Steampunk Wagon on Wolf Creek Waterfalls

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Riversong Forest Retreat

Newell, Alabama

Restore your soul at the waterfront Steampunk, on 100 secluded acres of gorgeous forest with a view of Wolf Creek. Soak up sound of rushing water, bask in the hot tub, bake a pie in the pizza oven, frolic in the creek, or stroll down to the river/lake to swim, kayak, or fish. Hike Wolf Creek's well marked trails or pan for gold. The Steampunk has been gutted and restored with 1800s vintage flooring, steampunk accents, Van Gogh murals, and so much detail. No kids under the age of 12.

This hand-crafted steampunk renovation will be one of the most unique and interesting spaces you will have the pleasure of experiencing. We call the property "Riversong Forest Retreat" and we are currently working on a Hobbit House for short term rental on this stunning water-rich pristine 100 acres. We have our original build, the "Fairytale Cabin on Lake Wedowee" for rent about 1/2 mile away, on the same property.

Brought to you by the team from the famed Alpaca Treehouse in the Bamboo Forest, this beautiful character filled space was inspired by Van Gogh (the murals) and Steampunk style: the cool melding of industrial metal and Victorian stylings.

We encourage you to get out and explore these beautiful woods & waters!

THINGS TO DO:

-Star gazing. There is no light pollution, so check out the beauty of the Southern skies and billions of stars.

-Relax, unwind, let nature dip you in bliss

-Pan for gold in Wolf Creek. We leave you two gold pans to try your luck. This area used to have gold mines and the river and the creek have gold flakes and even nuggets.

-Fishing: Wolf creek & The Little Tallapoosa River are filled with crappie, brim, and bass.

-Hike to the Magical Beaver Pond--it's the driveway with the gate before you get to the Steampunk on the opposite side of Wolf Creek bridge. It's a 1/4 mile hike up. You can circle the pond and hike up the tiny brook that feeds it.

-Explore the Property: Dig for artifacts. There is treasure in the ground surrounding the cabin. We’ve found several valuable bottles worth hundreds of dollars. Finders keepers!

-Photography: So many opportunities.

-Wildlife Watching

-Kayak or canoe down the Little Tallapoosa/Lake Wedowee. Put in at Lamar Bridge, up river, and take out at our beach. Will need two cars and your kayaks.

-Swim in the river or deep holes in Wolf Creek

-Soak in the Hot Tub: We have the ultimate hot tub experience with our huge 16x16 foot porch overlooking the secluded forest

-Make a Pizza in the Gas Fired Oven: Make your own custom pie in our oven. All accessories provided.

-Take a Hike: We have 100 gorgeous acres to explore or hike down country road 532 for easier walking.

-Curl Up in our queen bed with a view. And read a book or watch some Netflix on your laptop. Our WIFI is fabulous.

-Check out the Muscogee/Creek Indian Trail Tree: Located down at the confluence where Wolf Creek meets the river/lake is a tree bent using a heavy stone to point the native peoples to special places of important. A confluence was a sacred spot for weddings/funerals.

-Dig Arrowheads and Native Pottery: This was once the home to the bustling thriving Native Peoples/Muscogee or Creek Indians. There are artifacts to be found. We found an arrowhead recently.

-Forest Bathing:: Spending time in nature, with its perfect balance of sights, sounds, smells, and peaceful environment, offers essential rewards for our highly stressed mental and physical selves. No wonder the ecotherapy practice of forest bathing, otherwise known as Shinrin-yoku, is gaining steam for all the right reasons. Don’t be confused; the exercise has nothing to do with soap or water. Instead, the name refers to the way participants fully immerse themselves in — and reconnect with — nature.

The interior of the home is filled with massive windows that open onto the forest and the melodic styling of the multiple small waterfalls traipsing down Wolf Creek. The floor are heart of pine, the ceiling is an amazing silver tiled decorative Victorian design. We have a custom kitchen, amazing Queen bed, and gorgeous accents.

Amenities: hot tub, gold pans, gas-fired pizza oven, air fryer, blackstone style griddle, Adirondack chairs, firepit, fridge, hot plate, microwave, toaster, AC/heat, designer walk in shower with glass tile featuring eucalyptus leaves and my favorite: the 1905 stove turned into a bath sink.

Sleeps 2: queen sized bed & futon.

This will be a stay and escape that you’ll never forget.

Steampunk Wagon BACKSTORY:

Kara found this glorious 100 property while searching for a beautiful escape retreat to build tiny dwellings. She hiked the property and found it to be pristine, magical, and the topography compelling. She was mesmerized by the Little Tallapoosa River (means “wise grandmother town”) that is part of Lake Wedowee (“Ancient Waters”) in Muscogee or Creek. She loved the burbling, laughing, dancing sounds of Wolf Creek and then discovered the natural springs feeding into Wolf Creek.

The more she looked, the more she discovered. There is evidence of old moonshine stills on the natural springs. There are evident, left-over piled stones, signaling the presence of old buildings and barns. Kara pulled aerial photos of the property from 1942 and the majority of the existing forest was planted with corn & cotton, except for the steep river bank. Additionally, the old timers in the region, conveyed that there was an old milling concern somewhere on the property.

Feel free to look around and dig for old bottles and treasure. We found several bottles worth hundreds of dollars. One was an old 1915 Hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottle, stamped Roanoke, AL on the bottom. Another was a cobalt blue Milk of Magnesia bottle. Very flashy. There are a couple of ancient trash piles and that’s likely to harbor treasure. Also, you can find bottles in Wolf Creek! Wear gloves to avoid poison ivy while forest digging (we learned that the hard way!)

This region was once called “Cambridge” and was a settler’s establishment. It seems that the settlers were from England, as we’ve found a lot of very crazed, very old English pottery, some stamped 1875. There was an old wooden post office, just down at the mouth of where 432 joins up with 532.

The Creek or Muskogee natives called this land home before the Trail of Tears, when they were driven off their land by the European settlers. Be sure to check out the Native Trail Marker Tree, down at the river’s edge, near the confluence (joining) of Wolf Creek & the river. These trees were intentionally bent, using a heavy stone, to use as living arrows signifying an important region or resource.

To get to the Little Tallapoosa River, go back down 532 (towards 432) and turn up the drive to the Fairytale Cabin (on the left) and keep going all the way down to the river.

There are hiking trails that we cut in and marked beginning down at the river.

A confluence is the joining of two moving bodies of water and the land spit would have been sacred grounds, used for wedding, funerals, and other special occasions.

Steampunk Wagon History:

Originally, when I purchased this gorgeous property, I had planned to begin with a treehouse down at the river’s edge. And that’s still in the plans.

But what happened was I nearly smacked into some amazing 1840s rock chimneys in the middle of a privet forest. I was delighted. What a wonderful treat the land had presented!

Thus began the first dwelling on the Riversong Forest Retreat!: The Fairytale Cabin at Lake Wedowee!

It took us 14 months to build, working two days a week. And we finished it and people have been coming to stay from all over the East Coast (and Europe!) and I could not be more grateful!

Back to the Steampunk:

When we purchased the 48 acres that attaches to the property that the Fairytale is located on, it had a very rough 1963 vintage singlewide trailer on the property, perched over glorious Wolf Creek and her many small waterfalls.

The trailer was in rough shape: it was leaking, infested by woodland creatures, and beyond dated. It needed some love.

And so we gave her love. We started by gutting her down to the studs: floor, walls, and celling. And then beefed her up with new framing and furring. Added spines to the ceilings and true framing for the new windows and walls. We ripped out all of the old insulation, electrical, plumbing, flooring, subflooring where rotted.

We started from scratch with a new gabled roof, huge 16x16 foot porch, new electrical, plumbing, hot water heater, water filter, mini split, new insulation. We added a firepit (Christopher built from indigenous rocks from other old historic chimney that collapsed.

We replaced some missing metal, rebuilt the sub floor, replaced all of the old windows, added some cladding and structure to the foundation area.

We had a wonderful team working on this project and I’m forever grateful for their hard work: Terry Rutlege, his son Christopher Rutledge, Patty LaHaie, Doc Wade, and me (Kara). And we had some subs do the floors, cabinets, and counters.

What is Steampunk?

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American frontier, where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. (Wikipedia)

Why Steampunk? No real reason except that I love Victorian everything and also love industrial. Since we were beginning with a metal building that got my creative juices flowing. Lots of metal in steampunk. We were using Victorian floors, so decided to take up the theme. Then came the idea to paint a mural on the exterior and I love Vincent Van Gogh. My cat (with one ear) is even named Vincent Van Meogh.

The more I researched Steampunk, the more fun I had with the finishes.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterized by bold colors and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37.[5] During his lifetime, only one of van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold. (Wikipedia)

1800s Flooring: The flooring is late 1800s heart of pine flooring that we reclaimed from a huge Victorian mansion in Bowden, GA that was torn down. We used the same wood for wainscotting on the walls, along with the rusty barn tin.

Front Door: This hefty French door I personally salvaged from an 1860s mansion in downtown Atlanta. It came from a huge gorgeous home that was being torn down in the Olde Fourth Ward

Bathroom Door & Owner’s Storage Closet: These old Victorian doors are super hefty and are circa 1800s. They are heart of pine and I salvaged from from and old house in Atlanta that was being demolished. Their door hardware is also 130 year hardware from a Decatur home and very ornate.

The Porch Ceiling & Rusty Wainscoting: This is old rustic rusted barn roofing. I love the patina and testament of time. The metal came from old farms around Georgia and Alabama.

The Garden: I found the original settler’s garden in the power cut back behind the Fairytale cabin. I dug up the original vintage plants. We have rose vervain, mullein (its flowers and leaves used to treat respiratory infections), garlic, jonquils, and wild roses. I added some gardenias, cannas, irises, etc to the mix.

Bath Room: My favorite part of the bathroom is the stove/sink. This is a 1900 vintage stove I found at a local antique store. The guys gutted it and removed the back and the burners. We plumbed it, topped it with quartzite (a marble/granite hybrid natural stone) and topped it with a hand-carved black granite sink and waterfall faucet.

Kitchen: The cabinets are custom and we distressed them to have them match the other vintage finishes. The granite has winking blue flecks of opals embedded in the stone.

Peninsula: The white oak peninsula was a server and was made in the 1910-20s in the Craftsman style. I took off the mirrored top to use as kitchen shelves. Since it only had one shelf, we took the oak top off of the server and cut it to fashion another shelf.

The live edge shelf in the kitchen was part of a Bowden barn we salvaged. It was built in the late 1800s.

Wolf Creek: Wolf Creek is my favorite part of this entire property. I love it more than even the river. It bisects my 100 acres and you can hike along it all the way to the river. The small waterfalls along the creek sing their forest song and that sound is the most soul soothing sound ever, maybe rivaled only by the ocean waves crashing.

Magical Beaver Pond: To get to the pond, you can wade across the creek and then hike along the creek going to the right. If you don’t want to cross the creek, you can go back out the driveway, hike down 532 towards 432, and take a right at the first drive. You’ll see a metal gate. Hike up the drive about ¼ mile and you’ll get to the Magical Beaver Pond. We stocked it with edible fish in spring 2024 (catfish and brim) and there were already fish in the pond. Feel free to catch and eat.

Before I bought this acreage, I hiked to this pond and it was leaking and so it was more of a glorified mud flat. Buying this property took a good bit of time and when I finally went under contract, I went back to the pond to find that a beaver had shown up and fixed the pond and it was full and glorious. Hence why I call it The Magical Beaver Pond. See if you can find the tiny painted beaver in the mural.

Mural: Painting the mural took me a good bit of time. I began with a Van Gogh theme and a starry night inspiration. My friends Martha Baker and Patty LaHaie helped a good bit. Martha painted a tiny painter person in the mural. I added a magical beaver and a large llama (I have them in Atlanta).

God is in the Details (or so they say): We are all about the details. Some of them:

• The bed headboard is an old Chevy tailgate that I found at a yardsale.

• The steampunk clock was a handmade Etsy purchase.

• The killer Frankenstein switches are also handmade Etsy finds.

• The mahogany (VERY OLD) barometer was a gift from a friend. It doesn’t work, but it’s a really cool piece.

• The reproduction oil paintings in the kitchen were a find at an antique store and they are very old. The original artist painted them during the Italian Renaissance. These repros are also Italian.

• The ceiling tiles were installed by me & and my handywoman friend Patty in two days.

• The steampunk knobs are mostly all different. I found them on etsy.

• The bathroom copper towel bar was made by an etsy artist.

• The firepit was built by Christopher Rutledge (a talented young mason). He used the rocks salvaged from a collapsed chimney up on the ridge. You can hike up there to see the other vintage chimney still standing

• The gravel road will take you up to a clearing, on the left. This is the future site of the Grain Bin Silo Cabin.

Amenities includes kayaking, fishing, exploring, river sports (bring your water toys), Wolf Creek swimming holes, natural springs, pan for gold in the creek, hot tub, wood-fired pizza oven, Blackstone griddle, sandy beach at the river’s edge. Refresh yourself in this absolutely unique and luxurious nature retreat!

Sleeps 2. No pets. Kids 12 & over welcome.

Photos by Joy Cannis Photography

Our Reviews:

It was Hundred percent more than we expected.Real private.A lot to see explore fishing great.The flat grill was great for steaks breakfast.There pizza oven I wanna try next visit Hot tub perfect recessed in the deck.You can hear see waterfalls in the creek down the mountain from thedeck and fire pit.We ate pound chocolate marshmallows at night around the fire.Seen several Bucks & armadillo was playing in the woods.They literally had everything except 2 kitchen sinks.You will not be disappointed.Will definitely be back during warmer weather to soak in creek. It’s one them places you’ll be back to visit.Can’t wait to stay in treehouse in Atlanta location.

-Jason

This is my third time staying at the Steampunk, and I definitely plan to return. It is small but well stocked with all necessities for a relaxing getaway. The area is peaceful, private, serene, and full of places to explore or just hang out, unwind, and relax. I made my own pizza this time and enjoyed relaxing to the sounds of the creek and beauty of the stars on a clear night. Make sure you follow the directions as GPS is not very reliable in the area, but Kara and Kate have amazing satellite WiFi, which is rare in the area. There are plenty of fun places to explore in the surrounding area, and I am looking forward to coming back this summer to explore the creek and river. I highly recommend!

-Malanda

This was my 2nd visit to Starry Steampunk, and I plan to return again! The place is peaceful, relaxing, private, and surrounded by beautiful outdoor spaces. I love the fire pit and hot tub at night with the sounds of the creek, and the star gazing on a clear night is spectacular. It is small but has all the essentials and is squeaky clean! Kara is a very responsive and helpful host with excellent and quick communication. She has other rentals and a build in process on my list to visit in the future, and I plan to return this summer to explore the creek and river. The area is very clean, safe, and serene, and downtown Wedowee and Lake Wedowee are a short drive away. Make sure you follow the directions to get there because GPS will not help. I travel to the area often and highly recommend a visit here!

-Malanda

We loved this cool little place. Only thing was it was cold and 1st night we didn’t realize we needed to put the heat on turbo to help make the place warmer. We followed the directions they gave us to come in and we also had our Waze running and it also brought us to the right spot. Wishing we’d had more time to explore the property cause I’m sure we’d enjoyed it. We came to go hunting elsewhere but found this little gem for relaxing & rest.

-Angie

We loved bringing in the new year at this cabin! Private, peaceful, and beautiful. The hosts were kind and provided helpful instructions, and you can tell how much care they have put into this place. Would definitely recommend!

-Stevie

This place was one of the best finds I’ve been to recently. It was cozy, comfortable, secluded, peaceful, and very relaxing. Kara was an extremely responsive and friendly host. The hot tub on the porch with the sounds of the creek was just what the doctor ordered. The Wi-Fi was great, which is a rarity in the area. I will definitely stay here again. Follow the online directions as GPS in the area is not dependable.

-Malanda

We really enjoyed our quiet getaway. Serene environment, but good food and civilization close enough if we wanted them! My husband and I relaxed in the hot tub, walked down to play in the creek, went to view the lake, and relaxed by the fire pit in the evening. A very relaxing unplugged stay!

-Jon Marie

If you are looking for complete relaxation away from the hustle and bustle of the city, then this is your place!! I have not relaxed this hardcore in years! It was like a complete reset for my body, mind and soul! I work in software and from home so I never get to escape the screens and electronics. Well this is exactly what I did while I was there! The home is beautiful and beautifully decorated! The hot tub was my oasis for relaxation! The bed was super comfy and cozy! You’ll never want to leave this place once you get there!! Kara was super responsive and helpful! You don’t even need to hit her googling recommendations because she has them all laid out for you in the bio! Check out Boondocks BQQ and Creamery while you’re there! Or bake a pizza like we did in the outdoor pizza oven! 20 out 10 recommend this airbnb to anyone!!!

-Bradley

This was beyond one of the best experiences my fiance and I have ever had, beautiful and intimate getaway. It was like staying in a steampunk art exhibit. Would definitely recommend any and everyone stay here....thank you Kate!!!

-Destiny

Loved our stay and enjoyed the tranquility of the property! Amazing hot tub and great walking trails. Easy to find IF you follow the written out step by step instructions!!

-Alisha

We enjoyed our weekend stay , the host made sure to give clear instructions to get their place. FOLLOW THEIR INSTRUCTIONS AND DO NOT FOLLOW GPS.
Loved the hot tub , and the relaxing sounds of the creek , they even provide you with gold pans to find gold. I can’t think of another host that would offer you to explore their own property.
We will definitely be back to this hidden gem. 💎 do your self a favor and book this place for a nice get away

-Dana

We were the 1st to stay in this beautiful little rustic cabin. We travelled 4 hours to arrive at the most beautiful little place in the woods. We were pleased with the amount of detail that was put into restoring this old place. From the barn roofing, to the mansion doors from the 1800s they left no detail untouched. We will most certainly be returning. I can't wait to visit again! Kara went above and beyond to make sure our stay was perfection. Very friendly. Very kind. Very sweet. Great location in the middle of nowhere! The creek is healing. The quartz is abundant. It's magical!

-Marianne

Had a fantastic stay! Kara was so responsive, gave excellent directions and the place was immaculate! The most peaceful spot I have been in a long time. A hidden gem! Exactly what I was looking for.

-Brian

An absolute pleasure staying here. The textbook definition of a peaceful retreat and with the bonus of fantastic hosts. I look forward to coming back!

-Josh

Such an amazing and peaceful stay. So grateful to have been able to stay there.

-Alexandria

Very cute cozy stay!

-Abby

Lovely place!

-Josiah