POWERGRAMS

32 32 T, Jessie LaVon and Braxton Ponder have many pieces on display. A portrait by Nall of Jack Black hangs along the door outside Robertson's office. Sudduth's harmonica is in a case along the same wall. Another Nall is above an organ in the civic center entrance classroom that has crystal chandeliers and is set off by eight wood columns. "It's such a pretty place," says Robertson. "We've had people visit from neighboring counties who said, 'We just don't have anything this nice back home.'" GOLDEN EAGLE Nothing from Fayette is better known than the "Pride of Alabama." Victor Patterson's blend of sugars 91 years ago was so loved by family and friends he began selling it as Golden Eagle Syrup because "no bird flies higher than an eagle" and he believed his syrup to be the highest quality. Sales soared across the state and spread beyond, becoming a breakfast and supper staple. Today the glass jars with an eagle in flight on the label are a familiar sight on grocery store shelves across the South. "Mr. Patterson was looking for a syrup that wasn't quite as harsh as what was sold in the 1920s," Temple Bowling says, seated in the factory that opened in 1944. "He ended up starting a business from the recipe he created." In a shed in their backyard, Patterson and his wife, Lucy, filled paint-can-sized containers with their creation: "Made of corn syrup and cane sugar syrup. Flavored with honey. Colored with cane syrup." The Patterson family would tweak the recipe in 1971 for mass production, eventually employ 40 workers filling and hand-tightening glass jars, as Golden Eagle stayed under the direction of their children until 1986. The business changed hands twice through 2011, when Bowling saw a chance to keep a small Alabama business alive but "had no idea how" he would buy Golden Eagle. He asked a B.L. Harbert construction colleague if he was interested in partnering. John Blevins, with a civil engineering degree from UAB, and Bowling, with a building science degree from Auburn, together took a leap of faith into a business they knew nothing about. "We spent two years learning, just trying to figure out making syrup," says Bowling. "I couldn't even try to increase sales to other stores those years because I wasn't even really sure how much it cost to make it until we had learned the process." The newest owners also had to deal with equipment that had been installed early in the factory life of Golden Eagle. The huge cooking vat and capping machines were built in the 1950s. There were no replacement parts for the jar filling machine, so Blevins and Bowling designed another and had it built in Atlanta. Eventually, with inside knowledge from Martha Kimbrell, now a 29-year Golden Eagle employee, and part-time assistance from 26-year employee Annie Wright, the company returned to being a family-run business. As Bowling started an industrial construction company in Birmingham, his wife, Kimberly, her 85-year-old father, Willard Tyner, Blevins and children from both business partners began manning the syrup assembly line. And much like Victor Patterson's condiment creation had launched a company, Kimberly's concoction of popcorn coated in Golden Eagle Syrup has given the business a boost. After a year of trials and tribulations, the first 20,000 4-ounce bags of Golden Eagle Caramel Corn hit the shelves July 2 and were sold out two days later. Bowling, 48, says the success of the caramel corn may be a springboard to other Golden Eagle products, which may, in turn, help assure the longevity of their business. "We are keeping an Alabama business in a small town from being swallowed up or going away," Bowling says. "John and I want Golden Eagle to be big enough that if our children want to run the business, it will be able to support them." RAILROAD MUSEUM Eddy Campbell's eyes brighten as he shows off a 1926 Chevrolet touring car featuring its original wooden wheels and steering wheel, the front grill bearing 1950 Alabama license plate 32A 109. The history buff and longtime volunteer at the Fayette Depot Museum speaks reverently as he approaches a glass- encased 163-year-old Confederate drum that J.G. Lawrence of the Alabama 42nd Regiment brought home after surviving the Civil War. "He was in Vicksburg, Mississippi, when the war ended and he walked all the way to Fayette with that drum," Campbell says. Small treasures are stored throughout the restored 1913 The 'Pride of Alabama.' Fayette Depot Museum is renovated railroad hub built in 1913.

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