Another unfortunate trucker made an unplanned stop at a Ft Payne landmark of sorts, early Wednesday afternoon.
A log truck slammed into the wall known locally as “Joe’s Truck Stop” – located at the foot of the mountain as you take the turn leading into downtown Ft Payne.
The accident, which took place at around 1:15pm sent the driver of the truck to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
According to an article in roadsideamerica.com – in 1935 Joe Faulkner built a house on Fifth Street directly in front of a mountain road – which worked out fine, until around 1950 when the state designated the road Highway 35 and truckers started using it.
The truckers would burn out their breaks on the steep two-mile descent and the first year a total of 13 trucks went through Faulkner’s front yard, taking out a row of trees one-by-one.
Eventually he decided to construct a four-foot-thick concrete wall reinforced with wire and grader blades in addition to steel pipe and the chassis from two Dodge trucks.
It doesn’t stop truckers from burning out their brakes however, it did, for the most part put a stop to having big rigs knocking at his front door.
[Photo courtesy of the Ft Payne Times-Journal/www.times-journal.com)