Northcutts Cove Chapel

The Cumberland Plateau features communities nestled into the many coves that cut into the rocky outcropping. Northcutts Cove, north of Altamont, is a mixture of farms, new homes and old shacks in a quaint, picturesque setting.

Northcutts Cove Road winds its way from Altamont down the plateau through thick woods. As you enter the clearing of the cove, one of the first sights is the Northcutts Cove Chapel, built by members of the Church of Latter Day Saints in 1909. LDS missionaries began their work in Grundy County, Tennessee two decades earlier. The chapel was built by volunteers who donated the materials for the building.

Shortly after the chapel's opening, a local Church of Christ minister named Mansfield challenged the LDS' southern states leader, Charles Callis, to a debate on the beliefs of Mormonism. The debate took place over the course of three days in October of 1909. Reverend Mansfield was apparently not too successful at dissuading people from their Mormon beliefs since Grundy County to this day has the highest percentage of Mormons in the state of Tennessee.

The cove was named for the Northcutt family. H.B. Northcutt formed a family business of building coffins, which makes a great segue into the photo above, taken behind the chapel in the first light of morning. No doubt some of the Northcutts' handiwork lies beneath the earth's surface in this photograph.

The chapel, along with H. B. Northcutt's home in Altamont, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Spire

Back in October, I participated in the latest Elgin 1440 photography project. This year's event, the third in the series, encouraged the people of Elgin to get out and photograph a day in the life of the city - in this case, the day was October 14. The number 1440 signifies the number of minutes in a day.

Participants could enter up to five photographs that they felt embodied the theme of "Autumn Sun/Harvest Moon." Photos selected by a jury would be displayed at the Hemmens Cultural Center in downtown Elgin from November 25 through January 4.

I began shooting about 5:00 a.m. that day and finished around 7:00 p.m. I entered five photos (out of more than 150 pictures I took that day) and all five were selected by the exhibit's jury. The Elgin 1440 link above takes you to a local newpaper's coverage of the gallery opening. The photo accompanying the story shows one of my pictures (the lower photo on the partition).

The photo above is one that I shot that day, but chose not to enter. The day started out rather gray and gloomy and I didn't have high hopes for capturing the "Autumn Sun" portion of the theme. I walked to the top of a downtown parking garage and noticed a number of church steeples around me. The clouds were beginning to break and some early morning sunlight was able to break through to tint the clouds a light pink.

Over the course of the next few days, I'll post some scenes from my hometown on a sunny autumn day.

Click on this post's headline for image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Faith abandoned

A lock on the door of an empty shell that once housed a family of faith. Egg Harbor, Wisconsin.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Fire in the sky

I did a little experimenting with inverting some of my archive photos to see what would happen. This photograph of a church steeple in Cleveland, Wisconsin was originally a placid scene with a bright blue sky and fleecy clouds. Inverted, it became a scene of the apocalypse.

I didn't get the chance to do any photographing this weekend, in spite of record high temperatures here, so I'll be posting more experimental/archive photos this week. Stay tuned.

And Happy Monday. By the way, here's the original church steeple photo.

Click on picture to enlarge and feel the heat. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.