Alabama Highway 14 trailing through Loachapoka, Alabama was a parking lot October 18, but it tends to be crowded on a particular Saturday in October.
Syrup Sopping Day turns the typical 135-person population into a 20,000 crowd, drawing visitors from across the United States and vendors from across the Southeast.
"It's gotten a lot bigger over the years," said Catherine Lester, senior in public relations. "It used to be kind of small when it first started, but now like 20,000 people come supposedly. People come from really far distances."
Cars parked along the highway leading into the town had license plates hailing from Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Ohio, to name a few.
Once into the heart of the town, vendors' tents span the area. The railroad tracks cut through the area linearly, creating rows of arts and crafts.
Fox Point Farm, a family-run farm raising heirloom vegetables and making goat milk caramels, had their sweets for sale at the festival. The family is originally from California but now lives in Alexander City.
Christie Jamison, one of the owners, said her family enjoyed their first time at the festival, both as a vendor and as visitors.
The arts and crafts for sale and on display were numerous, from handmade soaps to engraved belts handmade jewelry. One booth had lamps made from liquor bottles; another housed lanterns made from wine bottles.
There were some booths, however, that were lacking, according to Lester.
"We went by a hat station earlier and Carlye was like, 'Do you make these hats?'" Lester said. "And they were like, 'No, I buy them from Kmart.' And we were like, 'Oh, so you buy them and resell them. Huh.'"
Overall, the offerings were plentiful.
A leap across the railroad tracks and a short stroll down a dusty road, past the vendors, bluegrass musicians played for a small but captive audience.
Across the highway, where police directed traffic throughout the day, visitors could pay $3 to get a more historic taste of Loachapoka, though this fair was not hosted by Syrup Sopping Day, but rather the Lee County Historical Society. This fair showcased historic trades.
But on the side of the street near the railroad tracks was the event that made Syrup Sopping Day into a legend: syrup being made.
There were two methods: the traditional and modern. The traditional had a horse connected to a crank, and with every rotation of the horse, the syrup would be pressed out of a wooden contraption into a pail. Children could pay to ride the horse.
The modern method lay just beyond the traditional. Someone drove a small ATV connected to a crank, which pressed out syrup with every rotation.
A mountain of syrup mirrored these methods, so visitors could buy gallons of the sticky sweetness when they got their visual fill.
"We've probably sold close to 20,000 pounds of syrup today," said Gene Smith, president of Syrup Sopping Day.
In Loachapoka, the locals let the g's slide off the ends of words like syrup down pancakes. Smith pronounced "syrup sopping" closer to "surrup soppin'."
"I've been involved with this all my life," Smith said.
The visitors were a mix of old and new, just as the vendors were. Lester was a seasoned veteran.
"My dad first brought me," Lester said. "I've been coming here since I was a kid."
Smith said Syrup Sopping Day focused on tradition and history. The funds from the day are donated to the Southwest Lee County Fire Department, mostly.
"It's just about stepping back in time and seeing how syrup was made the old-fashioned way," Smith said. "It's about helping the community."
The community will wake up October 19 this year and be much closer to its triple-digit residency. But every October since 1972, one crisp Saturday in October will see the town of Loachapoka burst in size, all in the name of syrup soppin'.
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