Roll on Ben, Roll On: Ben Wheeler bounces back with fabulous food, live music, and really sharp knives Page: 2 of 4
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Flush with profits from his oil and gas business, Brooks and wife, Rese, moved from
Dallas "back home" to East Texas and began buying up local property three years ago. Some
$3 million later, they had acquired 40 acres in the heart of Ben Wheeler. To secure the town's
revival, they created a foundation that attracts quality artisans by offering $1 per month rent in
nine historic structures already restored or moved in.
"At first we just wanted to turn Moore's Store into a great place for food and music,"
"Mayor" Gremmels tells us while holding court on a bench in front of Moore's. "The good
feelings we got from local folks made me realize that bringing Ben Wheeler back had become
my personal calling."
Sallie and I spend the rest of this bright and sunny Saturday sauntering back and forth
across FM 279-careful to watch for the occasional tractor or pickup truck-to witness firsthand
a small town revival.
We waltz into Dan Harrison's knifesmith shop just as a regular customer recounts a
recent Colorado hunting trip. "Yep, and that guide couldn't believe your hunting knife, Dan. He
said it was the sharpest blade he'd ever used!"
"And probably the most beautiful," I think to myself, having followed Harrison's career for
years. The nationally-respected craftsman takes hardened D-2 tool steel and freehand grinds
custom blades for curvaceous kitchen, hunting, and collector knives. He then fits the blades into
exotic wood or horn handles. "In 60 years of work, this is my most unusual knife," he tells us,
pulling out an ornate nine-inch blade with a handle fashioned from a Wooly Mammoth tooth.
"My wife says that if this goes, she goes too!"
Artistic metalcraft, we decide, is something of a local specialty.
At Flying Fish Gallery, Randy and Sherri Martin transform cast-off metal parts into
fantastical creatures. Gears, springs, and rods become a graceful water bird. Rebar, plate
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Mallory, Randy. Roll on Ben, Roll On: Ben Wheeler bounces back with fabulous food, live music, and really sharp knives, text, July 7, 2011; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1923953/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.