Two Northeast Alabama counties that share an often-flooded and deadly crossing on a creek in Buck's Pocket State Park are working on an agreement to install permanent gates to try to prevent drownings.
South Sauty Creek flows through the state park in a deep, dark gorge that offers only one primary crossing for vehicles within park boundaries. That crossing - DeKalb County Road 173 on one side of the creek and Jackson County Road 452 on the other - consists of a low road over a row of concrete tiles designed to allow flood water to flow over the road when it rains heavily, according to officials.
The problem is that when the water flows over the road, people still try to cross, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Northeast Alabama State Parks district superintendent Michael Jeffreys said in February that officials in Jackson and DeKalb counties started working on a plan for installing the gates after 82-year-old Scottsboro, Alabama, resident Raymond Edwards was swept away at the South Sauty Creek crossing in surging waters on Feb. 5.
Less than a year before, 18-year-old Geraldine, Alabama, resident Koy Spears and two others tried to cross the flooded crossing in a Jeep that was swept away. The other two people managed to escape and cling to a tree until they were rescued about an hour later. The trio encountered flood waters that came with the record-setting deluge in February 2019.
DeKalb County District 2 Commissioner Scot Westbrook, whose district includes the south half of the park, said the coronavirus pandemic has slowed progress a little but permanent gates will be built soon.
"We're doing all we can to include our plan to put gates on the road," Westbrook said Friday. "I don't know a lot about what Jackson County is doing. But the agreement we had back in February was that we would do something similar."
Westbrook said both counties will use the same fabricator to make the gates, and each county would fund and install its own gate. He said the plan for use of the gates will allow vehicles to drive into the gorge but will block access to the crossing when closed. There are wide areas near the crossing to turn around. Other access points to the park areas won't be affected, he said.
The crossing itself is in DeKalb County; the Jackson County line ends at the water's edge, officials said.
Jackson County Commission Chairman Tim Guffey said an agreement setting forth the protocol on use of the gates was in the works for the counties and state parks.
Guffey said a local man donated the materials and labor to build the gates for both counties. Neither Guffey nor Westbrook could estimate the cost for the gates but they said since the gates were donated and county crews will install them, the expense was minimal. The donor had asked not to be identified, Guffey said.
Guffey said the agreement would be finalized in the coming days and the gates will probably be installed sometime in the "next two or three weeks."
According to the park's history on the state parks website, the Cherokee once lived on what now is park land before the Trail of Tears, the area was used by the French for growing coffee and olives in the 1700s and the land was used for logging in the 1940s. As local legend goes, Buck's Pocket also served as a retreat for defeated public officials after unsuccessful elections.
Under current COVID-19 orders in Alabama, the park closes at sundown.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.