, heated it up, separated out the impurities from the iron ore itself. Turned the iron ore into, they called them pig iron bars.

- [Joe] The park contains 11 miles of hiking trails, including an overnight trail for camping. This shorter trail offers hikers a look at some of the deep pits where iron ore was extracted.

- This hole out here would be an example of some of the ore pits that are found here at Montgomery Bell throughout the Ore Pit Trail, that as you continue hiking the trail, you'll find several other pits, some bigger, some smaller, but all similar. And this is would've been areas where the iron ore would've been dug outta the ground, hauled back to the iron furnace, and then it separated out. And then the remainders would've been just spilled wherever they could.

- [Joe] Montgomery Bell is home to another chapter in history. This is where the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was founded in 1810. And this is a replica of a family home owned by the church's founder, Reverend Samuel McAdow. A nearby Sandstone Chapel was built in the mid 1950s to commemorate the church's Advent. Visitors are welcome to come in and visit. Water's a big attraction of the park, and there are three lakes for fishing, swimming at the Lake Acorn Beach, and even boating.

- [Eric] Over at Lake Acorn, our lake over by the hotel area, we have boat rentals there and there's paddle boats and kayaks that are available for rent. It's all done online.

- [Joe] The Park's golf course was built in 1973 and redesigned in 1988. Fairways are surrounded by hardwood trees, so you might even see some wildlife while you're on the course. There are 121 campsites open to RVs and campers alike. And for more modern amenities, there's a recently renovated 118-room resort hotel, complete with a restaurant and a conference center.

- Some folks come to just get away and relax and, you know, use the campground. Some come, they used to golf, some come to fish, get out on the water, paddle around. Some just want to get outdoors and hike trails. So we're really blessed that folks come out for every reason to come enjoy the park.

- [Joe] There are 56 state parks in Tennessee, each with its own charm and personality. Montgomery Bell isn't the largest. That distinction goes to Fall Creek Falls. However, when it comes to natural beauty, history and outdoor indulgences, this is a true Middle Tennessee treasure.

- Well, that'll do it for this week, but we're always available at tennesseecrossroads.org and on the PBS app. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by.

- [Announcer] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways. Discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history and more made-in-Tennessee experiences showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Announcer] Amazon, a proud supporter of programming on public television. Amazon focuses on building long-term programs that have a lasting impact in communities where employees live and work. More at about amazon.com.