A day at the rodeo, an arena for generations Project organizers hope to ultimately create a major regional attraction Story by Loyd McIntosh Photos by Jerry Martin The sun beats down on a stretch of gravel road and grass near Odenville as two men sit on some wooden bleachers next to a structure they hope will become the best unkept secret in St. Clair County. Lude Mashburn, an agriculture teacher at Odenville High School, and Herschel Phillips, a retiree and Argo resident, are two of five members of the St. Clair Parks and Recreation Board, a body formed in 2011. They’re braving the early July heat to talk about the St. Clair Arena, originally built as a private horse arena that they are working to turn into an attraction for everything from rodeos to church revivals and everything in between. For Mashburn, the acquisition was a long time coming. “I teach ag out here, and I’ve been trying to get one for 40 years and never could get one,” he says. The 125,000-square-foot structure went on the market a couple of years ago, and Mashburn saw an opportunity and convinced county officials to purchase the facility and put it to public use. The purchase price was somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000, but early demand for outside groups looking to rent the facility gives them hope that the St. Clair Arena will pay for itself.
30 • DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair