The Minister's Treehouse

There will be moments, people, and places that will change you to your very core.  Some of those moments last forever, while some last only a season.  There was a moment in particular that changed my entire essence.  I was ninety feet in the air and still on holy ground.  And as I walked away from that moment, I let out a deep sigh, knowing I would forever be changed.  

 
It was the summer of 2015 and extremely muggy in Crossville, Tn.  A “Keep Out. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted” sign greeted me as I hopped a fence into a magical world.  A landmark for a small town in Tenn., the Minister’s Treehouse, a once highly-renowned tourist attraction, is a ninety-seven foot abandoned structure that beckons adventure. With nine stories, a bell tower, and eighty rooms all supported by thirteen trees, Horace Burgess’s treehouse humbles any other edifice around.  

As the story goes, Minister Horace Burgess had a vision from the Lord in the year 1993, during which he was told “If you build Me a treehouse, I will make sure you will never run out of material.”  So the minister obeyed what he thought was the voice of the Lord, and he built $12,000 worth of treehouse during the span of eleven years until the city forced his hand and shut down the treehouse in August of 2012.  The fire marshal claims they shut this structure down because it was not up to standard building code; however, there have been many complaints against this decision due to the fact that it is a treehouse and not an actual building. While the city still wrestles with whether or not to reopen the Minister’s Treehouse, adventurers, taggers, lovers, and families alike still find themselves drawn to this massive establishment.  

Although trash and graffiti cover some surfaces of the tree mansion, a peace still permeates the property— a peace that wrestled me to my core and challenges who I am every single day.  I walked away from the Minister’s Treehouse with the realization that very few, if any, adventures would top that day.  And for me, at least, the words of Twenty-One Pilots’ song, “Stressed Out,” certainly ring true when they say, “Out of student loans and treehouse homes, we all would take the latter.”  

Ghost Stories

Haunted hotels and ghost stories were not the main reason I found myself in Reliance, Tn. on a breezy spring day, but regardless, I was intrigued and interested in the history behind the two-story abandoned hotel towering before me.  The supposed history behind the Higdon Hotel begins in the 1880’s when Calvin Higdon discovered an opportunity to be a halfway house for those passing through Polk County on the railroad being built. It would house his family, travelers, and railroad workers. The railroad company soon found this stop to be extremely important, and although the post office was called “Reliance,” it quickly became known as “Higdon’s Station.”  As the town developed, and ferries became roadways over the Hiwasse River, the Higdon Hotel became less of a necessity.  In the year of 1920, the Higdon Hotel shut down.  And that is where the history ends and the ghost stories begin…

Once the Higdon Hotel shut down as a halfway point for the railroad station, it opened up as a boarding house in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  One family, in particular, claims they were sitting downstairs having dinner and reading, when the sound of a heavy chain being dragged across the floor upstairs would abruptly interrupt.  Apparently these occurrences happened more often than not and are rumored to still happen to those to dare to tread in the Higdon Hotel.

The stories continue in the year of 1993, a strange man came to town with the hopes and dreams of renovating the Higdon Hotel and restoring it to former glory.  The locals claim the man was driven away by the spirits that still reside in the edifice.  Evidence of this fact prevails to this day.  Newer plywood boards and a more modern fiberglass shower were discarded on the side of the house where the brick chimney remained.  

Whether or not these ghost stories are true should not keep the wild hearted explorer from finding beauty in the architecture and backstory of the Higdon Hotel.  

From actual county history books, supernatural stories from ghost hunters, or weird lore from the mouths of locals, the Higdon Hotel is an abandoned building that is full of enough adventure and history to keep the stories turning in your head for days to come.  

Wet Paint, Espresso, and Art

What do wet paint and steamed milk have in common?  Most well-trained baristas will tell you that those two have more in common than the average consumer realizes.  The art of steaming milk for any drink is just that: art.  There is a magic within the stretching of milk via the steam wand that will either burn or sweeten the beverage. It is all about amount of time, heat, and pressure during steaming. The end result of the steamed milk should resemble that of wet paint.  By the time milk hits excellently pulled espresso shots, it creates tones in the beverage that will enhance the actual coffee taste.

Whenever my adventures take me to a new location, I test the beans at the local coffee shop through a plain latte.  My most recent coffee discovery was made in Atlanta, Ga.  Chrome Yellow Trading Co. was founded by a husband and wife team in the wintery months of 2013.  Along with coffee, Chrome Yellow sells clothing for men and women in the back of its store.  While there are many local roasters in Atlanta, Chrome Yellow chooses to outsource with their beans from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in the state of Washington.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the coffee locality of Atlanta, my favorite coffee shop of all time is located in Chattanooga, Tenn.  Velo Coffee Roasters (http://www.velocoffee.com) procures milk from Cruze Dairy Farms in Knoxville, Tenn., and although the beans are imported worldwide, they are locally roasted right inside Velo.  The drink that is most renown is their “Niterider Nitro,” which is nitrogen, cold brew and looks like a beer.  It is fresh and creamy and unlike anything else in the surrounding coffee shops.  

From pulling shots and steaming milk to brewing with nitrogen, coffee has slowly started to take over the world as more than just a morning beverage.  It is, indeed, a form of art.  According to a 2015 study done by Espresso Business Solutions, the number of coffee shops across the United States was approximately 24,000 and rising.  With such growth, it is safe to say that coffee education is expanding, as well, and sooner than later, more consumers will truly understand the commonalities between steamed milk and wet paint.