Episode 3407

- This time on Tennessee Crossroads, we first discover the creative mission of the Chestnut Group in Nashville. Then head to southwest Tennessee for a dining destination called The Outpost. Then it's off to the 'boro to explore a hidden historical gem. And finally, meet a Monterey maker of fine saddles. Well, I hope you're ready to saddle up for another edition of Tennessee Crossroads. I'm Joe Elmore. Sure glad to have you. You've heard the old expression, the pen is mightier than the sword. Well, sometimes the brush can be mightier than the bulldozer. Miranda Cohen caught up with a group of natural painters who use their talents not only to create art, but to preserve valuable historic landmarks. Here's the story of the Chestnut Group.

- [Miranda] It is known as the Jewel of Franklin. The Harlinsdale Farm is 200 acres, sprawling over the rolling hills of Williamson County. Once a working horse farm, the barns, homes, and land were gifted to the city. And today, it is hosting the prestigious Chestnut Group, a group of talented plein-air painters dedicated to capturing enchanting landscapes and outdoor beauty.

- I look out at this vista here at Harlinsdale Farm, and it is such a gift to the City of Franklin, Williamson County, to the state. That precious house, the Hayes House, that was the founding homestead here represents so much history, and it's just sweetly nestled over there with our blue Tennessee Hills, the blue ridge hill light that's coming in. It just drew me today. So, that's what I wanna try to paint.

- [Miranda] The nonprofit Chestnut Group named for the once most predominant tree in the South does more than capture rustic beauty on canvas. The group's founder, Kim Barrick, says they are here for a purpose, to raise money and awareness for historic properties that are in need of repair and preserve endangered lands that make up the picturesque volunteer state.

- We really welcome anybody that is interested in raising money for a project that might be land that's threatened to be developed. It could be a historic site that needs funding. We'll come, we'll paint our paintings, and then they'll have a party or a gathering around it, sell the paintings.

- The plein-air method has been around for centuries. And translated from French, plein air simply means painting in the plain air.

- [Woman] Outdoor painting is one of the most challenging ways to express yourself. You have to go outside. The weather has to be right for you to get the light. The light changes every 20 minutes. If you're trying to paint a sunrise or a sunset, it's like every two to five minutes.

- What we do as outdoor painters is we're just painting what the light is doing as it falls on trees and grasses and buildings. And so, that ever-changing light and atmosphere, you just can't get anymore true than being out in nature. It is just the most lovely experience. I'm addicted to it.

- I went ahead and put my paint on my palette.

- [Miranda] And plein-air painters have their art down to a science. They work quickly, efficiently, and carry a makeshift mini studio with them.

- [Woman] And you'll get more accurate color outside than a camera can ever capture. When you're outside, and you use a little palette with very few colors, you have to mix colors really fast. The whole key to being a successful plein-air painter, like the first thing you need to do is have a really good setup 'cause the faster you can set up, the faster you can get your mixing and your colors down on your palette.

- All that light accoutrement that you can all put in a little backpack, take with you, grab some friends or go alone, and go get out here and enjoy Tennessee's beautiful, beautiful landscape.

- [Miranda] There is even artistic logic behind what they wear. The painters wear black or dark colors as not to reflect artificial light onto their work. And they wear large brimmed hats because sunglasses can distort colors. Renowned artist Bridget Hubbard says because painters are visual learners, watching others create outdoors is often the best classroom.

- You do do it alone. It's a solitary endeavor most of the time, and then to be around other painters and artists and that comradery, and you're all working independently, but painting the same space. And you get to see everybody's process and everyone's paintings and all their work. It's a lot of fun.

- [Miranda] The Chestnut Group is dedicated to capturing all the vibrant colors nature has to display while preserving and protecting Tennessee's rich heritage for future generations to enjoy.

- I'm a native Tennesseean. Have lived here my whole life and have traveled around the world and painted all over the world. But for me, the color palette here, the challenge of the grains, the richness of our landscape... And especially with the Chestnut Group, we get to help preserve these rural landscapes. As a landscape painter, it's a dream place to paint, always changing with the seasons. We have rich beautiful four seasons here. So, you really have the best of all worlds.

- For any artist, the hardest thing is to learn how to focus on the process and the joy of the creating process and not focus on the product. When I have a moment in time where I'm painting a painting, it's mine, I own it forever. And that's what we remember. It's these little pieces of time.

- [Miranda] The Chestnut Group paintings will benefit the Harlinsdale Farm's homestead, the Hayes House. Their paintings will be available at a fundraiser held at Harlinsdale Farm.

- Thanks, Miranda. Our next stop is a little piece of paradise near Pickwick Dam in Southwest Tennessee. Jay and Cher Harrison built this place in 2011 and named it The Outpost. Known for its delicious dining, it's grown to become a unique family destination. Pickwick Lake comprises the North end of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway. It's a popular place for fishing and family getaways. And just a few miles North in Hardin County, Tennessee, you'll find this rustic settlement of sorts that beckons travelers to stop and stay a while. The Outpost grew from a single grocery store and bait shop to an award-winning restaurant and family destination. It began taking shape in 2011, thanks to the vision and hard work of Jay and Cher Harrison, a couple who followed their dream despite the doubts of naysayers.

- We were told here... People would pull up in the parking lot and tell us if we didn't sell alcohol or if we weren't open on Sundays, it wouldn't be open. But we believed in... But I kept feeling led to do it, and to do something here also to give back. And that's how we wound up being over here.

- [Joe] Thanks to his background in construction, Jay handled the design and most of the muscle to build it. The Outpost restaurant had to be expanded several times to accommodate crowds of locals and lake visitors alike.

- We just opened the first room of the restaurant with four tables. We built a deck. So, we enclosed the deck when we could several months later and built another deck. So, I think we're on our... That's our fourth deck at least. So, we build one and enclose it, build one and enclose it.

- [Joe] Diners can enjoy breakfast and lunch six days a week. And the challenge may be what to choose. The extensive menu includes everything from juicy burgers to BLTs, from special salads to loaded spuds. But the main menu item will arouse your senses as soon as you arrive. There's local barbecue, has been hailed as some of the best in West Tennessee.

- [Jay] I guess growing up in Memphis, recognizing the barbecue over the years... Actually, first, I never realized why I paid so much attention to restaurants and good food in Memphis, but I also remember there's a difference in barbecue now. And a lot of restaurants you go to, a lot of places, they cook differently than what we used to. And we actually have gone back to the old way and we do it... It's still the way that I was taught years ago.

- [Joe] Another food favorite is an Outpost original, hog fries.

- We use like a spicy waffle fry and then load it with our barbecue-pulled pork and top it with jalapenos and cheese and our secret white sauce, barbecue sauce. So, we sell a lot of them, the hog fries. Those are good.

- [Joe] Like these ladies, you'll wanna try to save at least a little space for their legendary banana pudding.

- Then I had somebody one day ask me, he said, "What is your number one thing on the menu?" And I said, "What do you mean?" And they said, "Well, most restaurants have one item that's their number one thing that they sell and what they do, and this is what it is. And they build their menu around that." And I said, "Well, to me, if it's not good, it doesn't need to be on our menu."

- All right, we have a pork spud. We've got the most awesome staff right now. Everyone works in unity, and they're friendly with one another. They laugh together.

- [Joe] Part of Jay and Cher's vision was to make The Outpost a complete tourist destination with places to explore like the grist mill replica and with a place to stay like The Prospector Inn. It's a cozy BNB with lakeside decor that includes some creative touches like these drawers made of old soda cases.

- It's something not just to come here to eat, but it's also something where all can come and stay and have a weekend getaway.

- [Joe] On most visits, you can watch the woodworking magic of Beau Hancock using his trusty chainsaw to carve out bears and other beads for sale at the store. Then there's the Lakehouse Gallery, a unique gift shop full of lake decor, original art, and lake girl clothing.

- What are you doing in here, Foghorn?

- Oh, and you'll get to meet The Outpost mascot, Foghorn. And even if you don't see him, you'll hear him as we did during our interview.

- Reunions or class parties, you know, wedding recessions... We can scare him off.

- [Man] No.

- [Joe] Don't worry, Foghorn. You still rule with the roost here at The Outpost. A great place to stop and eat, spend the night, and enjoy a true family getaway.

- They're so happy that we have a place that they can bring their family. It's peaceful and it's calm, and it's fun for the kids. And, you know, it's a good family place to come.

- [Joe] You guys are working hard, but you enjoy that you're doing it together?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

- That's right. That's right. I know he enjoys it.

- Yeah, yeah, we do.

- When you hear the term museum of natural history, well, you might think of Washington D.C. or New York or even London. Well, what about Murfreesboro? That's right. Middle Tennessee has had its own museum of natural history, well, since 2014. Cindy Carter uncovered this little hidden gem, and brings us this story.

- [Cindy] If it's true we are known by the company we keep-

- Mastodons and mammoths which were running around in Tennessee.

- [Cindy] then Alan Brown is one ferocious and fascinating guy.

- So, this is a Edmontosaurus femur that I dug up.

- [Cindy] Alan spends his days hanging out with his prehistoric pals, like T-Rex, Velociraptor, and lots of others who are harder to pronounce.

- So, this slightly reddish colored dinosaur is called a Struthiomimus, possibly one of the fastest dinosaurs. If you look, he's got really long legs. He's really lightly built.

- [Cindy] This savvy science guy, passionate paleontologist is also the Executive Director of Earth Experience.

- I have always been absolutely in love with natural history museums. And it was a natural history museum that got me interested in science in the first place.

- [Cindy] And in 2014, that love affair led Alan to open this natural history museum in Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee's very first.

- Tennessee has a huge natural history component to it. We have lots of minerals, especially from Tennessee. There's giant calcite crystals and purple fluorite crystals mineral collectors just love. Wow!

- [Alan] We have things from the Ice Age, saber-toothed cats like the one that was found in Nashville that the Predators hockey team is based off of.

- [Cindy] You can add red pandas, Mosasaurs, and giant sea turtles to that Tennessee list. But this experience also includes gemstones and fossils from all over. Inside the museums paleo lab, patrons can watch Allan carefully chip debris away from one of the numerous bones he's dug up over the years in places like Montana.

- Picking and brushing away small bits at a time, it's a very slow process. Can take years of work to clean an individual bone.

- [Cindy] Thanks to Alan's annual summer dinosaur digs, much of what you see on display is the real deal. But the museum also molds and casts replicas, really good ones right down to the smallest details.

- This has been a passion of mine my whole life.

- [Cindy] Volunteer Jim Kelsey shows us how he recreates a Velociraptor skull from a mold of an original fossil.

- Every detail of the original will be formed when we put the cast in.

- [Cindy] The presto chango moment only takes a few minutes. And once it happens, the piece can either be sold to patrons wanting to take some of this experience home or become part of the museum's impressive dino display.

- This is the only copy of these dinosaur tracks in existence anywhere in the world.

- Not for nothing, it is called Earth Experience. It just doesn't feel like a museum in large part because of displays like this one, where people can dig in and learn about typography, and landscapes, and watersheds. They can literally get in there and have a hands-on experience. Like a drum.

- [Cindy] As impressive as this collection is, Alan says he has four times this in storage. The small museum displays only what it currently has space for.

- [Man] We heat it up, and we gotta get it all hot enough to where it's still melting. The silver will just melt itself.

- From gemstone jewelry making to guided tours.

- Igneous rocks are rocks from a volcano.

- They look like crystals.

- [Cindy] Dedicated volunteers and donations keep this experience alive, no outside funding, no corporate sponsors, just unbridled enthusiasm for science.

- The world needs more scientists. There is always a shortage of scientists, especially some of the sciences like geology, where there are more jobs than there are geologists to fill them. And so, natural history museums, more than anything else, get people interested in science.

- [Cindy] Alan well understands what gets people excited. Books and movies help stimulate a curiosity for specific creatures like pterodactyls, woolly mammoths, and yes, Game of Thrones fans, dire wolves.

- Dire wolves were running around with all of the other things that have been found in Tennessee. There's a pretty good chance dire wolves were in Tennessee.

- [Cindy] But once inside this museum, Alan Brown and his merry band of volunteers hope people discover so much more than they ever expected, a new experience from this Earth Experience.

- Thanks, Cindy. If you have an idea that you really believe in, well, sometimes you gotta go for it no matter what people say. That's what Jay Bauman did. Jay came from a family of leather craftsmen who made fine holsters and belts. But when Jay saw leather, he didn't see that, he saw saddles. Rob Wilds has his story.

- [Rob] Jay Bauman was destined to work with leather. He's the third generation of his family to go into that craft, learning from his grandfather, Josh.

- When I was 10, 12 years old, I got to spend some time at my grandpa's shop in and out. I wasn't working, I was just going to say hi to grandpa and see what he was doing. So, I got to see him make stuff. And then I spent a lot of time in my dad's shop as a kid and learned things.

- [Rob] And his father, Aaron, who's still at work making belts and holsters.

- [Jay] I learned a lot from my dad. I'm still learning stuff from my dad.

- [Rob] But when Jay saw leather, he didn't see belts. He saw saddles.

- In my dad's store, I repaired a lot of saddles. And we made a lot of things there too, but it wasn't really creative things. And that's why I wanted to get into custom saddles. I liked the creativity of it and it intrigued me.

- [Rob] So, Jay was determined to design and build beautiful custom saddles, even though his own father, Aaron, warned him that he would almost certainly go broke doing that.

- I was wrong, and he was right. People are tired of cheap stuff. They want quality. And therefore, he proved me wrong.

- [Man] So this is a narrower...

- [Jay] This is a narrower tree, yeah.

- [Man] Yeah, she's probably gonna take something wider there 'cause she's pretty wide. She has to be able to haul a big old me.

- [Jay] Exactly.

- [Rob] Now, horse owners like Bill Mitchell of Cookeville drive to Muddy Pond, and it's not easy to find, to get just what they want, a saddle that fits both horse and rider.

- I'm looking for something in a Western saddle. I like the idea of kind of a roper because it has a higher back.

- Right.

- [Rob] For folks who love to ride, the personal attention and one-of-a-kind design are money well spent.

- You invest a lot of money in your horse, your truck, your trailer. You might as well have a saddle that matches the rest of it.

- Why not be comfortable when you're out there riding, doing what you're wanting to do?

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Well, thanks to the internet, customers don't actually have to come to Muddy Pond, but Jay says wherever they come from, they are all like Bill Mitchell.

- They wanna talk about it. They wanna know that they're getting something special. And you know, most can design their own saddle so that they feel involved in the process, and it's theirs when it's done. I mean, it's their own. Usually, no one else has a saddle exactly like that.

- [Rob] And Jay sets out to give his customers just what they want, a saddle that feels good to horse and rider and probably reflects the owner's personality a bit too.

- I love designing new things. And some of my customers have great ideas. I'll learn a lot from my customers 'cause they... I build it, but they're the ones that spend time in the saddle. So, my education comes from a lot of the people that use the saddles. And so, I'll learn something new every day talking to my customers. That's where my education comes from. I have 1,000 people out there riding my saddles that can give me feedback that's valuable. Somebody wanted a gecko lizard and an otter carved in their saddle. It was like an inside joke or something that... That was very unusual. We've put four-leaf clovers and then painted them bright green and things like that, but most people stay pretty traditional, but, you know, the sky's the limit.

- [Rob] Of course, before a saddle can soar, Jay has to make sure it's properly grounded. And that all starts with the leather, which has to be cut just exactly to fit each saddle.

- It's not like a piece of manmade material. Leather is a natural product. It's a hide and you have to get the right pieces out of the right parts of the hide. Like there's parts of the hide that have a lot more stretch to them that are softer that they're not gonna wear as well if you put them in a high-stressed area on the saddle. So, that's one of the most important things, is cutting your leather out of the proper spots in the hides.

- [Rob] Since someone sits in the saddle, the seat is very important.

- One of the first things that you do is put the ground seat in a saddle and shape the seat, which is a part that it's not visible when the saddle is finished, but that's what's gonna make the saddle ride good. You have to get the leather shaped right, and you have to do that by hand. You have to glue the piece of leather and then shave it down and contour it to make the seat shaped right for the rider. And that's something that you don't see whenever the saddle's finished, but you know if it's shaped right or not.

- [Rob] Then comes more cutting and fitting and sewing and creating, which is what drew Jay to leather work years before, that creativity. He would hang around his grandfather's store back then. Now, Jay's own kids are here watching and learning, maybe planning for the future. Even Jay's wife, Regina, who had no knowledge of or interest in leather when she married Jay, decided that she better get with the program.

- So, Jay and I started a personal leather goods brand called Urban Southern. And we have handbags, wallets, that type of thing.

- [Rob] Now, this is as urban as it gets in Muddy Pond, Tennessee, but thanks to the internet-

- Do we sell all of the United States? Mostly in the Southern States, but we also sell a lot to Australia, and New Zealand, and a few to China. But it's amazing to think that a leather handbag made here in Muddy Pond, Tennessee goes all the way over to Australia, and someone's carrying it over there.

- [Rob] Yeah, carrying bags or riding on saddles Jay creates, it's a modern day story with a timeless beginning really. I mean, you know the one where the guy has an idea and makes it a reality, the story of Jay Bauman, saddle maker.

- Well, I'm afraid it's time for us to saddle up and ride on out of here, but not before a reminder about our website, of course, tennesseecrossroads.org. You can follow us on Facebook, of course. And most importantly, come on back here next week. I'll see you then.