SHORELINES

7 Shor e l i n e S | 2016 Vol :2 Was it going to be a tourist town? Was it just going to be a sleepy little quiet town in the foothills?" The people who would help decide Gadsden's new direction had to find their way back to Gadsden first. "The single best thing that happened to Gadsden, I think, was the economic collapse of 2008, because so many young residents of Gadsden that had moved away and were living in big cities or living in other parts of the country – what happens when things get tough? People come home," Wilson said. "They come home to what they know. They come home to what's safe to them." That reverse brain-drain made the difference and opened Wilson's own eyes to the possibilities. "For that reason, we got this huge influx of brilliant minds and great entrepreneurs who came back to Gadsden," he said. "I was in Atlanta working a full-time job. I'm a fifth- generation Gadsdonian, so I'd come back and visit family and friends every so often, and over the years I started to feel that pulse kind of come back to the city and you felt a little bit of an energy here." By the time Wilson was ready to take the plunge into the exploding world of craft beer, there was one place he could imagine tapping into. "When it came time for me to start Back Forty and I was looking for a home, we knew we were going to be an Alabama brewery, so we could have located anywhere in the state," he said. "But it just made sense to come back to my roots and try to be a part of a movement that was happening here in Gadsden." That's what Wilson did in 2009, contract-brewing beer in Mississippi while setting up shop in historic downtown Gadsden. Production began in Gadsden in 2012. A downtown that was once virtually empty is now Left: Photo by BeRnaRd tRonCale — Located in historic downtown Gadsden, the brewery calls an old Sears repair center home, having just completed a $2 million expansion.

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