Shoal Creek Log Church

Talladega National Forest

Heflin, Alabama

ART PRINT  -  Size 11 x 14  -  Ready to Frame

Limited edition laser print of original watercolor painted by Betty Jones

Price . . . . $20.00     (plus $7.50 S & H )  Shipped within 7 days of order

For each print, Send $27.50  (check or money order)  to:

Betty D. Jones, 106 Howle Street, Heflin, AL  36264

For each print sold, $5.00 will be donated to Shoal Creek Church Preservation Society

About the church:  Surrounded by massive pines and hardwood trees, in the midst of Talladega National Forest, the church sits on 2.83 acres owned and managed by the Shoal Creek Baptist Church Preservation Society, Inc.  For over 160 years, in this peaceful mountain setting, there has stood an enduring log sanctuary.  Around 1845, a Primitive Baptist Church was erected at the present graveyard site.  That congregation disbanded and the building was removed about 1870.  In the 1880s, adjoining land was donated by Robert Cheatwood to build a Missionary Baptist Church.  That structure burned and was replaced by the present log church about 1895.  Among Shoal Creek settlers living peacefully and attending church functions here were families named Edwards, Cheatwood, Coleman, Holley, Jones, Patty, Smith, Thompson, and others.  By the 1920s, families began leaving the mountains and timber companies started buying up the land.  In 1936, President Roosevelt created the Talladega National Forest which swallowed up the entire region of the former Shoal Creek community and church.  The church is now used frequently for weddings, Worship services and other events by reservation with the Shoal Creek Church Preservation Society.  For the past 85 years, there has been a continuous, annual Sacred Harp singing, now held each Labor Day.  In 1974, the old log building was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

About the artist:   Betty Jones teaches after-school art classes and serves as Heflin Arts Council chairman.  Her husband Houston Jones currently serves as president of the Shoal Creek Church Preservation Society and is also a descendant of the Oscar Jones’ and William Edwards’ families who lived in the Shoal Creek community in the early 1900s.  He remembers hearing how his late father, Leo R. Jones, carried water from the nearby spring to workers building the church in 1895.  Their e-mail address is:  h-bjones1212@netzero.com