POWERGRAMS

35 Periodic signs provide a reminder: "Attention. Alligators are common throughout the refuge. They can be dangerous and should not be approached, disturbed or fed. Please give them the respect they deserve. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE." The thin roadway, secluded wooden viewing platforms and walking trails are a free portal to endangered and threatened animals such as the bald eagle, wood stork and American alligator that live in the refuge, where hunting is not allowed but viewing is encouraged. Last year about 8,600 of the 455,000 visitors to the refuge took the wildlife drive, says manager John Earle. Visitors who miss seeing a gator need only travel a couple of miles east back to Highway 431, where carloads of tourists with out-of-state license plates gather along fences outside a convenience store not so subtly named the "Gator Stop." There's no charge to walk between two fenced ponds filled with fish, turtles and big gators basking in the sun. Selfies are snapped almost nonstop as parents and kids position their cellphones to include sunning reptiles in the frame. The Chattahoochee River was here before mankind; Lake Eufaula and the refuge were created in 1963 when Walter F. George Dam began backing up water for 85 miles along the Alabama-Georgia line. In 1964, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers, established the refuge to aid wildlife and their habitat. The Corps maintains 13 day-use parks and four campgrounds around Lake Eufaula. While the Corps campgrounds are popular, they have nothing on the Lakepoint campgrounds adjacent to the refuge, and can't compare with the 101-room resort lodge, 29 cabins and 10 lakeside cottages that are often mistaken for upscale condos. Conference center employees welcome guests beneath a 25-foot-high vaulted skylight lobby held up by 15 expansive beams above wood walls lined with cut- stone columns and tile floors. The entryway leads to manicured grounds on the lakeside, as well as to the resort restaurant featuring wall-to-wall picture windows. "We have the prettiest sunsets you'll ever see, and none are ever the same," says Sharon Matherne, the interim superintendent who has worked at Lakepoint with her sister, Sone Kornegay, the sales director, for 23 years. "We have a hostess who takes a picture every night. It's just gorgeous." Matherne is one of three employees who lives year- round on site, among a staff of 45 lodge employees, 20 grounds workers and five volunteers for the 1,220 acres that comprise one of five state-owned "super parks" in Alabama. She sees the gators and snakes while driving her pickup around the 192 campsites but oftentimes those aren't what capture her attention. On the short drive from her house to the office at sunrise this day, she sees a bobcat, then a mother rabbit trailed by six kits, then a deer and fawn, then quail and geese. "We see this all the time, all in one morning, just on the way to work," says Kornegay. "Sometimes you just have to get a fishing pole and go fishing." There's little time to fish, though, when hosting close to 100 fishing tournaments each year, and scheduling that many for the upcoming year. The lodge also does a "huge" business in reunions. The free Fourth of July celebration brought in more than 5,000 people but Lakepoint has had up to 150,000 annual paying customers since it reopened in 2007 following a two-year parkwide renovation. "Most paying visitors just come to picnic or walk the trails," Kornegay says of the $5 per vehicle day-use fee from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Use of the campgrounds, children's playground, swimming pool and bathhouse is restricted to registered guests. Fishing isn't allowed after 10 p.m., to keep lake critters from surprising visitors in the dark. "The park has been open 41 years and we've never had an incident with the gators," says Matherne, who has a "Life is better at the lake" sign behind her desk. "They don't care about you; they're interested in the fish and the birds." All lodge rooms have a private porch with chairs and a table outside, and two queen beds, a flat- screen TV and refrigerator inside. The local fire marshal banned microwaves and cooking in the rooms because of the distance to town. Matherne says many people arrive on boat or personal watercraft, dock at the park marina and stay for a weekend or longer. Some rent the 1970s-era "fisherman's cabins" that include porches, picnic tables and grills on wooded lots uphill from the lake. The original park office along Highway 431 is reopening for campground check-in next to a new fenced dog-walk and picnic area often used by families just passing through. Each of the secure campgrounds has large rental picnic pavilions, playgrounds, hiking trails, bathhouses and private picnic tables and grills. There is a beach and boat launch for campers. All campsites have a view of the water. Ducks and other wildlife frequent the campgrounds, as well. "We have such spacious campsites," says Matherne. "I've been at campsites in other states where your car doors are banging up against your neighbor's. That's not here." Visitors may take a wildlife drive 7 miles through the heart of the refuge.

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