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VALLEY — When anyone from a good distance away asks someone from Chambers County where it is they usually use I-85 as a reference, explaining that it’s between Auburn and the Georgia line, and it’s where you start seeing the Kia-related plants and the big fireworks warehouses. There’s a new landmark that can be added to that group – a giant cross.

This widely recognized Christian symbol stands some 65 feet tall and 40 feet wide. It’s off the northbound lane on property owned by local cattleman Gaines Lanier.

It’s there due to some exemplary efforts on the part of Scott Willingham, owner of Scott’s Towing in LaFayette. It took some doing on his part to have it located there, but he doesn’t want any credit for himself. “A lot of people were involved in this,” he said at Monday’s meeting of the Valley Lions Club. “I want to thank everyone who had some part in it, and most of all I want to give God the glory.”

Willingham said the cross has a deeply personal meaning for him and the big cross off the Interstate gets across the message to anyone passing by that the salvation offered by having faith in Jesus Christ is freely available to anyone who truly seeks it.

Willingham told members of the club that his faith has saved him twice, once from meth addiction and another time from an illness.

“When I was addicted to meth I was going nowhere in my life,” he said. “I was in an out of jail and had lost everything. One day when looking out my cell window I told God that if he let me go home and get back to my life I would live right.”

That’s a promise he has kept. A second crisis involved an illness.

“A disease came over me, and I thought I was going to die,” he said. “I laid around the house for months and prayed to the Lord to heal me.”

While on his back he promised his three children he would get each one of them a special gift they could remember him by in case he passed on.

He got each one of them a movie car – a black Trans Am from “Smoky and the Bandit,” a Buford T. Justice sheriff’s car from the same movie and General Lee-style car from the Dukes of Hazzard.

Lots of people have seen those classic rides at local car shows.

Willingham said he loves to do things that are pleasing to God. “I love it when he uses me,” he said. “I love sharing my stories with others who have been healed by the grace of God.

In referencing a beloved Bible story, he said that Jonah had been swallowed by a whale and was there for three days. Being meth-addicted, he said, was like being in that whale’s belly for months.

“Some people won’t go to church, but you can witness to them with something like that big cross,” he said. “I saw what a great idea this was when I was on I-40 near the Tennessee-North Carolina line. There was a huge cross near a truck stop. A tent revival was going on nearby. The Lord put it on my heart to do something like that back home.”

Scott’s wife Jamie did some research on this and found out online that the big crosses going up on Interstates in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina is the work being done by a pastor named Jim Potter.

Most of Potter’s crosses are in the 60-foot-high range, but some reach heights of up to 120 feet. They are attention-getters and get across the message that good people are out there doing the Lord’s work.

Willingham got in touch with Potter and purchased one of his crosses and the blueprints that went with it.

Soon after that, Willingham received the core of the big cross. It came in five to six pieces. He kept it in storage for a time while figuring out where would be a good place to erect it.

He settled on the portion of I-85 south of Exit 77. In early 2022, he got in touch with Gaines Lanier to see if he would have it put up on some of his pasture land bordering the Interstate.

“I talked with my wife Sonia about it and she said ‘Why wouldn’t you?” Lanier said.

Lanier then went to see Willingham to see what he had and to decide exactly where it could go and how to go about putting it up.

He enlisted the help of David Zachry from Zachry Construction in taking on this project. The first step would be to get permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to erect it. This would be necessary due to the close proximity of the Lanett airport. That took several months before getting approval.

The next step was to get approval from the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to cut some trees, allowing for the cross to be plainly visible to southbound travelers.

“When we realized that was not going to work, we moved the site to the opposite side of I-85, just outside the northbound lane,” Lanier explained. “It would offer a much clearer view.”

It took several more weeks to do that. The next step was to assemble the pieces of the big cross and to have the framework for a metal skin to go over it. Taesan Global of LaGrange took care of that.

The project was then ready to have the design for a proper foundation. “David got Roy Mayo Jr. of the engineering firm Auburn Structural Design to do that for us,” Lanier said. “I then talked to Woody Harmon of Harmon Engineering in LaFayette to pour a concrete foundation for us. He let me know he would be glad to do it. His crew, along with David’s crew, did this following the design plans. It fit perfectly with the bottom plates of the cross.”

It was a work project everyone felt good about taking part in.

Some concrete trucks went to the site and this next step was done. “As it was finishing it up,” Lanier said, “Woody called everyone together. The group included people from different nationalities, but everybody there understood the significance of what we were doing. Everyone removed their hats, and we all stood close together as Woody said a prayer and read from the Bible. Many of the men there (including yours truly) had tears in their eyes as he read from First Corinthians 3; 8-11. The passage reads “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

“It was at this moment that I could see God’s hand all over this and knew we were doing the right thing,” Lanier said.

With the foundation ready, the next step was to get the 65-foot frame down the Interstate and to have it erected with two 17-foot wide wings.

“Who better than a bridge builder?” Lanier said. “I contacted Ike Scott of Scott Bridge in Opelika. I told him about what we were doing and he said, ‘You’re not gonna believe this, but I’ve been thinking about doing this myself, just have to find the right location. You can count us in on this.’ A crew was brought in, and we had the cross standing up.”

The next step was to decide on the color and texture of the metal skin.

“Who better than Peggy Jenkins of JP Design?” Lanier said.

She did a great job. It looks as if the huge cross is entirely made of poured concrete.

Getting it lighted at night was not that much of a problem. Alabama Power already had electricity there for an electric fence. It was the source for Brian Ivy of RBI Electric to get it done.

“Finally, Matt Williford of Landscaping M&C Land Services, LLC put the final touches on it with mulching the tree lines on the Interstate,” Lanier said. “This made for some great viewing.”

“We pray that the cross with touch other lives the way it has ours,” Lanier added. “We hope that it will give you comfort and lift you up. Most of all, remember that Christ died for all of us.”