“Was that an alligator?”
It was Thursday morning. An hour earlier Laird Bagnall and I had dropped our kayaks in the Tenn-Tom a mile downstream at Vienna Landing, an isolated launch 10 miles due south of Aliceville.
Now just the occasional farmhouse on a seldom-traveled county road, Vienna was a thriving river port from the 1830s until the Civil War.
Local historian, Dispatch columnist and steamboat aficionado Rufus Ward says there was a steamboat named the Vienna that made frequent trips between Columbus and Demopolis and sometimes on to Mobile. There are a couple of postcards of the boat, said Ward.
Laird and I were exploring a lagoon-like backwater of the river. Those who fish or paddle on the Tenn-Tom have access to countless of these aqueous cul-de-sacs, the result of small streams impeded by the enlarged river. In many cases these areas have developed into mini-nature preserves teeming with wildlife and lush vegetation.
Most are silted in and in places choked with vegetation, accessible by kayak and boats with a shallow draft.
We were exploring a round, oblong pool about half a mile long and several hundred yards wide. Arrayed across the far end of the lagoon opposite its narrow entrance are the remains of several dozen long-dead trees.
These trees provide a roost for egrets and had we been here an hour or two earlier, we likely would have seen hundreds of the spindly snowy white birds perched on their limbs.
I’d just passed within five feet of a set of small eyes and what could be construed as a snout. A small gator perhaps?
When I’ve encountered other, larger alligators, they’ve made every effort to disappear.
But this little fellow wasn’t so shy.
“Yes,” Laird said, answering my question matter factly as if I’d asked if he had any sunscreen or knew what time it was. By now I’d paddled 25 feet past the creature and was coasting.
I wanted another look.
The little fellow — let’s call him Al — had resurfaced.
As I paddled toward him — on the lookout for a protective mother — Al, apparently indifferent to the presence of a couple of gawkers, swam nonchalantly toward and then climbed onto a floating mat of vegetation.
He looked to be between two and three feet long with distinct diamond-like markings.
Not to make too much of it, but it was a bit other-worldly to be watching this odd, prehistoric creature do as his ancestors have done long before we humans were in this part of the world.
The Alligator mississippiensis, as they are known, have existed in North America for over eight million years.
Later I asked Laird if he had seen many gators in the area. He and the late Willis Pope III did a lot of paddling together.
“Columbus Lake is full of them,” he said.
That afternoon, on the way home, we stopped at Mac’s BBQ Place in Aliceville. Bulletin: Mac’s no longer offers turkey tails, a menu item touted in this space a year or so ago. Barbecued pig tails are still available, four for $8.00.
They’ve gotten too expensive, said Mac, who was sitting with three mates at picnic tables in front of his establishment. “Only place you can get them is at Tem’s in Macon,” he said of the turkey tails.
While Laird enjoyed his pulled-pork, I told the assembled group about our encounter with Al.
“He’s waiting on baby birds to fall out of their nest,” one of the men averred.
The same fellow gave me advice on treating my first ever poison oak rash and another offered the names of two good alignment men in Columbus. Useful information.
Laird finished his sandwich. We told our new friends good-bye and set out for home.
All in all, a good day on the river.
Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.
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