(gentle bright music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Announcer] "Wish You Were Here," produced under an agreement with the Upper Cumberland Development District and made possible in part through support from the United States Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

(gentle inspiring music) - [Announcer] In the heart of Tennessee there's a little slice of heaven you've just gotta see.

(rousing inspiring music) Oh man, "Wish You Were Here."

- Hi, I'm Katelyn Steakley, your host for "Wish You Were Here."

If you're here, that tells me one thing.

You're ready for more Upper Cumberland Adventure.

And boy do we have some adventure in store for you.

But before we meet up with our correspondence, let's do some exploring of our own right here on Cordell Hull Lake at Wildwood Resort in Marina in Granville, Tennessee.

(gentle amorous music) I'm here in beautiful Granville, Tennessee with Wildwood Marina owner, John Dean.

John, thank you so much for having us here today.

- Welcome to Wildwood, Katelyn.

It's great to have you guys.

- I am so excited to be here.

The view here is absolutely picturesque.

I wanna know, John, what inspired you to build Wildwood Marina?

- [John] It is beautiful here, and as much of a marina as we are, we're also a resort where people can come and just hang and enjoy themselves.

We have been doing that for 22 years as a second home community here in Granville, and so we wanted to offer a taste of that to folks who could only spare a day or two of their time to come visit.

- [Katelyn] It is beautiful.

I have enjoyed seeing the resort today with you, and I'm excited to hear about all the accommodations you have to offer.

I'm pretty sure that I could come back here a half a dozen times and never have the same experience.

Can you tell our viewers a little bit about the accommodations available here at Wildwood?

- [John] They range from hotel style inn and lodge rooms to six one-room cabins surrounding an artisan fire pit, six Airstreams, vintage Airstreams, some older than others that provide a glamping experience all tricked out with linens, fire pits, and coffee service, and three luxury lake homes that just have gorgeous views of the lake through the trees and offer a one bedroom accommodation with a sofa couch.

- [Katelyn] So in addition to a full service restaurant and all these amazing accommodations, you also are a full service Marina as well.

- [John] That's right.

We have 120 boat slips for rent on a 12 month contract.

We also have visitors by boat, which is kinda cool.

We're on navigable water here on the Cumberland River, and that means we're connected by water to the world.

And so we get visitors from places as far away as Minnesota, St. Louis, Florida, and New York City even, where they're making their way around the inland waterways and find time to spend three or four days at Wildwood.

- [Katelyn] That is really unique.

I had no idea that that was a possibility.

Tell us what a weekend might look like for your visitors.

- We have wonderful music opportunities here.

Every weekend, Friday and Saturday night, we have live music.

Once a month, we have two singer songwriters that come straight from the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.

These are the nations, even the world's best songwriters that are writing for all the big stars, they're coming out here and sharing their tunes with us.

As a matter of fact, once a year, in the first weekend in November, we have a songwriter festival where we have a dozen of those songwriters and we just have music all day long.

But we also have boats that people can take out either on their own or with one of our drivers guiding, maybe a sunset cruise in the evening, kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, and pontoon boats are all available.

- [Katelyn] The time here at Wildwood is magical.

It's my understanding that it's even inspired some songs to be written.

- That's right.

James Slater, who is one of our key headliners has written a beautiful song that captures the spirit of Wildwood, which is on our website.

- I have so enjoyed talking to you this morning and this beautiful view on what is the longest boardwalk in the state of Tennessee.

John, thank you so much for having us here at Wildwood.

- [John] Thank you, Caitlin.

It's really great to have you guys.

♪ See you soon then Wildwood ♪ ♪ Wildwood, life is short ♪ ♪ So what you waiting for ♪ ♪ Wildwood, Wildwood ♪ ♪ Yeah, what you waiting for ♪ ♪ Wildwood ♪ - The Cumberland River is 688 miles long and is home to many different species of fish including some monster size strap bass.

Field correspondent, Rafferty Cleary, heard tales of the river monsters that live in the Cumberland and recruited some help as he began his quest.

Let's join Rafferty on the Cumberland River out of Donaldson Park in Celina, Tennessee to see if his search was successful.

(upbeat sultry music) - [Rafferty] Hello, from Donaldson Park in beautiful Celina, Tennessee.

I'm Rafferty Cleary.

Joining me is owner and founder of Captain Jim Fishing, Captain Jim.

Captain Jim, thank you for letting us spend some time with you today.

- Appreciate you guys coming out.

- Tell us a little bit about your charter service and striper is not the only thing that you specialize in as far as your charter services.

- Yes, sir.

That's correct.

We're on 12 different waterways in Kentucky and Tennessee fishing eight different species of fish, striper and hybrids walleye, sauger, bass.

We fish for trout and we fish for muskie as well.

I've been fishing down here for 60 years now.

Dad started bringing me when I was four or five, and the upper Cumberland was always just a magic place for me.

I mean, I love this place, and you see why people come see us from Australia, Nova Scotia.

They come from Europe, Canada, all 50 of the United States to come here and fish in the Upper Cumberland.

- So Captain Jim, our focus today, the striper.

- Yes, sir.

- Large big fish.

Tell us about the striper.

- Well, the striper here in the Cumberland River roughly are the largest freshwater stripers in the world.

And our smallest fish we catch daily is generally 25 to 30 pounds.

We use bait that's two to three pounds, and you're gonna get to experience that and- - It's like the normal fish that I catch- - Yeah, most people say that.

They always say, "Can I take some bait home and eat it?"

And I'm like, "Well, no."

(chuckling) - [Rafferty] So, these things are no joke.

- [Jim] Yes, it's a powerful fish.

You'll be 15, 20, 30 minutes getting one in.

It's exciting.

Again, our customer base comes from everywhere to do this.

So for the folks that are within the television viewing area, they have a real opportunity to come out here and catch a fish of a lifetime.

- [Rafferty] Today, it's a little bit of overcast every now and then.

Blue skies appear more so than the clouds, but it's cool.

- This is an ideal day for a real big fish.

- Okay.

- Yes, sir.

- So our odds are good today.

- Odds are good for a big fish today.

- All right.

(upbeat sultry music) - [Jim] So you see how the planer board's playing out away from the boat?

- [Rafferty] Right.

- [Jim] Stripers have better eyesight than humans do and they can see.

So we gotta get 'em out away from the boat because they see the boat as a big predator.

They don't like that.

We practice a hundred percent catch and release here and some of these big fish that we catch, I'm sure I've caught over and over and over over the years because if you took all the big fish out there, there's wouldn't be any left.

It takes them 15, 20, 25 years to get this big.

In my personal opinion, once a striper gets above 15 20 pounds, yeah, the meats is not as good.

That one out there is getting a bit frisky.

You'll see 'em start to move around when something's looking at 'em.

Sometimes they may not be big enough to eat 'em, but when you're using two and three pound bait, - [Rafferty] Yeah.

- You know, our smallest fish daily is generally 25 to 30 pounds.

(birds chirping) (screen thuds) (birds chirping) (screen thuds) (birds chirping) (fishing rod rasps) (fishing rod buzzing) (upbeat sultry music) Great big fish.

(upbeat sultry music) (birds chirping) (fishing rod buzzing) - Holy smokes.

This is like walking my dog, just like 10 times the worst.

I thought Wilkerson was bad, man.

- [Jim] Oh yeah.

That's a good 50, 55 pound fish.

Look at that.

- [Jim] All right.

- [Rafferty] (laughing) What do you- - [Jim] What do you think about that, son, huh?

- [Rafferty] Yeah, right.

- [Jim] Is that worth the price of admission or what?

- [Rafferty] Oh my gosh.

(upbeat sultry music) My legs are shaking.

My hands are shaking.

My body is like, I almost have a nervous feeling, you know?

- Uh-huh.

- Because I've never felt something so powerful.

If you had to guesstimate the weight, what do you think- - [Jim] That fish was 52, 53 pounds.

- [Rafferty] Unbelievable.

- [Jim] Yeah, about four pounds off the company record.

Congratulations on your championship fish.

- I'm addicted right now.

Can we do one more before we leave?

(upbeat sultry music) - Deep in the hills of the Upper Cumberland lies a community called Muddy Pond.

Home to the best sorghum and fried pies this side of the Mississippi.

Recently, field correspondent, Shan Stout, visited the Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill in Monterey to get a taste of the Tennessee's sweet stuff, and to get a closer look at the syrup making process.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Shan] We are in beautiful Monterey, Tennessee home of the best fried pies and sorghum, which means we are at none other than the Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill.

And I am here with the lovely Sherry Guenther, and she is co-owner and expert of everything sorghum.

- Truly, this is Sorghum cane that we start with.

And when you boil it down, it'll only boil down to the syrup.

And so that's sorghum syrup.

But people from years back have called it sorghum molasses or molasses.

But sugarcane is grown further south.

We can't grow it here.

It takes it about a year to be ready to harvest so we can't grow sugarcane.

And sugarcane, when they boil down the juice from sugarcane, it'll make the crystallized sugar.

They take that off of it and the syrup that's left is molasses.

Although everybody calls this molasses, we call it sorghum syrup.

- Now, there's a big history here.

Your husband, Mark, this was his family business.

- It really started out, his mom and dad back in 1965, they moved here to the community, and they actually started with the whole community making sorghum.

And his dad had never seen it made before, didn't know what it was.

The brothers have taken it over and modernized it a little bit because you can't just cut the cane with machetes, you know, like they used to do.

We have that like 60 acres of cane every year.

- [Shan] Well, here in a minute, we're gonna get Mark to show us the process from start to finish, because it does not just start with cane and end up in a bottle.

There's a whole lot in between before you put the label on the jar, so I can't wait to see what's going on there.

(upbeat sultry music) - [Mark] This is the way I grew up.

We did all of it like this.

- [Shan] Wow.

- [Mark] And there was just absolutely no way that we could sustain a living because of the amount of labor that goes into this.

And so the machine that we went out in the field and watched work came out of necessity.

And, you know, one of the most important things about making sorghum, and it's that way with anything in life you do.

And my dad always said, "Boys, if you make a make a good product, three people will know about it.

If you don't make a good product, 10 people will know about it."

That is number one, is to make a good product and so people can enjoy what we make.

So, Shan, are you ready to try it?

- [Shan] I'm ready.

(upbeat sultry music) My teenage boys are really impressed with me right now.

All right.

- [Mark] There you go.

You got two stalks.

- I got two, oh, I got three.

(upbeat sultry music) Oh, (laughing) Yeah.

- [Mark] It wouldn't take longer.

- I need to work out a little more.

(shrieks) All right.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm an expert.

Obviously an expert.

He made that look really easy.

(upbeat sultry music) Now, when you first arrive at the Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill, this is your first stop.

This is the first thing that you're gonna see.

And there's a lot of excitement that's about to happen right here.

And this is the art of cane pressing.

Now, I'm obviously not the expert on this beautiful craft, but I've brought the expert, and we have Eddie Gunther.

He's not only the brother to Mark Gunther here at the Sorghum Mill, but he's also a partner in the business.

Now, Eddie, tell us a little bit about the whole process for cane pressing.

- [Eddie] This is how it used to be done here with the horse.

He just walks around pulling this pole and we'll feed the cane into the set of rollers which crushes the cane, and the juice runs out into a barrel and down under the ground in a pipe down to the mill where we're cooking.

This is Red.

We're gonna have him go around and we'll feed some cane in there.

(upbeat sultry music) (lips smooching) Come boy.

So basically all that's happening is you've got three rollers in this press that are turning with each other.

And as you feed the cane in there, (smooching) come on, boy.

It just crushes it.

As you can see here, the juice collects down in this little tray and runs down into here, and then down into the pipe under the track down to the mill.

(upbeat sultry music) - [Shan] I just love it here.

You will love it here.

We want you to come and see all that Muddy Pond has the offer.

There's a country store.

There is a variety store directly across the street.

There are places to eat, places to shop, a leather works place.

Mennonite and Amish Furniture.

So much to see.

You don't wanna miss it.

(upbeat sultry music) - American Aviator, Amelia Earhart once said, "The lure of flying is the lure of beauty."

If there is one awe-inspiring alternative route to soak in the views of the Upper Cumberland, it would be from the sky.

Field correspondent, Rapperty Cleary, recently visited the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport in Sparta, Tennessee for their annual airfare.

(air whooshing) (upbeat music) - [Rafferty] Hello everyone.

Rafferty Cleary coming to you from White County at the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport.

We're here for the annual airfare.

And with me airport manager, Dean Selby.

Dean, thank you for letting us spend some time with you today.

- Thank you Rafferty for inviting me, I Appreciate it.

- [Rafferty] No shortage of the wow factor here today.

All kinds of aircraft, some spectacular sites.

What can folks expect when they come to the Upper Cumberland Airfare?

- [Dean] We tried to do an airfare versus just an air show to be more encompass and incorporate other avenues rather than just come and watch some people fly.

So we're gonna have that.

We've got an airshow component this year, all three days.

We also have expanded to three days from two days.

We have food vendors, we've got helicopter rides.

DC-3 will be here giving rides, Huey this year are giving rides that will be offering rides along with the balloons and the balloon rides.

- [Rafferty] And for folks who just enjoy the hobby of, I guess, aviation if you will.

There's some vintage stuff here that's gonna really give them kind of a thrill.

- Yeah, we've got some older war birds and several of the the aerobatic aircraft likes in the background here that'll be flying.

Just trying to get a good assortment so people get to see a little bit of everything.

So it'll be a pretty cool event.

- Why was it important that you all do something like this?

- When we first started talking about doing this event, we wanted to try to do something to connect with the community, just to make sure that everyone understands what the airport is here for, what it does.

But it just kinda showcases the fact of what we are capable of handling.

- [Rafferty] So Dean, the Detroit Flagship DC-3 just kinda rolled down the runway, passed us just a second ago.

Tell us a little bit about the history of that plane.

- Well, that was one of the first American Airlines' passenger aircraft.

It's been fully restored.

It's pretty cool.

You can come out and take a ride on it.

It's a about a 30 minute flight to go out and see the area, and it's really a cool piece of history to get to be on it.

I got the opportunity last year to fly on it on one of their flights, and it is really, really worthwhile to take the time to go see the air from the way it was seen in the 40s.

- [Rafferty] Yeah, folks come here and see everything you have to offer, and they wanna be a pilot at some point in their life after being so enthused from this airfare.

You all can get 'em set straight, can't you?

- Right now, at last count, I think we've got over 60 students that are active on the field.

That's a lot of people learning to fly so that's a pretty cool thing that we're adding pilots.

What surprises me, Rafferty, is over the last few years, we're seeing more and more female students.

And I'm excited about that, seeing the diversity of pilots that are out there, and I think that's a great thing.

- [Rafferty] The hard work is taking place around us right now as we get set up for this special event.

Planes rolling through and whatnot.

This extends into the nighttime hours.

- It does, it does.

We have a nighttime portion of the show which it includes a 5K on the runway, right about dark.

And we also have some night aerobatics, and some night air show routines.

So it's just a whole different aspect from seeing 'em during the day.

- [Rafferty] I was lucky today.

I got up in the hot air balloon.

It really helped me start my day off with an attitude of gratitude because the view and just getting the view of our area from that height, you know, at that angle or whatnot, was just amazing.

Do you find that a lot of folks who are attracted to this area because of the views that come with flying in our area?

- We tend to, myself included, tend to overlook the fact of what we have locally.

When you were talking about all the different state parks, and the waterfalls, and the lakes that we have in this area, all of the attractions that you would have from a nature standpoint, it really is amazing.

And from your vantage point, when you get up there, it kinda brings you back to it and go, "Oh wow, we have an amazing area here.

This is gorgeous."

- Unbelievable.

Yeah.

You fly yourself?

- I do fly.

- Okay, take me up one time.

- All right.

All right.

(laughter) (gentle bright music) - Before Tennessee, politician, Cordell Hull, went on to be the longest serving US Secretary of State during the FDR administration.

He spent his childhood days on the whole family farm in Pickett County.

Field correspondent, Rafferty Cleary, recently visited Cordell Hull Birthplace State Park to get a glimpse of what 1870s life was like for Cordell.

(gentle harmonious music) - Today I am joined by park ranger, Josh Welch, and we are warming up by the fire here at the birthplace of Cordell Hull.

Josh, thanks for letting us spend some time with you today.

- No problem, thanks for dropping by.

- First, the birthplace for Cordell Hull, grew up here with his four brothers, mother and father.

Tell us a little bit about some of the structures that are here at the park that kinda take us back to what life was like for the Hulls on this property.

- So, we're currently standing in the birthplace cabin.

This would've actually been the kitchen cabin.

And the kitchen cabin would've been used by the family to prepare their meals, eat their meals.

Across from the breezeway is the living quarters cabin, and that's where the family would've actually slept and done all their daily chores like spinning and weaving.

- [Rafferty] Also, here at the park is the visitor center or museum.

What type of artifacts from Cordell Hull's life do you all have inside there?

- [Josh] So we have a lot of his personal items and effects all the way from the time he was a lawyer, all the way up until he was secretary of state.

- Moonshining actually plays a part in this story.

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

So, Cordell's father, William, actually made and sold moonshine out of Bunkum Cave, which is just about a mile through the woods from the cabin.

And it's a pretty large cave entrance.

It's about 100 foot wide by 50 foot tall, and there's natural water always running through the cave.

So that gave William a pretty easy way to get water.

He never had to bring it with him.

- [Rafferty] All right, Josh.

So, little guy, very large appetite.

So you got me with cooking a second ago.

Can I try my hand cooking over the open fire?

- Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I think we're gonna need maybe something a little more appropriate if we were gonna sorta put ourselves in the footsteps of someone cooking 150 years ago.

So I think I have just a thing in mind.

- Okay.

- All right.

(screen chiming) (gentle bright music) Oh, hey, you look pretty good.

- Hey.

- Hey, where'd this guy come from?

(Robert chuckling) - You look good.

- [Robert] Thank you.

- This is Robert.

He's our Seasonal Interpretive Ranger who also assists us here at the park with his cooking programs.

- [Rafferty] I like Robert's style.

- He's gonna help us with his famous family recipe for cornbread that goes back about 150 years.

- [Robert] First, we're starting off with layer of cornmeal, and then next we'll start with a layer of flour.

- [Rafferty] I noticed you don't have a measuring cup anywhere near you.

- No, I just eyeball it.

- [Josh] Yeah.

- That's what I like to hear.

- [Robert] And then next step is the buttermilk, all right.

- [Rafferty] How do you know when it's good pour?

- Well, it starts clumping like that.

- [Rafferty] Gotcha.

- And next we're going to lard our skillet, whereas since we have a lard that's not as healthy, we're gonna be using a oil, vegetable oil.

- [Rafferty] Okay.

- And then next, we're going to put a little bit of cornmeal on the bottom of it so it doesn't stick to the cast iron, and then we're just putting our skillet.

(gentle bright music) - [Rafferty] How long does this typically have to cook over the fire?

- [Robert] About 20 to 30 minutes.

- [Rafferty] 20 to 30 minutes.

- And then start smooth out so I can bake it.

(gentle bright music) (gentle sultry music) - Who wants the first bite?

- Well, I think Robert should get the honors.

- All right, Robert, what do you think?

- Pretty good.

- [Rafferty] Pretty good?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

Shall we dive in?

- [Josh] Yeah.

(gentle sultry music) - [Rafferty] Mm-hmm.

- [Josh] I concur, it's pretty good.

- [Rafferty] Pretty good.

(gentle sultry music) - Magical, extraordinary, timeless.

Words that best describe a visit to Wildwood Resort.

Escape back to nature and spend the weekend in serenity right here on the water's edge at Wildwood Resort in Marina in Granville, Tennessee.

Join us next time for more Upper Cumberland Adventures in Tennessee.

Don't you wish you were here?

(gentle upbeat music) - [Rafferty] Oh, ho, ho ho, whoah.

All right, this is weird.

(passengers laughing) (wind whooshing) I gotta (indistinct) - [Rafferty] It's stretched all the way.

(laughing) - [Controller] Now you see why we don't like a whole lot of wind.

- [Rafferty] We lost it.

(laughter) (gentle bright music) - [Announcer] "Wish You Were Here," produced under an agreement with the Upper Cumberland Development District and made possible in part through support from the United States Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

(gentle bright music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle bright music)