Not Just Another Roadside Attraction

This item appeared in The Times & Free Press on Sunday, April 16, 2000.

By Jan Galletta
Staff Writer

 

Plainly a man who thinks "outside the box," Benton, Tenn., resident Kevin Hawkins gave his wife, Carol, a camel for an anniversary present a couple of years ago.

She dubbed the dromedary "Gus" and featured him in an exercise video she made for physical therapy patients who were golfers. Each time the camera showed a sand trap, the camel snorted, cavorted and otherwise stole the show.

Today Gus keeps a poster of fellow celeb Clint Eastwood on the wall of his stall in a big barn he shares with critters of every stripe.

For starters, the menagerie includes a llama with obsessive compulsive disorder, a donkey who thinks she's a lap pet, a pig who opens refrigerator doors and some goats who're suckers for shiitake mushrooms.

It probably goes without saying that the Hawkinses' Ocoee Mist Farm isn't just another roadside attraction.

Guests at the bed-and-breakfast inn the pair recently opened on the 40-acre spread in the Cherokee National Forest describe it as a Walden Pond-meets-Wild Kingdom kind of experience. And between the place's "animal magnetism" and the popular llama hikes, it's helping to make the Ocoee area the year-round tourist destination that the locale envisioned as a Centennial Olympics legacy.

"There are mornings when we wake up and ask ourselves if we wouldn't rather be living in an apartment somewhere," said Mrs. Hawkins, 47, a home health care physical therapist.

"That only lasts about a moment until something wonderful happens here."

Last month, "something wonderful" arrived in the form of Nigerian dwarf goats, Susie Q and Lucky Day -- the latter so named because the smaller kid got stuck during delivery and nearly died.

"It was one of the few times we've had to call a veterinarian, and it took all three of us to get him out. Plus, the doctor's name was 'Day,' " Mrs. Hawkins said of the kid's christening.

'I never had any vet training, but I've learned a lot," said Mr. Hawkins, 33, a former scuba diver, who has mastered such animal husbandry how-tos as hoof-trimming, inoculations and wound care.

He has also pioneered some techniques, such as fashioning a cast out of a toilet paper roll to brace Lucky Day's leg, which was injured in the birth.

Mr. Hawkins said the couple had always wanted a farm, where his wife could realize her dream of owning llamas. Ten years ago, they launched a llama-hikes operation near their Dalton, Ga., hometown with four of the gentle beasts.

Now they own 18, which literally form the backbone of the 2-to-6-hour hikes the Hawkinses run fall through spring. Loaded with fancy lunch fixings (and furniture), the animals escort guests along scenic forest trails.

By the time the family relocated to the Ocoee region last year, their quasi-zoo consisted of 12 goats, nine dogs, eight donkeys, six cats, three pigs, three exotic house birds, two camels, a sheep, a peacock, an ill-tempered turkey and assorted geese, ducks and guinea hens, plus the llamas.

"It's both a habit and a hobby," said Mrs. Hawkins. "Some people go on trips; we buy animals."

Not all the beasts in the brood were bought.

Hitchhiker Hawkins, for example, was a bedraggled puppy when rescued from the side of a busy highway. Another dog, Fifi Dumpster, was found near-starved in a trash bin. Fifi still lacks a refined palate, preferring to play fetch with rocks instead of tennis balls or Frisbees, according to Mr. Hawkins.

He said that all the animals have, from the first, earned their keep.

"We started doing Nativity scenes at our church, and the word got out that we had a trained camel," he said, adding that the camels, sheep and donkeys are still highly in demand for the seasonal pageants.

Petting zoos and kids' parties soon provided gigs for the pigs, goats and others, although travel hassles preclude doing much of that now, he said.

It's mingling with the guests that mostly keeps the menagerie busy today. And as word about the animals has spread, largely via Internet, visitors have traveled from as far away as Canada and California to stay at the handsomely furbished, four-room guest house a short trot from the Hawkinses' home.

"You can see the same animals at the zoo, but here you can get up close to them and feed them, scratch them or just watch," said Mrs. Hawkins.

Although her college-student children, Merrily and Davis, may be too old to enjoy animal yarns, Mrs. Hawkins is toying with the idea of writing juvenile literature, based on the antics of the fur-and-feather crowd at Ocoee Mist.

"That's what all the guests want to hear," she said matter-of-factly.

The curiosity isn't all one-sided however. Not long ago, a women's group convened at the resort and conducted a session on intuition, right in the barn. Although the llamas weren't confined to the space, 'all the girl llamas wanted to be involved and attended the meeting," Mrs. Hawkins said.

That suited Bruno, a male llama, just fine. As long as he can see his female counterparts, he's content. But he paces incessantly in his pen when they're out of sight. "We think he has OCD," Mr. Hawkins quipped.

Animals aren't the only attraction here.

A colonization area for shiitake mushrooms, for instance, spawns a lot of sightseer interest. Whatever fungi the goats don't get is sold to area restaurants -- a sideline that's replaced the Hawkinses' earlier "llama beans" venture, which entailed marketing llama manure to farmers and gardeners.

Yet it's the friendly beasts who really rule the roost on the farm and co-exist quite amicably, according to Mr. Hawkins. He said they'd like to add a zebra next, but may have to settle for a zedonk -- a zebra/donkey hybrid.

Either way, they'll have the animals covered from A to Z, since they already have an African gray parrot.