Forty years ago in December 1985 Joe Sanders first lit the cross that shines over East Franklin. “I wanted people to think about the spirit of Christmas,” Sanders told the Press at the time.
The original cross was 24-feet high with a 12-foot cross post and lit with 24 150-watt bulbs. That first year it was suspended on a crane about 75 feet off the ground.
Ten years later Hurricane Opal swept through Macon County on Oct. 5, 1995, leaving the wooden cross in splinters. That year Sanders was worried about getting the cross back up in time for Christmas.
But Sanders said, “with good help, good weather and God’s help” he got the new cross built, bigger and stronger than the first one. The cross stands 60 feet tall. The upright steel post was once a crane boom, and the cross post is a 34-foot piece of awning support from an old gas station on Hwy. 441 South. Lighting the cross are 32 175-watt bulbs.
For four decades the Sanders family has lit the cross for three weeks at Christmas and Easter. “I hope in this cross that people can see, during Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and the crucifixion at Easter,” Sanders said in a previous interview with the Press.
A light sensor triggers the lights to turn on at dusk, which comes early on these December nights. For many years, Sanders and his children, Lauren and Preston, would turn on the lights the first night the cross was lit. Sanders’ wife, Dana, said they have continued the family tradition but now it is their grandchildren who help with the lighting duties.
“The community has always been so appreciative and supportive of it,” Sanders said. “It’s for the community.”
She said over the years they have enjoyed when people who live in the neighborhood tell them they “live at the foot of the cross.”