OCTOBER 2018
BUILT IN THE BLUEGRASS Toyota Celebrates 30 Years PLUS
The McLain Family Band Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum Daniel Boone, Part I Haunting Histories
Display until 11/14/2018
www.kentuckymonthly.com
In This Issue 28
14 Featured Fare
Departments 2 Kentucky Kwiz 4 Mag on the Move 8 Across Kentucky 9 Oddities at the Museum Headley-Whitney Museum of Art 10 Cooking 44 Off the Shelf 46 Field Notes 47 Gardening 48 Calendar
14 Driving Forward
Georgetown has always been a city with a compelling past, but since Toyota Motor Manufacturing arrived in 1986, it has become a city with an unlimited future.
22 Man of the Wilderness: Daniel Boone
Part I of a two-part series on the iconic frontiersman.
28 Bigger and Better
The revamped Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum pays homage to the music’s past and celebrates its future
30 A Family That Plays Together
The McLain Family Band celebrates a half-century of taking traditional bluegrass music to the world
34 Jet Set Thoroughbreds
Voices 3 Readers Write 41 Past Tense/ Present Tense 56 Vested Interest
Thoroughbred owners and trainers go to great lengths to fly their expensive equines to the Breeders’ Cup
38 A Spirited Display
A hunt for haunts inspires the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center’s newest exhibit
ON THE COVER
2018 Toyota Camry coming off the line
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KENTUCKY
Kwiz
Test your knowledge of our beloved Commonwealth. To find out how you fared, see the bottom of Vested Interest or take the Kwiz online at kentuckymonthly.com. 1. In which county can you drive down a road with the Ohio River visible on both sides of your car without even turning around? A. Carroll B. Fulton
7. Green County’s Junius George Groves, a former slave turned sharecropper who taught himself to read and write, rose to become Edwardsville, Kansas’ wealthiest farmer. In one year, he brought 721,000 bushels of his preferred crop to market and had a net worth of $300,000 by 1915, earning him which moniker? A. Potato King of the World B. The Prince of Pistachios C. The Beet King 8. Campbellsville Industries is the oldest and largest U.S. manufacturer of what?
C. Meade 2. The lowest elevational point in Kentucky is in which county? A. Carroll
A. Statuary crosses B. Pews and benches C. Steeples and towers
B. Fulton C. Meade 3. Murphy’s Pond, Kentucky’s largest remaining bald cypress swamp, is located where? A. Murphy’s Woods B. Hickman County C. Murphy County 4. Which pair of western Kentucky brothers both played in the National Basketball Association but reached the pros by playing at the Commonwealth’s rival institutions— the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville? A. Phil and Don Everly
9. Ezra Allen Miner, also known as Bill Miner, George Anderson, the Gentleman Robber, the Gentleman Bandit or the Grey Fox, was a stagecoach and train robber who reputedly coined which phrase? A. “Reach for the sky” B. “Hands up” C. “Caught ya lookin’ ” 10. Teamed up with Bill Anderson, which Hazard-born singer reached No. 1 with the song “Sometimes” in 1976? A. Nancy Turner B. Mary Lou Boal C. Mary Lou Turner
B. Kenny and Phil Rollins C. Rodney and Scooter McCray 5. Owensboro photographer Moneta Sleet Jr., best known for his photograph of Coretta Scott King at her husband’s funeral, was the first African American to win which prize for journalism? B. Knight-Ridder Prize
Editorial PATRICIA RANFT, Associate Editor DEBORAH KOHL KREMER, Assistant Editor MADELYNN COLDIRON and TED SLOAN, Contributing Editors JESSICA PATTON, Art Director CAIT A. SMITH, Copy Editor Senior Kentributors JACKIE HOLLENKAMP BENTLEY, ANNETTE CABLE, BILL ELLIS, STEVE FLAIRTY, GARY GARTH, RACHAEL GUADAGNI, JESSE HENDRIX-INMAN, KRISTY ROBINSON HORINE, ABBY LAUB, LINDSEY McCLAVE, WALT REICHERT, GARY P. WEST
Business and Circulation BARBARA KAY VEST, Business Manager JOCELYN ROPER, Circulation Specialist
Advertising JULIE MOORE, Senior Account Executive LARA FANNIN, Account Executive MIKE LACEY, Account Executive JOHN LASWELL, Account Executive For advertising information, call (888) 329-0053 or (502) 227-0053 KENTUCKY MONTHLY (ISSN 1542-0507) is published 10 times per year (monthly with combined December/ January and June/July issues) for $20 per year by Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Frankfort, KY and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KENTUCKY MONTHLY, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559. Vested Interest Publications: Stephen M. Vest, president; Patricia Ranft, vice president; Barbara Kay Vest, secretary/treasurer. Board of directors: James W. Adams Jr., Dr. Gene Burch, Kim Butterweck, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Bruce and Peggy Dungan, Mary and Michael Embry, Wayne Gaunce, Frank Martin, Lori Hahn, Thomas L. Hall, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Dr. A. Bennett Jenson, Walter B. Norris, Kasia Pater, Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Kelli Schreiber, Christopher E. and Marie Shake, Kendall Carr Shelton, Ted M. Sloan and Marjorie D. Vest.
www.kentuckymonthly.com (888) 329-0053 P.O. Box 559 100 Consumer Lane Frankfort, KY 40601
6. Abraham Lincoln won his first court case at the Pate House in which western Kentucky city? A. Lewisport B. Cloverport Moneta Sleet Jr.
This issue dedicated to the memory of John Asher (1955-2018) and Leslie Harrison Rogers (1946-2018) K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
STEPHEN M. VEST, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Kentucky Monthly is printed and distributed by Publishers Press, Lebanon Junction, Ky.
C. Pulitzer Prize
2
© 2018, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty One, Issue 8, October 2018
Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.
A. Nobel Prize
C. Hawesville
Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth
VOICES ANNIVERSARY CONGRATULATIONS As Kentucky Monthly celebrates its 20th anniversary (September issue), a milestone to be sure, my wife Susie and I find ourselves having completed 20 years in the presidency at Centre College. I will let others comment on my effectiveness during these past two decades, but I can say without hesitation that Kentucky has been wellserved by the monthly magazine that bears its name. Good leaders, I believe, are always asking the question, “Am I doing what I might to communicate, to be transparent, to ‘tell the story’ of the organization I represent?” You may be sure that I ask that question of myself daily—sometimes by the hour. It strikes me that Kentucky Monthly has played a pivotal role in telling the story of this Commonwealth. Kentucky was a very good place in 1998, and it is
a far better place in 2018. I judge that Kentucky Monthly has contributed mightily to that progress. Susie joins me in offering our congratulations on a job well done. We wish you 20 more years, though I am quick to add that we will not be stickin’ ’round for 20 more. Centre College continues to be a remarkable place of the highest achievement that is widely recognized around the nation. Moreover, it remains a place of high opportunity, where we make it possible for smart, determined, young “thinker-doers” from Kentucky and around the globe to find their way here, regardless of their capacity to pay, and prepare themselves to be citizenleaders on a global level. I believe that
Readers Write Centre makes Kentucky an ever finer place, and we count it a privilege to play that role. And we count it an honor to serve at Centre alongside the college’s dedicated trustees, alums, faculty, staff and students. John A. Roush, Centre College president INTRIGUING SAYINGS Regarding Bill Ellis’ piece on old sayings (September issue, page 40), my late Scottish mother-in-law, Babs Lawrie, after a vacation or other highliving event always said “back to old clothes and porridge.” I miss her. Karen J. Lawrie, Wayzata, Minn., but originally from Springfield, Kentucky
Counties featured in this issue n
We Love to Hear from You! Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers. Email us your comments at editor@kentuckymonthly. com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.
“I know excellence. I chose excellence. I chose Ephraim McDowell.” Joe B. Hall, a coach with 373 wins and a national championship knows a little something about teamwork, which might explain why he chose Danville’s Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center. As a hospital nationally recognized for excellence, nobody works harder than our team to give you the very best care. And, we’re known all around Danville for treating everyone with a personal touch. At Ephraim McDowell, we help our patients enjoy victories every single day.
emhealth.org
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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MAG
ON THE
MOVE
Even when you’re far away, you can take the spirit of your Kentucky home with you. And when you do, we want to see it! Take a copy of the magazine with you and get snapping. Send your high-resolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly.com.
A Family Aloha
Hawaii This family ventured to the island of Oahu, Hawaii, for a 10-day visit. From left, Jenny, Chris, Michael and Robbie Renaud of Versailles; and Frankfort residents Pam Carpenter; Emma, Stephanie and Maya Stone; and David Carpenter.
Barry and Lynn Cohen West Virginia
The Haines Family Romania
Ben Martin Niagara Falls
The Ashland couple are pictured at the birthplace of noted author Pearl S. Buck in Hillsboro, West Virginia.
Barb and Ed Haines of Louisville, along with granddaughter Sarah, traveled with to the Transylvanian town of Sigshoara, Romania, birthplace of the infamous Vlad Dracul.
The Versailles resident is pictured aboard the Maid of the Mist near Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which he visited with his wife, Jessica.
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Delinda and Eddy McDermott Alaska
Ray Helminiak Peru
The McDermotts, who hail from Kevil (Ballard County), are seen here above the Arctic Circle at Ft. Yukon, Alaska, while visiting a village on the northern apex of the Yukon River.
The Fort Thomas resident traveled to Cieneguilla, Peru, on a mission trip and took along some fine reading material.
Charlie Kendell and Emily Henderson Pikeville Kentucky Hospital Association consultants Charlie of Frankfort and Emily of Shelbyville shared a business lunch at Pikeville’s Blue Raven Restaurant.
October 20th 7:30pm - 9:00pm Admission: $10 per individual Children 12 and under are FREE
Enjoy tall tales and other stories from the American frontier told in front of a 200-year old barn that lies at the heart of a 300-acre historic homestead. Popular Corn Island Storytelling returns to Blackacre just in time for Halloween! Terry Chambers, author of Rose Island takes the stage Saturday with a retelling of local legends surrounding Louisville, Utica, and the Falls of the Ohio. ThomasFreese shares several stories from his book Ghosts, Spirits and Angels: True Tales from Kentucky and Beyond. Spooky evening features additional storytellers Octavia Sexton, author Bob Thompson, host of the radio series Kentucky Home Front, and Bill Clark. Tickets available BlackacreConservancy.Org or louisvilletickets.com/events/corn-island-storytelling
3200 Tucker Station Road
(502) 266-9802 blackacreconservancy.org O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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Lee Smith Italy
David and Patty Sellers Colorado
Lee, a former Lebanon resident, is pictured in Assisi. She traveled to Italy with Art Smith, who lives in Springfield.
The couple, from Robards (Henderson County), attended the annual John Denver Celebration in Aspen and paid tribute to the late singer at the John Denver Sanctuary.
Leslie Russell and 11 Great Friends
Arizona Leslie, lifelong Louisville resident, is pictured in the center holding the magazine. She traveled to Sedona, Arizona, with friends who all either live in Louisville or lived there in the past. This photo was taken on a side trip to the Grand Canyon.
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Eileen and John “Tooter” Calvert The Alamo The Maysville residents paid a visit to the historical site in San Antonio, Texas.
Cherrie and Allen Fincham Greece
Mike and Kim Ash Spain
The Richmond residents are pictured with a new friend at the windmills on Mykonos Island, Greece. The couple toured Italy for two weeks before departing on a seven-day cruise to the Greek Islands.
The Crestwood couple, who toured Europe, are pictured on board a ship departing from Barcelona.
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY OPERA THEATRE
Sung in English, French and German with English Supertitles
Season 2018-2019
Sung in Italian with English Supertitles
Music by Kevin Puts Libretto by Mark Campbell
Librettists Luigi Illica, Giuseppe Giacosa
November 9-11, 2018
March 1-3, 2019
June 7-16, 2019
SingletaryCenter.com • 859.257. 4929
Celebrating 100 Years
O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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BRIEFS
Across Kentucky
B I R T H DAYS
BLASTING OFF What better place to perform a potentially groundbreaking experiment than aboard the International Space Station? That is what’s in store for this year’s Craft Academy’s Blast Off winners: team cadets Emma Stone, from Maysville Academy, Maysville; Rachel Kool, from Campbell County High School, Alexandria; Emma Grooms, from Akron, Ohio. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Morehead State University was opened in 2015 to nurture academically gifted juniors and seniors. Blast Off is the academy’s five-day residential camp focused on exposing students to exomedicine, a pathway to medical innovation that is studied in a zero-gravity environment. The team cadets’ project focuses on using a harmless form of E. coli bacteria as a possible steppingstone toward producing human growth hormone. The trio will travel to NASA in November to see their experiment blast off and will see their From left, Rachel Kool, Emma Grooms experiment through a video feed in January 2019. and Emma Stone
FAMED TRAINER HONORED The Breeders’ Cup, which presents Thoroughbred racing’s year-end championships, will honor trainer D. Wayne Lukas with the Breeders’ Cup Sports and Racing Excellence Award on Oct. 31 at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville. The award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in sports and Thoroughbred racing. The reception will include the unveiling of a new exhibit at the museum. “Guests attending will have the first chance to explore the D. Wayne Lukas exhibit that is a highlight of our multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation project,” said Kentucky Derby Museum President and CEO Patrick Armstrong. This exhibit will showcase Lukas’ career, which includes four Kentucky Derby wins; six consecutive Triple Crown wins; 24 Eclipse Award-winning horses, including three Horses of the Year; and four Eclipse Awards. The award presentation and exhibit unveiling are part of the festivities leading up to the 2018 Breeders’ Cup World Championships Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
AN AMERICAN LEGACY
“Each painting has a story,” says Larry Richardson—and so does each painter. Born and raised in Christian County, Richardson encountered the nearby Cumberland River and its surrounding landscape, teeming with wildlife, at a young age. Though he now calls Clarksville, Tennessee home, neither Richardson nor the well of his inspiration have strayed far from Kentucky. A retired author, artist and environmental conservationist, Richardson possesses a dedication to nature that culminated in his ongoing project: “Lake Cumberland Mallards” “Cumberland River—An American Legacy,” a 31-painting (and counting) series featuring Kentucky’s southernmost river. Two of his paintings, “Lake Cumberland Mallards” and “Bachelor Beau,” have been accepted for the 2018 Kentucky National Wildlife Art Exhibition in Henderson. The exhibition’s opening reception takes place Oct. 20 at Louisville’s Preston Arts Center. To view Richardson’s Cumberland River gallery, visit cumberlandriverartist.com. For more information about the Kentucky National Wildlife Art Exhibition, visit ohiovalleyart.org. 8
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
— Cait A. Smith
3 Kevin Richardson (1971), Lexingtonborn singer best known for his stint with the Backstreet Boys 5 Ed McClanahan (1932), Brooksvilleborn author best known for his novel Kevin Richardson The Natural Man 5 Kevin Olusola (1988), beatboxer, musician from Owensboro 5 Ann-Blair Thornton (1989), Miss Kentucky 2011 from Bowling Green 9 Joe Survant (1942), past Kentucky poet laureate and English professor at Western Kentucky University 12 Josh Hutcherson (1992), Union-born actor best known for his roles in The Hunger Games 13 Pat Day (1953), retired Hall of Fame and four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey 17 Mark Maynard (1957), Ashlandbased managing editor of Kentucky Today 23 Dwight Yoakam (1956), Pikevilleborn country music singer/songwriter and actor 26 Mallory Ervin Mark Maynard (1985), Miss Kentucky 2009 from Morganfield 23 Matt Shultz (1983) Bowling Greenraised lead singer of the rock band Cage the Elephant 27 Mary T. Meagher Plant (1965), Louisville-born gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer and former world record holder in the butterfly 28 Annie Potts (1952), Franklin-raised actress currently starring in the series Young Sheldon 28 Telma Hopkins (1948), Louisvilleborn singer/actress who was a member of Tony Orlando and Dawn and starred in Bosom Buddies and Gimme a Break! 29 Sonny Osborne (1937), Hyden-born Bluegrass singer and five-string banjo player and member Telma Hopkins of the Osborne Brothers
CULTURE
Oddities
ODDITIES at the
MUSEUM The Headley-Whitney Museum of Art
I
n the heart of Lexington horse country is an unexpected treasure, a small art museum that specializes in jeweled trinkets known as bibelots. The Headley-Whitney Museum of Art is the culmination of works by George Headley, a jewelry designer who hit the big time in the 1940s when he opened a jewelry store inside the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles. He attracted the attention of movie stars Judy Garland, The Marx Brothers and Joan Crawford, to name a few. In the 1950s, he returned to his family farm in Lexington, where he continued to design both jewelry and bibelots. In 1968, Headley and his wife, Barbara Whitney, daughter of sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, opened the Headley-Whitney Museum of Art in some buildings on their property off Old Frankfort Pike. In 1994, the museum was burglarized, and the thieves got away with 103 pieces of jewelry and artwork valued at $1.6 million. And that brings us to this month’s Oddity at the Museum. The photos at right show a bibelot by George Headley both before, top, and after the burglary. “This piece of rare Brazilian agate, enhanced with moonstones, is the remaining part of George Headley’s ‘Apollo XI’ bibelot done to commemorate the moon landing,” said Amy Gundrum Greene, director and curator. “The three gold astronauts and American flag that were once part of this bibelot were stolen. You can see the tiny gold footprints and the small hole where the astronauts and American flag were attached.” Although the thieves were caught a few years later, most of the collection was never recovered. Today, the museum comprises several buildings from the original farm. The collection still includes around 30 original pieces of Headley’s work, along with a dollhouse exhibit. One of the buildings, known as the Shell Grotto, is a former garage. Headley and his artistic vision lovingly adorned the interior with seashells. Most walls are accented with shells glued directly to them, and all the furniture pieces are trimmed with shells. The grotto is quirky and an enjoyable peek into the artist’s lighter side. “There is always something new to see here,” Greene said. “We are a Smithsonian affiliate, which allows us to change exhibits several times a year. You never know what you will find and what will appeal to you.”
If You Go: Headley-Whitney Museum of Art 4435 Old Frankfort Pike Lexington, (859) 255-6653 headley-whitney.org Open Wednesday - Sunday
— Deborah Kohl Kremer O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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FOOD
Cooking
HARVEST’S
BOUNTY 10
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risp fall mornings with just a nip in the air are enough for us to have traded our sandals for boots and swapped our tank tops for cozy sweaters. Summer fun has faded, and we are enjoying crackling fire pits, college football and pumpkin patches. Fall flavors bring cozy comfort to the table, wherever that table may be: by the fire, tailgating or even at the end of a hayride. — Janine Washle
Pumpkin Chicken Chili 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 pound ground chicken 1 cup chopped onion 2 15-ounce cans of either garbanzo, navy or white beans, rinsed and drained 2 cups chicken broth 2 4- or 5-ounce cans chopped green chilies, undrained 2 cups pumpkin puree (from a can) 1 tablespoon chili powder, dark or light 2 teaspoons chipotle powder, optional 1½ teaspoons garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano ½ teaspoon black pepper ¼ teaspoon red pepper Garnishes: Sour cream Minced green onions Crushed tortilla chips Shredded cheddar cheese
1. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir in ground chicken, breaking it up into bite-size chunks. 2. Add onion, and give everything a stir to combine. Cook until chicken is no longer pink and onions are translucent, possibly taking on a little brown color, too. 3. Add beans, broth, chilies, pumpkin puree, chili powder, chipotle powder, garlic powder, salt, cumin, oregano, black pepper and red pepper. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, then cook uncovered for 30 minutes. Add more chicken broth if chili starts getting dry. You can crush some of the beans against the sides of the pan for a thicker sauce. 4. To serve, ladle chili into bowls. Top with desired garnishes. Serve hot. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator. Freezes well.
Photos by Jesse Hendrix-Inman. Recipes provided by Janine Washle of CloverFields Farm and Kitchen and prepared at Sullivan University by Ann Currie.
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FOOD
Cooking
Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potato Bites 4 medium sweet potatoes, washed 1/3 cup unsalted butter ½ cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons water ¾ teaspoon sea salt ¼ cup sour cream ½ teaspoon smoked paprika ¼ cup thinly sliced scallions ½ cup crumbled crispy bacon 1. Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake at 425 degrees for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in center pierces through with just slight resistance. Cool until easy enough to handle. Alternatively, wash sweet potatoes and prick each in several places. Place in an air fryer and bake at 390 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until center gives slight resistance when pierced. 2. Cut each sweet potato in half length-wise. Scoop out center of potatoes, leaving a generous ¼-inch shell. Save scooped-out centers for another meal. Cut each shell half into quarters. 3. Turn oven to broil. Combine together butter, sugar, water and salt in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Once sugar has melted and mixture is bubbling, turn off heat. Place half of the sweet potatoes in pan,
turning each to coat in melted mixture. Repeat with remainder. 4. Place sweet potato skins potato side up on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Spoon any leftover sugar mixture onto each piece. Place baking sheet under broiler for 7-8 minutes, or until sugar is bubbling. Remove baking sheet from oven. Flip each skin over and broil again for another 7-8 minutes. Flip one more time and broil an additional 5 minutes. 5. Cool until easy to handle. Place sweet potato skins on a platter. Stir together sour cream and paprika. Drizzle over all with a spoon, or put in a squeeze bottle and drizzle over. Sprinkle with scallions and bacon. Best served the same day.
Warm and Spicy Chorizo Queso ½ pound uncooked chorizo sausage ½ cup chopped onion 3 tablespoons minced jalapeño pepper 1 tablespoon minced chipotle pepper with 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (sauce with the pepper) 1 large garlic clove, minced 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons cornstarch ½ cup water
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½ cup milk 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese ½ cup goat cheese (entire 4-ounce roll) ½ cup chopped tomatoes, patted dry ¼ cup chopped cilantro 1. In a medium skillet set over medium-high heat, cook chorizo sausage until no longer pink. Add onion to pan and cook until onion has softened, about 4 minutes. 2. Add jalapeño pepper, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce and garlic. Cook until garlic is fragrant, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. 3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Whisk in cornstarch. Cook for 3 minutes to remove starchy taste. 4. Whisk in water, then milk. Once smooth, add handfuls of cheddar cheese, whisking until sauce is smooth before adding the next. Finally, whisk in goat cheese. 5. Once mixture is smooth, stir in chorizo mixture. Taste, and adjust salt if necessary. Stir in tomatoes and cilantro. Keep warm in a chafing dish, small slow cooker or even an electric skillet. 6. Serve with tortilla chips, or fresh crunchy vegetables. Can make recipe up to three days ahead of time. Refrigerate leftovers.
Cinnamon Apple Dumplings 5 cups diced cooking apples (Granny Smith, Winesap or Honeycrisp) 1 cup granulated sugar 2½ cups water 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup cold lard, shortening or butter ½ cup whole milk (may not use all of it) Whipped cream (optional) Ice cream (optional) 1. Combine apples, sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium-size pot. Cover pot and place over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Reduce heat to low, remove cover and simmer until apples are just tender, about 10 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, prepare dumplings by combining flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. 3. Using a pastry cutter or two dinner knives, cut in lard until dry ingredients resemble coarse crumbs with a few pea-size lumps. Gradually add milk a little at a time in the center of the flour mixture. Lightly stir with a fork, pulling dry ingredients into the milk just until it becomes a shaggy dough. Discard any remaining milk and do not overmix. 4. To make eight dumplings: Dip a serving spoon into hot liquid, then scoop dough and drop into hot apple
mixture. Dip the spoon between each scoop so that dumplings don’t stick to the spoon. 5. Cover pot with a lid once all dumplings are added. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes; don’t peek or the dumplings will become gummy. Remove lid and flip dumplings over. Cover again and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Test a dumpling by cutting it in half. The cooked dough should be uniform in color with no hard centers. Taste a bite and make sure it is tender. If so, remove from heat. If the dumplings are not completely tender, simmer, covered, an additional 5-7 minutes. 6. To serve, spoon warm dumplings into bowls with a spoonful of sauce over top. Add whipped cream or ice cream if desired. 7. Best served the same day, but can be refrigerated. The dumplings will soak up most of the liquid overnight, so add a cup of apple juice or cider to make more sauce.
Pumpkin Spice Pudding Cakes Cake: 1½ cups all-purpose flour 1½ teaspoons baking powder 1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature ½ cup granulated sugar ¼ cup light brown sugar ½ cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix) 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup whole milk
Pudding: 1 cup light brown sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/8 teaspoon salt ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter 1¼ cups water 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray eight 8-ounce ramekins with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. 2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside. 3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a handheld mixer, beat together butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in pumpkin puree, egg and vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl. 4. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. Set aside. 5. To prepare pudding, whisk together brown sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, add butter, water and coffee powder. Heat over mediumhigh heat until butter is melted. Gradually whisk hot butter mixture into cornstarch mixture. 6. Place ramekins on a baking sheet to make for easy handling. Spoon ¼ cup cake batter into each ramekin. Divide pudding mixture over top of batter. 7. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until tops are puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before garnishing. 8. To garnish: Dollop whipped cream on top and sprinkle with a little pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate leftovers.
Garnish: Whipped cream Pumpkin pie spice O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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Founded in 1782, Georgetown has always been a city with a compelling past. Since Toyota Motor Manufacturing arrived, it has become a city with an unlimited future. By Deborah Kohl Kremer and Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley
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MEET THE NEW BOSS Thirty-three years ago, giant Japanese automaker Toyota selected a flat tract of farmland in rural Scott County as the site of its first manufacturing plant in North America. For the next couple of years, land was acquired, roads and infrastructure were completed, the massive factory was constructed, and more than 1,100 employees—90 percent of them Kentuckians—were hired and trained. All that paid off in May 1988, when the first car, a 1989 Toyota Camry, rolled off the line. With the opening of the $1.1 billion automobilemanufacturing complex, the city of Georgetown and the Bluegrass region of Kentucky were forever changed. Fast-forward to 2018, as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, also known as TMMK, is celebrating 30 years of producing cars. It employs more than 8,000 people, has produced more than 11 million cars and has invested more than $7 billion in the facilities. In this anniversary year, TMMK also is celebrating a new president. Growing up in rural Indiana, Susan Elkington would not have pictured herself running Toyota’s largest manufacturing plant in America, but today, at 47, that is where she is. Appointed last January, Elkington is the first woman to head the plant. “I never thought in my wildest dreams as a kid that I would be here today,” she said. “But if I can get here, there is nothing that any individual cannot do.” Armed with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Elkington began working at the Toyota plant in Princeton, Indiana in 1998. She moved up the ranks to vice president of engineering over the next 16 years before being invited to take on a new role at the company headquarters in Japan. “Prior to that, I had lived in the state of Indiana for all but one year of my life,” she said. Over the next three years, Elkington became the general manager of production control—the first woman to assume that role. The position was a global assignment in which she supported and visited more than 50 plants around the world. “I got to see so many cultures and what we can learn from each other,” she said. “When I study processes here, I think about how it is done in other countries.”
In January 2017, she was promoted to senior vice president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky. Just 12 months later, she became president. Elkington said the green space, pace of life and care that people have for one another in Kentucky remind her of growing up on a farm in Huntingburg, Indiana. “It is just so beautiful here,” she said. “It is very peaceful, and the people are so friendly.” While Scott County provides a tranquil, pastoral environment, the Lexington area supplies arts and entertainment. “I’ve become a foodie, so I love all the local restaurants, breweries and wineries,” she said. “They are so unique. You can’t just find that anywhere.” ••• Change has been a constant in Elkington’s professional life as she has moved up the corporate ladder. She embraces change and uses it to get more from people around her. “I don’t think anyone should accept what they are doing today as what they will do for the rest of their life,” she said. “I have learned how to challenge people and the organization so that we are not just fixing today’s problems but working strategically for Toyota and Kentucky for the next 30 years.” Elkington credited the great leaders she has worked with over the years with contributing to her own leadership style. “One of the blessings of working for Toyota is they hire people not just on their technical aptitude, but also with a heart to really care for the people they work with,” she said. “When you spend your work day with these people, they do become like family.” She believes listening is an important part of leading as well as making sure opinions are heard from different people. “And as a woman, growing up in a very male-dominated industry, sometimes your voice was not heard,” she said. “So, because I had those experiences, it has really strengthened that side of me.” Kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy meaning continuous improvement, is implemented throughout the Georgetown plant at every level. Suggestions by employees in any role are accepted and considered for ways to be more efficient, productive and thorough. In the past year, Elkington has rotated leaders to new positions—roles they never thought they would have.
Susan Elkington poses in a new Avalon just after it came off the assembly line in April 2018. O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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“Although it causes a little apprehension at the start, the result is they look at things with a whole different point of view,” she said. “It has been really good for everyone.” Elkington’s hope is to inspire girls and young women to go into the manufacturing sector and remove some of the misconceptions that factories are dark, dirty places. “It can’t possibly be dirty,” she explained. “Something as small as a hair on the aluminum used to make a car hood could cause an indentation that any customer could see. The same with painting: A speck of dust causes a bump in the finish, and with four layers of coatings, the bump just gets bigger.” ••• In her 30-year career with Toyota, Elkington has seen many changes. Employees learn a trade and can take their careers in many directions at the plant. TMMK’s innovations include technology that has resulted in robots performing some parts of the manufacturing job that do not need a human touch. For positions that could cause strain to muscles, the facility has incorporated exoskeleton vests, for example. This equipment helps support arm muscles when doing overhead tasks and gives an extra boost the workers are lifting something heavy. The changes that Elkington has seen over the years are fascinating, but some basics remain the same. “One thing that has never changed is the pride the team members have for the products we produce and the work that we do,” she said. “The state of Kentucky was the starting point for Toyota in North America. We call it the flagship. It is truly an American company, and our 8,000 employees have a combined 105,000 years of experience. So even after 30 years here, we are just at the beginning.”
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2019 Lexus ES 350
NEW MODELS WITH FAMILIAR NAMES Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky recently completed a massive overhaul of the Georgetown plant that will result in more efficient production practices. Likened to the way that athletes build their core strength to maximize their performance, Toyota New Global Architecture is a way to improve car core components, allowing them to accentuate each model’s unique features. Toyota has assumed the challenge of “making ever-better cars” and has broken down the core components that are incorporated into every model: n n n n n
Driving quality Comfort User-friendliness Pride of ownership Security
Toyota New Global Architecture factories are opening all over the world to make the company more efficient and flexible. Armed with a $1.3-billion investment from Toyota, the Georgetown facility—Toyota’s largest in the world— essentially built a new factory within the factory. While constructing new assembly lines to incorporate the New Global Architecture, the company kept the original lines for current models moving. Simultaneously, TMMK focused on retraining employees, incorporating new parts and implementing new processes. The investment also introduced a new paint shop, engine line and aluminum stamping operation. “TMMK was the first plant in North America to build a vehicle under Global Architecture,” plant President Susan Elkington said. The 2018 Camry was the first model built in the Commonwealth using Global Architecture, but the 2019 Avalon and the 2019 Lexus ES also are being manufactured this way.
This was no small undertaking. Elkington explained that to produce the 2019 Lexus ES, 2,000 of the parts and 90 percent of the processes were modified in some way or were completely new. “We did this on three different models, on three different lines, plus two different engine lines, and we did it all in just 14 months,” she said. “It is so exciting, and it has opened up new opportunities for the future.” THE 2018 CAMRY The Camry has been the best-selling sedan in America for the last 15 years, so it might be tough to up its game, but Toyota always has a plan. This eighth-generation sedan has gone through a complete evolution, retaining all of Toyota’s traditional amenities and incorporating a sleek new exterior design along with driving dynamics that include enhanced handling capabilities. “The great thing about this Camry is that it has two distinct personalities,” Elkington said. “It comes in a fun sports edition or the traditional, prestigious edition.” THE 2019 AVALON Elkington calls Toyota’s full-sized luxury sedan, the Avalon, “a truly American car.” It was designed in California, engineered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and manufactured in Georgetown. This new Avalon features a new Global Architecture powertrain and a variable suspension system that enhances controllability. Apple CarPlay comes standard. THE 2019 LEXUS ES 350 Just about everything about the 2019 model is new, including an aluminum hood and fenders. Also new are the eight-speed direct shift automatic transmission, upgraded safety systems and Apple CarPlay. “It is about engaging all the senses of the customers— how the engine sounds, how the seats feel,” Elkington said. “There is nothing simple about it. It is true luxury.”
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Left, the first car to roll off the Georgetown plant’s assembly line— a 1989 second-generation Camry—is on display in the Visitor Center; above, visitors experience TMMK’s tour via tram; below, each vehicle takes about 20 hours to produce.
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TOYOTA TOURS Georgetown welcomes visitors to explore its charming downtown area, historic sites, surrounding farms and stately Georgetown College. But another attraction, one that is unique to this area, tops the list: Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky. “People come to Kentucky for horses and bourbon, but when they find out that we have the largest Toyota plant in the world, it is an added bonus to their trip,” said Natalie Partin, communications manager at the Georgetown/Scott County Tourism Office & Visitor Center. “Toyota has an awesome tour, with something to interest everyone in your group.” Since 1990, TMMK has welcomed more than 800,000 visitors to the factory that spans 1,300 acres, in a building that is 8.3 million square feet. In 2017, more than 32,000 people took one of the weekday tours. The tour starts in the Toyota Visitor Center, where guests can see new versions of the cars being made there: the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES 350. There also is a vintage model that catches the eye. “People are always excited to see the very first car we ever made here, the white 1989 Camry,” said Keith Clifford, team leader and tour guide. “It has 96 miles on it.” Guests are invited to watch a short introduction video featuring Susan Elkington, president of TMMK, before they are assigned to their group and tour guide. It is a short walk to the comfortable open-top tram that takes visitors all over the plant. At the tram, each guest receives protective eye coverings and a wireless audio headset to hear the tour guides. For the next hour, the tour introduces the components of car building, and the knowledgeable tour guide reveals surprising facts along the way. The first area is called Stamping. After passing giant rolls of steel that weigh tons, guests see pieces of steel laid flat, then hit with massive dies, which produce car parts. The tour then moves into Body Weld and on to Assembly, where guests can see a familiar-looking car chassis moving slowly along the line as employees add parts. The tour guide points out the processes that Toyota adds to ensure quality standards for each vehicle as well as procedures to enhance safety for every employee. From start to finish, it takes about 20 hours to produce one car, which includes a full 10 hours in the paint shop. Last year, TMMK produced about 550,000 cars and 600,000 engines. “Our tour program gives us the opportunity to showcase Kentucky’s workforce,” said Rick Hesterberg, manager of external affairs. “Our plant has about 8,000 talented and hard-working team members who make some of the best products in our industry, and to see them and the process up close really makes people come away amazed.” Another benefit of the tour is that it might attract new employees. “For the many students touring the plant, we really focus on the potential career opportunities that exist in manufacturing and engineering,” Hesterberg said. “These students represent our future workforce, so we want to take advantage of the collective audience we have on hand to promote our own industry and company.” The tour is fun and informative and, best of all, free to visitors, but the payoff to Toyota is big. Hesterberg says that seeing firsthand the quality and efficiency that go into the process sometimes leads to vehicle sales. “We base that on feedback we get firsthand from folks coming through the plant and from tourism sources like TripAdvisor,” he said.
If You Go: Toyota Visitor Center 1001 Cherry Blossom Way Georgetown, 1-800-866-4485 visittoyotaky.com Tour times: Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; 6 p.m. tour also offered on Thursday. • Reservations are required. • Visitors must be over age 6. • No cameras, bags or cell phones. The Visitor Center has free lockers available. • The tour is free.
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A CITY TRANSFORMED It was 1985. Scott County’s major employers were shutting their doors. Downtown Georgetown had barely a dozen shops open for business. Schools and churches were fighting leaky roofs. The county was in debt by millions. “We weren’t growing, and we couldn’t keep up with what we were doing,” said Scott County Judge-Executive George Lusby, who was on the Georgetown City Council at that time. Then along comes Toyota Motor Manufacturing, and three years later, its first Kentucky-built vehicle rolls off the line at its Georgetown manufacturing plant. The area hasn’t been the same since. “Today, we are the most thriving county in Kentucky,” said Lusby, who is retiring as judge executive after more than two decades in office. “When I took office in 1990, we were $4 million in debt. Now, our budget is $30 million, and we have $35 million in reserve. “We don’t owe anything on anything. I’m bragging, but it’s a fact, and it’s not because of me. It’s because of the manufacturing facilities we have here in Scott County.” Of course, Toyota tops that list of manufacturing facilities. That’s not counting the companies springing up to either support the automaker or as a result of its presence in the community. With all those businesses, thousands of workers are needed, so much so that the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development reports a Scott County unemployment rate of only 3.7 percent, one of the lowest in the Commonwealth. In 1990, the Scott County population totaled 23,867. Georgetown’s population measured 11,785. By 2017, those numbers had jumped to 54,873 in the county and 33,660 in the city. ••• With all those workers, the need for new homes and subdivisions increased. According to the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission, the number of housing units grew from about 8,000 in 1990 to more than 22,000 today. However, development was not haphazard. Joe Kane, the commission’s director, said there was careful planning from the beginning. “Scott County has had a strong planning program in place for a long time,” Kane said. “The 1991 Comprehensive Plan laid out a vision for future growth that has largely been followed.” The 27-year-old plan allows urban growth only within certain areas and a southern greenbelt that maintains an agricultural stretch of land between Scott and Fayette counties, as well as the promotion of “high-quality residential growth through subdivision regulations that have high standards for stormwater management and infrastructure quality,” Kane said. ••• As with any explosion in population, the need to accommodate a rising student population increases exponentially.
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Scott County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hub said he’s never bored. “When you think about it, when you grow by more than 200 kids a year, well, bam, there’s 600 kids. That’s a full elementary school,” Hub said. “So, when you put it in perspective like that, it’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? It’s important for us to be strategic in our thinking—especially when we consider school facilities, because, based on the time that I’ve been here, we are growing at a pace that requires a new elementary school about every three years.” In the late 1980s, Scott County had six elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. Hub, who is in his third year as superintendent, said the county now has eight elementary schools with a new one under construction. But that won’t be enough in a few years. “We’ve already had discussions with the [school] board that we need to be thinking about elementary 10 and elementary 11,” he said. “We’ve got to be thinking that far. We’re just over capacity at most of our schools, and we’ve got to build.” The number of middle schools also went from two in the 1980s to three today, and Scott County High School will have a good, old-fashioned in-county rivalry with the 2019 opening of a second school, Great Crossing High School. “It’s been one band. It’s been one choir. It’s been one JROTC, one French program, one of all the sports teams— changing that to two is going to be tough, although a lot of support is coming in our direction,” Hub said. “We’re going to double the opportunities for students. Now we have twice the number of children that can participate in the spring musical. We’ve got twice the number of girls who can vie for a state championship on the softball team. We’ve got enough talent and student athletes in this community that we’re going to be able to field two sets of competitive athletic teams, plus all the extracurriculars that come associated with high schools.” ••• Managing and planning for the county’s boom can present its challenges, but they are welcomed. “Some of the challenges with rapid residential growth have been maintenance of the existing infrastructure by city and county government, and increased demand for services such as police, fire protection, garbage pickup, snow removal …” Kane said. “However, the city and county have a strong relationship and history of working well together and sharing resources … The fact there is strong local leadership with broad community support has helped keep the growth going.” The city and county road systems also have seen significant upgrades. “Through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Toyota and local initiatives, major projects have been undertaken to support regional transit and to make sure the city can grow in a balanced way,” Kane said. Lusby said he is amazed to see all the changes that have taken place over the last 30 years. “It’s just a great time to be in Scott County,” he said. “This is my favorite saying: Scott County is the greatest place in the world to live.”
Ashley Gano photo Kenton County Places and Faces Collection
Above, the city of Georgetown has grown exponentially since Toyota Motor Manufacturing arrived in Scott County; below, a sign from Dec. 11, 1985 announced a new business coming to town; right, two employess express their enthusiasm on the line.
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Man of the Wilderness: Daniel Boone Part I By Ron Soodalter Boone Illustration by Jessica Patton
“Two darling sons and a brother have I lost by savage hands … Many dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer’s sun, and pinched by the winter’s cold—an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness.” — Daniel Boone
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merica loves its heroes—and one of our earliest and most revered national icons is frontiersman and trailblazer Daniel Boone. For nearly two centuries, beginning during his own lifetime, Americans have enshrined Boone as a larger-than-life knight of the forests and our first and greatest conqueror of the wilderness. Yet, by definition, legends tend to dehumanize their subjects. They erase the flaws and inconsistencies, glossing over or ignoring entirely the very traits that allow us to clearly see the real person within. Boone has been the subject of countless books, paintings, plays and films. In the mid-1960s, after the success of his Davy Crockett miniseries, Walt Disney followed with a six-year run of Daniel Boone television episodes, the themes of which were mostly the product of his screenwriters’ imaginations. TV viewers came to equate “Dan’l” with the imperturbable persona of 6-foot, 6-inch actor Fess Parker. (The series’ own theme song touts Boone as “tall as a mountain,” when in fact, he barely stood a stocky 5 feet, 8 inches.) There is no disputing that Boone was indeed a remarkable man. But as a historical figure, he was a product of his time with his share of contradictions. He was a slave owner who treasured personal freedom. He cherished his
family, yet left his wife to manage their home and children—once, for two years—while he went on his “long hunts.” He was an American Indian fighter when the situation called for it, and yet, by his own statement, he never hated Native Americans, despite losing two sons and a brother-in-law to them. He loved the wilderness but welcomed development if a profit stood to be made. Often the first to open new lands to a westering nation, he failed to capitalize financially on his initiative. Although supremely woods-savvy, he fell victim to swindlers and crooked politicians, resulting in the loss of his land and the assumption of crippling debt. Ever anxious to succeed in business, he nonetheless failed as a surveyor, land speculator, trader and tavern keeper. And when he finally succumbed in his son Nathan’s house at the advanced age of 85, he died owning none of the millions of acres that he had opened to settlement. Nonetheless, Boone’s understanding and mastery of the wilderness were unparalleled. He introduced the western frontier to a new and restless generation, blazing trails and building settlements beyond the borders of white civilization. He was, in fact, a genuine legend in his own time, and his place in the pantheon of American superstars was well and fairly earned.
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Beginnings
obeyed, others jumped on their horses and rode to safety. Boone later stated that he stayed on his wagon, even as unseen, screaming foes rained death all about. Recalled one survivor, “The yell of the Indians is fresh on my ear, and will haunt me until the hour of my dissolution.” More than 900 men fell within a short time, including Braddock, as confusion reigned among the British. Retreat was impossible, since the teamsters’ wagons blocked the path, and those who ran for the river only made easy targets for the rifles of the French and their allies. Boone finally cut a horse from its traces and galloped away from the carnage, as Native Americans broke from the woods to scalp the dead and wounded. Many who were captured suffered torture and a fiery death. The French and their allies First Blood claimed as spoils of war the British guns, and the wagons Five years later, Daniel, having briefly served in the and all they contained. Colonial militia, was driving a supply wagon as a teamster Throughout his life, Boone would blame the slaughter on for the British army. At the time, the French and British Braddock for refusing to were fighting for control use Native scouts or of the continent, and deploy flank guards, each side boasted which might well have Native American allies. saved his column and To further complicate his life. As it was, young matters, there were Boone had experienced American Indians his first wilderness unallied with either battle, and it was, as one side, simply fighting to biographer wrote, “one keep all white of the bloodiest and interlopers from their most disastrous British ancestral lands. defeats of the eighteenth Just the year before, century.” the French had Shortly thereafter, constructed Fort Boone was accosted by a Duquesne at the hotly large, drunken brave on contested junction of the bridge that spanned the Allegheny and the Juniata River Gorge Monongahela rivers, in Pennsylvania. Given where the city of no choice but to fight Pittsburgh now stands. and determined that the Shortly thereafter, the “Boone’s Party” by William Tylee Ranney, circa 1850. The painting is on display brave had killed for the French successfully at Duncan Tavern in Paris. final time, Boone defended it, handing a dispatched the man by young Virginia colonel throwing him off the bridge to the rocks below. named George Washington his first defeat. The British Later in life, Boone recalled the incident to a friend but Crown answered by dispatching an aging Gen. Edward dismissed the reports that he had slain countless other Braddock, at the head of two regiments of regulars to take Native Americans as well: “I never killed but three.” By his command of its forces in America. On July 9, 1755, own account, throughout his life, Boone respected American Braddock—who was blatantly ignorant of frontier warfare Indians, even those who had sworn to kill him. and too arrogant to learn—was leading a 4-mile-long, Many of Boone’s words and recollections purportedly 2,000-man combined column of redcoat troops and were related to young writer John Filson, who included Colonial frontiersmen toward Fort Duquesne, widening a them in his book, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Native American path into a passable road as they Kentucke, as an appendix titled, “The Adventures of Colonel marched. Perched on his wagon seat among the other Daniel Boone, Containing a Narrative of the Wars of teamsters of the North Carolina frontier company was Kentucke.” Filson, it should be mentioned, had invested in 20-year-old Daniel Boone. property in Kentucky, and he wrote the book in the hope of Despite the advice of experienced locals, including a inducing bold Easterners to move there—and hopefully buy chastened Washington, Braddock refused to employ his land. The book made an instant hero of Boone, whose American Indian scouts. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the printed quotes might or might not reflect his actual words. English, who were struggling to haul their cannon and According to contemporary sources, Filson faithfully mortars across the Monongahela, the French garrison at adhered to the nature and spirit of his subject, if not his Duquesne—in company with their Native American allies— exact comments. had come out to meet them. Canadian troops effectively blocked the rough road, as their unseen Native confederates Marital Bliss fired down upon the column from the woods on both sides. The year following Braddock’s disastrous defeat, Boone Experienced in American Indian fighting, the Colonial courted and wed Rebecca Bryan, the 17-year-old daughter of woodsmen immediately ran for the woods, while a well-to-do local landowner. With her black hair, dark Braddock’s forces—reflecting the mind-numbing eyes and tall, erect bearing, she was, according to one obtuseness of their officers—remained in formation. family member, “one of the handsomest persons” she had Boone and his fellow drivers were ordered to stay in ever seen. By all reports, theirs was a love match. position, their horses pointed to the front in anticipation Daniel and Rebecca settled on a small farm on her of an advance that would never happen. While some Daughters of the American Revolution photo
Daniel Boone was born in the fall of 1734—the exact date is in dispute—near Reading, in southern Pennsylvania’s Oley Valley, on the fringe of what was then America’s western frontier. He was born to Quakers—the sixth of Squire and Sarah Boone’s 11 children—and in all likelihood, he received his rudimentary education from his mother. When he was 15, Boone moved with his family to the forks of the Yadkin River, in what has been described as the “western back country” of North Carolina. For Daniel, it was to be the first of many moves that would take him ever deeper into the forested wilderness.
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father’s land, where they spent the first 10 years of marriage in an 18- by 22-foot log home that Boone built. It featured a huge fireplace, separate summer kitchen and, eventually, an oaken floor, elevating it from a log cabin to a log house. Boone provided for his wife, and later his family, through subsistence farming, stock-raising, blacksmithing and wagon-driving. But he relied primarily on his woods skills as a hunter and trapper for food and marketable skins. Hunts, however, would often take him, and others of his ilk, away for weeks, months and sometimes years at a time, leaving the wife as the family’s sole support. By all reports, Rebecca was a woman of uncommon strength at a time and in a place where such fortitude was all that stood between survival and utter ruin. When Daniel was off on a hunt, she was solely responsible for the family as well as the house, property and livestock. A woman’s lot along the frontier was a hard one. One Boone biographer describes it in detail: “There was, of course, the cooking and cleaning, spinning and weaving, and washing and sewing … water to be fetched each day from the spring … wood to be chopped, gardens to be tended, and cows to be milked. There were fields to be cultivated and crops to be harvested as well. Needing fresh meat for the stew pot, many was the time that Rebecca herself hunted for small game in the woods near the house.” Help was not always near at hand. Observed a missionary of the period, “The wife of the nearest neighbor lives half a mile, perhaps several miles away, and she has her own children, her cattle, her own household to care for …” Women generally married in their teens and spent the rest of their productive years bearing children. The Boones’ first child arrived just nine months after their wedding, and three more would follow by the time Rebecca was 20. In all, during the first 25 years of their 56-year marriage, she would bear 10 children, as had her mother before her.
Daniel’s own mother had borne 11. And Boone’s three married brothers and their wives spawned 35 offspring.
Life on the Frontier
Because of the remoteness of the settlements, lawlessness was a constant problem, with the laws often enforced by the settlers themselves. When a young girl was taken by an outlaw band, young Daniel joined the posse that set out after them. They safely retrieved the girl and captured three men of the gang, who were taken to jail and, in short order, hanged. Native American attacks were an ever-present danger, and in late 1759, after settlers and British soldiers had raped, murdered and scalped several members of their tribe, the Cherokee rose up against the Colonists. When some of Boone’s neighbors were slaughtered the following year, he moved his family back to Virginia. He soon returned alone to hunt again in North Carolina, and he might or might not have participated in the war against the Cherokee. (If he had, it would be difficult to believe his purported statement that he had killed only three American Indians in his entire life.) The war lasted well into 1763, with depredations committed by both sides, until the Native American sued for peace. Throughout the 1760s, Boone returned to hunt and trap the bountiful woods and mountains, growing ever more familiar with the country. He soon developed an unparalleled reputation as a hunter and pathfinder, to the extent that other skillful hunters were referred to as “Boones.” Apparently, he had an extraordinary sense of direction and place, and, as a contemporary said, “He never crossed a route he had once traversed without at once recognizing the place and knowing that he was crossing one of his former trails.” Once, when asked if he had ever been lost in the wilderness, he famously replied, “No, I
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can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.” His sense of direction was a skill that would serve him well when dealing with hostile tribes. On one occasion, while hunting in eastern Tennessee, he was surprised and captured by a party of Cherokee. Reportedly, Boone showed no fear but invited them to share his camp. “He never quaked in the presence of Indians,” wrote one biographer, “but always looked them directly in the eye, speaking with a tone of respect yet determination.” Although they relieved him of his furs, they parted on peaceful terms. It would not be the first time Boone became a “guest” of American Indians and walked or ran away with a whole skin. By 1765, the region around Boone’s home on the upper Yadkin had grown considerably more crowded, which to Boone meant anyone building within 10 or 12 miles of him. The game was effectively being driven from the area, and he moved his family farther upriver to the foothills of the Blue Ridge, just a short jaunt from his favorite hunting grounds. Their oldest son, James, was 10 at the time, and Boone began taking him along on his hunts, teaching the boy his invaluable woods skills. There, Rebecca bore their sixth and seventh children. But if she harbored any hopes that her peripatetic husband might stay closer to home, they were soon dashed. Despite the fact that Boone had settled near his ideal hunting area, the siren call of good virgin land beckoned. As Boone himself later stated, “It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceful habitation … to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucke.” Gathering several friends and fellow adventurers, including his brother-in-law, John Stewart, he set out once again. He would not return for two years. Some historians have suggested that, at the time, Boone was in the employ of Richard Henderson, a lawyer and land speculator who formed a company to acquire vast tracts of land in Kentucky. Presumably, Boone was secretly acting as Henderson’s scout and land agent, and Henderson and his associates, in turn, bankrolled Boone’s two-year junket. Whether Boone knew or worked for Henderson at this juncture, he certainly would in the future. Boone and his party crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and took the Great Warriors Path west over several Appalachian peaks, then south to a tight gap in the mountains that a Virginia land outfit had dubbed Cumberland Gap. Boone has been credited as the first man to negotiate the narrow pass; in fact, Native Americans had been using it for centuries, and a handful of whites had traveled it for several years as well. However, it was Boone whom nearly a third of a million westering settlers would ultimately follow through the Cumberland Mountains toward their new lives. Boone’s party continued its journey of discovery until, in his words, “[F]rom the top of an eminence, we saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucke. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of every sort, through this vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements … We are as rich as Boaz of old, having the cattle of a thousand hills.”
Kanta-ke: The Legend Grows
According to oral tradition, Daniel Boone was the first American to explore the “country of Kentucke”; he was not. This rich land of legend, teeming with wild game and blessed with navigable rivers, fresh springs and precious salt licks, was known to European explorers and settlers for decades before Boone’s birth, and American Indian traders were actively plying their wares there for years. It was a subject much discussed by hunters, trappers and land 26
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speculators, and Boone himself had known of it since the time of Braddock’s defeat more than 15 years earlier. Yet, although he was far from the first, his was the name that would be forever linked to it. The name itself derived from Native American usage, although its exact translation and tribal origin are much contested. It presumably was from an Iroquois word or term, either Ken-tah-ten, which translates to “land of tomorrow,” or Kanta-ke, meaning “meadow.” Or perhaps it was from the Shawnee, for “place of Blue Licks,” a common term for salt springs. And the Wyandot also have a claim on the name, from a tribal word meaning “a plain.” The spelling was as variable as the name’s possible sources and meanings. Besides Kanta-ke, it was spelled Kentucke, Cantucky and Kaintuck, to list just a few iterations. Whatever the source and spelling of its name, Kentucky offered both great opportunities and hazardous challenges to those bold enough to venture there. The former came in the seemingly endless stretches of rich, available land; the latter, from the tribe that would prove a constant challenge to Boone, his friends, followers and family. The Shawnee had been pushed around and driven from place to place since the late 1600s. An Algonquin tribal group from the southern Great Lakes area, the Shawnee were forced from their homeland between the Ohio and the Cumberland in the 1680s by Iroquois seeking to expand their fur trade. Some of them chose to relocate in Pennsylvania, but by the early 1700s, American Colonists and their burgeoning settlements edged them out again. By this time, they were joined by outcasts from several other tribes. Building a number of towns along the Ohio River, they understandably sought to distance themselves as far as possible from the doings of the French, British and Colonials as well as other tribal groups. Their most remote settlement, which housed upwards of a thousand people, was called Blue Lick Town, built at a junction of the Kentucky and Red rivers. Unfortunately, independence from outside forces soon became an impossibility, and conflict would prove inevitable. For Boone, it began with a warning. While walking in the woods, he and John Stewart found themselves surrounded by a band of irate Shawnee. As Boone recalled it, after pilfering all their pelts and provender, the Shawnee let them go with an advisory: “Go home and stay there … [T]his is the Indians’ hunting ground, and all the animals, skins and furs are ours. And if you are so foolish as to venture here again, you may be sure the wasps and yellow-jackets will sting you.” More bold than sensible, the two pursued the Shawnee and took back their horses as the party slept. However, they were soon recaptured, bound and force-marched toward the Ohio for a solid week. Breaking their bonds, they managed to escape, working their way back to their base camp. While some of their party had had enough and turned for home, Boone and a few others remained, trapping beaver and hunting bison throughout the winter, naming various landmarks, creeks and salt licks as they went. Boone was known to take books along on his hunting trips, and on this foray, he entertained his companions by reading aloud from Gulliver’s Travels. One day, Stewart, who was as much a friend as an in-law to Boone, disappeared. He would not be found for another five years, when one of Boone’s crew on the Wilderness Road discovered a skeleton in the hollow of a sycamore. It bore the signs of a bullet wound in one arm, and Stewart’s initials on the powder horn. Presumably, he had hidden in the trunk after being wounded and subsequently bled to death. Soon after, the rest of Boone’s party turned for home. Boone remained alone in Kentucky for another three
months, finally growing desperate for the company of his family. In May 1771, he returned to Rebecca and the children. According to oral tradition, he appeared at a dance, hirsute and unrecognizable, and asked Rebecca for a dance. Disgusted, she turned away from the bearded stranger. “You need not refuse,” he laughed, “for you have danced many a time with me.” A mighty hug reunited the loving couple. It makes for a homey story and, apocryphal though it might be, the homecoming was reportedly a happy one. Meanwhile, over the previous two years, the desire for new, cheap land had built to a frenzy. Land companies were forming, as surveyors were sent forth in droves, their little telltale red flags extending south and west into the lands of increasingly anxious tribes. Kentucky, observed Boone in classic understatement, “had drawn the attention of many adventurers.” Despite the Shawnees’ warning, Boone returned to Kentucky the following year. He hunted, trapped and returned home in May 1773, in time to see the birth of his eighth child. When next he traveled to Kentucky, it was at the head of a train of immigrants, including Rebecca, their children, several of Daniel’s and Rebecca’s relatives, and other would-be settlers with their stock and property— including slaves. They took no wagons; the way was often too narrow and too rough. All the possessions they could take with them—tools, clothing and a few personal items— were tightly packed on horses that progressed slowly and in single file. On the night of Oct. 9, 1773, disaster struck. The column had broken up into two sections, with Daniel at the head of the lead group, and his son, 16-year-old James, with the second. They had camped at the edge of Powell Valley, Virginia, when, without warning, a combined party of Cherokee, Shawnee and Delaware attacked the second group. James was wounded and horribly tortured before
finally succumbing to war club and tomahawk blows. In all, six perished, including a slave whom the tribes had taken with them. He was found 40 miles away, his head split by a hatchet. Thus far, Boone’s obsession with the “country of Kentucke” had cost him his brother-in-law and close companion, John Stewart, and his oldest, closest son. It would levy a higher tariff still on Boone and his family in the years to come. Q
Part II in the November issue will examine Daniel Boone’s unfortunate involvement in Richard Henderson’s ambitious and ill-fated land company, the construction and defense of the frontier settlement of Boonesborough, the death of another son, the rescue of a wounded Daniel by the legendary woodsman Simon Kenton, and a war with the regional tribes that seemed to go on forever.
RECOMMENDED READING Daniel Boone - Autobiography of Colonel Daniel Boone John Mack Faragher - Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer Michael A. Lofaro - Daniel Boone: An American Life Robert Morgan - Boone: A Biography
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BIGGER & BETTER The revamped Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum pays homage to the music’s past and celebrates its future By Cait A. Smith
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ew twang is being ushered into the heart and lungs of bluegrass music—right in downtown Owensboro, home of the new Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum. Established in 1991 as the International Bluegrass Music Museum, the rebranded and expanded “international treasure with American roots” is kicking off Oct. 18-20 under a new name and in a new $15.3-million facility celebrating the origins, history and future of bluegrass music. The museum’s refreshed image—part of a recent, multimillion-dollar riverfront restoration—was “basically to align ourselves with other music museums … and creating that destination experience such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” said Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum Marketing Director Carly Smith. “Our mission is basically to preserve, exhibit, disseminate all the artifacts in history and the performance art of the global history of bluegrass music—because it is a global genre—and we’re the only museum that’s dedicated to preserving the international scope of bluegrass music.” With two floors of exhibit space, the museum is sure to live up to that mission. On the second floor, alongside the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame exhibition, are two temporary galleries 28
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“so there will always be something different,” Smith said. “We want people to come back and see what else we have going on, so those exhibits will stay fresh and keep changing.” Not unlike sentimental and nostalgic bluegrass music as a whole, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum is dedicated to looking both back and ahead: on the roots and the future of bluegrass, and on both preservation and education. “We like to be that repository for all artifacts that are related to bluegrass music,” Smith said. This attitude is exemplified in the museum’s Picker’s Corner, a wall of donated instruments that serves as a finely tuned interactive exhibit. Through grants, the museum is able to provide heavily discounted lessons in guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle— instruments included—to nearly 350 students per year. With its Bluegrass in the Schools program, or BITS, multi-state fiddling champion and museum education director Randy Lanham works alongside Daviess County elementary school music teachers to put instruments into kids’ hands, reaching more than 9,000 students per year. “This may be the first time they’ve held a stringed instrument, you know?” Smith said. “So that’s always amazing … The education side is growing the music, we feel.”
Photos Courtesy of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum
Everything is brand new! A new logo (top), performing space (above) and exterior (right) make the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum an ideal destination for music lovers.
A museum and hall of fame is not all there is to the updated attraction; it’s also a performance space. The new facility boasts an outdoor stage facing the Ohio River; firstrate dressing rooms; event spaces for rental; and the 447seat, state-of-the-art Woodward Theater, named after Terry Woodward, a local businessman and a founding member and chairman of the first IBMA’s board of the directors, who kickstarted this bluegrass dream six years ago. The potential for the museum’s growth was shown by increased turnouts to Owensboro’s ROMP bluegrass music festival, which just celebrated its 15th anniversary in June. “We’re seeing that people, once they came and experienced it one time, they came back,” Smith said. “I think ROMP kind of was the gateway to the museum, especially for … the local population, just because they understand how ROMP works. They enjoy that festival; they enjoy it as an event, so it hopefully will translate with our live shows that we will have at the museum.” It also showed that fans will travel far for anything related to bluegrass music, she said. “The goal,” she added, “is to become a destination for any bluegrass fan.” For the museum, the new possibility of offering outdoor concerts and festivals is particularly exciting, “because
that’s how people consume bluegrass music today—by going to a music festival and seeing it live,” Smith said. “And that’s just the perfect setting, being that we’re on the newly renovated Owensboro Ohio riverfront.” The timing is perfect. Bluegrass is undergoing a resurgence in popularity. “Bands like the Punch Brothers, the Infamous Stringdusters and Leftover Salmon, they’re taking bluegrass music and taking it to new places,” Smith continued. “Newgrass, jamgrass—there’s multiple names for it, but it’s reaching a wider audience—a younger audience.” These innovators in the genre are “staying true to their instruments,” she added. “They’re just doing something different with it, which I think is really amazing—that, in bluegrass, you can continue to push the boundaries and try new things.” It just feels right, too, as it’s a bit like bringing bluegrass back to where it began, at the original home of the IBMA before it moved to Nashville. Only a 40-minute drive from Rosine, the birthplace of “Father of Bluegrass” Bill Monroe, it’s only fitting for the revitalized Owensboro to emblazon itself as the beacon for Kentucky’s trademark genre. Q
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A FAMILY THAT PLAYS
TOGETHER The McLain Family Band celebrates a half-century of taking traditional bluegrass music to the world By Kim Kobersmith
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n the frosty New Year’s Eve ending 1968, an old wooden house at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County caught fire. All of the family members inside survived. The two older girls helped their brother and sister, while the eldest boy had a special mission: to gather all of the family’s musical instruments. The house burned to the ground, with clothes, furniture and memorabilia inside, but the McLain family had everything they needed—each other and the instruments that were, increasingly, becoming the focus of their lives. In Hindman, a banjo was a mainstream instrument, and one of the hubs of community life was the weekly Friday night dance. Some of Raymond W. McLain’s earliest memories are riding on his father’s shoulders while he was 30
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dancing and falling asleep to the strains of live music pulsing from the living room. Steeped in the Appalachian music and dance culture of Hindman and surrounded by a family that loved music, the five children of Raymond K. and Betty McLain all developed a talent for singing, dancing and playing. “It was in our bones as we grew up,” says oldest daughter Alice. As members of the family began to develop their musical talents, Raymond K. decided to start a family band in 1968 with the three oldest children: Raymond W., 14; Alice, 12; and Ruth, 10. Their first steady gig was a weekly television show in Hazard, two weeks after the station went on the air. “To be in a traditional music band just seemed natural,” Raymond W. says.
A Diverse Span of Work In the early years, the band performed for dances and weekly shows, and at music festivals. While simultaneously mingling with and learning from bluegrass luminaries and friends such as Bill Monroe and Jean Ritchie, they also were venturing farther from their Appalachian region and sharing that music with the world. Partnerships with state and regional arts councils led to performances in all 50 states. The councils would book concerts in large cities as well as small, isolated villages. Alaska was a frequent destination, always in the wintertime, when people really needed music. The McLains traveled to many shows by floatplane or snowmachine. For these remote villages off the road system, the band’s performances were a real highlight. “Often, in the small isolated towns, there were more people in the audience than the population of the town,” Alice says. In 1972, the McLains received an invitation to play in Italy, their first international concert. In total, the young band traveled to 62 countries over the course of 14 overseas tours, including an around-the-world odyssey in 1975. The 1975 trip was organized by a teenage Alice, who surprised her parents by writing to embassies around the world seeking hosts for a trip. Providentially, those letters also established a relationship with the U.S. State Department, which partnered with the band for years for cultural exchange visits. As ambassadors for bluegrass music and Appalachia, the McLain Family Band introduced thousands of people to the joys of old-time music. One State Department cable from Romania, after a tour, sings the band’s praises, saying, “Sincere people and talented musicians, they represent the best in American character traits of friendliness, informality, and a sincere
respect for and curiosity about other cultures … The McLain style is deceptively professional without being slick or overtly commercial.” Musically, the McLain family is part of a unique collaboration between disciplines. When Raymond K. began working at Berea College in 1970, he developed a working relationship with the composer-in-residence, Philip Rhodes. Together, they made real a vision of combining bluegrass and classical music with Concerto for Bluegrass Band and Orchestra. This recording led to more than 200 concerts with the McLain Family Band and orchestras across the country.
Signature Songs “Sharing music is sharing stories,” Nancy Ann says. The story of one of the band’s most requested songs, “Kentucky Wind,” begins in South America. On a tour, the band members were feeling a touch of homesickness, missing their mother, who had stayed home managing the band, and friends back home. The two Raymonds wrote “Kentucky Wind” as a love song to home and as a reminder that the same wind travels the globe, connecting us all wherever we are. “Troublesome Creek,” written by Raymond W., commemorates a creek that runs through Hindman. Sometimes, it is a placid stream, a place to catch tadpoles and crayfish. But other times, it is troublesome, a rising torrent threatening to flood houses. The music, with a banjo duet, “ripples along like water,” Alice says.
An Immeasurable Influence When asking the five siblings about the family band, it is not long before someone speaks of Raymond K., who passed away in 2003; Betty died in 2011. They may share one of their father’s aphorisms, a story or a reflection on how he shaped their thinking. His strong work ethic, passion for the world around him, desire to educate, and deep love for his family all were passed along to the next generation. “Our parents showed such confidence in us. We believed, with some work, we could do anything,” Ruth says. A prime example: When a representative from the White House Conference on Youth phoned Raymond K. before the event and asked if he knew a child who played mountain dulcimer, he said yes. While Ruth played some instruments, she had not played that one … yet. With
Berea College Archives; opposite, Kim Kobersmith photo
This year, the McLain Family Band celebrates 50 years of making music together. The story of those 50 years is one of meaningful connections, groundbreaking performances, international friendships and masterful music. Along the way, the family members have become living legends in the world of bluegrass music. How have they continued to play together as a family for so long, through so many changes in their lives? “Music is what we do together,” Nancy Ann says. “The shared experiences bind us together,” Michael adds. It was, and still is, one of the foundations of their family life.
Opposite: The McLain Family Band in August in Berea, where the group performed in the Levitt Amp Concert Series; from left, Al White, Jennifer McLain, Michael McLain, Ruth McLain Smith, Nancy Ann McLain Wartman, Alice McLain White, Daxson Lewis and Raymond W. McLain. Right: The entire family, back row from left, Raymond W., Alice, Raymond K. and Betty; front row from left, Michael, Ruth and Nancy Ann.
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McClain Family Collection
From left, Al, Alice, Raymond K., Raymond W., Ruth and Michael
The McLain Family Band today: from left, Michael, Alice, Jennifer, Nancy Ann, Daxson, Ruth, Raymond W. and Al 32
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Golden Anniversary In 2016, members of the family decided to take the McLain Family Band back on the road. Current touring band members are Raymond W., Alice and husband Al White, Ruth McLain Smith and Daxson Lewis. While Daxson technically is not a McLain, he was welcomed into the band and the family after playing with Raymond W. and Ruth while he was a traditional music student at Morehead State University. This special 50th anniversary year kicked off with a WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour appearance; a new album, Celebrate Life; and a McLain Family Band pictorial history. Upcoming performances are listed on the band’s website and Facebook page. After tours this summer to Denmark and Ireland, the group has performances with the Symphony of the Mountains from Tennessee this fall and at festivals throughout the region. The McLain Family Band has been invited to perform at prestigious music venues around the country, including the Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall. But to them, no audience is too small. Raymond W. defines success this way: “Playing music from your heart and having someone feel it—it is a very satisfying thing.” Q
Kim Kobersmith photo
perfect aplomb, she performed three songs on national television after only two weeks of practice. The band stopped touring full time in 1990, enabling members time to expand their musical work in other arenas. Sharon White, a lifelong friend of the McLains, says, “It is impossible to measure the influence this family band has had on the bluegrass music world. They continue to inspire and mentor future bluegrass musicians through their work in schools and universities.” They have been influential in elevating traditional music academically. While teaching at Berea College as an ethnomusicologist, Raymond K. developed the firstanywhere college-level course in bluegrass music. Raymond W. created the country’s first university major in traditional music at East Tennessee State University. Raymond W. is now the director of the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University, where Ruth also teaches and leads a traditional music ensemble. Michael taught bluegrass music lessons and directed the Belmont Bluegrass Ensemble at Belmont University for more than a decade. Al White, the husband of Alice McLain White and member of the band for many years, teaches music and leads the Bluegrass Ensemble at Berea College.
9 Consecutive Years on The Washington Post’s List of Top Performing Schools with Elite Students 110 National Merit Finalists 20 Semifinalists in Siemens Competition
We come from all across Kentucky to The Gatton Academy on the campus of Western Kentucky University. We finish our junior and senior years of high school as we start college. We conduct research with professors, study abroad, and attend college classes. While we are challenged academically, we thrive in a supportive environment designed just for us and make lifelong friends. Tuition, fees, room and board are paid for by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. You, too, can have a future filled with infinite possibilities.
Class of 2021 Admissions Deadline: February 1, 2019 WEBSITE: wku.edu/academy
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Jet Set Thoroughbreds
Thoroughbred owners and trainers go to great lengths to fly their expensive equines to the Breeders’ Cup By Ken Snyder
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magine flying with never-ending food served by your own individual flight attendant, a chauffeur to drive you right up to your jet, and even a doctor on board for any medical emergency. This scene from lifestyles of the rich and famous is actually the experience of horses coming in from overseas for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Air travel, indeed, is different for a 1,200-pound animal than for humans. Food and drink are hay and water (possibly “home water”—more on that later)—and the doctor is a veterinarian. These are necessities for horses 34
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shipping in, particularly for the quality and value of those eligible to run in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, a two-day series of Thoroughbred races at the highest level that attracts competitors from all over the world. There are certain precautions necessary for flying Thoroughbreds. For starters, there’s a bit of subterfuge in loading horses onto cargo jets. Horses travel to airports in a horse van and walk into a pen the size of a racetrack stall. This leads to the air stall in which they will fly, which is similar in appearance to a two-horse van. For all the horses know, they’ve just left one horse van for another.
The primary difference is that grooms stand in a compartment in front of the stall to hold the horses’ halters and movable flaps that prevent the horses from seeing outside. From there, the trip is vertical into the cargo hold, as the air stall sits on a scissors lift. “It vibrates a little,” said Kent Barnes, stallion manager at Shadwell Farms in Lexington. “You try to keep them as calm as possible when they’re loading.” Once inside the hold, the air stall is slid into position, and the flight can begin. Barnes doubles as a “flying groom” for six to eight flights a year, flying horses to and from Shadwell’s operations in Kentucky, the United Kingdom and Dubai as well as for the Breeders’ Cup. According to Barnes, if horses have been on a regular horse van, they generally will load easily into an air stall. Of course, not all horses are keen on horse vans, period, be they on wheels or on a scissors lift. In those cases, a small dose of a mild tranquilizer will be administered, though Barnes said that the tranquilizers sometimes wear off by the time of takeoff. Takeoffs, as you might expect, are the most anxietyproducing time for the horses, as they can be for many humans. The air stalls and chains securing them rattle with vibration, and there’s noise from the engines. “You get a lot of whinnying,” Barnes said. “Some of the horses will get a little bit unsteady on their feet. That’s definitely the worst part of it.” ••• Unlike earlier times, when cargo transport rules were more lax, grooms cannot stand holding the halters of horses on takeoffs and landings. “You have to be in your seats and buckled till they level off,” Barnes said. Seats are of the jump-seat variety, without the comfort of first-class seating but not uncomfortable. “Some flights offer maybe a bed because there’s one for
the crew. There’s also catering on the flight,” said Chris Santarelli, treasurer and partner of Mersant International, the official airline of the Breeders’ Cup. His company has served as an agent for horses flying in for the Breeders’ Cup since it was first held in 1984. Post-takeoff, flights are like any other: largely uneventful. Horses likely will fly three to a stall, with dividers separating them, according to Santarelli. Mersant and other air shippers call it “tourist class.” However, Breeders’ Cup starters fly either business class (two horses to an air stall) or first class (one horse in its own stall). “Once you take off, if you have more space, the horse can lie down and sleep on a long flight,” Santarelli said. As with regular flight attendants, the work of a flying groom begins once the jet has reached desired altitude. “We hang hay nets for them in the stalls, and we offer them water during the flight,” Barnes said. “Most of them will drink, on an eight-hour flight, a 5-gallon bucket of water. That’s about what they’d drink normally in a day. “I prefer just to let them eat their hay and go to sleep and be quiet. Then, I’ll go back and water them about an hour before we land. If you give them too much water and you’re constantly back there checking on them, the horses tend to get a little more agitated and upset.” About the “home water”: Trainers of overseas shippers will fill jugs with water the horses are accustomed to drinking and use it exclusively or progressively mix it with local water on arrival in the U.S. to help horses adjust to the new water. According to Barnes, unfamiliar water can throw off a horse’s thirst—not a good thing for a racehorse. ••• If you’re ready to sign on as a flying groom, it takes more than experience with horses. Each airline has different requirements for the flying grooms, and a couple are strict. “British Air used to be the strictest,” Barnes said. “You had
Left, flying grooms secure a pair of horses for a flight; below, the Thoroughbreds exit the aircraft through a high-walled tunnel to maintain their calm and composure.
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to take a course in safety of the aircraft and evacuation in case of emergencies. You actually had to go to England and take that course.” Barnes takes an annual update for his certification (“like a TSA thing,” he said) and must pass a test every year. Emirates Air, headquartered in Dubai, requires an FBI background check if more than a year has passed since a flying groom’s last flight aboard one of its cargo jets. Most horses, once aboard and aloft, adjust to the environment, but there can be instances of a horse becoming unsettled. Even with a veterinarian on board, tranquilizers are a last resort. “If you tranquilize a horse before takeoff, he’s going to be a little bit wobbly, and there’s a better chance of falling down,” Barnes explained. “Plus, they’re also not going to eat and drink normally if they’re sedated. You want them drinking normally to keep their gut moving.” It’s difficult to gauge the extent, if any, to which a horse experiences jet lag. “They could have a slight [elevated] temperature on arrival, and then it goes down very quickly,” Santarelli said. Weight loss, too, is temporary, and horses off their feed during a flight will gain it back quickly. Unlike at the racetrack on non-race days, wraps around the horse’s legs are discouraged on flights by some cargo air handlers, as are horseshoes. If the ankles of humans swell on long flights, then it stands to reason that swelling might occur in a horse in wraps. It is, though, up to the preference of the trainer. “I’ve seen horses travel with nothing; I’ve seen horses travel with everything,” Santarelli said. ••• For this year’s Breeders’ Cup, all flights are chartered, as there are no regularly scheduled freighters, besides UPS, that land in Louisville. Only airports in Miami, New York,
Los Angeles and Chicago can, on a regular basis, receive horses flown to the U.S. from overseas. At the time of this writing, Santarelli was in talks with a carrier to fly out of Tokyo’s Narita Airport directly to Louisville rather than to Chicago, where horses would clear quarantine and then be vanned to Louisville after release. Flights across the Atlantic will originate from Ireland, from Stansted Airport in London, and from Paris. Starters based in Dubai also will fly directly to Louisville. Horses may handle long-distance flying better than humans. Barnes recalled flying with horses from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany—about an eight- to nine-hour flight—stopping for two hours for refueling, and then flying five more hours to Dubai. “It didn’t seem too hard on them,” he said. Once on the ground in Louisville, Mersant personnel and flying grooms will lead horses onto vans for the short ride to Churchill Downs and the barns of the quarantine area. Overseas shippers are stall-bound in quarantine for a period of time, before being able to go out on the racetrack—with a surprising restriction. “They have special training hours, so they’re not on the track the same time as the American horses. Until the actual race day itself, that’s the first time they’ll be exposed to the American horses,” Barnes said. For the Friday-Saturday Breeders’ Cup races, overseas shippers will arrive anywhere from the Saturday to the Monday before the Breeders’ Cup. Transport back to home countries is usually the following day. A major difference between overseas flights for humans and horses won’t surprise you: the fare. “It’ll cost between $50,000 to $75,000 round-trip to fly a horse from Europe to Louisville,” said Santarelli. That’s no small sum, but it’s a pittance when the smallest purse for the Breeders’ Cup is $1 million and the largest is $6 million. Q
Featuring the 37th Annual Kentucky Book Fair Saturday, November 17th • 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park Lexington, KY
H.W. Brands KENTUCKY HUMANITIES
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Rita Mae Brown
Bobbie Ann Mason
Robert Sabuda
Crystal Wilkinson
For more information on the Kentucky Book Festival, including the Kentucky Book Fair, go to kyhumanities.org.
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Photo: Rob Taber
FOLK ~ BLUEGR ASS ~ AMERICANA
Watch performances online at lostriversessions.org and on WKU-PBS (check your local listings)
Listen on the radio and online at wkyufm.org every 1st Thursday of the month @ 8/9e
LOST RIVER SESSIONS LIVE!
Monthly concert series at the historic Capitol Arts Center in downtown Bowling Green. Visit us online for concert and broadcast information.
LostRiverSessions.org O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
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A hunt for haunts inspires the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center’s newest exhibit Text and Photos by Amanda Hankinson
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utumn brings a nip in the air, shorter daylight hours and, in preparation for Halloween, frightful stories. To coincide with spirit of the season, an exhibit based on spooky happenings and tales opens this month at Maysville’s Kentucky Gateway Museum Center. Titled Haunting Histories, the exhibit complements a community reading event, Maysville’s Endowment for the Arts Big Read program. The book selected for the Sept. 26-Nov. 30 reading is Kelly Link’s Pretty Monsters, a collection of short stories that encompass aliens, zombies, magic, the paranormal and more. Once the book was chosen, museum education curator Tandy Nash and I set out to research some of the most haunted destinations in the southern United States to find items for the exhibit. Our pinnacle destination was New Orleans—after all, we were looking for ghosts. On the way to the Crescent City, we stopped in Memphis for the evening, going directly to the Woodruff Fontaine House, a beautiful circa-1871 Victorian mansion. Arriving less than an hour before closing, we photographed the premises and gathered information quickly. 38
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Even so, the docents there cut no corners: They gave us the grand tour, complete with the history and hauntings, while including their own ghostly tales. We had two other Memphis sites on our “must-see” list during our whirlwind stay. Earnestine and Hazel’s, which locals claimed had the best burgers in town, was our dinner destination. Once the site of a brothel, the bar and grill boasts a welcoming staff who were willing to tell us about the establishment’s storied past as well as the tragedies that have haunted the business in recent years. We learned that this location has not only a haunting history, but a famous one as well, with music greats who have played at and visited the establishment. Our other must-see location was the historic Orpheum Theatre, which we visited with Vincent Astor, who for years has given tours there—both historic and otherworldly. He showed us around the beautiful building, relating its history and the story of a little girl who has been seen there and has a seat that is always reserved just for her. •••
Opposite, Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, reportedly one of the world’s most haunted places; above left, Memphis’ Woodruff Fontaine House; above right, the Rathskellar at the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville. We departed Memphis, journeying south to St. Francisville, Louisiana and Myrtles Plantation, said to be one of the most haunted places in the world. It dates back to 1796 and has a long history of tragedy. There are so many stories, photos and tragedies that surround the Myrtles that we weren’t sure what was fact, what was fiction, and what lay somewhere in between. We arrived at the plantation late in the evening. After we checked in, Lyn, who was working that night, kindly opened the house so we could snap photos while no one else was there. Tandy and I witnessed a few strange happenings in real time during what seemed like hours in the sprawling home. After photographing the house and grounds under moonlight, we went up to our room, having planned to take the official tour of the plantation the next day. I didn’t get much rest that night. By the time the sun breached the centuries-old oak trees the next morning, I had been awakened by disembodied footsteps running up to the bed, strange noises I couldn’t identify, and other distant sounds that made me aware something was amiss. The plantation certainly did not disappoint, and once we got home and reviewed the voice recorder, we had more evidence than we’d ever dreamed. Myrtles Plantation is by far one of the most active places we visited, as well as one of the most serene settings, filled with the most welcoming people. No wonder the spirits want to stay. ••• We then headed southeast to the Big Easy, where we had selected two hotels, had an appointment with destiny (actually a tarot card reader and a voodoo priestess, but hey, that’s close), and would visit the dead at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Our first stop was the Hotel Monteleone, a stunning, family-owned hotel in the heart of the French Quarter that dates back to 1886. When we checked in, the front desk clerk asked, “Did you request this room?” Tandy and I looked at each other and laughed, and I replied, “Um, we sure did!”
Our room had a beautiful view of the Mississippi River, and we hadn’t been in it 10 minutes before the phone rang. Tiffany had called to welcome us and set up a time for us to meet with the hotel historian, Mr. Charlie, a most amazing 88-year-old man with an incredible knack for storytelling. We listened and watched as he relived each story he told— laughing, crying and even singing. He told us about the hotel history, the family who started and still runs the hotel, the tragedies that have struck some of those visiting, and the guests who live at the Monteleone eternally. Our stay there was rather uneventful until the last evening. We went out for a day of sightseeing before rushing back to the French Quarter for a ghost tour at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, another revered and luxurious hotel, as well as one of the most haunted. It would be our next stop for overnight accommodations. There are several tales of haunts at the Bourbon Orleans, including that of a Confederate soldier, a suicidal nun (we’ll take that room) and a dancer who still floats across the ballroom floor. The hotel is said to be so haunted, it keeps an Official Bourbon Orleans Ghost Sightings Log, where guests record their experiences. Once the tour was over, we went back to Hotel Monteleone for our final night there. While getting ready for bed, I ran across evidence of a haunting at the Monteleone, and what evidence it was! While some might have been spooked to receive such a direct sign from a spirit, it made me smile. During our time in New Orleans, we spoke to psychics and a voodoo priestess, toured museums, learned about Creole voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau (fact and fiction), visited Bourbon Street, and learned a great deal about those at the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, including the fact that Nicolas Cage has a pyramid-shaped crypt there, and he’s not even dead. ••• We departed the Bourbon Orleans Hotel for Atlanta and the humble Ellis Hotel, which saw much success in the early 20th century, when it was known as the Winecoff Hotel. O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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That success ended on Dec. 7, 1946, when the hotel caught fire, killing 119 people and injuring at least 90 others. That tragedy spurred new regulations for fire codes across the country and still holds the unfortunate title of worst hotel fire in U.S. history. When we booked our room there, we spoke to several agents who refused to talk about any hauntings or “remnants” from the fire. While we aren’t ghost hunters, we knew that a location tainted with such tragedy could be prime territory for hauntings. But if we were to gather information there, we would have to discover it ourselves. For this escapade, we used an Ovilus device, an electronic mechanism that shows words of what spirits are trying to communicate on a screen. On our first night, we sat in our dark room after midnight, asking questions: “What is your name?” “Why were you here?” “Can you see us?” and receiving responses that didn’t seem relevant. As Tandy continued to interact with the device, I pulled out my phone and did some research. What I found sent chills up my spine—the names of the people who had died in our room that fateful night. Before we checked out, I stood at the window of our 11th-floor room, looking down on the street below as Florance Allen Baggett and his cousins, Sara Baggett Miller and Catherine McLaughlin, might have on that cold December night. Of the three, only McLaughlin survived. My heart was heavy as I realized those three people probably looked out this same window. Upon checkout, we realized that the haunting history of the Ellis Hotel is more than just spirits; it is the tragic fire that continues to haunt the building. ••• We spent the rest of the summer visiting locations closer to home and discovering that our area has quite a few colorful ghosts. My first rendezvous with one was at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel. I spent my weekend at the lovely French Art Deco structure in the stunning Winston Churchill suite. I walked the floors of the hotel, photographing everything from the amazing ceiling murals to the incredible Rookwood fountain. While exploring this hotel, I had a sense I wasn’t alone. The Netherland Plaza has another guest who wanders the hotel day and night, sometimes on the mezzanine level and sometimes in the Hall of Mirrors. She isn’t a normal guest, but she is a regular and is referred to as The Lady in Green. I learned about her heartbreaking story and of the encounters people have had with her. While I didn’t have any direct contact with this beautiful soul, I believe she could not have found a finer establishment to patronize. ••• Hotels play a key role in our exhibit, which wouldn’t be complete without bringing it home to the Bluegrass. Our final spirited stop was one that includes another colorful ghost: The Lady in Blue at the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville. When making reservations, I asked for the haunted room or floor, as usual. The reservations specialist granted the request and offered to set up a midnight tour with Patrick, the head of security, and a meeting with Larry, the hotel historian. Patrick has walked the floors of the hotel for years, and if anyone has met the spirits or heard the tales, it would be him. We spent hours talking with him, photographing the facility and exploring the ballrooms and hallways. We heard tales of former guests Al Capone and F. Scott Fitzgerald and of the tunnels under the hotel, and spent time taking in the unique Rathskeller, a basement bar made entirely of Rookwood Pottery tile. Q 40
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Top, Hotel Monteleone historian Mr. Charlie with the book, Pretty Monsters; above, the Latin phrase Omnia Ab Uno, which translates to “Everything From One,” is inscribed on Nicolas Cage’s crypt in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Discovering the Rest of the Story The Haunting Histories exhibit at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center opens Oct. 2 and runs through Nov. 10. It includes our firsthand experiences, only a few of which are featured here, and completes the stories in this article that were left unfinished. Haunting Histories also has displays from Maysville’s Hayswood Hospital and Phillips Folly, Bobby Mackey’s in Wilder and more. There will be spirited events, guest speakers, forums and movies throughout October. Please follow the museum on Facebook, visit the website at kygmc.org, and make plans to see all the wonders at the museum.
VOICES
Past Tense/Present Tense
The Trapped Man BY BILL ELLIS “Oh come all you young people And listen while I tell; The fate of Floyd Collins”*
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addy, is there really a dead man in that coffin?” the little red-haired, freckle-faced boy asked his 6-foot, 1-inch father, a former United States Army MP. “Yes, Billy,” said his pert, 5-foot-tall mother, with a twinkle in her eye. “Floyd Collins was a famous man.” Of course, Billy was me, and my parents and I were visiting a tourist site in Kentucky cave country, where the body of famous cave explorer Floyd Collins lay on public display. My paternal grandparents saved only one old newspaper during their lifetime. “COLLINS’ ORDEAL HOLDS NATION’S EYE,” read the headline of the brittle, yellowed copy of the Sunday Louisville Courier-Journal, dated Feb. 8, 1925. The front page was filled with stories about Collins’ ordeal and the efforts to rescue him, while the second page contained photos of the scene around Sand Cave with block letters: “GLIMPSES OF FIGHT TO RECOVER CAVE EXPLORER.” Other headlines of individual front-page stories included: “Fate Blocks Plans of Men to Aid Victim,” “Collins’ Kin Hold to Hope,” “Slim Hope Held for Trapped Man,” “Woodchuck Led Collins to Great Crystal Cave” and “Collins Found Faith in Cave.” All the articles on the front page were stories about Collins’ predicament, trapped by a rock holding his left foot immobile in Sand Cave. William Burke “Skeets” Miller, a diminutive reporter for the paper, not only wrote heart-rending stories of the two-week ordeal but also descended into narrow crevices and tried to rescue the caver. The headline for his piece ran, “NerveTrying Trips Down to Collins Told.” ••• How important was this saga of a man caught in a lifeand-death struggle? The Collins episode became the thirdlargest news story, which extended over a period of time. Only “Lucky Lindy’s” flight in 1927 and the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932 surpassed this Kentucky story. Although I have visited Mammoth Cave and a few caverns, I have a bit of claustrophobia, which descends on me in tight places (we have a walk-in closet, and I only
enter when the light is on). I cannot imagine the nerve or fortitude of cave explorers. Two such individuals, Robert K. Murray, a historian by trade, and Roger W. Brucker, an expert spelunker, collaborated in an excellent account: Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins, first published in 1979. Two years earlier, they, along with other cavers, “illegally” broke through a boltedshut gate and reopened the abandoned Sand Cave, to reconstruct as completely as possible what happened during those terrible two weeks in the winter of 1925. In a 2006 interview, Brucker admitted, “We treated it as a clandestine operation … It was a very scary place. It was kind of an eerie feeling to be there. Floyd was alone. He must have had the utmost sense of panic.”** Collins and his family lived a hardscrabble life on a hilly farm in the cave country within what is now Mammoth Cave National Park. This region of southcentral Kentucky is honeycombed with hundreds of miles of caverns. The Collins family and others tried to find larger and more accessible caves in a race that is often called “The Cave Wars.” The competition was fierce, with competitors trashing one another’s signs, lying about the merits of other caves, and other shenanigans. Transportation was the key in the early 1920s to the eight or more caves in competition with one another for the tourist dollar. Although a railway and roads brought tourists into the region, particularly to the still privately held Mammoth Cave, the property of the Collins family, Great Crystal Cave, was off the beaten track on a road that often was impassable. Floyd hoped that he would find a connection to other and better caverns. By all reports, he was nearly fearless in his efforts, often descending into a cavern by himself with only a lantern, a can or two of beans, a digging instrument and a long rope. He entered Sand Cave on Jan. 30, 1925, on property that belonged to neighbor Arthur Beesley “Bee” Doyle. After exploring for some hours, Floyd began his ascent out of the cave. As he was crawling in a narrow area at about a 45-degree angle, a rock estimated to weigh about 27 pounds fell from the ceiling and caught his left foot. He had been in similar situations before and had always managed to work his way free. This time, his struggles only intensified his predicament. He was trapped nearly 60 feet underground. When Doyle began to worry about Collins, he and his son went to the entrance to Sand Cave and found the O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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caver’s coat and cap. Jewell Estes, a slender man, crawled within 20 feet of Collins and confirmed that he was unable to move. The word got out quickly to family and friends but not to the wider world. Today, when such an event happens, authorities immediately rush to the scene, news crews assemble, worried parents and neighbors are seen on television, and we, the audience, know within hours of an unfolding tragedy. In 1925, it was different. Several local men tried to reach Floyd but were turned back. His brother, Marshall, brought a crowbar but was unable to reach over the entrapped man to dislodge the rock. Another brother, Homer, returned from Louisville and brought the first relief with some meager food and coffee. He worked eight grueling hours removing material around his brother’s upper body, to no avail. By then, the word had gotten out to the wider world. Reporters, photographers, both still and motion picture, and others began to accumulate about the entrance of Sand Cave. Miller, weighing only 120 pounds on his slender 5-foot, 5-inch frame, overcame his fear of the unknown and eventually made seven trips into the cave, taking food and drink to Floyd, interviewing him, and giving him some hope of rescue. Other men tried to reach Floyd, some leaving food and drink in nooks, never having reached the caver, their fear of the so-called “squeezes” canceling out their good intentions.
brought in other equipment. Johnny Gerald and others entered the cave to remove rock and gravel from around Floyd’s body. Emergency supplies, including a hospital tent manned by a Chicago physician, added to the increasingly professional atmosphere of the rescue efforts. Kentucky Gov. William J. Fields assigned Lt. Gov. Henry H. Denhardt, a brigadier general in the National Guard, to take command of the rescue efforts. In the midst of all this furor, the outsiders clashed with locals. Both sides thought they had better plans in extricating Collins. Miller tried a torch to attempt to burn away rock surrounding Collins and later unsuccessfully used an automobile jack. When part of the entrance to Sand Cave collapsed, Gerald and a crew of local men helped clear the narrowing passageway. However, none of these efforts helped Collins. As time wore on, his spirits and body weakened. Roy Hyde, a 100-pound miner as well as a minister, squirmed his way as far as possible into the ever-more dangerous, narrowing passageway. He made voice contact with Collins, attempting to give him hope of rescue. “Don’t give up, Floyd; don’t give up. We’re coming!” Perhaps already sensing his death, Collins replied: “You’re too slow … too slow.”*** Though warmed by the lightbulb and possibly drinking water dripping near him, Collins weakened. With Denhardt now in complete control, outsiders hatched a new plan, one based on science, technology and the can-do attitude of the ’20s. On Feb. 5, Henry T. Carmichael of the Kentucky Rock Asphalt ••• quarry brought in a crew The final resting place of William Floyd Collins and heavy equipment and The crowd swelled as began creating a vertical newspapers and radio shaft parallel to Collins, stations got the word out. Rescue plans were developed hoping to rescue him in a few days. Other companies, hastily. A Louisville fire department official hatched an idea including L&N Railroad, sent supplies or provided of fitting Floyd with a leather harness and hoisting him out. transportation and logistical support. Professor William D. However, once the harness was attached to his body, he Funkhouser, a University of Kentucky scientist, came to cried out in excruciating pain as the rope tightened, and share his expertise. Young men from nearby Western the plan was abandoned. As a stopgap measure, an electric Kentucky State Normal School and Vanderbilt University light was rigged up and suspended onto Floyd’s chest, volunteered their labor, as local people were now giving him some immediate warmth in the cave’s constant completely sidelined from the rescue efforts. The experts 54-degree temperature. had taken over, leaving locals, including Floyd’s family and As the size of the crowd increased, so did drinking and local cavers, on the sidelines. rowdiness, and National Guardsmen from two nearby The carnival atmosphere intensified as publicity towns were called in to maintain the peace. Workers circulated far and wide. On site, you could purchase a 42
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5-cent hamburger from a mobile stand. Other vendors took chains secured the casket, visitors paid a tip to look at up station, including one selling balloons. Of course, as you Collins’ waxy white face into the 1950s. would expect in rural Kentucky, illegal moonshine could be Is there an end to this story? Floyd Collins, in fact and found. Evangelists vied for a hearing among the crowd. At legend, never died. Skeets Miller won a Pulitzer Prize in one time, cars were parked for 4 miles in each direction on journalism for his coverage of the Collins tragedy and went the muddy side roads, with perhaps as many as 2,000 to work for a New York newspaper and later radio. Miller spectators hoping to see Collins. Of course, he was out of even appeared as a guest on some television programs. It was sight underground, and all they saw were glimpses of the not until 1989 that Collins, treated as a commodity by the rescue effort and folks like themselves in a misplaced media and others for more than 64 years, would find a final holiday experience. resting place in Mammoth Cave Baptist Church cemetery. The media became insatiable. Cameras flashed, and film This is considered the fifth and final burial of Collins. for newsreels for silent movie screens was flown out of a Several books have been written about Floyd Collins but nearby field. The Chicago Tribune published a picture of a none better than the authoritative Trapped! The Story of Floyd supposed girlfriend along with other stories. Rumors Collins. The latest book, The Floyd Collins Tragedy at Sand Cave circulated that all this was a hoax, a well-formed publicity by John Benton, Bill Napper and Bob Thompson, is short stunt, with Collins exiting the cave at night by a hidden on text but has an excellent set of photographs. They, back entrance. unlike other sources, maintain that Charles Lindbergh did Fields ordered a court of military inquiry held in Cave not fly film out of a nearby field. City, even as final rescue efforts were being made. Local Although a movie about Collins’ ordeal has been people, as well as outsiders, argued over who had the best mentioned several times, it was never produced. The 1951 chance of reaching Collins. melodrama, Ace in the Hole, with Kirk Douglas starring, only “Kentuckian Rescued from Cave,” ran an erroneous slightly resembles the Kentucky story. An outdoor drama, headline in the Sunday Louisville Herald-Post. However, the The Death of Floyd Collins, ran for several years in Brownsville. frenzied effort to sink the shaft to Horse Cave Theater featured a play, save Collins’ life failed, if for no Time and the Rock, briefly in 1981. A other reason than it had been musical, Floyd Collins, was performed started too late and was slowed by in Philadelphia in 1994 for several bad weather. With no word from weeks. Native Kentuckian Robert Collins and no food or water Penn Warren in 1959 published a successfully sent to him, workers loosely drawn version of Collins’ finally broke through from the story in his novel, The Cave. Other lateral tunnel on Feb. 16. Three articles have been published from witnesses, including Dr. William time to time. Hazlett, declared that Collins had The last verse of the “Death of been dead for several days. The Floyd Collins” folk song ends next day, an effort was made to mournfully, as you would expect. take a picture of the now officially dead spelunker, but it proved to be “It may not be a sand cave faked.**** With Floyd officially In which we find our tomb declared dead, a funeral service, considered the first, was held above But at the bar of Judgement ground on a nearby hillside on We too must meet our doom.” February 17. Several weeks later, a team of The authors of Trapped gave rather intrepid men, all miners, similar sage advice for cavers. Never used another lateral tunnel to get to go alone into a cave, always wear a Floyd’s mud-caked body, somewhat hard hat, always have at least three preserved by the cool temperature sources of light, and always tell of the cavern. After finally being others where you are going. extracted from the cave on April 23, Eventually, it was proven, as Collins was embalmed and buried, Collins had suspected, that all the for the second time, on the Collins caverns in the region are farm on April 26. The headstone A vintage postcard advertising Collins’ memorial interconnected with Mammoth read: “The Greatest Cave Explorer as a tourist attraction Cave, making it the longest cave Ever Known.” system in the world. More than 390 miles have been mapped, and ••• experts believe that it may extend to as many as 560 miles. For more information on the cave system, visit the Sand Cave became a tourist attraction only because of National Cave Museum in Park City or other sites in or the Collins story. More than one person purchased the near Mammoth Cave. alleged 27-pound rock that had trapped him. “Sand Cave Where Floyd Collins Was Trapped” ran the advertisement * Murray and Brucker, Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins, 248. on a barn. For 25 cents, including 2 cents’ tax, you could ** Richmond Register, March 11, 2006. view a few items of Collins’ as well as the rock, but few *** Murray and Brucker, 127. people stopped. **** John Benton, Bill Napper, and Bob Thompson, The Floyd In 1927, the Collins family sold what had become known Collins Tragedy at Sand Cave. This book in the Images of as Floyd Collins’ Crystal Cave to a Cave City dentist, Dr. America series remains the most up-to-date story of this iconic event. Harry Thomas. As part of the deal, Collins’ body was disinterred and put on display in the cave with a glassReaders may contact Bill Ellis at editor@kentuckymonthly.com topped coffin. Once, his body was stolen by vandals. After O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CULTURE
Off the Shelf
(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback
A PRIVATE LIFE James Still: A Life By Carol Boggess University Press of Kentucky $40 (C) One might ponder what impetus brought iconic people like Thomas Clark and James Still to Kentucky from the Deep South. Historian Clark migrated from Mississippi, and Appalachian writer Still from Alabama. What we know is that Clark’s genius was recognized early, and perhaps only in the last few decades has River of Earth author Still truly gained iconic recognition as one who mastered the art of portraying universal elements of truth within a regional story. Then, there was the person of Jim Still, too. In a meticulously researched and fairly presented biography, author Carol Boggess offers James Still: A Life. It’s for readers to decide who he really was. By now, we already know how he wrote. Still, who lived a good portion of his life in a secluded cabin in Knott County and worked at the Hindman Settlement School, is, in some ways, hard
Romantic Dilemma
Reliving Simpler Times
Adolescent Cruelty
This steamy romance novel takes readers to Cancun, as beautiful Jessica ponders her fate. Should Surrender she marry her By Susan K. rich, but egoMorgan driven fiancé in Ingramelliott two weeks, $10.99 (P) which is what everyone seems to want her do? Or should she pursue the handsome man who has befriended her on the trip? Jessica usually does as she’s told, and both her domineering mother and forceful fiancé are telling her the wedding is paid for and will take place as planned. But as she traipses around Mexico with Daniel, a man she just met, Jessica begins to realize what true love really looks like. Romance, consequences and some daring love scenes all make Surrender a fun read. Writing under the pseudonym of Susan K. Morgan, Susan Edwards is the owner of the crystal store and metaphysical resource center Wildhair Studios’ Rock Shop in Paducah.
This collection of short stories takes readers back to Memphis, in the 1960s and ’70s, when Laughter and kids and Early Sorrow: And families faced Other Stories situations By Brett Busang Open Books without the $15.95 (P) crutch of a smartphone or Google. Each story introduces characters you feel like you know, almost as if they were from an episode of Leave It to Beaver or perhaps lived near the family in The Wonder Years. Life deals the cards, and the situation is handled usually with some humor or mischief woven into the story. This book is easy to read and a welcome taste of the past and simpler times. This enjoyable book is by Brett Busang, an essayist and playwright who grew up in Memphis and now lives in Washington, D.C. He also penned a novel, I Shot Bruce, based loosely on Pete Best, The Beatles’ drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr.
— Deborah Kohl Kremer
— Deborah Kohl Kremer
This powerful debut novel takes readers into the nasty, brutish world of adolescent Lords of the bullies. Set in Schoolyard 1970s suburbia, By Ed Hamilton it explores the Sagging troubled Meniscus Press friendship $19.95 (P) between two antisocial teenagers, Tommy and Johnny, who devote themselves to tormenting their teachers and fellow students. Told from Tommy’s perspective, the narrative generates great emotional and psychological intimacy. Readers experience Tommy’s cruel, bored world firsthand, and author Ed Hamilton, who grew up in Louisville, makes it a harrowing experience indeed. Although Tommy comes from a solid, middle-class family, he lacks values. He loves life, but hates school, disrespects authority and has no religious faith, ambitions or hobbies. Tommy is savagely witty, which makes Lords of the Schoolyard uncomfortable and shocking. The harrowing immersion into the adolescent mind begs the question: Where do young men like this come from? There is no simple answer.
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to figure. He is shown as a private sort, yet is known to have regaled both small and larger audiences as an oral storyteller. His relationship with noted writer and contemporary Jesse Stuart appears mixed, running warm and cool. At varying times, he disdained and sought publicity for his work. Aside from the friendship author Boggess gained with Still in his later years, the book relies on a voluminous number of sources, including letters, journal entries and interviews that turn over a lot of stones for anxious observers. It’s a definitive work, but Boggess lets us do the defining. — Steve Flairty
BOOKENDS Prolific novelist Abigail Keam, also a professional beekeeper who lives in central Kentucky, adds another volume to her Josiah Reynolds Mystery Series with Death by Design. This one starts in New York City, when Josiah hears her name called while walking down 75th street. The caller is Bunny Witt, and Josiah has been recommended as one who might help her solve the problem of a person stalking her. Back to Lexington a few murders later, things are bewilderingly difficult to shake out for Ms. Reynolds, herself a pretty complex figure. But then, there must be a good reason for the staying power of the series. Published by Worker Bee Press, Death by Design sell for $15.
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Bitch: A Definitive & Restorative Guide, by Lexington native Arnette Wright Travis, takes a serious look at how and why “bitch” has become a synonym for women. The book addresses an inherent cultural bias against strong women and examines how this bias has led to where we find ourselves today—a society that considers women second-class citizens and subhuman. Even those who embrace the derogation acknowledge the continued negative connation of being a bitch. Published by Putnam & Smith Publishing Company, the paperback volume retails for $16.95.
Grow your knowledge and your business as a member of the Kentucky Primary Care Association. The KPCA is committed to improving access to comprehensive, community-oriented primary healthcare services for the underserved.
Contact KPCA today to find out how membership could benefit you. 502-227-4379 • www.kypca.net O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
45
OUTDOORS
Field Notes
Historic Cherokee BY GARY GARTH
T
he tree-lined access road off U.S. Hwy. 68 near Aurora winds through the softly rolling terrain for about a mile until it comes to an open gate. A side road veers to the right for a couple hundred yards, then forks. The right fork ends at a picnic pavilion; the left bends slightly downhill toward the bluff, where it stops in front of a couple of in-need-of-repair cabins perched on the edge of Kentucky Lake. One cabin has been reduced to a storage facility. The other houses a park worker. What the place lacks in updates is more than made up for by its location. The view is dazzling. I turn around and drive past what was once probably the superintendent’s house but now is used for storage and turn through an open gate. The road tops a hill, and the lake fills the windshield. The surroundings have a rejuvenated feel. The original dining hall has been renovated without loss of its rustic charm, renamed the Richard H. Lewis Lodge, and has become a popular venue for weddings or other gatherings. The front door is locked, but the linen-covered tables are evidence that it recently has been or will soon be in use. Adjacent to the lodge and overlooking the lake, the area around a tiered, concrete pavilion has been cleared of trees, saplings and other brushy overgrowth and again offers a stunning view, including, at a distance, the new four-lane highway 68/80 bridge spanning Kentucky Lake. A trail from the pavilion skirts the lakeshore and may once have led to the scattering of cabins that dotted the hillside. In front of the lodge, there’s ample parking. The road ends at the concrete boat ramp, which is long and unusually steep. A late-model Toyota attached to an empty boat trailer is parked near the ramp. A car with Tennessee license plates circles the parking lot, then stops in the lower parking. A man and woman exit and wander over to a stone and iron grill precariously anchored near the lip of the bluff. It’s a 30-foot drop to the rock and slate shore. The grill might be a remnant of an original cabin site. The man pulls out a smartphone and clicks a couple of photos of the lake, which is nearly void of boat traffic on a sunny weekday afternoon. Cherokee State Park is a beautiful spot that includes 300 acres perched on the western shore of the big lake like a bird on a wire. It also has a troubling past.
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Kentuckians have every reason to preserve, visit, use and enjoy this place but no reason to be proud of this spot. The historic marker at the entrance tells the tale of Cherokee State Park succinctly: “Known as the state park for Kentucky’s ‘Negro’ citizens. Cherokee Park was a product of ‘Jim Crow’ segregation. Built when African Americans fought to integrate recreation facilities in Louisville and other parts of Kentucky. Some thought park overdue. Others thought Cherokee an obstacle to full equality. Proposed in 1946 & opened in 1951, the only state park in Kentucky developed for African Americans. Closed by 1964, after Gov. Combs 1963 Exec. Order ended segregation in public facilities. 300 acres, beach, rental cottages, kitchen & dining hall, & picnic area. 2000 attended opening. Black families near and far vacationed here.” According to the University of Kentucky’s Notable Kentucky African American database, nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/ items/show/1430, when Cherokee opened in 1951, it was only the third segregated park for African Americans in the United States and included a beach, cottages, boat and fishing docks, picnic areas, a bathhouse and a 200-seat dining hall. It was advertised and promoted as “the finest colored vacation spot in the South.” Today, Cherokee is part of neighboring Kenlake State Resort Park, one of the jewels of Kentucky’s state park system but, like Cherokee, it has its own segregation stain. Until Gov. Combs’ 1963 executive order, Kenlake was for only white visitors. But change was coming. Combs’ order effectively closed the only park built for, and up until then, legally open to black Kentuckians. The Tennessee Valley Authority owned the property, which has been leased to the Commonwealth. Most equipment and facilities that could be moved were shifted to neighboring Kenlake. The place fell into disrepair, but following a half-century of neglect, it re-opened in 2010. Today, of course, everyone is welcome. While America still sometimes struggles with its racially charged history, great strides have been made. Cherokee is worth a visit— both for what it was and what it is. More at parks.ky.gov/groups/find_locations/westernregion/kenlake.aspx. Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com
OUTDOORS
Gardening
Get the Best from Your Bulbs BY WALT REICHERT
S
pring bulbs like tulips, daffodils and crocus put on a fantastic show in early- to mid-spring, just when we most need some relief from winter. They need to be planted this month through early November, if you want to give them a chance to settle in their roots and be prepared to bloom their heads off come spring. Before we get into how best to plant and care for your bulbs, let’s first be clear what we’re talking about. Bulbs (the word can include those plants that technically are corms, rhizomes or tubers) are classified as tender or hardy. The tender bulbs— dahlias and cannas, for example—do not take well to cold weather and will need to be dug up, stored and replanted when the weather warms in spring. The hardy bulbs—tulips, daffodils, etc.—tolerate, and even need, a period of cold before they perform. These are the bulbs we’re discussing here.
Buy the Best It’s a “buyer beware” world out there when it comes to purchasing bulbs. It’s tempting to go for low prices, because bulbs look best if planted in drifts of larger quantities, but don’t try to skimp too much on price. Advertisements will appear everywhere this time of year with amazingly cheap prices on amazingly large numbers of bulbs. These generally are of small size, and maybe they will, maybe they won’t, bloom. Avoid them. Consider the old rule: If it sounds too good to be true … It’s best to buy bulbs like you would buy fruits or vegetables: one at a time. Look them over carefully, searching for any soft spots or signs of rot. A good bulb should feel comparatively heavy in the hand. Don’t be put off if the skin, usually paper-thin and brown, peels off or is missing from the bulb. It will still perform quite well. If you run out of time before getting all of the bulbs planted, remember that they will store quite well in the refrigerator. Just try to get them in the ground no later than Thanksgiving.
Planting Bulbs, especially tulips, perform poorly in Kentucky, and that is often because they are planted in a spot that drains poorly. It doesn’t help that they don’t like the heavy soils with which most of the Commonwealth is blessed. Bulbs planted in low places or in poorly draining sites will not bloom to their potential and often will rot over winter. Dig out the planting area to a depth of about 10 inches. Add some compost or other organic material to the first couple of inches. Plant tulips and other large bulbs about 7 or 8 inches deep, spaced about 6 inches apart. Smaller bulbs can be planted at a depth two to three times the diameter of the bulb and spaced more closely together.
To get a uniform show of blooms, it’s important to plant all of the same species, color, etc. at the same depth. After setting the bulbs, cover them to their tops with soil, water them, and then finish filling the hole with soil. You do not need to fertilize bulbs at planting; rather, add a complete fertilizer such as 10-10-10 in the spring, when the foliage starts to emerge. Then your job is to hope for a long, cool spring in 2019— just the opposite of what happened in 2018, when we went from winter to summer with about 30 seconds of spring. Bulbs last longer when the temperatures stay on the cool side—40 to 60 degrees. When the blooms are finished, you can remove the seed heads to channel more strength to the foliage. It is more important, however, to allow the foliage to turn yellow and die back naturally before removing it. Taking down the foliage prematurely with a weed whacker, for example, lessens the likelihood that the plants will bloom next year. Plants need foliage to feed the bulb down below. In three or four years, the plants may need to be dug up and the bulbs separated and replanted. That is especially likely with daffodils. You’ll know when because the blooms will decrease over time as the plants get crowded. Mark where the bulbs are when they bloom in spring and then dig them up in fall. Separate the bulbs and replant, and give some away, if you wish.
Hardy Bulbs Giant allium – Great for back of border, where other plants can hold up the huge blooms. Drumstick allium – Excellent cut flowers. Plant in large numbers. Glory of the snow – Small blooms, so plant in large numbers for good show. Crocus – Can be naturalized in the lawn. Bluebells – Tolerate wet areas and partial shade. Hyacinth – Does not increase in the garden. Expect to replant every two or three years. Tall bearded iris – Reblooming types are available. Siberian iris – Tolerates water and wet spots. Lily – Must have well-drained soil. Plant taller types in back of border. Grape hyacinth – Flowers have a pleasant fragrance. Daffodil (narcissus) – If you can have only one hardy bulb, get these. They come in many colors and forms. Tulip – Best treated as annuals in Kentucky. Rarely hold up more than two years, and often change colors. Readers can reach Walt Reichert at gardening@kentuckymonthly.com O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go
8
October SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1. 2. 4. 6. 3. 5. Ongoing The Curious American Big Bad The Lexington Kentucky Wool Lincoln Days, Works of Incident of the Women Code Voodoo Daddy, downtown School’s Festival, 48 Nikolaj Dog in the Breakers of Glema Mahr Hodgenville, Annual High Concord Caddo Christensen, Nighttime, WWII, Filson School Fair, The Center for the Arts, Road, Falmouth, through Oct. 7, Flame Run Actors Theatre, Historical Society, Lexington School, Madisonville, (270) 358-8710 through Oct. 7, Gallery, Louisville, Louisville, Louisville, (270) 824-8650 Lexington, (859) 654-3378 through Nov. 9 through Oct. 9, (502) 635-5083 (859) 278-0501 (502) 584-1205 9.
10.
11.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Ghost Hunt, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007
Independence Bank Sorghum Festival, Hancock County Fairground, Hawesville, through Oct. 21, (270) 927-1007
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
29.
30.
31.
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Jack-O-Lantern Fleetwood Spectacular, Mac, KFC Yum! Iroquois Park, Center, Louisville, Louisville, (502) 690-9000 through Nov. 3
Mary Todd Lincoln: First Lady of Controversy, Frazier History Museum, Louisville, (502) 753-5663
0
21.
28.
Snap Judgment Live, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777
Camp Spook, Fall Tree Walk, Levi Jackson Boone County Wilderness Road Arboretum, State Park Union, campground, (859) 384-4999 London, through Oct. 27, (606) 330-2130
Haunting of Burnside, Burnside Fire Department, Burnside, (606) 561-7117
2
More to explore online!
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Visit kentuckymonthly.com for additional content, including a calendar of events, feature stories and recipes.
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • O C TO B E R 2 0 1 8
Victorian Mourning Customs, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, through Oct. 18, (859) 272-3611
Joe Nichols Concert, Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, (606) 886-2623
Haint Nothin But Spirits Tour, downtown Lexington, (606) 548-2181
Halloween
Ongoing Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Stages for Being, UK Art Museum, Lexington, through Dec. 9, (859) 257-5716
12.
13.
Trigg County Turning of the Country Ham Leaves Festival, Festival, Augusta, downtown Cadiz, through Oct. 14, through Oct. 13, (606) 756-2183 (270) 522-8756
20.
Halloween Creatures of Spooktacular, the Night After downtown Dark Hike, John Bardstown, James Audubon (502) 348-4877 State Park, Henderson, (270) 826-4424
Let’s Go!
A guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events Bluegrass Region
Ongoing Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Stages for Being, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, through Dec. 9, (859) 257-5716, finearts.uky.edu/art-museum Lexington Book Benches, downtown Lexington, through Nov. 29, bookbencheslex.org Every Picture Tells a Story, Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, through Dec. 14, henryclay.org October
3 The Lexington School’s Annual High School Fair, The Lexington School, Lexington, (859) 278-0501, buffaloseminary.org or thelexingtonschool.org 5 Seed to Feed Dinner Series, Old Friends Farm, Georgetown, localfeedky.com 5 The Westerlies Concert, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, (859) 236-4692, nortoncenter.com 5-6 Salvisa Ruritan Country Days Festival, Main Street, Salvisa, (859) 613-2333 5-7 Battle of Perryville Commemoration, Perryville Battlefield, Perryville, (859) 332-8631, parks.ky.gov 5-27 Fall Meet, Keeneland Race Course, Lexington, (859) 254-3412, keeneland.com 12 October Ghost Hunts, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 12 Chicago: the Musical, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com 12 Wheels of Time Cruise-in, downtown Lawrenceburg, (502) 598-3127 12-14 Boogie Nationals Car Show, Fort Boonesborough State Park, Richmond, (502) 863-3960, parks.ky.gov
12-14 Oktoberfest, Main Street, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-6811, downtownharrodsburg.com
State Park, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov
13 Bike Night, JVM Motorsports, Harrodsburg, (859) 613-2140
27 Halloween Field of Horror, Devine’s Corn Maze, Harrodsburg, (859) 613-6900, devinescornmaze.com
13 Survivor 1775, Fort Boonesborough State Park, Richmond, (502) 863-3960, parks.ky.gov 13 Jack Jouett House Restoration, Jack Jouett House, Versailles, (859) 873-7902 13 Capital Pride, Old State Capitol Lawn, Frankfort, capitalprideky.org 13-14 Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen Fall Fair, Indian Fort Theatre, Berea, (859) 986-3192, kyguild.org 14 Urban Loft Tour, downtown Winchester, (859) 737-0923, downtownwinchesterky.org 17-18 Victorian Mourning Customs, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 18 The Joymakers Gospel Concert, Sand Spring Baptist Church, Lawrenceburg, (502) 839-3415, sandspring.org 19-20 Ghost Walk, The Ripy House, Lawrenceburg, also Oct. 26-27 and 31, (502) 510-8777, kyghosttours.com 20 Bourbonanza, downtown Frankfort, downtownfrankfort.com 20 Bourbon Academy, Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, (859) 879-1939, woodfordreserve.com 20-21 The Ghosts of Pineville, Lexington Children’s Theatre, Lexington, (859) 254-4546, lctonstage.org 23 Tito Puente Jr. & Melina Almodovar Concert, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 25 Haint Nothin But Spirits Tour, downtown Lexington, (606) 548-2181, stonefencestours.com 26 Ghostly Tales, Old Parsonage of Andrew Tribble, Richmond, (859) 358-8427 26 Wizard of Oz, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, (859) 236-4692, nortoncenter.com 26-31 Haunted Frontier, Old Fort Harrod
31 Haunted Anderson Hotel, Old Anderson Hotel, Lawrenceburg, (502) 598-3127, hauntedlawrenceburg.com November
2 Rodney Crowell, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 2 Comedy of Errors, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, (859) 236-4692, nortoncenter.com 3 Anderson County Art Trail, various locations, Lawrenceburg, (502) 598-3127 3-4 Open Studios ARTTOUR, Main Street, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-7731, artscouncilofmercer.com 4 The Snowy Day, Lexington Children’s Theatre, Lexington, also Nov. 10-11, (859) 254-4546, lctonstage.org 8-11 Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll & Hyde Play, Carriage House Theatre, Lexington, also Nov. 15-18 and 22-25, (859) 257-4929, studioplayers.org 9 Home Free Concert, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com 9-11 Disney’s Aladdin Jr., Leeds Center for the Arts, Winchester, also Nov. 16-18, (859) 744-6437, leedscenter.org 10 Rend Collective Concert, Asbury University, Wilmore, asbury.edu 10 Family Style Quail Supper, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, 1-800-734-5611, shakervillageky.org 11 Lexington Philharmonic CB Squared, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 233-4226, lexphil.org 11 Ben Sollee Concert, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 11 Bob Dylan Concert, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go Louisville Region
13 Dinner and Concert, Smith-Berry Winery, New Castle, (502) 845-7091, smithberrywinery.com 13-14 Arts, Crafts & Antiques Fair, downtown Bardstown, (502) 348-4877, bardstownmainstreet.com
Ongoing America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far Exhibit, Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, through Dec. 29, (502) 992-5334, alicenter.org
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2 American Women Code Breakers of WWII, Filson Historical Society, Louisville, (502) 635-5083, filsonhistorical.org
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October
1-9 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Actors Theatre, Louisville, (502) 584-1205, actorstheatre.org
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Works of Nikolaj Christensen, Flame Run Gallery, Louisville, through Nov. 9, flamerun.com
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3 Steely Dan Concert, Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, louisvillepalace.com 4 Danny Gokey Concert, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777,, kentuckycenter.org 5-7 St. James Court Art Show, Historic Old Louisville, Louisville, (502) 635-1842, stjamescourtartshow.com 5-7 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shelby County Community Theatre, Shelbyville, also Dec. 12-14, (502) 633-0222, shelbytheatre.org 6-7 Lincoln Days, downtown Hodgenville, (270) 358-8710, lincolndays.org 9-31 Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, Iroquois Park, Louisville, through Nov. 3, iroquoisamphitheater.com
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10 Fleetwood Mac, KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, (502) 690-9000, kfcyumcenter.com 12 A Symphonic Celebration of Prince, Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, louisvillepalace.com 12-13 Garvin Gate Blues Festival, Old Louisville, (502) 445-4193, garvingatebluesfestival.com 13 Buffalo and Wild Game Buffet, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 13 Bourbon Excursion, My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, Bardstown, (502) 348-7300, kydinnertrain.com
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16 Mary Todd Lincoln: First Lady of Controversy, Frazier History Museum, Louisville, (502) 753-5663, fraziermuseum.org 17 Taste of Louisville, The Bourbon Hall, Louisville, thebourbonhall.com 20 Corn Island Storytelling Festival, Blackacre Conservancy, Louisville, (502) 266-9802, blackacreconservancy.org 20 Annual Car & Truck Show, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org 20 Glendale Crossing Festival, downtown Glendale, (270) 765-2175, glendalekentucky.com 23 Elton John: Farewell Yellow Brick Road, KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, (502) 690-9000, kfcyumcenter.com 25 Lake Street Dive, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, kentuckycenter.org 26 Halloween Spooktacular, downtown Bardstown, (502) 348-4877, bardstownmainstreet.com 27 Bark at the Moon Halloween Bash, The Bourbon Hall, Louisville, thebourbonhall.com 27 Witches Night Out, Kentucky Expo Center, Louisville, (502) 552-2025, witchesnightoutlouisville.org 28 Snap Judgment Live, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, kentuckycenter.org 30 Boz Scaggs Concert, Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, louisvillepalace.com November
1 Civil War and Antebellum Costumes & Fabrics, Oldham County History Center, La Grange, (502) 222-0826, oldhamcountyhistoricalsociety.org 2 Stairway to Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin Tribute, Mercury Ballroom, Louisville, (502) 583-4555, mercuryballroom.com 3 Ft. Knox FCU Concert Series Presents Mark Chesnutt, Historic State Theatre, Elizabethtown, (270) 234-8258, touretown.com
4 Louisville Orchestra Presents Harry Potter, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, kentuckycenter.org
Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, (859) 431-6216, kyso.org
Northern Region
13-14 Turning of the Leaves Festival, Augusta, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com
9 Brothers Osborne, Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, louisvillepalace.com 9 The Louisville Soul Music Fest, KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, (502) 690-9000, kfcyumcenter.com 10 Dining on the Rails, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org
5-7 Kentucky Wool Festival, 48 Concord Caddo Road, Falmouth, (859) 654-3378, kywoolfest.org
10 Lynyrd Skynyrd Concert, KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, (502) 690-9000, kfcyumcenter.com
6-7 Fleming County Court Days, downtown Flemingsburg, (606) 845-1223, flemingcountycourtdays.com
10 Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, kentuckycenter.org
6-7 Monterey Homecoming Fair, downtown Monterey, (502) 330-4553
11 Veterans Day Program: The Music of WWI, Oldham County History Center, La Grange, (502) 222-0826, oldhamcountyhistoricalsociety.org 11-18 Military Appreciation Days, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org 13 Joe Bonamassa Concert, Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, louisvillepalace.com
19-21 Salt Festival, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Union, (859) 384-3522, parks.ky.gov
October
20-21 Death and Dying, Dinsmore Plantation, Burlington, (859) 586-6117, dinsmorefarm.org 20-27 Paranormal House & Cemetery Tours, Butler-Turpin House, Carrollton, (502) 525-0607, parks.ky.gov 23 Fall Tree Walk, Boone County Arboretum, Union, (859) 384-4999, bcarboretum.org
12 Cinema in the Cemetery, Linden Grove Cemetery, Covington, (859) 261-5539, historiclindengrove.org 13 Kentucky Gateway Museum Center Limestone Building and Old Pogue Experience Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, KYGMC Limestone Building, Maysville, (606) 564-5865, kygmc.org 13 Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond La Mer, Greaves Concert Hall,
27-28 Halloween Family Weekend, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov November
2 Fall Ladies Nite, MainStrasse Village, Covington, mainstrasse.org 3-4 In Love and Warcraft, Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Covington, also Nov. 8-11 and 16-18, (859) 957-1940, thecarnegie.com
Kentucky Gateway Museum Center
215 Sutton Street
Maysville, KY 41056
606-564-5865
www.kygmc.org
Open Tuesday – Saturday 10am to 4pm
History, Heritage, and Tradition Join us on Saturday, October 13 at 11:00am for the KYGMC Limestone Building and Old Pogue Experience Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Grand Opening Celebration.
KYGMC Limestone Building
Corner of Sutton and Second Streets
Downtown Maysville
Old Pogue Experience and Bourbon History Exhibits open Tuesday – Saturday 11:00am to 3:00pm
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go
Western Region
26-27 Spooky Extravaganza, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov 26-28 Un-BOO-lievable Weekend, Columbus-Belmont State Park campground, Columbus, (270) 677-2327, parks.ky.gov
Ongoing Bale Trail, various locations in Todd County, (270) 265-7070, through Nov. 4, ExploreToddCounty.com October
1 Chamber Music Series, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 824-8650, glemacenter.org 4 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 824-8650, glemacenter.org 5-6 Fall Photography Weekend, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov 5-6 Haunting of Hill House, Purchase Players Performing Arts Center, Mayfield, (270) 251-9035, purchaseplayers.com
27 Creatures of the Night After Dark Hike, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, (270) 826-4424, parks.ky.gov November
1 Turn-the-Page Tour, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, (270) 826-4424, parks.ky.gov 1-4 River’s Edge International Film Festival, Maiden Alley Cinema, Paducah, (270) 442-7723, maidenalleycinema.com 9 Infamous Stringdusters, International Bluegrass Music Museum, Owensboro, (270) 926-7891, bluegrassmuseum.org
Southern Region
12-13 Trigg County Country Ham Festival, downtown Cadiz, (270) 522-8756, gocadiz.com 12-13 Civil War Days, Columbus-Belmont State Park, Columbus, (270) 677-2327, parks.ky.gov 13 WWE Presents NXT Live! Owensboro Sportscenter, Owensboro, (270) 297-9932, owensborotickets.com 14 United States Air Force Band of Mid America, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 824-8650, glemacenter.org 19-20 Bacon, Blues & Big Stories Festival, Mahr Park, Madisonville, (270) 824-2100 19-21 Octoberfest, Maiden Alley Cinema, Paducah, (270) 442-7723, maidenalleycinema.com 20 The Bluegrass Bombdiggity, Lu-Ray Park & Amphitheater, Central City, (270) 754-5097, cityofcentralcityky.com 20-21 Independence Bank Sorghum Festival, Hancock County Fairground, Hawesville, (270) 927-1007, 1776bank.com
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13 Halloween at the Park, Old Mulkey Meetinghouse State Historic Site, Tompkinsville, (270) 487-8481, parks.ky.gov 14 Taste of Monroe, Old Mulkey Meetinghouse State Historic Site, Tompkinsville, (270) 487-8481, parks.ky.gov 19-20 Foothills Festival, downtown Albany, (606) 387-8724 19-21 Dracula, Historic Plaza Theatre, Glasgow, (270) 361-2101, faroffbroadwayplayers.com 19-28 Arsenic and Old Lace – Live on Stage, Historic Star Theater, Russell Springs, (270) 866-7827, startheater.org 22 Orchestra Kentucky Celebrates Arthur Fiedler, Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com 26-28 Halloween Campout, Nolin Lake State Park, Mammoth Cave, (270) 286-4240, parks.ky.gov
7 HarvestFest, Elkton, (270) 265-7070 12 A Tribute to Merle Haggard, Kentucky Opry, Benton, (270) 527-3869, kentuckyopry.com
13 Bowling Green Bourbon and Brewfest, Bowling Green Ballpark, Bowling Green, (270) 883-0368, bgbrewfest.com
Ongoing Kaleidoscope: Kentucky Museum Quilts, Kentucky Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, through Dec. 18, (270) 745-2592, wku.edu/kentuckymuseum October
1-18 Stickwork Sculptures Exhibit, Kentucky Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, (270) 745-2592, wku.edu/kentuckymuseum
27 JUNK’tion Market, Historic Railpark & Train Museum, Bowling Green, (270) 745-7317, historicrailpark.com 30 Haunting of Burnside, Burnside Fire Department, Burnside, (606) 561-7117 November
3 Orchestra Kentucky Celebrates Frankie Valli, Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com
Eastern Region
4-31 UnSeen BG – Haunted Downtown Walking Tour, Historic Railpark & Train Museum, Bowling Green, through Nov. 3, (270) 745-7317, historicrailpark.com 6 Metcalfe County Pumpkin Festival and 5K, Court House Lawn, Edmonton, (270) 432-3222 8 Chicago: The Musical, Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com 11 Bryan White Concert, Center for Rural Development, Somerset, (606) 677-6000, centertech.com 12-13 Downtown Days, Columbia, (270) 384-2501
October
5 First Friday Live & Car Show, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 5 Outdoor Family Adventure, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Corbin, 1-800-325-0063, parks.ky.gov 5-20 Haunted Trail, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Olive Hill, 1-800-325-0059, parks.ky.gov
6 Cumberland Valley Cruise-In, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Corbin, cumberlandvalleycruisein.com 12-13 Camper Halloween Weekend 1, Greenbo Lake State Resort Park campgrounds, Greenup, (606) 473-7324, parks.ky.gov 12-15 Court Days, downtown, Mt. Sterling, mtsterlingcourtdays.com 13 OYO Arts & Music Festival, Ashland riverport, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 13-14 Elk Viewing Tour, Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, Prestonsburg, (606) 889-1790, park.ky.gov 18 Joe Nichols Concert, Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, (606) 886-2623, macarts.com 19 Ghost Hunt, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com 22-27 Camp Spook, Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park campground, London, (606) 330-2130, parks.ky.gov 26 All Hallow’s Eve Bash, Bellefonte Pavilion, Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 26 Dracula, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com 26-27 Halloween Murder Mystery Weekend, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Corbin, 1-800-325-0063, parks.ky.gov 27 Victorian Tea & Fashion Show, Highlands Museum, Ashland, (606) 329-8888, highlandsmuseum.com 31 Rocky Horror Picture Show, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com November
2 Forever Plaid, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com 3 Diamond Rio Concert, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com
For additional Calendar items or to submit an event, please visit kentuckymonthly.com. Submissions must be sent at least 90 days prior to the event.
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go
Book your overnight stay or event today!
BED & BREAKFAST AND RETREAT CENTER
the Historic Headquarters of Frontier Nursing Service in Wendover, KY, original log cabin home of Pioneer Nurse-Midwife Mary Breckinridge. (859) 899-2707 | frontier.edu/wendover Designated a National Historic Landmark
“Your Holiday Shopping & Dining Destination” • • • • •
Mens Clothing Riding Apparel Home Decor Art Gallery Photography Gallery
• • • • •
Ladies Boutiques Antiques Leather Goods Western Wear Framing Gallery
Six Fabulous Restaurants!
• • • • •
Candy Shop Soda Fountain Wine & Spirits Jewelry Gifts & Toys
Appetizer, Meal, and Beverage Features!
NOVEMBER 3RD – Holiday “Kick Off” – Free Mini Train Rides noon to 4pm. Sidewalk Craft Vendors and Kid’s Activities. NOVEMBER 17TH – “Charity Chili Cookoff” – Starts at Noon. Sample 20+ Chili recipes. $5.00 supports Midway Ministerial Association. NOVEMBER 24TH – “SANTA ARRIVES” – at 11am by R.J. CORMAN TRAIN! Visit with Santa till 3pm. Free Mini Train Rides noon to 4pm. Sidewalk Craft Vendors and Kid’s Activities. Balloon Artist. DECEMBER 8TH – “Model Train Exhibit” – 10am to 5pm. Free Admission, G Scale Model Train Exhibit. Free Mini Train Rides noon till 4pm. Midway Business Association
Farm House Inn Bed & Breakfast
735 Taylor Branch Road, Parkers Lake (606) 376-7383 www.farmhouseinnbb.com
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WWW.MEETMEINMIDWAY.COM
STATEMENT OF OWENERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION: 1) Publication Title: Kentucky Monthly, 2) Publication No.: 1542-0507, 3) Filing Date: Oct. 1, 2018, 4) Issue Frequency: 10-times, 5) No. of Issues Published Annually: 10, 6) Annual Subscription Price: $20, 7-8) Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication & Address of Headquarters: 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601-8489, 9) Full Name & Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor & Managing Editor: Stephen M. Vest, PO Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559, 10) Owner: Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane., Frankfort, KY 40601-8489. Shareholders owning at least 1%: Barbara K. & Stephen M. Vest, 1001 Silver Creek Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601; Marjorie Vest, 9251 Stonestreet Road, Louisville, KY 40272; Michael & Mary Embry, 152 Skyview Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601; Mary Jo Ratliff, PO Box 1347, Pikeville, KY 41502; Christopher & Marie Shake, 2165 Cypress Landing Drive, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233; Jack E. Dixon, PO Box 128, Napoleon, IN 47034; Thomas H. & Judy Harris, 1713 Parkridge Parkway, Louisville, KY 40214; Ted Sloan, 1067 Macland Street, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342; Walter B. Norris, 418 Northridge Drive, Lexington, KY 40505; Carl D. Moreland, Frankfort, KY 40601, Kendall C. Shelton, 204 Denison Way, Frankfort, KY 40601, Barbara Ann & Pete Chiericozzi, 2255 Oregon Road, Salvisa, KY 40372, Dr. Alfred Jensen, 3715 Glen Bluff Road, Louisville, KY 40222, O.W. Gaunce, 113 W Public Sq, Ste 200, Glasgow, KY 42141 11) Known Bondholders, Mortgagees & Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: Harold Fletcher, 95 Pine Valley Lane, Rotunda West, FL 33947, 12) For completion by nonprofit organizations or other securities: not applicable, 13) Publication Title: Kentucky Monthly, 14) Issue Date for Circulation Data: September 2018, 15A) Total No. of Copies. Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 35,000. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 37,000, 15B) 1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541. Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 17,665. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 18,021. 2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3578: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers & Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales & Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 386. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 3,920. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 3,920. 15C) Total Paid Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 21,971. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 21,941. 15D) 1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 12,215. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 13,759. 2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 15E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 15F) Total Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 34,186. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 35,700. 15G) Copies Not Distributed: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 814. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 1,300 15H) Total: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 35,000. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 37,000. 15I) Percent Paid: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 64.26%. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 61.45%. I certify that statements made above are correct & complete. Stephen M. Vest, Publisher & Editor.
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VOICES
Vested Interest
Rural Revelations or Princeton. Some of my most memorable relationships were forged in the rolling corn and soybean fields of the Green River Valley. It no longer amazes me when I run into one of these people in Chicago, New York or Owensboro. ••• Kentuckians are a more diverse lot than many might believe, and I’ve met some great ones—from eastern, western, northern and south- STEPHEN M. VEST ern Kentucky—along my Publisher & Editor-in-Chief journey, including a Hazard native who died in September after a courageous battle with cancer. y first job out of college was in a western Kentucky While driving in his funeral procession from town of 1,000 people, and I lived in a nearby town downtown Frankfort to the eastern edge of the county, I of 1,700, thinking the extra 700 would make some was struck by how nearly everyone pulled over to the kind of cultural difference. side of the road out of respect for Les, someone they may Before this two-year adventure, I had never lived in a or may not have known. place with a population fewer than 225,000. Like my mom, I It reminded me of a similar drive from Bardstown to was born in the city, and like my mom, I was raised in the Mount Washington a few years ago. A friend’s father, who city. My dad was born in the country, raised in the country was a Korean War veteran, had died, and as we processed and lived his adult life in the city. I was the opposite. I’ve to the cemetery, people not only pulled off to the side of lived most of my adult life in areas my city friends, and the U.S. Hwy. 31E, but others, such as people working in their people at DirecTV, call rural. yards, stopped and put their hands over their hearts or When the television show Northern Exposure came out in saluted when they saw from the motorcycle escort that it 1990, I pretended that it was based, in part, on my time in was a veteran passing by. what I called the Greater Calhoun-Livermore Metroplex. ••• For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Northern Growing up in the city, we were afraid of country Exposure was about a neurotic young doctor, Joel people. We all knew they were experts with firearms and Fleischman, who is sent from New York to the remote town could slay and fillet us with a dull pocketknife. Once in the of Cicely, Alaska, in order to pay off his student loans. country, I learned that they were afraid of city folk. They There, Fleischman, played by Rob Morrow, was surrounded knew that we were all gang affiliated, carrying switchblades by interesting characters who not only confounded him but and .38 specials, proving our preconceptions and prejudices challenged his unfounded beliefs about small-town living— are not limited to race or religion. kind of a modern take on Oliver Douglas’ role in Green Acres. The things I love about the city are the easy access to When I think of Calhoun, one of the people who comes health care, restaurants and entertainment. What I to mind is Harriet, a graphic designer who could lift me dislike: traffic and a pace that doesn’t always allow for above her head like a bale of hay. In one conversation, I said people to pull over or stop for processions without something about going somewhere and seeing something. risking a verbal barrage. “You need to understand,” Harriet said, “people around What I like about smaller towns is thinking I know the here are not like you. I was 21 years old before I ever went people around me. “You know,” said Agnes, my Livermore to the city.” landlord, “some people think we have fewer bad people in “The city?” I asked. “Where did you go? Chicago? small towns than in larger ones. Proportionally, I doubt New York?” that’s true—we just know who the bad ones are.” Maybe “Owensboro,” she said. being in a smaller place makes the good ones easier to ••• identify as well. My first rural exposure was a memorable one. Yes, I met a man who rode around town whipping his bicycle with a riding crop, but for every one of those, I met someone else Readers, and those looking for a speaker for a church or civic group, who had graduated with honors from Vanderbilt, Harvard may contact Stephen M. Vest at steve@kentuckymonthly.com
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OCTOBER KWIZ ANSWERS: 1. C. Highway 1047 in northwestern Meade County is a loop through the area known as Big Bend; 2. B. Within the area known as the New Madrid Bend; 3. B. Hickman County; 4.. C. Kenny Rollins played at UK from 1942-43 and 1946-48, and Phil played at UofL from 1952-56; 5. C. Pulitzer Prize in 1968; 6. A. Lewisport in Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Abraham Lincoln; 7. A. Groves left Kentucky with 90 cents to his name and eventually had a 22-room mansion; 8. C. The world’s largest prefabricated church steeple (229 feet) was made in Campbellsville; 9. B. “Hands up”; 10. C. Mary Lou Turner reached the charts four times with Anderson and twice on her own in the 1970s. 56
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and participating in other visual arts therapies can alleviate distress and decease depression and pain in cancer patients. *American for the Arts 2009 State of the Field Report
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www. a r t s co u n c i l . ky.g ov
“Amazing, Informative and Fun” A TripAdvisor traveler review. Aug. 27, 2018
Musical robots. Giant rolls of steel. Skilled Kentuckians making America’s best-selling car. You can see it all on a free, tram-driven tour of the world’s largest Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.
See For Yourself
1.800.866.4485