County's Bright Star Casts a Holiday Halo
Christmas Treasure atop Pilot Knob Dates Back 38 years
Pilot Knob
is the name of the hill near Station Camp Creek road close to our
Gallatin, TN quarry.
The star is
recognizable to anyone who's driven along Gallatin Road after
dusk as it lights the Christmas sky up. The well-known Christmas
star sits on top of Pilot Knob Hill near Station Camp Creek Road
near the Rogers Group's Gallatin quarry. For those with deep
roots in Sumner County, it is a Christmas tradition that seems to
remind folks of another star long ago -- in Bethlehem.
It was all started back around 1960, by Morgan Sadler (then
manager of Pilot Knob quarry) and Joe Hall (superintendent at the
time). Sadler and Hall were very active in their churches and
were also extremely fond of the Christmas season. They were big
believers in Christmas and they also wanted to make Pilot Knob
stand out like it used to when the captains on the river would
use the hill as a navigational marker. They wanted to keep Pilot
Knob as an important landmark.
So, Mr. Sadler and Mr. Hall got in touch with Mr. Cramer, who was
the director of White House Water District. Hall and Sadler
approached Mr. Cramer because White House Water District owned
the water tank on which they wished to place the star.
Mr. Cramer agreed to it . . . he was really glad to do it because
he thought it would be festive. After awhile, it became more of a
sentimental project than like an advertisement type of thing.
Russ Matthews, at our Gallatin quarry, is the man behind the star
these days. "It takes two or three days to get the star
ready," Matthews said, "we turn it on at Thanksgiving
and it's on all the way until the New Year." Matthews
changes the bulbs each year. There are 60, 100-watt industrial
bulbs that comprise what all of Sumner County sees as a bright
spot in the dark sky.
