KENTUCKY’S 225TH ANNIVERSARY J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
KENTUCKY FOLK OPERA MANHOOD JOURNEY URBAN CHICKENS
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In This Issue 35
28 Departments 2 Kentucky Kwiz 4 Mag on the Move 6 Across Kentucky 8 Curiosities Casa Caboose 9 Music Steve Walters 14 24 Hours in … Frankfort 49 Kentucky Travel Industry Association’s Signature Summer Events 50 Off The Shelf 54 Field Notes 55 Gardening 56 Calendar
Featured Fare 19 Kentucky’s 225th Anniversary
As the Commonwealth celebrates this milestone, Kentucky Monthly takes a look at eight key industries
28 Capturing the Capitol
Photographer Thorney Lieberman presents the stately magnificence of Kentucky’s Capitol
35 Urban Squawk
Backyard poultry provide much more than fresh eggs
40 Corn Opera
Silas House and Sam Gleaves celebrate food and community in a new production
44 Two for Ten
Voices
3 Readers Write 52 Past Tense/ Present Tense
Pioneer Playhouse presents two Kentucky Voices performances this summer
46 Boys —> Men
Louisville-based Manhood Journey and Trail Life USA partner to help involve fathers with sons
72 Vested Interest
8
ON THE COVER
Photo byThorney Lieberman
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.
6. The original play Chicago, produced in 1926, was written by Louisvilleborn Maurine Dallas Watkins, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Watkins attended five different colleges, including which Kentucky school?
1. Of the following, who was not a Kentucky Colonel?
B. Alice Lloyd College
A. Bellarmine University C. Transylvania University
A. Colonel Harland David Sanders B. Colonel Elvis Presley C. Colonel George Armstrong Custer 2. Which governor issued the least number of Kentucky Colonelships? A. Ruby Laffoon B. Keen Johnson C. Steve Beshear 3. While the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels was not formed until 1932, which governor is credited with starting the Colonel tradition? A. Thomas Metcalfe B. Edwin P. Morrow C. Isaac Shelby 4. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., the son of Gov. Simon Bolivar Buckner, was— like his father—born in Munfordville. A lieutenant general during World War II, he is best remembered for which of the following? A. Being the only son of a Confederate general to rise to the rank of general in the United States Army B. Being the highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed by enemy fire C. Pitching a perfect game in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers
7. When Adm. David Farragut uttered the command, “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead,” he was addressing which notable Kentuckian? A. James Edward Jouett of Lexington, known as “Fighting Jim Jouett of the American Navy” B. Husband E. Kimmel of Henderson, later the commander at Pearl Harbor C. James Lawrence, the namesake of Lawrenceburg, best known today for his dying words, “Don’t give up the ship.”
A. Hot Spot B. Republican C. Carbon Glow 9. Although formally established by the House of Burgesses after Boonesborough (1774) was settled and not incorporated by the Kentucky Legislature until 1836, which Kentucky city usually is considered the oldest city in Kentucky and has been honored as the oldest permanent settlement west of the Appalachians? A. Danville B. Maysville C. Harrodsburg 10. While the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta hosts the Quaker State 400 on July 8, which other Commonwealth is actually known by the Quaker moniker?
A. Henderson
B. Massachusetts
C. Hawesville
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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
© 2017, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty, Issue 5, June/July 2017 STEPHEN M. VEST, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Editorial PATRICIA RANFT, Associate Editor DEBORAH KOHL KREMER, Assistant Editor MADELYNN COLDIRON and TED SLOAN, Contributing Editors REBECCA REDDING, Art Director JESSICA PATTON, Graphic Designer Senior Kentributors JACKIE HOLLENKAMP BENTLEY, ANNETTE CABLE, BILL ELLIS, STEVE FLAIRTY, GARY GARTH, CYNTHIA GRISOLIA, RACHAEL GUADAGNI, JESSE HENDRIX-INMAN, ABBY LAUB, WALT REICHERT, GARY P. WEST
Marketing and Circulation BARBARA KAY VEST, Business Manager
Advertising JULIE MOORE, Senior Account Executive MISTEE BROWNING, Account Manager
8. Which is not the name of a town in Letcher County?
5. Roxie Hart, portrayed by Ginger Rogers in a 1942 film and Renée Zellweger in the 2002 musical Chicago, was inspired by Beulah May Annan, who was born in which Ohio River city? B. Owensboro
Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth
A. Delaware C. Pennsylvania
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, 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. Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned. Kentucky Monthly is printed and distributed by Publishers Press, Shepherdsville, Ky.
www.kentuckymonthly.com (888) 329-0053 P.O. Box 559 100 Consumer Lane Frankfort, KY 40601
VOICES
Readers Write
KENTUCKY IS EVERYWHERE!
My parents and I absolutely love Kentucky Monthly magazine. It’s one of our favorite publications to read each and every month. Please keep up the great work! In reference to your article in the March 2017 edition that featured your “seeing Kentucky in everything” phenomenon (page 64), I’ve attached a photo I captured a few years ago. While investigating a small cave just outside of Bardstown, I snapped some photos from the inside looking out, and I believe you’ll definitely “see” the outline of the Bluegrass State in the cave opening. I didn’t even notice this until I got home and started looking at the photos on my computer. Jeff Mattingly, Louisville Editor’s Note: Jeff Mattingly’s Kentucky cave image appears at top right, along with photos from observant readers with Lexington’s Shannon Lamp Service (center) and Bill Loney (bottom). APRIL APRECIATION
Thank you so much for the April 2017 issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine. I enjoyed it from cover to cover. I appreciate that whiskey was not the main subject. Our state is bursting with people and places of interest that appeal to all of our citizens. I love Kentucky. It is a special place. Please continue to inform and thrill us with all its wonders. Thank you again. Charlotte Kelley, Bedford I just finished reading Steve Vest’s article in the April issue of Kentucky Monthly (page 64, about interesting office phone calls). What a riot! As a former school teacher, I can appreciate the comments that come from the general public! We don’t call people idiots any more. Rather, we refer to them as “id ten t.” It’s our code. Loretta Flerlage, Dry Ridge
We Love to Hear from You!
Counties featured in this issue n
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. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
3
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 highresolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly.com.
Culinary Field Trip
Italy Maysville Community and Technical College culinary instructor L. Patrick Zemba took a group of students on a tour of Italy. Pictured at Vatican City are, from left, Micheal Bolton, J.H. Atkins, Cara Morgan, Joyce and Irving Peck, Artie Atkins, Rashel and Patrick Zemba, Hayley Simmons (holding the magazine), Tina Lang and Kennedi Irwin.
Ainslie Walton and Craig Rouse Chincoteague Island The Lexington couple took Kentucky Monthly along to the Assateague Lighthouse on the Eastern shore of Virginia while attending the Chincoteague pony swim.
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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
David & Susana Rogers and Libby & Joe Newell Australia These native Kentucky friends now living in Naples, Florida, visited Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Becky Smith and Glenna Corley Alaska Smith and Corley, both of Louisville, posed in front of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik, Alaska.
JOIN OUR TEAM
KING’S DAUGHTERS
Pete and Barbara Chiericozzi Rome, Italy
Joe Arthur, R.N. Heart & Vascular Step Down
The couple, who live in Salvisa, are pictured in St. Peter’s Square just after seeing Pope Francis during his weekly general audience.
Michelle Tedrick, R.N. Heart & Vascular Step Down
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN
HEALTHCARE King’s Daughters Health System has career opportunities throughout eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio. We care for a wide range of patients, from newborns to elderly, and have a number of nursing positions open now.
Paul Sandefur and Ota Toshihiko Japan The mayor of Beaver Dam, left, visited the facility of the parent company for which he works, Ritatsu Manufacturing, and met Toshihiko, who is mayor of Toyota City.
Teams provide holistic, individualized and comprehensive care while continually seeking ways to improve patient outcomes, all working toward a single mission:
Opportunities in: • Nursing • Critical Care • EMT • Patient Care Technician • Allied Health Professions
To Care. To Serve. To Heal.
kdmc.com/careers
(606) 408-0051
BRIEFS
Across Kentucky
SPANNING 150 YEARS
B
uilt 75 years after Kentucky became the 15th state, the John A. Roebling Bridge connects Covington to Cincinnati. RoeblingFest 2017, on June 17 at Covington’s Roebling Point, commemorates the completion of the historic suspension bridge in the summer of 1867 and is billed as a celebration of art, architecture, history and engineering. A highlight of RoeblingFest 2017 is a presentation by Kriss Roebling, a direct descendant of John Augustus Roebling, the bridge designer who also built the Brooklyn Bridge. For more information, visit roeblingbridge.org.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENTUCKY!
T
he 225th birthday of Kentucky begins June 1 at 10 a.m. in Danville’s Constitution Square and continues throughout the day with special events, tours and period music. There will be a birthday toast and singing. Looking for other ways to celebrate Kentucky’s 225th birthday? You could probably call Xoxo at the Shelbyville Kroger for ideas, or visit ky225.com, a website dedicated to the celebration of Kentucky’s 225 years of statehood. It includes an interactive map of bucket-list ideas to experience across the state, as well as events and information on Kentucky’s statehood. Examples include visiting the nation’s oldest country store, the Great American Brass Band Festival, the World Chicken Festival, sampling Kentucky barbecue, visiting state parks, drinking Ale-8-One and other iconic Kentucky experiences. “Kentuckians take great pride in our state, and we encourage them to celebrate that in 2017,” said Tourism Commissioner Kristen Branscum. “We have compiled ideas and events statewide to inspire participation throughout the year.” Travelers are encouraged to share their Kentucky 225th anniversary adventures online by using #Ky225. For more information, visit kentuckytourism.com.
HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
T
he Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort will host 11 acclaimed historians from around the United States and abroad at a June 8-9 symposium celebrating the publication of the digital edition of Civil War Governors of Kentucky. Civil War Governors of Kentucky is a collection of letters written to and by Kentucky’s governors during the Civil War era and is free to the public at civilwargovernors.org. These 10,000 documents reveal the stories of everyday people and will be of interest to any scholar, local historian or family researcher exploring Kentucky life during the Civil War. At the symposium, Amy Murrell Taylor and Mark Wahlgren Summers of the University of Kentucky are among those scheduled discuss their research on the Civil War Governors of Kentucky database. 6
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
B I R T H DAYS JUNE 6 Phillip Allen Sharp (1944), Falmouthborn and Union College-educated Nobel Prize winning geneticist and molecular biologist. 6 Darrell Griffith (1958), basketball player known as Dr. Dunkenstein who led the University of Louisville to the 1980 NCAA Championship. 9 Johnny Depp (1963), Owensboro-born actor best known for offbeat characters such as Jack Sparrow Phillip Allen Sharp in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. 16 Michael Bush (1984), former Mr. Kentucky Football, retired NFL football player. 21 Griffin Myers (1987), Pikeville-born actor best known as one of the Pacific Vista cheerleaders in the film Bring It On: All or Nothing. 27 Brereton C. Jones (1939), 58th governor of Kentucky (1991-95) and owner of Woodford County’s Airdrie Stud, a Thoroughbred horse farm. 28 Sena Jeter Naslund (1942), best-selling author who served as Kentucky’s poet laureate for 2005-06. 28 Linda J. Hawkins (1956), awardwinning children’s author from Morgantown. JULY 5 James Morris (1952), retired professional wrestler from Bowling Green, known to his fans as “Hillbilly Jim.” 6 Ned Beatty (1937), film actor with credits in more than 100 films. 8 Jim Gifford (1944), author/publisher, executive director of the Jesse Stuart Foundation 8 Joan Osborne (1962), singer-songwriter best Hillbilly Jim known for her 1995 hit “One of Us” 8 Mark Stoops (1967) head football coach at the University of Kentucky 9 Linda Bruckheimer (1945), author and editor from Bloomfield 13 Frank Ramsey (1931), Hall of Fame basketball player and University of Kentucky All-American from Hopkins County. 14 Harry Dean Stanton (1926), Estill County-born actor who has appeared in such films as Cool Hand Luke and The Green Mile. 22 Gurney Norman (1937), Kentucky’s poet laureate for 2009-10. 24 Crystal Wilkinson (1962), a founding member of Affrilachian Poets.
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 M AY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CULTURE
Curiosities
B
ack in the day, an old American folk song once touted the joys of “working on the railroad.” These days, a few denizens of Louisville are singing a similar tune about, well, hunkering down and actually living on the rails all the livelong day. The Mill Loft Cabooses in Germantown, a neighborhood a few miles southeast of downtown Louisville, are three authentic, renovated train cars set up for Lilliputian but state-of-the-art habitation. It all began with the Germantown Mill Loft apartments, which opened in 2016. The former Louisville Cotton Mill on Goss Avenue— once the largest cotton mill in Kentucky—was renovated by developers Underhill Associates into a city-block-long complex featuring 186 luxury units offering a trendy marriage between the industrial and the homey. That renovation, according the Underhill website, was “a catalyst for reinvestment and revitalization of the surrounding area.” Apparently, that sort of big thinking led to something very small. Last year, the company unveiled its latest conversion: three train cars-turned-micro-homes situated on a spur leading off the railroad line beside the loft building. The mini apartments are approximately 350 square feet, and while they are small, they are efficient. The cars are equipped with a refrigerator, stove and microwave (sorry, no dishwasher), as well as a washer-dryer, full bath, and central air conditioning. The units, however, are BYOB (bring your own bed) and lease for $975 per month. The original concept, says Underhill Associates partner Jeff Underhill, was to build something that would minimize noise from the still-active train line and also provide a more attractive view. “We thought, ‘Do we build a wall or put in landscaping?’ ” Underhill says. “In the end, we felt the best way to deal with it would be put people back there, and embraced the fact that it’s an active rail line and celebrate it, rather than be frustrated by it.” Underhill notes that the cars are an even better noise buffer since they are bigger and thicker than foliage, and they also help pay homage to the neighborhood history. The property on the edge of Louisville was once dairy farms that attracted immigrants who were mostly German—the neighborhoods were soon dubbed Germantown and, similarly, Schnitzelburg. Because of the 8
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
rail line, which transported products into and out of the city, the area was ripe for developing industry. And so the Louisville Cotton Mill, which produced cotton warp for manufacturing Kentucky Jeans, was built in 1888. The mill and the rail line were critical for the burgeoning neighborhoods. “Naturally, it employed a lot of the locals,” Underhill says. “Whole families would work inside the mill.” The three cabooses, now painted a cheery red, yellow and blue, were bought through a broker in Kansas City. Underhill notes that the trip from Kansas City to Kentucky was a snap compared with transporting the huge cars the last mile to downtown Louisville. “You can’t just stop an active rail line for hours so that you can stop and unload where you want,” Underhill says with a laugh. “They had to be taken to a rail station, unloaded and then they had to be relocated to the site, which was about a mile away in the middle of the city.” Underhill adds that it took five semi-trucks to transport the cars, which were so tall that their wheels had to be removed and they had to travel on their side. “They are also so heavy, they required a 150-foot crane to lift them and place them,” he says. The cars have benefited from the recent trend toward tiny homes and minimized living, and they were quickly rented. “When I speak with people who have made that leap, they are very liberated by not having massive quantities of things,” Underhill says. “[Micro housing] is good stewardship. They are not taking up too much of a footprint; they’re not using too many utilities. They’re efficient. “It’s been fun, and the cabooses have garnered a lot of attention,” adds Underhill, who says that people come from all over to see them and often take photos. “And while they have done their job as a noise and visual buffer, they have also created a lot of activity. And in this business—the residential business or in the retail business—the best security you can have is people, positive activity, good lighting and an attractive look. This has such a positive feel. We’re very happy about the outcome.” — Cynthia Grisolia
Illustrations by Annette Cable
CULTURE
Music
Moonlight Serenading
B
ig band leader Glenn Miller disappeared on a plane flight to Paris during
World War II, but one Kentuckian is helping keep Miller’s music alive. Steve Walters is an Ashland native, a University of Kentucky graduate and a trumpet player in The World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra. The band tours 47 weeks a year, including a month spent in Japan every summer. “We’re the last full-time big band out here on the road,” Walters said in a phone interview from his hotel room in Kansas City. The band “plays from four to six concerts a week, each one in a different place,” Walters said. “Over 200 concerts a year and each one in a different location.” During the interview, a baritone saxophone player warmed up next door, while a trombone player practiced scales in the bathroom. Walters practices in his hotel room, too. “I play until someone complains, which is rare,” he said. Walters joined the Miller outfit in 2010, but the traveling troubadour life is how he has spent his adult career. He started at the University of Kentucky in 1971 but didn’t graduate until 1980. “I almost had tenure—a 10-year degree,” he quipped. After four years at the university, Walters took three years off to play with a road show band. He said that was when “bands played cocktail sets at hotels,” mostly top 40 hits and floor-show material. He played with singer Kevin Reynolds, but Walters decided to return to school and get his bachelor’s degree, and then went on to Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, for graduate school. As soon as he had that degree in hand, Walters went straight to Miami and worked on cruise ships. “I’ve played on a lot of ships and boats,” he said. “One of our duties was playing shows, and back then, a lot of Vegas acts were still in existence.” On the Norwegian Cruise Lines, he met and played with famous performers such as Vic Damone, Jack Jones, Diahann Carroll, Owenboro’s Florence Henderson and The 5th Dimension. From 1984-88, Walters worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando. “I played full-time for four years in a lot of different venues there,” he said. He estimates at that time there were around 450 musicians on staff. “These days, they probably have 60.” While he loves the big band sound he’s playing now, Walters’ musical skills are well-rounded. “I’ve spent so much time playing so many types of music,” he said. The 1990s brought tours with Motown classic groups The Four Tops and The Temptations. “In this business, one thing leads to another. You make friends, you get a call, and you’re headed in a different direction.” When he’s not on the road, Walters lives in Florida. However, he feels his upbringing in Kentucky has profoundly affected his musical tastes and his career. Back in Ashland, “Mom and Dad always supported me in all my endeavors, even when they thought I was wrong,” he said. His father was a big fan of trumpet music. “My dad really liked listening to trumpet players. Al Hirt, Herb Alpert and Glenn Miller were always on in the house.” At UK, professor Vincent DiMartino was a positive influence and someone Walters respects to this day. When DiMartino had jazz great Clark Terry visit his classes, Terry became a hero and an influence for Walters. “When I heard Clark Terry play, that opened up my eyes and ears,” Walters said. The country music prevalent in Ashland influenced him as well. “I love bluegrass,” he said, an opinion not always given by jazz musicians. Walters has been able to make it as a professional musician for decades. “I’m playing the trumpet. I’m gainfully employed playing the trumpet,” he said. While he hopes to retire one day and settle in his condo in Florida, the music won’t stop. “I’ll never quit playing.”
WHAT’S
HIDING IN
YOUR
FIREWOOD?
Invasive insects like
Asian Longhorned Beetle and Emerald Ash Borer can be transported long distances in firewood. Do your part to help preserve Kentucky’s forests—
LEAVE YOUR FIREWOOD AT HOME! dontmovefirewood.org
— Laura Younkin J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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FOOD
Cooking
Picnic Packables
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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • M AY 2 0 1 6
Whether it be outdoor concerts, Shakespeare in the park, ballet under the stars or a family gettogether, summertime brings picnicking fun. These fresh and tasty options from Brigitte Nguyen of The Cooking Channel’s From the Kitchens of … will liven up your picnic basket and have your taste buds humming!
Pressed Italian Picnic Sandwiches 1 loaf soft, grocery-style Italian bread 1/3-½ cup store-bought pesto sauce 1/3-½ cup store-bought tapenade, such as sun-dried tomato, olive or roasted red pepper 4 ounces Genoa salami, thinly sliced 4 ounces deli pepperoni, thinly sliced 4 ounces soppressata, thinly sliced ½ pound provolone cheese, thinly sliced 2 handfuls of fresh basil leaves ½ cup sliced pepperoncini, drained Olive oil, for drizzling and griddling Freshly ground black pepper 1. Using a serrated knife, split the bread horizontally. Slather pesto sauce on one side and the tapenade on the other. 2. Layer the meats, provolone and basil leaves on the bottom half of the loaf. Scatter the pepperoncini over the sandwich and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season with black pepper, and place the top half of the loaf on the sandwich. 3. Heat a large griddle over medium heat (can be flat or ridged) and grease with olive oil. Place the sandwich on the griddle and press down with a heavy skillet or pan. Cook until bottom of the sandwich is crisp and golden brown, then flip and brown the top of the sandwich. 4. Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing into individual servings with a serrated knife. Wrap each sandwich in foil for easy transport and serving.
Photos by Jesse Hendrix-Inman. Recipes provided by Brigitte Nguyen of The Cooking Channel’s From the Kitchens of …, and prepared at Sullivan University by Ann Currie. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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FOOD
Cooking Fennel + Radicchio Slaw ½ small head cabbage, thinly shredded 1 head radicchio, thinly shredded 1 bulb fennel, cored and thinly sliced ¼ cup olive oil 3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon honey Juice of ½ orange 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning Salt and pepper, to taste 1. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, radicchio and fennel. 2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, honey, orange juice and Italian seasoning. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 3. Toss the dressing over the vegetables and season again with salt and pepper.
Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese Spread 4 cups shredded Italian cheese blend ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and minced 2/3 cup mayonnaise, plus more as needed 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning Salt and pepper, to taste Crackers or sliced vegetables, for serving 1. In a large bowl, mix together the cheese, basil, sundried tomatoes, mayonnaise and Italian seasoning. Season with salt and pepper. 2. Serve with crackers or cut vegetables. Tip: I like to pack crisp flatbreads and spicy, halved radishes or small cocktail cucumbers to serve with this spread. 12
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
SEE & SMELL THE ALE-8-ONE
S EC RET
FO R MU L A
ALE-8-ONE FAC TO R Y TO U R S
Cherry Pistachio Cookies 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened ¾ cup brown sugar ½ cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract 2¾ cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup dried cherries 1 cup white chocolate chips ½ cup shelled pistachios
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. In the bowl of a stand mixer,
cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and extracts and beat to combine. 3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and beat to form a soft dough. Add the cherries, chocolate chips and pistachios and gently mix to incorporate. 4. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for about 8-12 minutes, until cookies are lightly golden and set on top.
ADMISSION IS FREE T H U R S DAY & F R I DAY MO R N I N G S TO U R S L A S T 3 0 TO 4 5 M I N U T E S
A D VA N C E R E S E R VAT I O N S 8 5 9 - 74 4 - 3 4 8 4 TO U R S @ A L E - 8 - O N E . C OM A L E - 8 - O N E B OT T L I N G C OM PA N Y 2 5 C A R O L R OA D WINCHESTER, KY 40391
DRINK
CLICK
HERE
FO PCLKEY TMEO ND ILS M AY 2 0R 16 C • OM KENTU T HE LYTA13
TRAVEL
Explore
F
rankfort was named our state capital in 1792, the same year Kentucky became the 15th state. Although it is widely known for being the hub of political activity, it also is a fun and interesting place to spend some leisure time. Frankfort has all the governmental and historical sites that you would expect from a state capital, but there also is an assortment of one-of-a-kind shops, diners and restaurants that give it a hometown feel. The city was named after pioneer Stephen Frank. Back in the 1780s, when the area was still part of Virginia, Frank was making salt at a ford in the Kentucky River when he was killed by American Indians. The surviving settlers from Bryan’s Station thereafter called the area Frank’s Ford, which evolved into Frankfort. •••
In this installment of “24 Hours in …” our writer visits Frankfort and gives you the scoop on what to do, where to eat, what to see and where to stay. You’ll discover that you don’t have to travel far to have an awesome mini vacation in our great Commonwealth.
BY DEBORAH KOHL KREMER
A delicious start to any day in Frankfort begins at B’s Bakery. In the heart of downtown, B’s is the kind of bakery where you almost see your willpower heading back out to the sidewalk as soon as you open the door. The aromas of coffee combined with those of yeast, sugar and cinnamon capture the essence of bakeries gone by. B’s has a charming décor of whitewashed antique furniture and fixtures. And of course, there is a glass-front case full of doughnuts and confections such as light and airy glazed, gooey apple fritters and buttercreamfilled long johns doused in chocolate icing. There also are mouth-watering cookies, like peanut butter, sugar and oatmeal, displayed in antique glass jars. Get some for now and you might as well pick up a few for later—you know you will want a little mid-morning pick-me-up. •••
If you need help planning your stay, you can find it at the charming Frankfort Visitors Center. The historical Victorian home with gingerbread trim and a wraparound porch fits right into a neighborhood of fine older homes, so look for the sign out front. It has maps and brochures, plus a friendly staff to help you plan your stay. Being the state capital obviously gives Frankfort some tourist destinations you can’t find anywhere else in the Commonwealth, such as the magnificent domed Kentucky State Capitol, built in 1910 and open for tours. Home to the Kentucky House of Representatives, Kentucky Senate, Kentucky Supreme Court and Office of the Governor, it boasts quite a bit to see, especially if the legislature is in session. Created in the Beaux Arts style, the massive building features interiors of marble and granite, and an awe-inspiring seven-story domed rotunda in the center. Inside the capitol are statues of famous Kentuckians and murals depicting Daniel Boone. Don’t forget to look up as you approach the building from the outside. High above the portico are pedimental relief sculptures depicting symbolic figures from Kentucky’s past and future. A Romanesque woman in the center represents the state, and she is surrounded by figures that represent Art, Labor, Plenty, History and Progress. There also are animals that symbolize Agriculture, all carved into the limestone and granite exterior. Also while outside, do not miss the iconic floral clock around the back of the building. Measuring 34 feet across, the giant, working timepiece is made up of more than 10,000 seasonal flowers. •••
After your visit to the new capitol—it is only 107 years old, after all—you need to stop by the Old State Capitol, which was built in 1830. Despite its age, 14
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The city of Frankfort, nestled within a bend in the Kentucky River the Greek Revival building, which was used for 80 years, is still in amazingly good shape. It has been restored to its 1840s grandeur, complete with reproduction desks, and still has some of the original chandeliers and hand-crafted windowpanes. The building is an architectural marvel, but don’t miss the free-standing, self-supporting marble staircase that is held together by pressure and precision. After you admire it, consider that it was constructed before power tools were invented. For more on our Commonwealth’s past, walk a couple of blocks to the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. Wander through 12,000 years of Kentucky with the help of 3,000 artifacts, hands-on activities, animatronics and interactive exhibits. There is a massive research library with rare books, maps and manuscripts that make Kentucky’s past come alive. If you have roots in Kentucky, save time to do a little genealogy research while you are there. There are other museums in and around downtown that you might want to consider visiting. The Capital City Museum has some fascinating displays focusing on the history of the city of Frankfort. The imposing Kentucky Military History Museum, housed in the old state arsenal, sits on a small hill, as if it is defending the city. Inside the 1850s Gothic Revival-style building you will find an impressive collection of historical firearms, weapons and artillery, some dating back to the Revolutionary War. Adjacent to downtown is the Frankfort Cemetery, where you can pay your respects to everyone’s favorite pioneers, Daniel and Rebecca Boone. Their graves sit on a hillside with the stunning current Kentucky State Capitol in the background. •••
Downtown Frankfort has some wonderful options for lunch. If you are a fan of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, you might recall seeing host Guy Fieri in the kitchen at Rick’s White Light Diner. This tiny hole-in-the-wall café
has been around for ages. Owner Rick Paul mans the stove and entertains with his wisecracks and cantankerous banter with customers. Paul, a trained chef, serves up Southern favorites like pork barbecue, oyster po’boys and crawfish pie, but he also offers juicy cheeseburgers and fried potatoes that make an awesome meal. Try to sit at the counter, so you’ll be in the middle of the diner buzz. Another prime lunch spot is Gibby’s, a casual restaurant with a welcoming feel. Menu choices rival chain restaurants, with giant sandwiches, delicious pastas and gourmet salads. But the eatery also serves a delightful Hot Brown, a Kentucky classic resembling an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and creamy, cheesy Mornay sauce. If you have never had this hearty dish, Gibby’s is a good place to try it. •••
For your afternoon activity, spend some time getting to know the drink Kentuckians call their own. Bourbon fans and history lovers will be equally enthralled with Buffalo Trace Distillery, the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States. In addition to its namesake bourbon, Buffalo Trace distills others you may be familiar with, such as Eagle Rare, Blanton’s Single Barrel and the elusive Pappy Van Winkle. Hourly tours take visitors to the fermenting and bottling rooms, as well as the rickhouses, where the bourbon barrels are stored while they age. Indulge in a tasting following the tour and browse around the gift shop for fun souvenirs like bungs (bourbon barrel corks), Buffalo Trace clothing and bourbon-related books. If you would rather commune with nature than bask in the aroma of bourbon, drive over to Salato Wildlife Education Center on the west side of town. Operated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, this 200-plus-acre recreational and educational complex is an enjoyable way to learn about nature in the Commonwealth. There are interactive exhibits both indoors and outside. See the collection of native snakes and turtles, and then head outside to visit with bison, elk, wild turkeys, J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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TRAVEL
Explore
Canoe Kentucky
Bourbon on Main
bald eagle and the lovable 615-pound black bear. Salato boasts 4 miles of hiking trails and a lake stocked with catfish, bluegill and trout. If you want to experience the great outdoors on water, Frankfort is home to Canoe Kentucky. Offering canoe, kayak and raft excursions on the Elkhorn Creek and Kentucky River, the outfit can set up a lazy float on the stream, provide a day of fishing for smallmouth bass, or take you to ride the rapids. •••
No trip to Frankfort would be complete without a bourbon ball from Rebecca Ruth Candy. Founders Rebecca Gooch and Ruth Hanly were teachers who left their classrooms and opened a candy company in 1919. Credited with inventing the bourbon ball, Rebecca Ruth offers all kinds of candy, including options with liquor and without. Stop in and take a tour of the downtown factory and enjoy a free sample. Visitors driving through downtown Frankfort get glimpses into the past with beautiful historic homes on every street. The Liberty Hall Historic Site features two homes open for tours. The oldest home, dating back to the late 1700s, was built by John Brown, one of Kentucky’s first two U.S. senators. The other, an 1835 Greek Revival structure, was home to his son, Orlando Brown. Tours detail the history of both men and their families, and feature glimpses of period furnishings and a beautiful garden area. •••
An excellent choice for dinner is Bourbon on Main. The owners focus on showcasing the best of Kentucky in this restaurant housed in a historical building overlooking the Kentucky River. With that in mind, it offers an extensive selection of bourbons and menu choices chock-full of locally sourced ingredients. Try the beer cheese appetizer, followed by one of the signature burgers. Make sure to save room for chocolate-chip bread pudding with bourbon caramel sauce. It is as good as it sounds. Another dinner favorite for is Serafini. There you will find white-tablecloth fine dining, right in the heart of the historic downtown. Menu choices range from Italian classics like sausage carbonara and chicken picatta to a nod to Kentucky’s Southern roots with choices like fried green tomatoes and a pimento cheeseburger. If the weather is nice, you can dine alfresco. Downtown, with the railroad tracks running right through the middle of Broadway Street, is where you will find a selection of shops. Grab a cup o’ joe at Kentucky Coffeetree Café, and then browse around. Next door is Poor Richard’s Bookstore, an independent bookstore jam-packed with an amazing assortment of new and used books. Also adjoining is Completely Kentucky, with a huge selection of Kentucky-made arts, crafts and gourmet foods. 16
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in 1911, the classic building originally was a 135-seat vaudeville house. It has been home to many ventures in its 100-plus year history, and underwent a complete restoration, reopening in 2009 as a 428-seat performing and visual arts theater. It hosts all kinds of musical, cinematic and entertaining acts. •••
There is plenty of lodging in Frankfort, especially near the I-64 exit ramps, where you will find all the usual chain hotels. But if you are looking for a more personal setting, The Meeting House Bed and Breakfast is a homey option. Innkeepers Gary and Rose Burke will welcome you with open arms to their home, which dates to the Capital Cellars, Old Capitol Antique Mall and Poor Richard’s Bookstore 1840s. The house has original moldings, 12 fireplaces and handIf you are up for a night on the town or just a quick drink carved walnut banisters along the three staircases, and the before catching a show at the Grand Theatre, pop into Burkes have worked to preserve the old while including Capital Cellars Wine and Spirits Café. Although it boasts a modern amenities. huge assortment of bourbons and wines by the bottle, beverages also are available by the glass. Order a flight of bourbons or wines, so you can try before you buy. It has a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, where you can make friends or just chat with the knowledgeable bartenders. Some restaurants and bars in town offer nightly entertainment. But for a real taste of history, check the website of the Grand Theatre and see what’s playing. Built
•••
Frankfort is a perfect mix of a storybook hometown with beautiful old homes, mom-and-pop style businesses, and a friendly, walkable downtown. It has the added bonus of historical attractions dating back to pre-statehood days, and if you time your visit right, the lure of watching our state government in action. Q
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IF YOU GO: B’s Bakery 241 West Main Street (502) 699-2222 Bourbon on Main 103 West Main Street (502) 352-2720 bourbononmain.com
Kentucky Coffeetree Café 235 West Broadway (502) 875-3009 kentuckycoffeetreecafe.com Liberty Hall 218 Wilkinson Street (502) 227-2560 libertyhall.org
Buffalo Trace 113 Great Buffalo Trace 1-800-654-8471 buffalotrace.com
The Meeting House 519 Ann Street (502) 226-3226 themeetinghousebandb.com
Canoe Kentucky 301 West Main Street 1-888-CANOEKY canoeky.com
Military History Museum 128 East Main Street (502) 564-1792 history.ky.gov
Capital Cellars Wine and Spirits Café 227 West Broadway (502) 352-2600 capitalcellars.net
Old State Capitol 300 West Broadway (502) 564-3016 history.ky.gov
Capital City Museum 325 Ann Street (502) 696-0607 capitalcitymuseum.com Completely Kentucky 237 West Broadway (502) 223-5240 completelykentucky.com Frankfort Cemetery 215 East Main Street (502) 227-2403
Poor Richard’s Bookstore 233 West Broadway (502) 223-8018 poorrichardsbooksky.com Rebecca Ruth Candy Tours and Museum 116 East 2nd Street (502) 223-7475 rebeccaruth.com Rick’s White Light 114 Bridge Street (502) 330-4262
Gibby’s 204 West Broadway (502) 223-4429
Sage Garden Café 3690 East-West Connector (502) 352-2725 wilsonnurseries.com
Grand Theatre 308 St. Clair Street (502) 352-7469 grandtheatrefrankfort.org
Salato Wildlife Education Center 1 Sportsman’s Lane (502) 564-7863 fw.ky.gov Serafini Italian Restaurant 243 West Broadway (502) 875-5599 serafinifrankfort.com State Capitol 700 Capital Avenue (502) 564-3449
Capital Cellars
227 West Broadway, Frankfort
Your Bourbon, Wine, & Beer Cafe
www.capitalcellars.com 18
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Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History 100 West Broadway (502) 564-1792 history.ky.gov
HAPPY
TH 225
KENTUCKY!
As Kentucky celebrates its 225th birthday, we’re taking a look forward. We asked several knowledgeable people, “what will Kentucky be like in 2042?” You may be surprised by some of the answers. As we look forward, we also look back. The Kentucky of today would be unimaginable to the frontiersmen and keelboat operators of the 1780s who wanted independence from Virginia, in part because of its cavalier view of trade along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Becoming the 15th state was not easy. The process began in 1784 in Danville and at one point Kentucky considered joining Spain instead of the United States. Can you imagine how that idea, pitched by Gen. James Wilkinson, would have changed our society if not overturned? Louisville, instead of being named for King Louis XVI of France might have been named for Bernardo de Galvez or King Charles of Spain. The topography has not greatly changed. Skyscrapers can be found in only a handful of cities. Our roads are improved versions of the early stagecoach paths. The Maysville Road from Old Washington to Lexington, while many of the kinks have been removed, follows the trail Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone would have traveled to reach Duncan Tavern in Paris (which might be named Madrid).
Most of the earlier settlers were farmers, and they grew lots of corn. Some of that corn was distilled into whiskey, which over time evolved into bourbon, but none of it was in commemorative bottles, autographed by basketball players, nor dipped in wax. Can you imagine Kentucky without basketball? As hard as that is to imagine, 50 years ago no one could foresee a Kentucky nearly void of tobacco crops. When Kentucky became a state, virtually everyone owned a horse, and two-thirds of the population owned two or more. Our ancestors were noted animal breeders then, too, but not Thoroughbreds—mules. The adage claims the more things change the more they stay the same, but can you imagine a Spanish-speaking Kentucky built around the mule trade? The Kentucky Mule Park doesn’t have the same ring, but maybe this tidbit of lore explains our inherently stubborn nature.
— Stephen M. Vest
Illustrations By Jessica Patton J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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AGRICULTURE
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anderlust and courage spurred Daniel Boone and early settlers to pioneer a path to what would become Kentucky, but it was cultivating corn that allowed them to stay. Before Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792, Virginia law required settlers to demonstrate the legitimacy of their land claims by “erecting a cabin and planting a patch of corn.” Agriculture meant permanency, and just as one grain of corn grows into many, a few settlers would grow into a Commonwealth. Now, 225 years later, our soil and waters still sustain us. Perhaps we forget what a lifeblood agriculture is to our state. Travel anywhere in the world, and Kentucky needs no introduction. “Oh, yes,” people will say with a nod, “bourbon, horses, tobacco and fried chicken.” We are, in fact, world renowned, the fame made possible by Kentucky’s original signature industry: agriculture. Kentucky’s farm economy has been, and will continue to be, Kentucky’s rural economy. The journey to developing the world’s top horse industry, the largest cattle state east of the Mississippi, an $8 billion bourbon industry, a $1 billion poultry industry, and most recently, a vibrant local food economy, continues to shape our people, our sense of place, and perhaps even our politics. Our largely rural population still relies on raising crops and livestock, and economic leaders in Kentucky cities have embraced our abundant agricultural resources as local business assets. Reflecting on our past may predict what our agricultural future holds. Near the turn of the 19th century, there were fewer than 100,000 people living here, and most of them had to farm to feed themselves. Today, each farmer in the United States feeds 155 people worldwide, and while Kentucky farms are much smaller than the national average, the 77,000 farm families in the Commonwealth feed a substantial number of individuals. Market forces in American agriculture have changed over the past 25 years, and we have entered an era where customers on the other side of the planet depend on our food, while our generally well-fed neighbors increasingly dictate how we farm. The types of crops and livestock we raise 25 years from now may not change much, but how we farm in Kentucky certainly will. Traceability of all farm products will be the norm. A farm or processor’s record on animal care, labor practices, pesticide usage and environmental stewardship will be reflected on product labels at the grocery store, with report cards from third-party auditors signaling to consumers that the product matches their values. Government regulations won’t be the dominant driver of 20
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farm practices—consumers will, or at least the vocal, organized ones. Consumers will call on retailers to source only food from farms that are “doing what’s right” by their standards, and through online petitions, brand boycotts and storefront picketing, retailers will be compelled to make producers change how they farm, or they will lose business. Kentucky farmers in the year 2042 still will be providing food for their neighbors and local communities, but their top customers may be thousands of miles away. Even more so than today, barges bound for the Gulf of Mexico, then on to international ports, will be filled with western Kentucky soybeans, eastern Kentucky timber and vats of well-aged distilled corn to meet demand from India, China and African nations’ emerging middle classes. Granted, the prospects for trade deals in today’s political climate may be uncertain, but the vast majority of the 9 billion people projected to live on Earth a quarter-century from now will reside outside the United States, and if projections for rising incomes in developing nations hold true, those countries will demand 60 percent more meat and dairy each year than what is currently produced. American agriculture still will be the envy of the world, but declining government support for agricultural research, the Cooperative Extension Service, conservation programs and crop insurance will let our international competitors close the gap. Kentucky farmers, though, should adapt just as they always have, by embracing precision technology to farm not field by field, but inch by inch. In the early 2000s, tractors started coming equipped with global positioning satellite technology. Twenty-five years from now, you may be hard-pressed to find a piece of farm equipment that isn’t digitally connected, and some of it will be autonomous. Farmers will have precise control of water and crop inputs, and advances in crop and animal genetics will help farmers guard against disease and climate volatility more than ever. When Kentucky reaches its 250th anniversary, much about agriculture will be different, but the hard stuff will be the same. Farming will continue to be incredibly difficult and subject to unpredictable weather and markets. Yet, just as our early settlers built our communities around the land and its harvest, farmers will continue to be fundamental to what makes Kentucky our home.
— Brent Burchett Brent Burchett is director of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Division of Value-Added Plant Production.
T
he first settlers who came to Kentucky left their homes behind but brought their cultural heritage with them. The earliest acknowledged Kentucky literary work, Thomas Johnson’s The Kentucky Miscellany, was published in 1789. In 1792, when William Whitley built his brick home near Stanford, “He set his monogram in the façade as if to proclaim that the Kentucky frontier was neither uneducated nor anonymous,” according to The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Since then, Kentucky artists and writers have created artworks in every region. While larger cities like Lexington and Louisville tended to take the lead in fine arts, Appalachia combined folk culture, artistic expression and practical function to produce fine basketry, traditional musical instruments, handmade brooms, pottery, quilts, wooden chains and toys. In every region, European and African ancestry influenced folk songs, ballroom and backwoods dance, frontier tales, legends and a narrative celebrating untamed natural beauty. During the 19th and 20th centuries, arts and cultural organizations were established, and a framework of public support and private philanthropy developed. Kentucky communities celebrated the arts and culture through libraries, theaters, orchestras, opera and dance companies, women’s clubs, nature preserves, local museums, fairs, festivals, schools and colleges and universities. Between the 1960s and ’80s, a network of arts and culture-related entities emerged. The War on Poverty spawned Appalshop to document and preserve cultural traditions and teach vocational skills to poor and minority youth in eastern Kentucky. Cultural attractions, such as Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, blossomed into tourism destinations. From Ashland to Fulton, Kentucky Educational Television broadcast cultural experiences and instructional programs to every public school in Kentucky. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence advocated for improvement of education in all disciplines, including the arts. Providing support and training through grants and programs as the state arts agency, the Kentucky Arts Council fostered opportunities for the people of Kentucky to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Dedicated to telling Kentucky’s Story, thus nurturing a legacy of pride in the wealth of Kentucky culture, the Humanities Council built civic engagement and supported local humanities programming. Since the beginning of the new millennium, despite the comprehensive network of public and private support, Kentucky arts agencies, organizations and artists have faced a faltering economy. The proliferation of technology and social media may have changed audience preferences. Moreover, in a weak economic recovery, public funding and private philanthropy have reached a new level of vulnerability. Recently, President Donald Trump unveiled a budget plan that eliminates funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities
and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Reflecting those sentiments, Gov. Matt Bevin reorganized the Kentucky Arts Council. According to Don Parkinson, secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, “The new arts council will focus on ensuring that Kentucky artisans have the skills and knowledge to develop and successfully sell their products.” With an eye on commerce, the STEM disciplines— science, technology, engineering and math—stand center stage in education, with promises of economic development and job creation. Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton told the staff of Eastern Kentucky University’s student newspaper that students should focus on programs that produce jobs. “I would not be studying history,” she said, “unless you have a job lined up.” Forecasting what is on the horizon for the arts seems impossible, but envisioning Kentucky without them is one way to assess alternatives: Imagine your city or town without a museum, a historical society, a place to make and exhibit art and crafts, with no space for gatherings like public debates or music performance. What innovative job creators seek a community lacking a library or performance space? Despite opportunities to experience the arts in virtual reality, don’t public gatherings and shared experiences continue to add value? Isn’t first-hand enrichment through arts and culture essential to lifelong learning in an increasingly competitive worldwide marketplace? Frank X Walker, Kentucky poet laureate for 2013-14, is optimistic. “After 9/11, the arts became more relevant. Traditional non-users began to see them as more important,” he said. “In these spaces, the arts can experience a resurgence.” Describing the current environment as part of a “painful transition,” Walker believes artists “will dive into the curve and ride it like a wave.”
— Constance Alexander The 2003 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship recipient and 2014 recipient of the Governor’s Award in the Arts, Constance Alexander is a poet, author, broadcaster, playwright and promoter of the arts. She lives in Murray.
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AUTOMOTIVE
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he numbers are impressive: Kentucky’s automotive industry churned out 1.3 million vehicles manufactured at five different plants across 80 counties in 2016; exported $5.5 million in vehicles and parts in 2014; and contributed $14 billion to the Commonwealth’s GDP annually. “While we love our friends in our other signature industries in bourbon, tourism, basketball and coal, we do think there is an argument that automotive is a signature industry as well,” said Dave Tatman, executive director of the Kentucky Automotive Industry Association. It’s an industry that was born in 1912, when Ford opened a sales and service office on South Third Street in Louisville. Four years later, thousands of Model As, trucks and cars were churned out of a four-story brick building, launching Kentucky into the automotive world. Fast forward to the mid-1980s when then-Gov. Martha Layne Collins convinced Toyota Motor Manufacturing to locate its first North American operation in Georgetown. “The huge impact on the growth of the automotive industry in Kentucky has been the choice of Toyota to locate here,” Tatman said. “There are significant numbers of suppliers that came here because Toyota was here.” Around the same time Toyota began production, General Motors launched its Corvette plant in Bowling Green, eventually making it Corvette’s sole manufacturing facility in the country. With Ford, Toyota and General Motors having established roots in the Bluegrass State, other automobile manufacturing suppliers began to take notice, particularly because of the cost of energy, the Commonwealth’s location and its robust highway system. “With respect to the 13 states we compete with, our energy cost is the lowest of all automotive states,” Tatman said. “We’re geographically the center of the region with 67 percent of America’s population within less than a day’s drive. We really are well-positioned.” That position results in three major automakers operating in Kentucky: Ford’s Louisville Truck Plant and the Louisville Assembly Plant, Toyota’s Georgetown 22
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facility, and General Motors’ Corvette plant. As a result, two-thirds of the Commonwealth’s counties have automotive production facilities or supply operations. Tatman also is looking forward to continued cooperation from Kentucky’s governor and General Assembly to further support the automotive industry. “The General Assembly and the administration, almost independent of party, have been very supportive of the industry,” he said, making the state well-positioned for the future. “We have experienced exponential export growth over the last years, and now automotive exports are the secondhighest value export in Kentucky. [Moreover,] Kentucky suppliers are also playing on the global stage,” he said. Automotive exports continue to supply the world with cars and parts, second only to Kentucky’s aerospace industry. Tatman added that advanced research and manufacturing are taking place in all of the Commonwealth’s 490 plants. “From a technological standpoint, I can walk into a nondescript steel building in Glasgow and see some of the most amazing manufacturing process technology that exists in the world,” he said. As for the challenges, Tatman doesn’t see “any huge storm clouds on the horizon,” other than the challenge of recruiting more workers to join the nearly 90,000 automotive workers already employed in the industry. “Everybody is experiencing this worker shortage,” he said. “We’ve raised two generations of Americans that think manufacturing is dirty, dark and dangerous, and they don’t want to work there. Quite the opposite is true. “I spend a lot of time in high schools and middle schools and elementary schools talking about careers in manufacturing … to channel our young people and our underemployed workers that way and to convince them that manufacturing is not dirty, dark and dangerous, but is, in fact, a very rewarding career for those who choose it.”
— Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley is a Louisville-based senior contributor to Kentucky Monthly.
T
he late Ova Haney, former master distiller of Four Roses, was once asked why bourbon is made of corn. Haney quipped that if rice had grown here, it would have been made out of rice. Bourbon has earned its current fame in the international spotlight, but it’s easy to forget that what is today an $8.5 billion industry started out as nothing more than a way to preserve the crops. Bourbon experienced growing pains on its way to becoming one of Kentucky’s signature industries. Dishonest businessmen posed a threat to bourbon’s reputation before there were consumer protection laws by calling liquids bourbon that were not bourbon. Often, tobacco spit, prune juice and battery acid were used by rectifiers to “rapidly age” their spirits so they would resemble bourbon. Legitimate bourbon distillers fought back by pushing for laws that required certain standards to be met for a spirit to be referred to as bourbon on the bottle’s label. Bourbon was dealt another blow with the 1919 passing of the Volstead Act, which outlawed the production, transportation and sale of beverage alcohol. A provision was made for medicinal purposes, and throughout Prohibition, only six Kentucky distilleries were licensed to sell medicinal spirits. All the other distilleries had to sell their aging bourbon to those distilleries for sale in 100proof, bottled-in-bond pints. To be labeled “bottled in bond,” the bourbon had to be aged and bottled using the requirements outlined in the United States Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, which originally were stipulated in 1897’s Bottled-in-Bond Act. Many distilleries subsequently went out of business. Even after the repeal of the Volstead Act, the Kentucky bourbon industry continued to experience hard times. World War II brought with it a renewed demand for ethanol for gunpowder and synthetic rubber, and any distilleries that hadn’t already been retrofitted during World War I began to make the switch. When the war was
over, another challenge came to the bourbon industry: James Bond. Bond wanted his martinis shaken, not stirred, and suddenly bourbon was out. Fortunately, throughout these rough patches, bourbon distillers kept the tradition alive, even going so far as to have bourbon declared “America’s Native Spirit” by Congressional resolution in 1964. When bourbon wasn’t popular at home, it was promoted in foreign markets. Master distillers and brand representatives spent decades pounding the pavement hand-selling their products in bars and liquor stores across the country and beyond, paving the way for the connoisseurship the industry finally began to experience in the 1990s. Growth in bourbon tourism followed. Many distilleries have a long history of tourism, but bourbon’s rising popularity has led to an increase in the number of people who want to see where and how bourbon is made. This cycle of connoisseurship to tourism leads to more of both. “Because of the growing interest in bourbon, there will be a continued growth in bourbon tourism, creating even more growth in sales both domestic and export,” says bourbon historian Michael Veach. The Kentucky Distillers’ Association has led the charge to capitalize on the popularity of bourbon tourism to keep the cycle going. It recently successfully lobbied the state legislature to pass a law that allows by-the-drink sales at distilleries, giving distilleries greater flexibility and visitors more options. “I do think that we will continue to be the place for people to experience bourbon hospitality and culture, as I think by then our license changes will have allowed more freedom and flexibility to showcase our products,” says Kentucky Bourbon Trail Senior Director Adam Johnson. “We will be much more the comprehensive experiential destination with our distilleries being able to have restaurants and bed and breakfasts. Additionally, the efforts in our international markets will continue to fuel category growth and interest in bourbon tourism.” According to the KDA’s 2017 biannual economic impact study, bourbon production in Kentucky has increased 315 percent since 1999, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is closing in on 1 million visitors a year after experiencing 17 percent growth from 2015 to 2016. Kentucky distillers pay $800 million a year in payroll to the 17,500 jobs the industry adds to the Commonwealth while investing $1.1 billion in capital projects over the next five years. Distillers are responding to the growth by adding not only more production facilities, but also event spaces, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants to their visitor experiences. Growth worldwide leads to tourism, which leads to still more growth. Distillers are gearing up for both. In 25 years, there will be a lot of bourbon on the market, and some of it may even be the hard-to-find, extra-aged stuff that has been exciting collectors in recent years. Thanks to diversified tourism options at distilleries, consumers will continue to visit, though today’s unprecedented growth is likely to slow down. Bourbon has experienced a bumpy road along the way to becoming one of Kentucky’s signature industries, but thanks to the hard work and determination of previous generations, Kentuckians will be able to rely on this industry for generations to come.
—Maggie Kimberl
BOURBON
Maggie Kimberl is a spirits journalist and Louisville native who loves learning about local history. When she’s not uncovering bourbon lore, you can find her tending her homegrown tomatoes or exploring with her kids.
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s the rock lyricist Jim Steinman once wrote, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Looking back on the state of higher education in the Commonwealth in 1992, colleges and universities appeared to be the one part of Kentucky that had an easily predictable future. Then came the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997. Known as House Bill 1, the legislation altered the state’s higher education landscape. For a few years, it also included significantly increased spending on higher education, which many state university presidents mistakenly assumed would be a new normal. One of the more significant parts of HB 1 was the Research Challenge Trust Fund, known as “Bucks for Brains” because it helped create dozens of endowed programs at public universities that had embarrassingly few. It also charged the University of Kentucky with becoming a top-20 public research university, the University of Louisville with evolving into a nationally recognized metropolitan research university, and the regional universities with developing at least one nationally recognized program. Things looked pretty good for higher education as the 20th century came to a close. But then several major events forced the state to drastically scale back spending on higher education: the dot.com bubble burst (2001), a gubernatorial sex scandal (2002), the Great Recession began (2008), and a multibillion-dollar hole developed thanks to several budgets that skipped actuarially recommended payments into state pension funds. Those events put to bed serious talk of developing a nationally recognized university in the Commonwealth, much less a top-20 school. One legacy of HB 1, however, that stands tall today— and could help prepare Kentucky for some of the highereducation challenges of the next quarter-century—is the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. KCTCS emerged when the community colleges were taken from UK and merged with Kentucky Tech, formerly known as “vocational schools.” Since its inception, KCTCS has done an excellent job responding to changing market forces by providing postsecondary educational opportunities to Kentuckians who had been underserved and ignored for decades. More than 100,000 Kentuckians are now enrolled in KCTCS, making it the state’s largest postsecondary institution and one of its most consequential. When the community colleges were freed from the shackles of an often indifferent and sometimes-hostile Big Blue bureaucracy in Lexington, that meant they could partner with area colleges and universities—both public and private—to offer baccalaureate and graduate degrees demanded in local areas. A shining partnership is the University Center of the Mountains. Located at Hazard Community and Technical College, UCM works with almost a dozen colleges and universities to provide low-cost bachelor’s and master’s degrees in professions desperately needed in that mountain region. UCM can be a blueprint for what Kentucky higher education will require over the next 25 years. Because of the state’s pension crisis—second-worst only to Illinois— lawmakers are likely to have even fewer resources to spend on higher education, so higher education will have to become more innovative and embrace initiatives similar to UCM. To make the financial environment even worse, Kentucky’s public universities don’t enjoy a strong fundraising tradition, outside of oversized support for 24
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EDUCATION football and men’s basketball. At barely more than $1.1 billion, UK has one of the smaller endowments among public research universities. (Its endowment only recently eclipsed the size of Berea College’s.) Kentucky’s other state universities have smaller endowments, none of which adequately serve the needs of their respective institutions. Other outside forces that will make the next 25 years increasingly difficult: With less state funding, families will be asked to pay more for college while real income is expected to remain stagnant, further contributing to a steady rise in student loans; the pool of potential traditional undergraduates is barely expanding, and those students cost more to enroll because competition for them has become more fierce; and there is increased demand from businesses for graduates who have a combination of soft and hard skills, and also have the ability to learn new skills on the job. It’s hard for higher education to significantly reduce its operating costs without changing its operational DNA. As National Public Radio education reporter Anya Kamenetz pointed out in a 2015 talk at UK, higher education suffers from Baumol’s cost disease—its labor costs rise while productivity essentially remains the same. There are no robots or algorithms (yet) to teach, advise and mentor students. In the next 25 years, Kentucky higher education must help produce what U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska recently called “a society of lifelong learners.” As Sasse wrote, the disruptive knowledge economy will demand “a culture in which people in their 40s and 50s, who see their industry disintermediated and their jobs evaporate, get retrained.” Developing a society of lifelong learners and meeting their evolving needs won’t come easily for higher education. Higher-ed leaders have been conditioned to prepare students to graduate with skills that are in demand in the present rather than those that will equip them with the ability to change over time and prepare for the final job of their career. Rethinking that approach becomes all the more important when organizations such as the World Economic Forum remind us that about 65 percent of children who currently are in the early years of elementary school “will end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.” College and university leaders also continue to give a disproportionate amount of attention to serving 18- to 24-year-old students over the age groups that are coming to represent a plurality of college students. But if the leaders of the state’s public and private colleges and universities can readjust their focus and partner more often with KCTCS on projects similar to UCM, Kentucky might be able to meet the higher-education needs of the mid-21st century.
— Duane Bonifer Formerly director of public relations at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Duane Bonifer is executive director of communications and marketing at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois.
HEALTHCARE
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anville, Kentucky; Christmas Day, 1809: Jane Todd Crawford had just survived the world’s first ovariotomy under the skilled hands of surgeon Ephraim McDowell, thereby launching Kentucky into the annals of medical history. Since then, Kentucky’s healthcare industry has become known for other firsts, including the first hand transplant in 1999 and as the home of Drs. A. Bennett Jenson and Shin-je Ghim, inventors of the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine. Stephen Williams, former CEO of Norton Healthcare, said that the roots of Kentucky’s healthcare industry are in faith-based ministries. “Literally, in the wagon-train days, you had nuns in the Catholic arena who would establish outposts and clinics,” he said. “The Louisville children’s hospital came out of a Presbyterian women’s group. Jewish Hospital, of course, started serving the Jewish community.” Over time, municipalities began to see the importance of improving public health with amenities such as sanitation, clean water and vaccinations. “The old Louisville General was run by the County Board of Health,” Williams said. Since the 1970s, he said, the Commonwealth has seen more and more proprietary, for-profit hospitals take over the healthcare scene. “A lot of that was borne out of the fact that when the government programs were established in the late 1960s and mid-1970s—plus the fact that you had fee-for-service insurance companies—you had most of the population covered [financially],” he said. “That financial environment began to be attractive to organizations that would be investor-driven. It did bring a lot of money to the industry sector that created growth in the field and injected a lot of money.” Patrick Padgett, the executive vice president of the Kentucky Medical Association, said Kentucky blazed “a lot of trails” in improving public health, medical education and, in more modern times, medical politics. “Since the early 1990s, Kentucky has been ground zero for the politics around health reform and health reform initiatives,” he said. “Political leaders from Kentucky set the tone for what’s going on at the national level. Some [policies] went forward, and some didn’t.” But the cloud that hangs over Kentucky’s healthcare industry is Kentucky’s wellness rankings against other states in the country.
Williams said the Commonwealth is known for “very poor lifestyles,” which have created a high number of chronic conditions. Trust for America’s Health ranks Kentucky fifth in the nation in poverty, fourth in diabetes, fifth in obesity and fourth in physical inactivity. “Heart disease, diabetes, cancer—all those things drive the health of our population to the near bottom,” Williams said. Padgett noted that while Kentucky has made advancements in bettering public health, there is plenty of room for improvement. “It’s interesting when you go back and look at the history of medicine in Kentucky. One of the issues is the lack of medical providers in rural areas,” he said. “[It’s] 100 years later, and we’re still talking about lack of medical providers and medical care in rural areas. I think some would say that’s translating into the urban areas as well.” But it’s not all doom and gloom. “We’re getting better,” Padgett said. “We’re still near the bottom, but we’re better than we were 15 years ago with technology, better medicines and things like that.” Williams said there unquestionably will be “phenomenal” advances and breakthroughs in both research and clinical care. But he also predicts that Kentucky will see healthcare financing “turned upside-down.” “We have to quit getting paid by volume,” he said. “The industry will, I think, make a fundamental change in the way healthcare is delivered. We get paid by the unit of service—every time you see the doctor, somebody pays somebody. We’ve got to have a system where we are paid to keep people healthy, an incentive to keep people healthy instead of doing more volume.” That means Kentucky should see an improvement in preventive care. “We have the information systems. We have the capability to do that now,” Williams said. “We didn’t 20 years ago.”
— Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley is a Louisville-based senior contributor to Kentucky Monthly.
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THOROUGHBREDS
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entral Kentucky’s signature Thoroughbred breeding industry is going through changes as big as it has ever seen since setting down roots in the late 1860s. The number of live Thoroughbred foals produced in 2015 and 2016 was the lowest recorded since 1968. These smaller crops have created a stark polarity in the auction market, where demand is high at the top end, drops off sharply in the middle market, and is practically nonexistent for the least expensive stock. Fewer horses result in racetracks cutting back on the number of races they can offer, resulting in a 30 percent decline in live races since 2000. Fewer races mean fewer owners, which depresses demand at auctions. It’s a vicious cycle. Making a living in a venture as high-risk as raising and selling Thoroughbreds has made Kentucky horsemen and horsewomen accustomed to withstanding these economic gut checks. The latest challenges are just another chapter in a 150-year history of turmoil and triumph. When the first recorded races were held in Lexington five years before the Commonwealth joined the Union as the 15th state, Thoroughbred breeding and racing existed primarily as hobbies. Fewer than 4,000 Thoroughbreds were registered in the United States between 1803 and 1892. Thoroughbred breeding and racing changed following the Civil War by adopting a new professionalism. In the book Racing in America, author John Hervey noted a shift away from a semiprivate amateur sport to a more public and professional venture. Racing evolved “into a great popular amusement for the whole of the citizenry, conducted as a rule by associations semi-professional if not wholly professional in character,” Hervey wrote. At this time, East Coast horsemen were well acquainted with the natural benefits of the Bluegrass region’s calciumand phosphorus-enriched pastureland that strengthened the bones of young horses. Professional and well-organized, Kentucky’s Thoroughbred community began transforming the area into a major breeding center and surpassed the efforts of breeders in Tennessee, Maryland and Virginia, according to Hervey. Professionalism led to the establishment of a robust commercial marketplace that drove the national foal crop from about 99,000 in the 1950s to 182,500 in the 1960s. Big returns at auctions attracted speculators in the 1970s and early 1980s, when gross revenue at Keeneland’s September yearling sale exploded from $5.1 million in 1970 to more than $61.7 million by 1985. This high-flying market would crash in 1986 when federal tax breaks evaporated and the market collapsed under the burden of hyperinflation and overproduction. Recovery would not come until the mid-1990s, but never 26
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again would the market sail quite so high. Nor would the roller coaster stop. Overproduction eroded auction prices by 2006, and then the Great Recession hit, making an already bad situation much worse. Over the next seven years, Thoroughbred foal production in North America rolled back to 22,500. “We are becoming a niche industry again,” said Arthur B. Hancock III, the owner of Stone Farm near Paris whose great-grandfather came to Kentucky from Charlottesville, Virginia, to raise Thoroughbreds and farm. “I’m 74, and I can remember in the ’50s my father saying, ‘There are over 5,000 foals this year. How am I going to keep up with all these damn pedigrees?’ I don’t know that it is all bad to have an emphasis more on quality than quantity.” Racing historian Edward Bowen is concerned about the smaller crops. He’s skeptical that the quality is higher overall and concerned about the market contraction’s impact on the future of small farms. “The bottom-bred [lower-priced] Thoroughbred is still a remarkable animal capable of attracting all the things that drive the business,” Bowen said. “It is useful socially to continue an agricultural activity at a time where there is a lot chipping away at agriculture as it was traditionally operated.” Many in the industry believe the U.S. ultimately will benefit from fewer but high-quality racing days. Again, Bowen said he is not sure this change will make racing more competitive with other sporting and entertainment options. “You may not like everything about non-elite racing, but I still think it is a good product,” he said. “I think it is an appealing thing for people to go to their local racetrack and follow certain horses. I don’t think it would be fine if we just had the elite tracks and nothing else.” And while Bowen acknowledges the steady decline in attendance at racetracks, he also sees plenty of innovation that could slow or even reverse this trend. Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park successfully introduced a show bet bonus this year that helped more fans experience the thrill of cashing a winning ticket. Churchill Downs and Fair Grounds in Louisiana have created racing clubs that introduce fans to horse ownership for a one-time investment of $500. Even as the foal crop has shrunk, Kentucky has continued building on its dominant position both nationally and internationally. Kentucky-bred Thoroughbreds make up 37.4 percent of the North American foal crop, compared with 29 percent in 2008. Hancock said he doesn’t see anything that would weaken Kentucky’s standing in the decades ahead, with an important caveat— the industry must be more aggressive about getting “drugs and thugs” out of racing. “We have a great sport, and the horse is noble animal,” Hancock said. “But it all centers around the horse, and we have to clean it up. Horses used to average 45 lifetime starts; now they average around 11. Think of the economic ramifications of all that. I don’t think it is all bad to get into a niche industry, but it has to be clean or you won’t have any public confidence. If we don’t, then we may not be around much in 25 years. If we do, then we’ll be just fine. I believe that with all I am.”
— Eric Mitchell Eric Mitchell is Bloodstock Editor at BloodHorse in Lexington.
I
t may not be much of a stretch to say that Dr. Thomas Walker was the first tourist to visit what is now Kentucky back in 1750. Walker, along with a cadre of axmen, found their way through a narrow gap in the mountainous terrain of eastern Kentucky in search of new land to speculate and game to hunt. He found both. It was 19 years later, in 1769, that Daniel Boone’s foray along Walker’s path led to the real influx of people coming to Kentucky. It’s a safe bet that in 1792, when Kentucky gained statehood, the word “tourism” hadn’t been spoken. However, that was about to change. Through the Cumberland Gap by way of what was called the Wilderness Road, settlers came with their families to live. Some returned to Virginia telling others about this new place—Kentucky. It wasn’t until the early 1920s that the state began to realize the potential of attracting visitors to see its natural wonders and raw beauty. Cumberland Falls, Natural Bridge and Red River Gorge were just some of the draws. But it was Mammoth Cave in south-central Kentucky that was the bedrock of state tourism. As far back as the 1830s, the cave was promoted to “outsiders” who arrived initially by stagecoach, then by train and later, as the roads improved, by car. Private landowners were in control of many of the state’s natural attractions, and it wasn’t until 1919 that state government began to take a look at becoming involved. Though Kentucky doesn’t officially have a designated father of tourism, Willard Rouse Jillson might just fit the bill. A geologist by profession, he published an individual map of each of the state’s 120 counties. In 1924, when the Kentucky General Assembly created a State Parks Commission consisting of three members, Jillson was a logical choice to oversee it. The commission was charged with identifying future park sites throughout the Commonwealth. The criteria were physical excellence, great natural beauty or superb historic importance, with conservation being an important part of the decision. A few months later, Jillson’s commission identified Cumberland State Park to be the first of what would become Kentucky’s centerpiece of tourism promotions. The park, located in Bell County not far from Cumberland Gap, was renamed Pine Mountain State Park in 1938. More and more travelers from the Midwest began to find their way into Kentucky on roads that were no longer mud and ruts, but instead, a combination of oil and gravel. As wild as it may seem, roadside tourism was popping up all along the two main north-south corridors—Highways 31W and 25. Every hamlet, town and city throughout Kentucky was vying for attention, hoping travelers would stop and buy a souvenir, postcard or ticket to something; eat a meal; fill up the gas tank; or spend the night. Privately owned touristy places like caves, hotels, springs, rock formations, waterfalls, and arts and crafts centers advertised in publications throughout Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Standard Oil of Kentucky even
produced its own travel version that included, of course, its gas station locations. But it wasn’t until the state Department of Conservation produced the first travel brochures in 1950 that Kentucky began promoting the entire state. The state’s park system flourished in the decades that followed, and today there are some 50 locations touting lakes, caves, wildlife and scenic views. The Department of Travel was under the Department of Public Information until 1979, when Gov. Julian Carroll made it a separate division. Then in 1984, Gov. Martha Layne Collins gave tourism its own cabinet position. Much credit for opening up the state to tourism has to be attributed to good roads. It started with the interstates and parkways, and improvements followed on many of the secondary roads, making it safer and quicker to access areas of Kentucky that previously had been difficult to reach. While the interstates have been a blessing, they also might be considered a drawback. Kentucky has long been labeled as a “passthrough” state for motorists on the way to Florida. Travelers can enter the state and not have to stop even for a comfort break. However, there are those visitors who view the Commonwealth as a destination. “People come to Kentucky because they want to see real America,” said Kristen Branscum, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Tourism. “And I think we are in perfect position to be a top-tier destination.” Over the last several years, tourism has seen such a steady growth that it is now the thirdlargest generator of revenue, trailing only the automotive and healthcare industries. “Our latest numbers show that 24.6 million people visited us, and this resulted in an economic impact of $13.7 billion,” Branscum said. “With that came 186,200 tourism-related jobs and $1.4 billion in tax revenue. I’m very optimistic about our future. Our local officials are starting to realize tourism is an economic engine in Kentucky.” Branscum pointed out that the state is more than bourbon and horses. “We’re so lucky to have them because they open the door to many of the other attractions we have all over the state,” she said. Hank Phillips is president of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association that represents some 800 businesses and individuals who have a stake in the travel trade. This umbrella organization is not tax supported but funded through membership fees. “The key to reaching our potential is raising consumer awareness,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to get more tourism marketing dollars to get our message out. Tourism marketing carries with it an astounding return on investment.” As for the future, Phillips thinks Kentucky can be a highdemand regional destination with global appeal. “Our sleeping giant of a destination has every bit of the appeal of a California wine country and other regions that are on the minds of travelers from around the world,” he said. “Visitors want the authentic experience Kentucky offers.”
TRAVEL & TOURISM
— Gary P. West Gary P. West is the former executive director of the Warren County Convention & Visitors Bureau and a Kentucky travel writer. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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g n i r u t p a C THE CAPITOL
PHOTOS B Y THOR NEY L I EBER MAN
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G
reat architecture is achieved by an ingenious combination of art and engineering. When an architect is commissioned to design a state capitol, he or she must consider the weight of responsibility of the project. The structure should be grand and imposing, as it stands as the majestic symbol of the state and the seat of its government. In these images from The Kentucky State Capitol Building, a book by renowned architectural photographer Thorney Lieberman slated for release this fall, it is evident that architect Frank Mills Andrews succeeded spectacularly when he designed our capitol in the early 20th century. Lieberman succeeded as well in capturing the stately elegance of this magnificent building.
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The Commonwealth’s Old State Capitol, designed by Kentucky-born Gideon Shryock and built in 1827-1830, exhibits the classic Greek Revival style and was the first building of this design west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was the first building designed by Shryock and was commissioned when he was a mere 25 years old. It actually was the third structure to serve as our capitol.
Aruguably the most striking feature of the building is the self-supporting marble double staircase, an exceptional marvel of engineering. For more information on The Kentucky State Capitol Building and photographer Lieberman, visit thorneylieberman.com. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 5 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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HONEY | FLOWERS | PLANTS | BEEF | POULTRY | PORK | SEAFOOD | BISON | PET FOOD | PET TREATS | SO
GREEN BEANS | TOMATOES | MAPLE SYRUP | CARROTS | DRIED HERBS | SPICES | SAUCES | POTATOES| SEEDS | HOPS | CRAFTS
SUMMER
2017 Hardin County Farmers Markets Located next to the Hardin County Extension Office at the Pavilion 200 Peterson Drive Elizabethtown, KY 42701 (May 3, 2017-October 25, 2017) Wednesdays: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Located next to the Hardin County Extension Office at the Pavilion 200 Peterson Drive Elizabethtown, KY 42701 (April 8, 2017-October 28, 2017) Saturdays: 7:00 am - 12:00 pm
Grayson County Farmers Markets
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Located at the corner of Mill and North Main Street 101 Mill Street Leitchfield, KY 42754 (May 17, 2017-October 31, 2017) Tuesdays: 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm Thursdays: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Saturdays: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Shelby County Farmers Markets
Located in the Indian Hills Shopping Center 500 Mill Street Leitchfield, KY 42754 (May 17, 2017-October 31, 2017) Wednesdays: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Saturdays: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Located at the Grayson County Facility for Education and Research 124 Quarry Road Leitchfield, KY 42754 (May 17, 2017-October 31, 2017) Wednesdays: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Saturdays: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Located at the Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center 910 Wallace Avenue Leitchfield, KY 42754 (May 17, 2017-October 31, 2017) Thursdays: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Located at the Shelby County Fairgrounds in the Coots Barn 1513 Midland Trail Shelbyville, KY 40065 (April 29, 2017-October 21, 2017) Saturdays: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Located at the Shelby County Fairgrounds in the Coots Barn 1513 Midland Trail Shelbyville, KY 40065 (May 31, 2017-August 30, 2017) Wednesdays: 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
BLACKBERRIES | RHUBARB | ARTICHOKES | MILK | YOGURT | CHEESE | EGGS | ICE CREAM | CUCUMBERS
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OAPS | BALMS | COSMETICS | WINE | SCONES | COOKIES | CAKES | GRANOLA | NUTS
Owensboro Regional Farmers Markets Located on Triplett Street 1205 Triplett Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (April 22, 2017-October 28, 2017) Saturdays: 8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Located at Cabinet for Health and Family Services 275 East Main Street Frankfort, KY 40601 (June 7, 2017-August 16, 2017) Wednesdays: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Boyd County Farmers Markets
Located on Triplett Street 1205 Triplett Street Owensboro, KY 42303 (June 1, 2017-October 26, 2017) Tuesdays: 8:00 am - 1:00 pm Thursdays: 8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Located at Fannin Auto 7405 US Route 60 Ashland, KY 41102 (June 3, 2017-October 25, 2017) Wednesdays: 7:00 am - 2:00 pm or Sellout Saturdays: 7:00 am - 2:00 pm or Sellout
Located at the Owensboro Health Regional Hospital 1201 Pleasant Valley Road Owensboro, KY 42303 (May 17, 2017-August 30, 2017) Wednesdays: 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Located at the King's Daughters Medical Center, Corner of 24th Street and Bath Avenue Ashland, KY 41101 (June 1, 2017-October 26, 2017) Thursdays: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm or Sellout
Franklin County Farmers Market Located downtown Frankfort at the Riverview Park 404 Wilkinson Blvd Frankfort, KY 40601 (April 22, 2017-November 11, 2017) Tuesdays: 7:00 am - 12:00 pm Thursdays: 7:00 am - 12:00 pm Saturdays: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
MUSHROOMS | JAMS | JELLIES | JERKY | CORN | CARROTS | APPLES | STRAWBERRIES LET TUCE | SOD | PIES | BREADS | SQUASH
FARMERS MARKET GUIDE
To locate a farmers’ market in your area visit www.kyagr.com or www.kyproud.com
London-Laurel County Farmers' Market Corner of Main and Dixie Streets, Downtown London London, KY 40741 (May 6, 2017-October 28, 2017) Tuesdays: 9:00 am - 1:30 pm Thursdays: 9:00 am - 1:30 pm Saturdays: 9:00 am - 1:30 pm
| GRAPES | WATERMELONS | CANTALOUPE | SORGHUM | FERTILIZER | APPLE BUT TER
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
SUMMER SENSATIONS Summertime means new adventures and exploring new locations. Here are some of our picks for places to check out for an amazing experience!
DINOSAUR WORLD Travel back in time; see more than 150 life-sized dinosaurs. Dig for fossils, pan for minerals, uncover a life-sized Stegosaurus skeleton in the Boneyard and see Woolly Mammoths. Dinosaur World also offers an indoor museum, playground and gift shop. Exit 53 off I-65. Open every day. 270.773.4345 www.dinosaurworld.com
NEWMAN-DAILEY RESORT Enjoy summer at the beach. Newman-Dailey Resort Properties features premier vacation rental homes and condominiums in Destin, Miramar Beach, South Walton and 30A. Take advantage of the lowest summer rates from August 12 to Labor Day. Start planning today at DestinVacation.com. 1.800.225.7652 newday@ndrp.com www.DestinVacation.com @NewmanDailey
KENTUCKY RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL The 12th Annual Highland Renaissance Festival takes place June 3-July 9 (Saturday & Sunday only) in Eminence, KY. Gates open at 10 a.m. Come out and experience entertainment for all ages! Each weekend features different themes, from pirates to Steampunk and more! 502.845.9206 www.kyrenfaire.com 955 Elm St., Eminence, KY
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URBAN SQUAWK Backyard poultry provide much more than fresh eggs TEXT + PHOTOS BY ABBY L AUB
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onna Pizzuto walked a few blocks to fellow chicken owner Karen Fawcett’s home one bright Monday morning with a smirk on her face. She had a hen in her arms and commented that she was just giving morning commuters something to talk about at the office that day. From the other direction, Blayne Borden walked up with “JLo” tucked in her arms. Once placed on the ground, the frilly bantam hen was chased by the other hens in Fawcett’s yard and scurried back to Borden. “They know she’s new,” Borden said, adding that chickens usually need time to adjust to new members of the flock. Pizzuto, Fawcett and Borden all are residents of Southland’s bustling Rosemill neighborhood—minutes from downtown Lexington and a mile from the University of Kentucky. Fawcett hops on the bus to get to work at UK every day; Borden is a home-school mom who is preparing to rejoin the full-time workforce at Lexington Public Library; and Pizzuto is a former engineering designer turned massage therapist.
and sometimes surprising—sight around many urban Kentucky neighborhoods. The three have gotten to know one another because of their chickens, and Pizzuto noted that her feathered friends definitely are a community builder. “They’ve been well-received,” she said of her four hens. “I guess my girls have been pretty entertaining. When I first got them, they wanted to roost in the tree. And I’d come out, and someone would be stopped in the street looking at my chickens.” The neighbors also look out for her birds. “I was walking [my dog] one morning and some guy drove by and saw me and said, ‘I had to put one of your chickens back in your yard,’ ” Pizzuto recalled. “They’ve never wandered far, even when they get out.” She employs neighborhood kids to help look after the chickens if she has to be gone for longer periods of time, and kids will shoo the hens back into the yard if they perch up on the fence. • • •
• • •
No longer just a staple on farms, chickens can be found in backyards throughout the Rosemill area and are a common—
Connecting her own child with the food cycle was a big motivator for Borden to raise chickens. “My son was probably 6 or 7 when we first got chickens,
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so it was fun for him to learn about the eggs and get a general education of basic animal reproduction,” she said. “We first got chickens about seven years ago because a neighbor two houses down had a bunch of silkies [a breed with fluffy plumage], and he was moving, and my son really liked the chickens.” So they began with two hens and two roosters and have had several other chickens over the years, their flock size varying with predator attacks and some new chicks. Borden said her family had no experience raising chickens, but having previously lived in Olympia, Washington, where keeping backyard chickens was fairly common, they were accustomed to them. Starting their flock in Lexington, she said, was simple because they had chickens and a coop given to them. But they learned after predator attacks that a sturdier coop would be necessary to keep their hens alive. “We had this short little fence, and everything was fine. But then we realized we needed more,” Borden said. “It’s amazing how you think your coop is secure, and then you come out in the morning, and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, what happened?’ You go out in the morning and see dead chickens. “I felt so guilty thinking that I’d been entrusted with these animals, and they all died on my watch! Everybody loves chicken, even the predators.” Predators—primarily raccoons, possums and hawks—can be problematic in urban neighborhoods. Borden also learned the hard way that some chickens could, in fact, fly before their wings were clipped, as she spent days trying to get a new flock of Old English Game Bantam hens out of the trees around her house. She now has a big, sturdy coop with padlocks to keep her birds safe. She said her cats have never been an issue. Some of the other challenges and expenses of keeping chickens include appropriate feed, treating chicken ailments, and coop maintenance. “Depending on the chickens, you can spend a lot of
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money on chickens and coops,” Borden said. “But if you’re handy, you can make the coops, and you can find some commercially made ones for cheap.” At times, she’s had to help sick or injured chickens recover. “It’s been an enjoyable experiment, and I’ve also learned a lot about gross things that I can handle,” Borden said. “It’s kind of like parenting.” But the chicken-owning benefits, especially having fresh eggs, outweigh the hurdles. “They’re interesting creatures to watch,” Borden said. “I really like it because they eat all of our food scraps and all of the yard waste. We have a system of fences that we’ve used, where we keep them in the front garden until the raspberries bloom so they kind of keep the weeds down there. Then we move them back to the back, so they really work an area, particularly when you have six or eight of them. And the eggs are nice, too. “It’s cool to go, ‘Oh, I have this leftover food, and I can give it to them, and they’ll turn it into an egg,’ ” Borden added. “And they’re just fun. We had one rooster that was sweet. He’d find a big worm or something good to eat, and he’d call the little hens over to eat. He was very chivalrous, but loud.” Borden does not use them, but some chicken owners use lights throughout the winter to keep the chickens producing more eggs. A full-size chicken will lay about five eggs per week, slowing down as it ages. Egg size and color vary based on the breed. • • •
Fawcett, who also has a small flock of four chickens and first brought baby chicks home four years ago when they were 5 weeks old, said most hens will begin laying around 6 or 7 months old. “We’ve always had animals, so having more animals was normal, but we did not have any major experience with chickens,” Fawcett said. “We thought we wanted to be in a
little more control of the food that we eat, and this seemed the easiest way to start. We can grow a few things in the garden, but between pests and creatures and rain or no rain—I don’t have a green thumb. But I can take care of animals.” Depending on the city, roosters generally are not allowed, but there are rarely limits on keeping hens in Kentucky. It’s up to residents to find out the rules and ordinances for their cities and homeowners associations, and to be courteous to neighbors. “Sharing eggs with neighbors is always a good way for them to overlook an hour of your hens squawking on a sunny afternoon,” Fawcett said. “Even hens can get noisy sometimes, and their waste can smell sometimes when it gets wet and the wind blows.” Fawcett said that coops run the gamut of homemade to kits to expensive custom builds. “Most people build their own that I’ve seen,” she said. “Our coop is not a showplace, but it’s very functional, and I like it because I can walk into it. When we built our first coop and put our chickens in it, we thought it was cute, but then I was just never happy with having them penned up. It does keep them safe from predators, though. “During the day, we just open the door, and they stay in the fenced backyard. They just come in at night and get locked in to be safe from the raccoons and possums and hawks. When they were babies and an airplane flew overhead, they instinctively ran for cover.” Fawcett said that chicken owners should research the correct types of feed. She said new chicks can cost as little as $5 each, and the best asset to raising chickens is common sense. “It’s amazing to have such a connection with your food without having to kill it,” she said, adding that her teenage son can just walk outside in the morning, grab an egg, and fry it before school. Aside from providing fresh eggs, the chickens are interesting critters to keep. “They come when I call; they follow me around,” Borden said with a laugh. “I know it’s only because I feed them, but that’s the only reason that my cats do, too. They also have interesting different vocabularies that they use. “It’s been fun. It’s really cool to go on walks, and you walk by and see a coop. It’s like seeing a Volkswagen van and doing the wave. So it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, you must be good people; you have chickens.’ The neighborhood is really supportive.”
Top, Fawcett opens the coop to let the chickens explore in the the sunshine; above, a backyard coop the hens call home; left, Borden, Fawcett and Pizzuto pose with their feathered friends. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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• • •
Pizzuto’s quiet little yard on a corner lot affords great chicken visibility to people walking past. She initially dove into the hobby about five years ago because of her garden. “I always had a vegetable garden, and my veggies weren’t looking so good … My soil was pretty bad, and I just didn’t want to use artificial things, so I decided chickens would be a nice organic way of handling it. Circle of life,” she said. “I’m using the chicken poop on my garden, eating the vegetables, and the chickens are aerating the soil. They go in there and till it every once in a while, but I have a gate up, so they don’t dig up the new plants.” She said raising chickens can sometimes be a lot of work, especially with chicks, but that her current flock of four chickens is fairly easy to deal with. “Sometimes when I’m working late massaging—and in the winter especially when it’s dark early—I get home and walk back there and say, ‘Are you all in there?’ And I hear, ‘cluck cluck,’ and then I shut the door. They do talk back,” she said, adding that when she’s not home, she typically leaves her chickens in their coop. Pizzuto said there haven’t been any issues with her dogs and the chickens once they became accustomed to each other. “But my son’s dog just runs circles around the coop and wants to play with them when he visits,” she said with a laugh. “ ‘Let me just play with you—to death.’ ” As far as expenses go, Pizzuto acknowledges that she spends a little more than some other chicken owners might. She uses fresh pine shavings in her coop and cleans it out often. In the winter, she adds straw to keep the hens warmer and sometimes buys them snacks like cracked corn or makes “pumpkin pie” treats for her “girls.” “They’re silly, but I enjoy them,” she said with a grin. “It’s a fun hobby.” Q
“ This is Home!” Home!”
McDowell Place Place of of Danville Danville is is an an independent independent McDowell living, assisted living and personal care living, assisted living and personal care community. It is a neighborhood made up community. It is a neighborhood made up of people who are still independent in their of people who are still independent in their retirement years, years, aa trusted trusted provider provider for for those those retirement needing some assistance, and a compassionate needing some assistance, and a compassionate care giver giver to to those those requiring requiring personal personal care. care. care
To Betty Murphy, it’s home. For information on how you can become a part of our community, please call (859) 239-4663 or visit us at www.mcdowellplacedanville.org or just stop by at 1181 Ben Ali Drive in Danville.
TOUR DE COOP While prospective chicken owners can find quite a few online resources, the annual Cooperative Lexington Urban Chicken Keepers Coop Tour gives the public a peek at chicken keeping in the city. On Sept. 25, CLUCK presents a walkable showcase of coops along Lexington’s 6th Street corridor, offering views of various types of coop set-ups. Chicken owners will be on hand to discuss their hens and answer questions.
Is Preserving America’s Heritage an Integral Part of Your Charitable Giving and Estate Plan? The Sons of the American Revolution Foundation and the Center for Advancing America’s Heritage provide a unique opportunity for you to join other patriotic and generous foundations, corporations and individuals by donating to complete and endow the SAR National Education Center and Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Museum will tell bold, emotional stories about the Revolution and show how it continues to influence freedom and independence worldwide.
For details see www.sar.org For information on how you can be a part of this important project, please contact:
For more information, visit clucklex.org or seedleaf.org, or contact Travis Robinson, organizer of this year’s tour, at clucklex@gmail.com.
Samuel C. Powell ldunn@sar.org SAR Foundation, Inc. 809 W Main St. Louisville, KY 40202 (336) 227-3557
Local contacts are available to meet with you.
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Corn Opera Silas House and Sam Gleaves celebrate food and community in a new production BY KIM KOBERSMITH
“In these hands and in these dishes, solace here to find Constant human ties that bind There’s a blessing at this table Making room right next to me … Keep us mindful and humble Ever close to what is real This food we were brought up on We raised it in these fields” “Blessing,” by Sam Gleaves
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entuckians often have corn in their bread and corn in their bourbon. But corn is not usually the topic of their entertainment. Until now. Productions of In These Fields: A Folk Opera, written by author Silas House and musician Sam Gleaves, both of Berea, are being performed throughout the Commonwealth. When the Southern Foodways Alliance asked House and Gleaves to write a show about corn, both admitted they were concerned about how to fill a 45-minute show about a field crop. But when they began to research and brainstorm ideas, they saw how the history and culture of the South are revealed through this iconic grain. A series of monologues and songs, the work is a meditation on those who have raised, prepared and eaten corn. The chronological story begins with a Cherokee woman in the 1830s and ends with a modern gay man. In between, audience members meet a slave, a sharecropper, a beauty pageant contestant and a female moonshiner. It touches on fever-pitch moments in the history of the South, like slavery and civil rights, and shares the very human stories that make up that history. Gleaves’ songs are new but include elements culturally relevant to the characters. For example, he incorporates a Cherokee tune with new words and the words of an African-American spiritual with a new melody. The SFA commissioned In These Fields for its annual 40
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symposium last October. Headquartered at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, the Alliance “sets a welcome table where all may consider our history and our future in a spirit of respect and reconciliation.” The goal is for its staged events, like In These Fields,“to serve as progressive and inclusive catalysts for the greater South.” In that vein, In These Fields is more than just entertainment. Gleaves and House believe that artists have the responsibility to talk about big issues. So themes like classism, racism, sexism and homophobia are explored in the story. Another important Southern theme is restoring a sense of pride for cultural foodways. “Food shame is an important topic in the rural South,” said House, noting he doesn’t know any Southerners who weren’t looked down on at least once for their soup beans and cornbread or pickled bologna and saltines. Often, those judgments about food are extended to the people and the culture of the South. “We are proud to celebrate working-class people,” Gleaves said. While covering weighty topics, In These Fields does not feel like a lecture. It is at its heart about people’s stories. It tries to honestly present Southern food and culture in neither a vilified nor a romanticized way. It portrays true Opposite, collaborators Silas House, left, and Sam Gleaves [Kim Kobersmith photo]
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Below, from left, House, Carla Gover, Gleaves, Deborah Payne, Brett Ratliff and Jason Howard; right, Adanma Onyedike Barton performs a monologue [Photos by Brandall Atkinson for the Southern Foodways Alliance]
life that is complex and messy, yet celebrates the history of one of the most widespread staple crops in the Americas. The two friends had kicked around the idea of collaborating for years. When approached by the SFA and asked to do just that, they couldn’t refuse. “Collaboration is dangerous to do with a friend,” House quipped, but both said they had a great time working together on this project. Being respectful of each other’s ideas was key, as well as being open to how the music could shape the monologues, and the stories could shape the music. Each is an artist in his own right. House has written five novels, three plays and shorter pieces for The New York Times and NPR. His numerous awards include Appalachian Writer of the Year and recipient of the prestigious Caritas Medal, a tribute to his commitment to social justice. Gleaves learned to play traditional music as a teen at the local barber shop in his rural Virginia hometown and has performed both nationally and internationally. He released his debut album, Ain’t We Brothers, last November. Novelist Lee Smith calls him, “amazingly talented … the best young songwriter around.” The term “folk opera” might be new to some. A folk opera by definition centers on folk people and uses folk components in the production. The In These Fields characters are rural Southern people, and it features folk stories, music and dance. Gleaves added one more folk dimension to the production: There is no score for the music. After writing the songs, he taught them to the musicians using a traditional process. They listened and picked up the music by ear. He points out that process also creates a living work, in which each performance is different. House and Gleaves consider themselves lucky that everyone they hand-picked for the cast said yes. While all needed to be close to Berea for rehearsals, House and Gleaves don’t believe that limited their choices. Adanma Onyedike Barton, a theater professor at Berea College and 42
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skilled actress and director, portrays the slave and beauty queen in the show. Carla Gover, an accomplished musician and dancer, performs as the Cherokee woman. Fiddler and harmony singer Deborah Payne embodies the moonshine character, and gifted pianist Jason Howard portrays the sharecropper. Talented musician Brett Ratliff plays with the ensemble. One of their greatest contributions, House said, is, “They all care deeply about this place, about Kentucky, Appalachia and the South, yet they understand the complexities of their history.” All the players are multifunctional—as musicians, actors, directors, dancers and writers—and for some, including House in his acting debut, it was the first time to perform on stage. It was Gleaves’ debut writing music for a theatrical production. The cast had an instant rapport because they already knew one another. Gleaves and House chuckle when sharing another apropos way they developed their working relationships—by eating together. “At rehearsals, it just sort of happened,” Gleaves said. “We would take tea breaks and also share a big potluck with the best Southern food,” House chimed in. In These Fields has taken on a life of its own, more than House or Gleaves ever imagined. They believed they were finished after the October 2016 performance for the Alliance. But the inspirational show has generated a lot of interest in Kentucky. In December 2016, the cast performed a sold-out show at ArtsPlace in Lexington. The Warren County Public Library presented a production at Bowling Green’s Capitol Arts Center in March. The Hindman Settlement School hosts a production at the June 5-10 Appalachian Family Folk Week. This fall, there are plans to perform in Letcher County. Because of the schedules of the busy cast members, the group has had to turn down requests for performances. After the staging in Bowling Green, an audience member
approached House in tears. She has been in Kentucky for only two years, and the performance made her homesick for her native India. She kept thinking of the big meals her family had back home and the special dishes her mother made. While the dishes and ingredients were different, the connection around the table was the same. “We thought we were writing a celebration of food, but we really created a celebration of community,” House said. Through writing and sharing this piece, House and Gleaves have realized the two are inextricably linked. The last song of the show, “Blessing,” is an original composition by Gleaves. In just a few words, he encapsulates a blessing that many families share before a meal, the blessings received when sharing food at a common table, and the blessing of working the land to provide this sustenance for bodies and souls. Fittingly, the production closes with a welcome table full of both food and community. Q
Visit silas-house.com or samgleaves.com for upcoming performances of In These Fields.
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Two for Ten
BY ST E P H E N M . V E ST
For more information or to purchase tickets (859) 236-2747 or 1-866-KYplays
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I
n celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Kentucky Voices series, Danville’s Pioneer Playhouse is bringing back Elizabeth Orndorff’s Death by Darkness and debuting Angela Correll’s Guarded, the sequel to her previously produced Grounded. “Ten years fly by pretty fast, and we felt like we needed to do something special,” said Managing Director Heather Henson, who grew up in the theater her father, Col. Eben C. Henson,
founded in 1950. “We have produced five of Elizabeth’s plays over the years (including The Dillinger Dilemma), so we thought it was appropriate to bring back the crowd’s favorite.” Death by Darkness opens the playhouse’s 68th season on June 9 and runs through June 24. It’s set in 1842, when cave guide Stephen Bishop takes a party of tourists—including Charles Dickens and his wife—into Mammoth Cave. The comedy, Drinking Habits, about two nuns at the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing, opens June 27 and runs through July 8. Correll’s Guarded, based on her novel of the same name and with a script by Holly Hepp-Galvan and Artistic Director Robby Henson, runs July 11-22. It continues the story of Annie, Jake and Beulah, whom playgoers met in Grounded. Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery is slated for July 25-Aug. 5, followed by Elvis Has Left the Building (Aug. 18-19). A special comedy weekend with “DynO-Mite” Jimmie Walker closes out the season Aug. 25-26. Orndorff began her playwriting
career after her short story The Bathroom Cleaner won $25,000. “I turned it into a one-act play,” she said of the work that won honors at the Louisville Juneteenth Festival. “I originally wrote Death by Darkness for the International Mystery Writers Festival at the RiverPark Center in Owensboro.” After it took toap honors there, Orndorff, who calls Danville home, brought the play from the black-box setting to Pioneer Playhouse. While a sequel, Guarded is a standalone play and is being adapted by a new team of playwrights. “They are two very different plays with very different voices,” said Henson. Correll based the story on hidden letters found in an old house and a quest to discover more about the letter writers and their memories of World War II. “It’s a Kentucky story, but it is also not just Kentucky—there is Italy, too,” Correll said. Tickets are $18 for adults and $10 for children. Dinner and a show cost $32 and $17. Shows begin at 8:30 nightly. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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By Rachael Guadagni
J BOYS MEN Louisville-based Manhood Journey and Trail Life USA partner to help involve fathers with sons
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athers and sons. Where does one begin? There is food, clothing and a roof to provide for the sons, of course, as well as the doctor, dentist, orthodontist (for crying out loud, doesn’t he have one tooth pointing in the right direction?), as well as schooling, art, music and sports 46
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programs. And that’s the easy stuff. What about the tougher tasks, such as instilling values, fostering morality and teaching a boy what it really means to be a man? For those lessons, dads could go the pop psychology/ sociology route, reading books and articles written by parenting “experts” confident they possess the key to the manhood mint. Or, if they’re like
Kentucky dad Kent Evans, they could access a higher power and put to use the most comprehensive and valuable resource available: their faith. Manhood Journey, a Louisvillebased Christian organization, is the brainchild of Evans, its executive director and father of five boys, and three other dads, all of whom felt a need for something specifically geared
rest will align,” toward this Evans said. “It significant becomes a force you relationship. can’t stop.” “About six years Manhood ago, we thought Journey partners about doing with another something for Christian fathers and sons,” organization with said Evans, “and roots in Louisville: asked ourselves, ‘Is Trail Life USA. It’s a this worth doing?’ troop-centered The answer was outdoor adventure yes.” program for K-12 The group’s boys that focuses on slogan, “Helping leadership and the fathers build the development of a next generation of strong moral godly men,” states character. (Trail Life its purpose and also partners with grounds the American Heritage mission firmly in Girls, a similarly Christian doctrine. designed Christian Referring to God’s nonprofit word as their organization for “manhood girls 5-18.) Spiritual manual,” Manhood guidance and Journey encourages support are fathers to guide provided as boys their sons in small learn valuable groups, using leadership skills scripture to aid in through fresh-air discussion and activities such as address the needs of the boys at their camping and hiking. For more information about these organizations visit various stages of Though they manhoodjourney.org and traillifeusa.com. development. The refer to themselves groups generally as “unapologetically consist of four to Christian,” TLUSA connected to the problem, and the eight dads and their sons, meeting welcomes boys of all faiths and weekly for six weeks. There is no hard- statistics correlate to dads being out of backgrounds, asking only that the home. Humanity has a common and-fast rule about duration, however, participants understand and accept the problem with dads leaving the and many groups continue after the biblical code by which the group responsibility to others. It is not the initial six-week period. operates. Charter partners, most often government’s job or the pastor or the Manhood Journey’s Leader Survival churches, oversee the troops and their school. It is their job to do this work.” Guide and Embarking Module—the activities—such as outdoor excursions Though passionate about the first six-week study—is free, with other and mission trips that feed into each mission, Evans and Manhood Journey programs such as Manhood Myths, other in a continuous cycle of faith. as a whole retain a humble demeanor Clean Hearts and Standing Strong Manhood Journey provides learning and pragmatic view of the task at offered at a minimal cost. The purpose modules and other resources for hand. “A godly man knows the Word,” of each module is to approach the TLUSA members. Evans said, “but there is no big magic challenges the boys face from a biblical “Trail Life is a great model partner,” here. This is more built to help that perspective and provide them with the Evans said. “We provide one tool for 43-year-old dad to be engaged.” tools to face those challenges and them, and we have a good relationship. When asked how much fun is emerge as godly men. The simple fact They are about Christian adventure that fathers are interacting directly with involved for the boys, Evans again cites and discipleship. In fact, Kentucky the low expectations that have become their sons is a true pillar of the Gov. Matt Bevin and the CEO of Trail acceptable in child rearing. “We act program—and the crux of what Evans Life were keynote speakers at our like all boys can do is run around and views as having been the problem. annual dinner.” be wild,” he said. “When we meet, “There has been a multi-decade The rapid rise in popularity of you are expected to focus and bring lowering of the bar for men,” he said. Manhood Journey has been a your big-boy brain.” “We’ve allowed society to dumb men wonderful surprise to Evans, who Using what Manhood Journey calls down.” commented on how fast and far the the five areas or “big rocks” of biblical Citing statistics on juvenile organization has come. “We didn’t manhood—trusting in the Lord, delinquency and dropout rates, Evans start out to change the world,” he said. praying fervently, studying God’s points to the necessity of fathers not “But there has been a huge need in word, building relationships and just being around but also being an Kentucky and around the country. We serving others—dads are encouraged integral part of their sons’ lives. “This didn’t even have employees until last to start with the basics and trust their is not a political or economic issue; year. And in less than three years, we own abilities. “If you can get a handful are in 46 states, and our content is there are social challenges to of things right, top to bottom, all the fatherhood,” he said. “Absenteeism is being downloaded in 11 foreign J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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Andre PaterIn a Sporting Light APRIL 21 - AUGUST 13, 2017
Left: Demonstrative, 2014 top: End of the Day, 1996 Bottom: Afternoon, 1996; Private Collections © Andre Pater
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countries. We estimate about 4,0005,000 fathers and sons around the world, and we’ve been on radio and television. “It’s been kind of crazy,” he added with a laugh. Manhood Journey has been building its foundation one brick at a time. “We create all the content ourselves,” Evans said, “and the main thing for the past three years has been to get that content squared away.” As it moves into the next phase of development, Manhood Journey is scheduling events and activities that drive home its message of faith and paternal responsibility. One example of the group’s activities was PROJECT: Manhood, a two-day retreat in May for fathers and sons at Country Lake Christian Retreat in Underwood, Indiana. And while the schedule included camping, hiking, zip lining and even a few paintballs flying, the true focus was on time spent together, learning more about each other and what role faith plays in not only the father/son relationship, but that of spouses, parents and the rest of the world. To that end, several prominent members of the theological community were slated to speak, including Dan Dumas, senior vice president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Dr. Kevin Jones, associate dean of Boyce College; and Evans, who is the author of Wise Guys: Unlocking Hidden Wisdom from the Men Around You. Manhood Journey came about because a handful of dads realized there was a genuine need for discipleship in their role as fathers, and it was up to them to make that happen. When asked about the motivation, Evans summed it up perfectly: “It’s my job.” Q
TRAVEL
KTIA Signature Summer Events ach quarter, the Kentucky Travel Industry Association spotlights E Signature Events for the season. Following is a sample of the state’s prime activities for the summer. Beer Cheese Festival, June 10, downtown Winchester, (859) 744-0556, tourwinchester.com. As the birthplace of this local treat, Winchester celebrates its deliciousness with an array of beer cheese makers from across the country, who offer tastings on Beer Cheese Boulevard. After sampling the beer cheese, visitors enjoy live music at two stages, an arts and crafts marketplace, and a food court. W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival, June 14-17, Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, (270) 826-3128, HendersonKy.org. This festival has grown to be one of the largest free music events in the nation. Attendees experience a variety of blues styles, including gritty delta blues, smooth soul, big horn bands and Zydeco music, plus plenty of barbecue and other good eats. PaBREWcah Beer Fest, June 17, downtown Paducah, (270) 443-8783. A celebration of all things craft beer, this event features about 20 craft breweries with an emphasis on regional and local brewers. The tasting experience ticket includes a commemorative beer glass, live music, tastings and more. Saturdays on the Square, June 24-July 29, Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville. com. This free summer concert series is packed with top-notch talent and fun for the entire family. The lineup includes classic country artists with multiple top10 hits, a Grammy and Dove Award winner, a Kentucky-sized birthday celebration and a classic car show. Party on the Square, June 24, July 29 and Aug. 26, downtown Georgetown, (502) 8632547, georgetownky.com. Join in once a month for an epic community party. Sit back in a lawn chair or relax on a blanket and enjoy live performances from some of central Kentucky’s hottest bands. The series offers local food and drinks, plus a wide range of music genres. Bring your kids, your neighbors, your pets, and—most importantly—your dancing shoes! Hardin County Community Fair & Horse Show, July 10-15, Hardin County Fairgrounds, Glendale, (270) 369-8406,
Explore
hardincofair.com. Fairgoers can take a stroll back in time when the fair was the annual social event. This year features a newer midway, motorsports, free monster truck rides and show, UCW professional wrestling, a demolition derby, truck and tractor pulls, beauty pageants and a petting farm. Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriter’s Festival, July 26-29, various locations, Henderson,(270) 826-3128, HendersonKy.org. This fest features four nights of intimate, acoustic performances highlighted by more than 30 of Nashville’s awardwinning singer/songwriters. It is an opportunity to hear popular songs performed by the original hit-making writers who created them. Cruisin’ the Heartland, July 28-29, downtown Elizabethtown, (270) 765-6121, cruisintheheartland. com. Celebrating its eighth year, this event has streets lined with cars of all models, sizes and ages. Visitors view custom paint jobs and hear the roaring sounds of souped-up V-8 engines, while enjoying live bands and great food. It was recognized as one of the top cruise-ins in the nation by Chevy Classics Magazine. Scott County’s Geo-Trot, Aug. 12, throughout Scott County, (502) 863-2547, georgetownky.com. Discover the many treasures that lie within central Kentucky with this geocaching event in horse country. This adventure has participants navigating along scenic country roads past charming horse farms to some of the most historical locations in the area. Not familiar with geocaching? Visit geocaching.com to learn more about the world’s largest treasure hunt. Bluegrass in the Park & Folklife Festival, Aug. 12-13, Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, (270) 826-3128, HendersonKy.org. One of the oldest ongoing free Bluegrass festivals in the United States, this event blends bluegrass music, historic folk activities, food concessions and vendors, all with a beautiful riverfront view. A wide mix of Americana, folk and Bluegrass music abounds.
The Kentucky Travel Industry Association names its Signature Events four times a year. To be eligible, festivals or events must be recommended or produced by a KTIA member. A panel of impartial judges selects the winners for each season.
For more information, phone (502) 223-8687, email info@ktia.com or visit KTIA.com. Illustration by Annette Cable.
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CULTURE
Off the Shelf
FINAL FLAMES Battletown Witch: Leah Smock, the Evolution of Witchcraft, and the Last Witch Burning in America By Gerald W. Fischer Acclaim Press $24.95 (H)
In the woods near the small, rural Meade County community of Battletown, many people say they have seen a ghost. The ghost, they claim, is Leah Smock keeping an eye on things around the place where she was burned as a witch in 1840. Her gravestone is hidden way back in the woods, guarded by poisonous snakes, and she appears majestic in her “white robe, dark eyes and long raven tresses.” And whether one believes in witchcraft or not, such matters throughout history have moved people to act in response to their own fears on the issue, as author Gerald Fischer writes in his newest
Digging for Answers
Ancestral Influence
Neighbor vs. Neighbor
Hope, the main character in The Missouri Trail, is searching for answers, and she finds them The Missouri Trail in the writings By Jan Sparkman of her greatTate Publishing great$13.95 (P) grandmother. The story is set in the present, but thanks to journal entries from pioneer days, it takes the reader back several generations. After Hope is taken at age 9 without explanation from her mother’s side of the family, she spends her life questioning why all ties were severed. Her life is tough, but when, as an adult, she is reunited with her relatives, things get even tougher. Hope knows there is a hidden secret, and she digs and questions until, finally, she gets to the bottom of the dysfunction. As with many of life’s dilemmas, once she has the answers, Hope wishes she did not. But when she is given the gift of the secret journal, she finds other answers she didn’t realize she was looking for. Author Jan Sparkman of London, Kentucky, has written several books, short stories and poetry.
A few years ago, Crystal Bradshaw presented a genealogy project for Eliza: A her high Generational school class Journey in Jetmore, By Crystal Bradshaw Kansas. Some Crystal Bradshaw of her $14.95 (P) classmates gave her an odd look when she reported little information about her grandfather. This spurred her into further research, and she uncovered some intriguing news. She learned about her “five times” grandmother, Eliza Bradshaw, who was born in the 1830s near Harrodsburg. Eliza’s family was a part of the “Exoduster” movement that saw former slaves move to Kansas from Lexington after the Civil War, seeking more freedom. Bradshaw, who was featured in Kentucky Monthly’s 2015 Literary Issue, wrote a historical fiction manuscript on her findings before she finished high school. While attending college, she self-published it as the novel, Eliza: A Generational Journey. Her solid narrative is a stirring tribute to her ancestors and illuminating to readers.
Kentucky, officially a neutral state at the start of the United States Civil War, was far from neutral in Kentucky Rebel reality. There Town: The Civil were pockets of War Battles of residents who Cynthiana & were as Harrison County vehemently By William A. Penn University Press of opposed to Kentucky slavery as there $45 (H) were those who were for states’ rights. Cynthiana, in Harrison County, was one of the Commonwealth’s first towns to send a volunteer company to the Southern army. The county also displayed a Confederate flag on top of its courthouse for a short time. In his book, Kentucky Rebel Town, William A. Penn describes the two big battles that took place in Cynthiana. There were several raids that involved Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan and skirmishes that resulted in many buildings being burned and cannons fired in the streets. These battles truly pitted neighbor against neighbor. Penn, who has published many articles on history, is editor of the Harrison Heritage News.
— Steve Flairty
— Deborah Kohl Kremer
— Deborah Kohl Kremer
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(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback
historical book, Battletown Witch: Leah Smock, the Evolution of Witchcraft, and the Last Witch Burning in America. Not only does Fischer bring to remembrance the circumstances leading to the execution of Smock in the Kentucky frontier near the Ohio River, he also surveys the societal emergence of such “early beliefs, superstitions, and cultures across the world, primarily in Europe, and how these beliefs influenced life in the early American colonies.” Fischer, who holds degrees in archaeology, anthropology and history, also authored Guerilla Warfare in Civil War Kentucky. — Steve Flairty
BOOKENDS Kentucky has always played a significant role in supplying America’s armed forces with brave and competent members from its citizenry. One of note and perhaps not particularly well-known was from Hopkinsville. Logan Feland, according to author David J. Bettez, “played a major role in the development of the modern Marine Corps.” His book, Kentucky Marine: Major General Logan Feland and the Making of the Modern USMC, goes a long way toward giving a higher profile to his inspiring life. Feland’s accomplishments included being decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism in the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I, commanding the hunt for rebel leader Augusto Cesar Sandino during the 1927-1929 Nicaraguan revolution, and serving as one of the first instructors in the United States Marine Corps’ Advanced Base Force—the forerunner of the amphibious assault force mission adopted by the Marines in World War II. The 367-page softcover book follows the hardcover published in 2014. Bettez also authored Kentucky and the Great War: World War I on the Home Front. Published by the University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky Marine retails for $28. ••• William McCann Jr. and the Kentucky State Fair began growing together dramatically in the summer of 2012. That was when the Kentucky New Play Series began, and the endeavor suggested by McCann became his baby as the producer and sometimes actor in the mini-plays. The series continues annually at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center and, with help from volunteers and financial support from organizations and businesses, can be labeled a success. A Harrison County resident, McCann has chronicled the first two years’ offerings and presented them in an 80-page book, Kentucky New Play Series Anthology 2012-2013. The paperback book, available from Amazon, sells for $9. An updated version also is planned.
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The Bluebird Café — Wilderness Road Guest Houses & Rooms — Kentucky Soaps & Such
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J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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VOICES
Past Tense/Present Tense
O Canada! BY BILL ELLIS
C
ongratulations to our friends in Canada on the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. With adoption of the 1867 British North America Act, Canada edged its way toward independence from Great Britain. While the United States has been an independent nation since the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the path of Canadian independence was much different. After 1867, Canada remained a dominion, eventually comprising 10 provinces and three territories within the British Empire of semi-independent nations. With a governor general appointed by the crown, Canada worked its way to being a truly independent nation with its own chief executive and legislative body. Other legislation in Canada and Britain after World War I played an important role. With the adoption of “O Canada!” as the national anthem in 1967, the movement quickened. The last link in the chain was passage of the 1982 Canada Act by the British Parliament. Canada is a sovereign, independent nation just like the United States. Relations between the U.S. and Canada have not been without conflict. After the Revolutionary War, many loyalists fled to Canada. The War of 1812 was fought both on our soil and Canada’s. On a road trip to the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec a couple of years ago, just across the border from Maine, we stopped briefly at a loyalist cemetery in New Brunswick. Citizens of both countries have often moved across a mostly undefended border from the earliest days of settlement, particularly in the western states and provinces. A long series of treaties from the Treaty of Paris of The International Peace Garden 1783 through the early 20th century established the 5,525-mile boundary between the U.S. and Canada. You can travel into Canada without a passport, but only if you have an enhanced driver’s license, or EDL, which the Kentucky General Assembly authorized just this year. However, it is best to have a passport. Don’t quibble with either the American or Canadian officials, as smuggling and terrorism are growing concerns for both of our nations. I recall some years ago when we entered Canada, the border guard asked if I had any firearms. I answered, “No.” 52
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Perhaps noting that I was from Kentucky, he asked again just to be sure. Canada is a diverse country and has been a haven for immigrants just like the U.S. From the largest cities like Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto to the vastness of the North and West, Canada is complex. English-speaking Canadians and French Canadians don’t always get along. Some western Canadians question what goes on in the capital at Ottawa. People in Ontario and Quebec tell belittling “Newfie” jokes about the inhabitants of Newfoundland. Sounds like tensions between us Americans, doesn’t it? The Commonwealth of Kentucky has important connections to Canada. “The relationship Kentucky and Canada enjoy is of major importance both economically and culturally,” explained Jack Mazurak, spokesman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. In 2016, nearly $30 billion of exports left Kentucky for 199 international markets, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico, France and Germany. By far, our largest export market was Canada, with nearly $7.5 billion in goods exiting the Commonwealth bound for our northern neighbor. Kentucky also imports nearly $3.5 billion in goods from Canada annually. And these numbers are growing. Moreover, at last count, Canadian corporations operate 36 facilities in Kentucky, ranging in size from a few employees at Clearwater Fine Foods with the “world’s largest inland lobster tank” in Louisville to more than 1,600 at Bowling Green Metalforming LLC. Several Canadian plants in our state supply the automotive manufacturing industry. In all, more than 7,500 workers were employed by Canadian-based firms in our state as of early April, according to Cabinet for Economic Development records. To put 7,500 employees in perspective, Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reported to me that as of Dec. 31, 2016, fewer than 6,500 individuals worked coal mines in western and eastern Kentucky. So, Canada is important to the economy of Kentucky. Why not spend a few dollars in our northern neighbor’s homeland? The food is good, and gasoline is more
expensive, but the scenery will make up for that. If you arrive as the weather warms, be warned that mosquitoes will be rampant in the wooded areas of the countryside, but that is no different from northern Minnesota. The people are friendly, even in Quebec, where you might find an occasional ill-disposed French speaker who will not acknowledge you. Other than that, as I often tell Canadians, “You are a lot like Yankees, only a little nicer.” They always appreciate that. I have been fortunate to have visited Canada several times. The earliest trip was when I was 8 years old in 1948. Two carloads of family members—Ellises, Strattons and Gatewoods—visited Niagara Falls and just across the border in Ontario. We laughed for years about when my Granddaddy Stratton paid U.S. dollars for some fruit but refused to take the change in Canadian currency. “I don’t want any of that funny money,” he said. Credit cards are taken all over Canada, and you can get Canadian dollars from automatic machines and at banks. Be sure to get a “loonie,” the $1 coin with an image of that famous bird. Of course, the exchange rate fluctuates all the time. Canadians tell me they prefer to travel in the States because of cheaper travel, including gasoline and accommodations. We meet up with many Canadians in Florida during the wintertime. They complain about their country just as much as we do about ours. We are alike but a bit different. Canadians are just as proud of their country as we are of ours. “As Canadians, we are very proud, caring individuals who respect values and the property of others. Family is extremely significant. You respect tradition and British royalty even though we are independent now,” said Marilyn Joncas, who along with her husband, Pierre, operates a motel we frequent in Daytona Beach. Pierre and I often engage in friendly repartee. He grew up in a French-speaking area where English-speaking Orangemen loyalists were once called Pumpkin People. So I, a native Kentuckian, refer to myself as Pumpkin Bill. Although visitors from the U.S. may feel safer in Canada than in some places in our own country, Canadians have many of the same problems with crime as we have. In Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, several years ago I met a Royal Canadian Mountie one day at a gas station. We struck up a conversation. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and carried an automatic sidearm. Half-jokingly, I said, “You don’t need all that up here do you?” He rolled his eyes. My wife, Charlotte, and I have traveled by bus or auto to Canada off and on since 1998. We have been to Dawson City in the Yukon just after the thaw of the Yukon River. We have toured British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and a little part of Labrador. One of the best fishing days I have ever had was with a guide in Manitoba’s Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The farmland of Canada is a joy to behold—beautiful and well-kept, from the extensive grain farms out west to a Quebec “ferme” with the family name proudly painted on a barn. Last year on a Great American Road Trip to the upper Midwest and westward to Glacier National Park, we stopped at The International Peace Garden. The park straddles the North Dakota-Manitoba border with more than 2,000 acres of lovely gardens, a conservatory, a chapel and a 9/11 memorial. Being off the beaten path, it probably does not get enough tourists, but it is well worth the trip. By the way, most Canadians don’t like to be thought of as the jokesters on The Red Green Show or reminded that some say “Eh!” occasionally. However, I find Red’s closing salutation, “Keep your stick on the ice,” to be sound advice. While you’re in Canada, enjoy the sights, sounds and smells. A Tim Hortons maple-glazed doughnut, a fish cake and fried cod tongue in Newfoundland, French fries with brown gravy in Quebec, seafood on either coast, and adaptations of English and French food will whet any appetite. However, sweet iced tea must be outlawed in Canada. So, stop at a Cracker Barrel to slake your thirst before crossing the border. Take a Great Canadian Road Trip soon.
REVISIT & EXPERIENCE
ClassicFavorites 9 Visit Historic Boone Tavern for an overnight stay or dinner in our award-winning dining room. Try our savory slow cooked Southern Pulled Lamb, Bourbon Pork Chop or Pan Fried Trout. And of course, pair these classic dishes with your favorite Kentucky Bourbons, craft beers and exquisite wines.
Make your reservation Today 859-985-3700
donna_robertson@berea.edu boonetavernhotel.com 100 Main Street N. | Berea, KY 40404
Readers may contact Bill Ellis at historian@kentuckymonthly.com
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OUTDOORS
Field Notes
Sergeant Floyd: Kentuckian BY GARY GARTH
W
hen William Clark and Meriwether Lewis arrived in Louisville during the summer of 1803, they were looking for a few good men. The city was little more than a rough-and-tumble mudflat, a river town on the fringe of the frontier. But it also fostered the determined, adventurous, self-reliant, strong-spirited men the captains sought. Lewis and Clark were on the edge of history; a fortunate few would join them. The “nine young men from Kentucky,” was how Clark described their first recruits. Charles Floyd was one of the earliest to join. Floyd was handpicked by the captains to join the Corps of Discovery, a military unit they were assembling to explore the Missouri River in search of something that did not exist, although they didn’t know it at the time. Floyd was born in 1782 in Jefferson County. Little is known of his early life, although when Floyd was a teenager, he and his family moved just across the Ohio River into what today is southern Indiana but then was part of the Northwest Territory, a swath that included land from the Ohio to the Great Lakes, and from Appalachia to the Mississippi River. By October 1803, the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery had been selected. They assembled near the Falls of the Ohio. Floyd was probably about 20 years old. The young Kentuckian certainly had qualities the captains judged critical for the upcoming journey. But he also had connections. His father and uncles had served with Revolutionary War hero Gen. George Rogers Clark, who lived nearby and was the older brother of Corps co-leader William Clark. Floyd’s commanders apparently looked upon the young man with favor, appointing him as one of three sergeants. They headed down the Ohio River, selectively adding more men. Then, after spending a few days near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, they paddled their way up the Mississippi and established a winter camp near the mouth of the Wood River just north of today’s East Saint Louis, Illinois. They departed in mid-May, entering the mouth of the Missouri River on a journey fraught with danger. Floyd, the young Kentuckian, would be the only member of the group who wouldn’t return. •••
By mid-August, the men had muscled their way more than 700 miles up Missouri River to the rolling country that today defines southwestern Iowa. Wildlife was plentiful. Spirits were high. Then, an unexpected crisis. “Serjeant Floyd is taken verry bad all at once with a 54
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Biliose Chorlick,” Clark recorded in his journal entry of Aug. 19, 1804. “We attempt to relieve him without success as yet, he gets worst and we are much allarmed at his Situation, all attention to him.” There was reason to be alarmed. He almost certainly was suffering from appendicitis. His condition quickly deteriorated. The next day, Clark, who was attending to the ailing sergeant, recorded, “Sergeant Floyd much weaker and no better … Floyd as bad as he can be no pulse & nothing will stay a moment on his Stomach or bowels.” That afternoon, he died. “Floyd Died with a great deal of Composure,” Clark noted. “before his death he Said to me, ‘I am going away I want you to write me a letter.’ We buried him on the top of the bluff. 1/2 Mile below [is] a Small river to which we Gave his name, He was buried with the Honors of War much lamented, a Seeder post with the Name Sergt. C. Floyd died here 20th of august 1804 was fixed at the head of his grave. This Man at all times gave us proofs of his firmness and Determined resolution to doe Service to his Countrey and honor to himself. after paying all the honor to our Decesed brother we camped in the Mouth of floyds River about 30 yards wide, a butiful evening.” It was a fitting eulogy and burial ceremony for the first United States soldier to die west of the Mississippi River. But he didn’t stay buried. When the Corps returned two years later, the captains stopped to visit Floyd’s grave only to discover it had been disturbed. Clark blamed the locals: “found the grave had been opened by the nativs and left half uncovered,” he recorded on Sept. 4, 1806. They refilled the grave and continued downriver. (A sign near the monument that today marks Floyd’s gravesite suggests that the disturbance the captains found in 1806 had been caused by wolves.) Floyd still didn’t stay buried. By 1857, the Missouri River had shifted and threatened to erode the hillside gravesite and carry the sergeant’s remains downriver. The townspeople of Sioux City, Iowa, moved Floyd’s remains about 200 yards east. A few years later, interest in the Kentuckian was rekindled after his journal was published. His remains again were moved, this time placed in an urn covered with a marble slab. But he still didn’t stay put. A monument to Floyd was erected in 1901, into which his remains were entombed. In 1960, the site in Sioux City, Iowa, was declared a National Historic Landmark. Today, the 100-foot-tall white sandstone obelisk caps Floyd’s Bluff in honor of one of the Corps’ original “nine young men from Kentucky.” Readers may contact Gary Garth at outdoors@kentuckymonthly.com
OUTDOORS
Gardening
Too Many Veggies? BY WALT REICHERT
Y
ou do it. I do it. Every spring. The soil smells good and is gently warm to the touch. The weather is nearly perfect. Weeds are still small if they’re around at all. Bugs haven’t come out yet. So we plant and plant and plant some more, forgetting that four bushels of green beans is quite excessive, and that there’s not enough flour and brown sugar in the world to make bread out of a ton of zucchini. So we waste beans and squash and tomatoes. We feed melons and corn to the chickens. We hurl perfectly good produce onto the compost pile, certainly not a complete loss but not the highest and best use either. What if we could get that extra produce to people who could really use and appreciate it? To people who are hungry or who go without nutritious food? If you live in central Kentucky, you can. For the past seven years, a group called GleanKY has been on a mission to rescue fresh fruits and vegetables that otherwise would go to waste. Founded by Erica Horn, John Walker and Jennifer Erena in June 2010, GleanKY has rescued more than 1.1 million pounds of produce and passed it along to 80 food distribution partners, including churches, food banks, campus kitchens and shelters in eight central Kentucky counties. More than 60 of those organizations are in Fayette County alone, where GleanKY was founded. The rest are in Scott, Madison, Franklin, Clark, Bourbon, Woodford and Jessamine. Those nonprofit groups distribute the food to their clients, usually within 24 hours of harvest. The food is gleaned by trained volunteers and comes from large farms and orchards in the region as well as from backyard gardeners who just have an extra bushel of tomatoes or a few bags of corn. Rachael Dupree, program director of GleanKY, estimates that the fresh fruits and vegetables gleaned from local farms reaches about 50,000 of the approximately 100,000 residents in the Bluegrass region that face food insecurity. Gleaners GleanKY started with volunteers picking up produce in their cars and delivering it to food banks. Today, the
organization has four trucks and a staff of four but still relies on volunteers and is always looking for more. “We have staff now,” Dupree said, “but without volunteers, none of this happens.” The goal is to eventually reach out to all 17 counties of the Bluegrass region, Dupree said. Grant County will be added this summer. Dupree started with the organization six years ago as a gleaner. GleanKY trains gleaners to go out into the fields to gather fruits and vegetables. The goal is to harvest perfectly good fruit and vegetables that otherwise would go to waste—for example, apples that have fallen onto the ground or tomatoes and peppers with slight blemishes, so they can’t be sold but are still edible. “The idea of gleaning has taken hold in other parts of the country but is just getting started here,” Dupree said. Gleaners go out to the large farms and orchards in the community and get excess produce from groceries and farmers markets in the area. GleanKY also offers drop-off points for home gardeners who have produce they can’t use or who just want to help the cause, Dupree said. “We’re not distributing canned food, bread,” Dupree said, “just fresh produce of good quality, nothing unhealthy or beyond salvage.” The groups on the receiving end of the produce have to have refrigeration, Dupree said, to make sure the quality is maintained. GleanKY also encourages local backyard gardeners to plant an extra row for the hungry. On the first weekend in March, the organization offers a Plant a Row seed sale, where gardeners can buy discount packets of cucumber, tomato, squash and other vegetable seeds. Or, if you’re like me and go slap-happy with packets of seeds every spring, you already have lots of excess produce to donate. And now you can feel good about getting rid of it! If you would like to volunteer with GleanKY, donate, or get involved by donating your excess produce, contact the organization at (859) 444-4769 or info@GleanKY.org. Readers can reach Walt Reichert at gardening@kentuckymonthly.com
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CALENDAR
7
Let’s Go
June Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Ongoing Man o’ War at 100 Exhibit, International Museum of the Horse, Lexington, through Nov. 1, (859) 259-4232
1.
2.
3.
Oliver! The Glasgow Colonial Trade Musical, Jenny Highland Faire, Oldham Wiley Theatre, Games, County History Pikeville, through Barren River Lake Center, LaGrange, June 10, State Resort through June 4, 1-877-CALLJWT Park, Lucas, (502) 222-0826 through June 4, (270) 651-3141
4.
8.
9.
10.
16.
17.
Eclipse Paint Death by Beer Cheese Party, Casey Darkness, Festival, Jones Distillery, Pioneer Playhouse, presented by Hopkinsville, Danville, Shop Local (270) 839-9987 through June 24, Kentucky, Main 1-866-KYPLAYS Street, Winchester, (859) 737-0923
1
Vintage Baseball Game, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also June 25, (859) 272-3611
11.
12.
13.
Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also June 20 and 27, (859) 272-3611
W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival, Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, through June 17, 1-800-648-3128
18.
19.
20.
21.
Explore the Springs! McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, (859) 225-4073
0
Father’s Day
14.
15.
Holley National Hot Rod Reunion, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, through June 17, 1-800-326-7465
Mayberry Days, various locations, Owenton, through June 18, (502) 563-5050
Firkin Fest, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249
24.
Dazzling Sara Grey and ROMPfest, Daylilies Kieron Means, Yellow Creek Park, Festival, Western The Spotlight Owensboro, Kentucky Playhouse, Berea, through June 24 Botanical Garden, (859) 756-0011 Owensboro, through June 25, (270) 852-8925
Art of the Vine Festival, sponsored by the Ohio Valley Art League, Farmer & the Frenchman Winery, Henderson, (270) 860-1930
28.
2
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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
Ongoing Frank Doring: I Would Redesign That Udder, UK Art Museum, Lexington, through Aug. 20, (859) 257-5716
Ongoing Breaking Barriers: Sports for Change Exhibit, Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, through July 14, (502) 584-9254 Ongoing The Hunger Games: The Exhibition, Frazier Museum, Louisville, through Sept. 9, (502) 753-5663
Ongoing Ongoing Frankfort’s Culture Bites, Fishing Reels: BehringerJewels of the Crawford Bluegrass, Museum, Capital City Covington, through Aug. 31, Museum, Frankfort, through Nov. 10, (859) 491-4003 (502) 696-0607
July Sunday
Monday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1.
2.
9.
3.
Lexington Junior League Charity Horse Show, The Red Mile, Lexington, through July 8
4.
Saturdays on the Square featuring the Official Blues Brothers Revue, Greenville, (270) 338-1895
Independence Day
5.
6.
RaceFest, Courthouse Square, Carrollton, (502) 732-7034
10.
11.
12.
16.
17.
18.
19.
23.
24.
25.
26.
Youth Fair, Pendleton County Youth Fairgrounds, Falmouth, through July 21, (859) 391-3120
7.
8.
13.
14.
15.
20.
21.
22.
28.
29.
Tavern in the Garden, Brown-Pusey House, Elizabethtown, also July 13, 20 and 27, (270) 765-2175
Art of the Guarded, Story Walk, Keeneland Equine Pioneer Playhouse, McConnell Springs Concours Exhibit, Arts Danville, Park, Lexington, d’Elegance, Council of Mercer through July 22, also July 23, Keeneland Race County, 1-866-KYPLAYS (859) 225-4073 Course, Lexington, Harrodsburg through July 16 through Aug. 4, (859) 613-0790
Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park lodge mezzanine, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384
Master Saturdays on Musicians the Square Festival, Somerset featuring Community The Downtown College’s Festival Band, Greenville, Field, Somerset, (270) 338-1895 through July 8, (606) 676-0865
Tarzan, Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre, Prestonsburg, through Aug. 8, (606) 886-9274
Saturdays on the Square Kentucky Talent Showcase & 225th Birthday Celebration, Greenville, (270) 338-1895
Santa’s Holiday Car Craft Saturdays on of Fun Summer the Square Weekend, Fort Nationals, Beech featuring Boonesborough Bend Raceway, David Phelps, State Park, Bowling Green, Greenville, Richmond, through July 21, (270) 338-1895 through July 23, (270) 781-2634 (859) 527-3454
27.
Rock the Block Saturdays on Concert Series, the Square downtown featuring Winchester, Natural (859) 737-0923 Wonder, Greenville, (270) 338-1895
Pioneer Life Baskerville: Sandy Lee Week, Carter A Sherlock Watkins Caves State Resort Holmes Songwriters’ Park, Olive Hill, Mystery, Pioneer Festival, through July 30, Playhouse, Henderson, 1-800-325-0059 Danville, through July 29, through Aug. 5, (270) 827-1577 1-866-KYPLAYS
30.
More to explore online! Visit kentuckymonthly. com for additional content, including a calendar of events, feature stories and recipes. J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go!
A guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events Bluegrass Region
5 Teddy Bear Tea, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 6 Evening Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov
Ongoing Frank Doring: I Would Redesign That Udder, UK Art Museum, Lexington, through Aug. 20, (859) 257-5716, finearts.uky.edu/art-museum Man o’ War at 100: The Mostest Horse That Ever Was Exhibit, International Museum of the Horse, Lexington, through Nov. 1, (859) 259-4232, imh.org Frankfort’s Fishing Reels: Jewels of the Bluegrass, Capital City Museum, Frankfort, through Nov. 10, (502) 696-0607, capitalcitymuseum.com June
1-4 Seussical the Musical, The Spotlight Theatre, Richmond, (859) 756-0011, thespotlightplayhouse.com 1-4 Great American Brass Band Festival, Centre College, Danville, (859) 319-8426, gabbf.org 2 Larry Sanders & Borderline Band, The Burgin Barn, Harrodsburg, also June 9, 16, 23 and 30, (859) 748-5424, larryandborderline.com 2 Picnic in the Park, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, also June 9, 16, 23 and 30, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov 3 Beginner Digital Photography, McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, (859) 2254073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park 3 Salato Sampler, The Salato Wildlife Education Center, Frankfort, visitfrankfort.com 3 Cruiz on Main, Harrodsburg, harrodsburgky.com
7 BYOS (Scissors), The Loudoun House, Lexington, (859) 254-7024, lexingtonartleague.org 8-11 Clue the Musical, The Spotlight Playhouse, Berea, (859) 756-0011, thespotlightplayhouse.com 9 Evenings at White Hall, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov
16 Pappy For Your Pappy, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, buffalotrace.com 17 Well Crafted, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-5411, shakervillageky.org 17 Junior Naturalist, McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, (859) 225-4073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park 17 A Gathering of Descendants, Fort Boonesborough State Park, Richmond, parks.ky.gov
8-11 Festival of the Bluegrass, Kentucky Horse Park campground, Lexington, (859) 253-0806, festivalofthebluegrass.com
17 Hearth Cooking Demonstration, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov
9-10 Kentucky’s Fort Harrod Beef Festival, Mercer County Fairgrounds, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-4378, fortharrodbeeffestival.org
17-18 Fort Harrod Settlement & Raid, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov
9-10 Big Ass Bluegrass BBQ Fest, Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza, Lexington, (859) 266-6537, bluegrassbbqfest.com
17-21 Science & Soul: Guidance into Purposeful Manifestation with Davidji, Boone Tavern Historic Hotel, Berea, (859) 626-2260, mytribe.global/events.htm
9-11 Birthday Party Weekend, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, parks.ky.gov
20 Sara Grey and Kieron Means, The Spotlight Playhouse, Berea, (859) 756-0011, spotlightactingschool.com
9-24 Death by Darkness, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, 1-866-KYPLAYS, pioneerplayhouse.com
24 Party on the Square, Georgetown, (502) 863-2547, georgetownky.com
10 Beer Cheese Festival, presented by Shop Local Kentucky, Main Street, Winchester, (859) 737-0923, beercheesefestival.com 11 Explore the Springs! McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, (859) 225-4073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park
3-4 Great American Art Festival, Centre College, Danville, (859) 319-8426, gabbf.org 4 Vintage Baseball Game, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also June 25, (859) 2723611, parks.ky.gov
13 Second Tuesday Teas, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
16 Harrodsburg Birthday Party, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov
8-10 Brigadoon: Outdoor Drama Musical, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, also June 14-17, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov
13 Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also June 20 and 27, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov
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14 Story Walk, McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, also June 25, (859) 225-4073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park
24 Civil War Living History Event, Civil War Fort at Boonesboro, Winchester, (859) 744-0556, civilwarfortatboonesboro.com 27-30 Drinking Habits, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, through July 8, 1-866-KYPLAYS, pioneerplayhouse.com 30 Rock the Block Concert Series, downtown Winchester, (859) 737-0923, downtownwinchesterky.org 30 Fourth of July Fest, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, through July 4, parks.ky.gov
July
1 Cruiz on Main, downtown Harrodsburg, harrodsburgky.com 3-8 Lexington Junior League Charity Horse Show, The Red Mile, Lexington, lexjrleague.com 4 The Great Buffalo Chase 5K, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, buffalotrace.com 4 July 4th Celebration, Anderson-Dean Community Park, Harrodsburg, 1-800-355-9192, harrodsburgky.com 6-8 James Harrod: The Battle for Kentucky Outdoor Drama, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, also July 13-16, 20-22 and 27-29, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov 7 Picnic in the Park, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, also July 14, 21 and 28, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov 7 Larry Sanders & Borderline Band, The Burgin Barn, Harrodsburg, also July 14, 21 and 28, (859) 748-5424, larryandborderline.com 7-8 Summer Campers Yard Sale, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, parks.ky.gov 10-15 Hardin County Community Fair
& Horse Show, Hardin County Fairgrounds, Glendale, (270) 369-8406, hardincofair.com
10-31 Art of the Equine Exhibit, Arts Council of Mercer County, Harrodsburg, through Aug. 4, (859) 613-0790, artscouncilofmercer.com 11 Second Tuesday Teas, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 11 Evening Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 11-22 Guarded, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, 1-866-KYPLAYS, pioneerplayhouse.com 12 Story Walk, McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, also July 23, (859) 225-4073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park 13-16 Keeneland Concours d’Elegance, Keeneland Race Course, Lexington, keenelandconcours.com 14 Evenings at White Hall, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 14 Classic Movies – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov
15 Junior Naturalist, McConnell Springs Park, Lexington, (859) 225-4073, lexingtonky.gov/mcconnell-springs-park 15 Hearth Cooking Demonstration, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 18 Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also July 25, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 20-23 Santa’s Holiday of Fun Weekend, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, (859) 527-3454, parks.ky.gov 21 Scandals and Ghost Stories, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, also July 28, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 22-23 Seven Years War, Inc., Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-3314, friendsofoldfortharrod.com 25-31 Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, through Aug. 5, 1-866-KYPLAYS, pioneerplayhouse.com 28 Rock the Block Concert Series, downtown Winchester, (859) 737-0923, downtownwinchesterky.org 29 Party on the Square, Georgetown, (502) 863-2547, georgetownky.com
J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go
August
(270) 765-2175, brownpuseyhouse.org
16 Friday Movie Night: Sing, The Louisville Zoo, Louisville, louisvillezoo.org
1 Evening Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov
1-16 View from the Grandstand Art Show, The Brown Hotel, Louisville, brownhotel.com
4-6 Back to School Weekend, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, parks.ky.gov
2 T.J. and the Cheaters, Summer Concert in the Park Series, Grayson’s Landing Patio, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov
18 Ford’s Father’s Day, The Louisville Zoo, Louisville, louisvillezoo.org
5 Cruiz on Main, Harrodsburg, harrodsburgky.com
2 Bardstown Bluegrass Festival, White Acres Campground, Bardstown, (502) 252-9004, bluegrass101.com
24 Family Night Out(side), E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, Louisville, (502) 429-7270, parks.ky.gov
3 Bardstown Rotary Club Wine and Cheese Tasting Festival, My Old Kentucky Home State Park Rotunda, Bardstown, visitbardstown.com
24-25 Train Robbery, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org
8 Second Tuesday Teas, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 8 Tea Tuesday, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, also Aug. 15, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 8-19 Elvis Has Left the Building, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, through Aug. 5, 1-866-KYPLAYS, pioneerplayhouse.com 11 Evenings at White Hall, White Hall State Historic Site, Richmond, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 12 Scott County’s Geo-Trot, throughout Scott County, (502) 863-2547, georgetownky.com
Louisville Region
3-4 Arts on the Green, Courthouse lawn, LaGrange, aaooc.org/arts-on-the-green
26 Moonlight Big Band Concert, My Old Kentucky Home State Park Rotunda, Bardstown, visitbardstown.com
3-4 Colonial Trade Faire, Oldham County History Center, LaGrange, (502) 222-0826, oldhamcountyhistoricalsociety.org
26-30 Adventure Camp, E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, Louisville, (502) 429-7270, parks.ky.gov
3-4 Day Out with Thomas, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, also June 10-11, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org
29 Fanfare for the 4th: Musical Visions of America, Beargrass Christian Church, Louisville, (502) 968-6300, LouisvilleChorus.org
3-30 Highland Renaissance Festival, Kentucky Renaissance Fair, Eminence, through July 9, kyrenfaire.com
July
8 Music on the Terrace, Paddock Shops, Louisville, also June 15, 22 and 29, paddockshops.com/events
Ongoing The Hunger Games: The Exhibition, Frazier Museum, Louisville, through Sept. 9, (502) 753-5663, fraziermuseum.org Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, through Oct. 14, (502) 634-2700, speedmuseum.org Breaking Barriers: Sports for Change Exhibit, Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, through July 14, (502) 584-9254, alicenter.org Called to Arms: Kentuckians in the First World War, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, through Dec. 28, (502) 635-5083, filsonhistorical.org June
1 Historic Costumed Walking Tour, Elizabethtown, also June 8, 15, 22 and 29, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 1 Tavern in the Garden, Brown-Pusey House, Elizabethtown, also June 8, 15, 22 and 29,
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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
18 Father’s Day Buffet, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov
9 2nd Friday Bluegrass Jam, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 9-11 Once Upon a Mattress, Historic State Theater/Hardin County Playhouse, Elizabethtown, also June 15-18, (270) 351-0577, hardincountyplayhouse.com 10 Secrets of Bluegrass Chefs, Bourbon Barrel Foods Kitchen Studio, Louisville, (502) 583-1433, mintjuleptours.com 10 Second Saturday, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 10 Zoofari 2017! One Wild Night, The Louisville Zoo, Louisville, louisvillezoo.org 10 Blooming Bardstown Garden Tour, Bardstown, (502) 348-9204, bloomingbardstown.com 10-12 The Stephen Foster Story, J. Dan Talbott Amphitheatre, Bardstown, (502) 348-5971, stephenfoster.com 16 Summer Concert in the Park Series, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov
1 Rumble Over the Rough, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 1-4 Kentucky Flea Market 4th of July Spectacular, Kentucky Expo Center, Louisville, (502) 456-2244, stewartpromotions.com 4 Independence Day Fireworks Display, J. Dan Talbott Amphitheater, Bardstown, stephenfoster.com 6 Tavern in the Garden, Brown-Pusey House, Elizabethtown, also July 13, 20 and 27, (270) 765-2175, brownpuseyhouse.org 6 Historic Costumed Walking Tour, Elizabethtown, also July 13, 20 and 27, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 6 Music on the Terrace, Paddock Shops, Louisville, also July 13, 20 and 27, paddockshops.com/events 6-30 Beauty and the Beast, J. Dan Talbott Amphitheatre, Bardstown, through Aug. 5, (502) 348-5971, stephenfoster.com 7 Summer Concert in the Park Series, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, also July 21 and 28, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 7 Kindergarten Countdown Day, The Louisville Zoo, Louisville, louisvillezoo.org
8 Second Saturday, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com
Northern Region
8 Bourbon City Street Concert, downtown Bardstown, bardstownmainstreet.com 10-14 Adventure Camp, E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, Louisville, also July 24-28, (502) 429-7270, parks.ky.gov 14 2nd Friday Bluegrass Jam, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 15-16 Train Robbery, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org 21 Downtown Beach Bash, Bardstown, (502) 348-4877, bardstownmainstreet.com 21 Friday Movie Night: Moana, The Louisville Zoo, Louisville, louisvillezoo.org 22 Secrets of Bluegrass Chefs, Bourbon Barrel Foods Kitchen Studio, Louisville, (502) 583-1433, mintjuleptours.com/culinary-tours 28 Heaven and Evan Exclusive Bourbon Experience, departs from Mint Julep Tours Gift Shop, Louisville, (502) 583-1433, mintjuleptours.com/exclusive-experiences 28-29 Cruisin’ the Heartland, downtown Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, cruisintheheartland.com August
2-5 Shelbyville Horse Show, Shelby County Fairgrounds, Shelbyville, visitshelbyky.com 3 Tavern in the Garden, Brown-Pusey House, Elizabethtown, also Aug. 10, (270) 765-2175, brownpuseyhouse.org 3 Historic Costumed Walking Tour, downtown Elizabethtown, also Aug. 10, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 3 Music on the Terrace, Paddock Shops, Louisville, also Aug. 10, paddockshops.com/events 4 Summer Concert in the Park Series, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 11 2nd Friday Bluegrass Jam, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 12 The Dam Triathlon, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 12 Second Saturday, downtown Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com
KENTUCKY’S PREMIER ZIPLINE DESTINATION!
Ongoing Culture Bites: Northern Kentucky’s Food Traditions, Behringer-Crawford Museum, Covington, through Aug. 31, (859) 491-4003, bcmuseum.org June
2 First Fridays on the Square, Carrollton, (502) 732-5713, visitcarrolltonky.org 3 Art in the Garden, Augusta Riverfront, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com 8-11 Newport Italianfest, 1 Riverboat Row, Newport, italianfestnewport.com 10 Limestone Cycling Tour – A Ride to Remember, Maysville/Mason County, Maysville, (606) 584-3290, limestonecyclingleague.com
5 ZIPLINES
UP TO 1900' LONG
PROFESSIONALLY GUIDED TOURS 300' ABOVE THE GORGE!
10 Sweet Tooth Festival, Jane’s Saddlebag, Union, (859) 384-6617, janessaddlebag.com 10-11 Two Rivers Bass Tournament, Point Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-7036, carrolltontourism.com 16-30 Oklahoma! Griffin Center, Falmouth, through July 9, (859) 654-2636, krtshows.com 16-18 Mayberry Days, various locations, Owenton, (502) 563-5050, facebook.com/OwenCountyKYTourism 16-18 Goettafest, 6th Street Promenade, Covington, mainstrasse.org 17 RoeblingFest, Roebling Point, Covington, roeblingbridge.org
Perfect for Weddings, Reunions, Retreats and more!
17 Backyard Concert Series, Butler Turpin House, Carrollton, 1-800-462-8853, parks.ky.gov 17 Discovery Days, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Union, (859) 384-3522, parks.ky.gov 17 Pickers & Grinners Open-Air Market, Limestone Park, Maysville, (606) 5649704, pickersgrinners.wixsite.com/farmersmarket 17 Backyard Concert Series, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov 20 Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group,
RESERVATIONS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Red River Gorge Ziplines& Cliffview Resort 455 CLIFFVIEW RD CAMPTON, KY 41301
CALENDAR
Let’s Go 15 Discovery Days, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Union, (859) 384-3522, parks.ky.gov
General Butler State Resort Park lodge mezzanine, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov
15 Backyard Concert Series, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov
July
1-9 Oklahoma! Griffin Center, Falmouth, (859) 654-2636, krtshows.com 4 Fireman’s Fourth of July, downtown Augusta, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com 4 July 4th Fireworks, Point Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-7051, carrolltontourism.com 5 RaceFest, Courthouse Square, Carrollton, (502) 732-7034, carrolltontourism.com 6-8 Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Racing, Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, kentuckyspeedway.com
16-21 Youth Fair, Pendleton County Youth Fairgrounds, Falmouth, (859) 391-3120, pcyouthfair.com 18 Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park lodge mezzanine, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov 21-22 Riverfest Regatta, Augusta Riverfront, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com August
12-13 Free Kids Festival, Jane’s Saddlebag, Union, (859) 384-6617, janessaddlebag.com 15 Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park lodge mezzanine, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov
Western Region
June
2-3 Trade Days, Sturgis, (270) 929-0758
7 First Fridays on the Square, downtown Carrollton, (502) 732-5713, visitcarrolltonky.org
2-6 Junie B. Jones: The Musical, presented by the Maysville Players, The Washington Opera House, Maysville, (606) 564-3666, maysvilleplayers.net
2-3 Riverfront Rod Run, downtown Paducah, (270) 554-2975, rivertinstreetrods.com
11-15 KR225 Paddle Race, Point Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-7036, carrolltontourism. com
3-6 Glier’s Goettafest, Riverfront Levee, Newport, goettafest.com
2-4 Glasgow Highland Games, Barren River Lake State Resort Park, Lucas, (270) 651-3141, parks.ky.gov
15 Pickers & Grinners Open-Air Market, Limestone Park, Maysville, (606) 564-9704
10-13 Great Inland Seafood Festival, Riverfront Levee, Newport, cincinnatiusa.com/ events/great-inland-seafood-festival
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3 Basket Weaving Workshop, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov
America’s only launched wing coaster, the #1 wooden coaster in the nation, and the 2 longest water coasters in the world. For reals.
2 WORLD-CLASS PARKS. 1 LOW PRICE.
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3 Coalfield Festival, Mortons Gap City Park, Mortons Gap, visitmadisonvilleky.com
1-4 Madisonville 4thfest, various locations, Madisonville, madisonville4thfest.com
3 First Day Hike: Monthly Hiking Series, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov
4 4th of July Fireworks Display, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Cadiz, (270) 924-1131, parks.ky.gov
3-4 Jefferson Davis Birthday, Jefferson Davis State Historic Site, Fairview, (270) 889-6100, parks.ky.gov
4 4th of July Program, Jefferson Davis State Historic Site, Fairview, (270) 889-6100, parks.ky.gov
8 Eclipse Paint Party, Casey Jones Distillery, Hopkinsville, (270) 839-9987, caseyjonesdistillery.com
4 Independence Day Celebration, Paducah Riverfront, (270) 444-8508, paducahky.gov
9-10 National Marina Day Celebration, Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park, Burkesville, (270) 433-7431, parks.ky.gov
7 Kids Day Camp: Mississippian Culture, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov
10 2nd Saturday Hike – History of Lake Barkley, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Lucas, (270) 924-1431, parks.ky.gov
8 2nd Saturday Hike – Insects, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Cadiz, (270) 924-1431, parks.ky.gov
10 Primitive Technology, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov
14 Kids Day Camp: Archaeology, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov
10-30 Live Harness Racing, Bluegrass Downs, Paducah, through July 10, caesars.com/bluegrass-downs
14 Friday Night Live Summer Concert Series, downtown Madisonville, (270) 824-2195, visitmadisonvilleky.com
14-17 W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival, Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, 1-800-648-3128, handyblues.org
26-29 Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters’ Festival, downtown Henderson, (270) 827-1577, sandyleesongfest.com
17 PaBREWcah Beer Fest, downtown Paducah, pabrewcah.com
29 Pottery Program, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov
19-25 Dazzling Daylilies Festival, Western Kentucky Botanical Garden, Owensboro, (270) 852-8925, wkbg.org 21-24 ROMPfest, Yellow Creek Park, Owensboro, rompfest.com 23 Friday Night Live Summer Concert Series, downtown Madisonville, (270) 824-2195, visitmadisonvilleky.com 23 Kids Day Camp: Mississippian Culture, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov 24 Art of the Vine Festival, sponsored by the Ohio Valley Art League, Farmer & the Frenchman Winery, Henderson, (270) 860-1930, ohiovalleyart.org 30 Kids Day Camp: Archaeology, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, Wickliffe, (270) 335-3681, parks.ky.gov July
1 First Day Hike: Monthly Hiking Series, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov
August
2-8 Eighth of August Emancipation Celebration, Paducah, paducah.travel 4 Friday Night Live Summer Concert Series, downtown Madisonville, (270) 824-2195, visitmadisonvilleky.com 5 First Day Hike: Monthly Hiking Series, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov 11-13 48 Hour Film Festival, Maiden Alley Cinema, Paducah, 48hourfilm.com/paducah 12 2nd Saturday Hike – Forest Succession, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Lucas, (270) 924-1431, parks.ky.gov 12 Unbridled Adventure Race Series, Kenlake State Resort Park, Hardin, 361adventures.com/unbridled 12-13 Bluegrass in the Park Folklife Festival, Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, bluegrassinthepark.com J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go Southern Region
June
1-3 National Corvette Homecoming & Chevy Invitational, National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, corvettehomecoming.com 2 Market Off Main, downtown Campbellsville, (270) 469-6190, facebook.com/DowntownCampbellsville 3 Kids Outdoor Day, Green River Lake State Park, Campbellsville, (270) 465-8255, parks.ky.gov 3 Mainstreet Saturday Night, Campbellsville, tri-countycarclub.com 9-10 Ice Cream & a Moovie, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Bowling Green, also June 23-24, (270) 843-5567, chaneysdairybarn.com 9-11 Lake Cumberland State Dock Marina On-Water Boat Show, Lake Cumberland State Dock, Jamestown, lakecumberlandvacation.com 10 Doc Monin Memorial Car Show – Lake Cumberland Car Show, Monin Memories Car Museum, Jamestown, LakeCumberland360.com 10 Lake Cumberland 360 Motorcycle Bingo Tour, Jamestown Square, Jamestown, lakecumberland360.com 15-17 Holley National Hot Rod Reunion, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, 1-800-326-7465, nhramuseum.org
For more information:
woodsonbendresort.com 1.800.872.9825 or 606.561.5300 (Rentals/Reservations) 606.561.5311 (General Information) 606.561.5316 (Pro Shop/Tee Times) rentals@woodsonbendresort.com
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Located on a 455 scenic acre peninsula overlooking and surrounded by Lake Cumberland, the Woodson Bend Resort boasts views of heavily wooded foothills, emerald green waters, and limestone palisades rising over 300 feet above the water. Set among this beautiful backdrop is our 18-hole Championship Golf Course designed by Lee Trevino and Dave Bennett. Complete with luxury amenities such as a 136 slip boat dock (with mechanical boat launch), tennis courts, outdoor basketball and volleyball courts, pavilion and fire-pit, and fine dining, Woodson Bend Resort is simply PAR Excellence!
K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
16 3rd Friday Folk – Coffeehouse, Carnegie Community Arts Center, Somerset, (606) 305-6741, lamay.com 16 Hot Rod Power Tour, Bowling GreenWarren County Regional Airport, Bowling Green, (317) 602-7137, VisitBGKY.com 17 Lake Cumberland Blues Harbor Fest, Lake Cumberland Harbor, State Dock Marina, Jamestown, lakecumberlandvacation.com 17 Summer Splash & Houseboat Hop, Nolin Lake State Park, Mammoth Cave, (270) 286-4240, parks.ky.gov 24 Saturdays on the Square featuring Aaron Tippin, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com
24 Somernites Cruise Car Show and Shine, Fountain Square, Somerset, (606) 872-2277, somernitescruise.com July
1 Saturdays on the Square featuring t he Official Blues Brothers Revue, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com
Barbecue, Bourbon Bluegrass
&
Owensboro, Kentucky
1 BG Thunderfest, National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, bgkiwanis.org/thunderfest 1-2 Lake Cumberland Independence Day Celebration, State Dock Marina, Jamestown, lakecumberlandvacation.com 4 Mainstreet Saturday Night, downtown Campbellsville, tri-countycarclub.com 7 Market Off Main, downtown Campbellsville, (270) 469-6190, facebook.com/DowntownCampbellsville 7 BB&T Concerts in the Park, downtown Bowling Green, also July, 14, 21 and 28, (270) 782-0222, downtownbg.org/concerts-in-the-park 7-8 Ice Cream & a Moovie, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Bowling Green, also July 21-22, (270) 843-5567, chaneysdairybarn.com
www.rompfest.com
7-8 Master Musicians Festival, Somerset Community College’s Festival Field, Somerset, (606) 676-0865, mastermusiciansfestival.org
A PERFECT SUMMER EVENING GETAWAY IN HISTORIC DANVILLE!
8 Saturdays on the Square featuring The Downtown Band, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com
Enjoy a home-cooked dinner featuring hand-rubbed, hickory smoked BBQ!
OUTDOOR THEATR
E & CA MPGROUND
Experience theatre under the stars in Kentucky’s oldest outdoor theatre!
8 Duncan Hines Festival, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Bowling Green, facebook.com/pg/duncanhinesfestival 9-11 Celebration of Quilts & Quilting, Old Mulkey Meetinghouse State Historic Site, Tompkinsville, (270) 487-8481, parks.ky.gov
Five different shows including... Two Kentucky Voices Originals DEATH BY DARKNESS by Elizabeth Orndorff Mystery set in 1840’s Mammoth Cave! June 9–June 24
13-15 Downtown Merchants Sidewalk Sales, Franklin, (270) 586-8482, fsrenaissance.org
GUARDED by Angela Correll Heartwarming play about faith and family, sequel to hit Grounded! July 11–July 22
19 Pirates in the Park, Old Mulkey
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b r at i
68
years
ng
15 Kids Day, Lake Cumberland State Dock Marina, Jamestown, lakecumberlandvacation.com
ce
15 Saturdays on the Square Kentucky Talent Showcase & 225th Birthday Celebration, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com
2017 Danville, KY
Make your reservations for our 2017 summer season today! Pioneerplayhouse.com Or call toll free 1-866-KYPLAYS
J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7
• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go Meetinghouse State Historic Site, Tompkinsville, (270) 487-8481, parks.ky.gov
21 3rd Friday Folk – Coffeehouse, Carnegie Community Arts Center, Somerset, (606) 305-6741, lamay.com/3rdFridayFolk.htm 21-23 Car Craft Summer Nationals, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, (270) 781-2634, hotrod.com/events 22 Saturdays on the Square featuring David Phelps, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com 22 Somernites Cruise Car Show and Shine, Fountain Square, Somerset, (606) 872-2277, somernitescruise.com 29 Saturdays on the Square featuring Natural Wonder, the Ultimate Stevie Wonder Experience, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com August
4 Market Off Main, downtown Campbellsville, (270) 469-6190, facebook.com/DowntownCampbellsville 4 BB&T Concerts in the Park, downtown Bowling Green, also Aug. 11, 18 and 25, (270) 782-0222, downtownbg.org/concerts-in-the-park 4-5 Ice Cream & a Moovie, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Bowling Green, also Aug. 18-19, (270) 843-5567, chaneysdairybarn.com 5 World’s Largest Raft Up, Lake Cumberland, Jamestown, lakecumberlandvacation.com 5 Mainstreet Saturday Night, downtown Campbellsville, tri-countycarclub.com 11-12 The Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, thetrifivenationals.com
Eastern Region
Bardstown is home to more than just bourbon. Come see the places that inspired America’s first great songwriter to compose Kentucky’s state song, and see his legacy come to life in The Stephen Foster Story, performed each summer in Bardstown, KY – the small town with big escapes.
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Ongoing
www.visitbardstown.com 800.638.4877
Khirbet el-Maqatir & a Journey Through Biblical History, York House, Pikeville, through Aug. 30, (606) 422-5952, upike.edu/exhibit
June
1-10 Oliver! The Musical, Jenny Wiley Theatre, Pikeville, 1-877-CALLJWT, jwtheatre.com 2 First Friday Art Walk and Car Show, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 2 Bluesgrass Concert, Pine Mountain State Resort Park, Pineville, (606) 337-3066, parks.ky.gov 2-4 Northeastern Kentucky Outdoors Weekend, Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 3 National Trails Day – Natural Bridge Trail Cleanup, Natural Bridge State Resort Park, Slade, (606) 663-2214, parks.ky.gov
Shelbyville . Simpsonville . Kentucky
3 A Day in the Country, Morehead Conference Center, Morehead, (606) 783-2204, moreheadstate.edu 17 Firkin Fest, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 17 Granny and Me Dress Up Tea, Stafford House, Paintsville, 1-800-542-5790, visitpaintsvilleky.com 17 Trail Trek Series, Natural Bridge State Resort Park, Slade, (606) 663-2214, parks.ky.gov
Take a behind the scenes tour in the Saddlebred Capital of the World. Shop
in our charming downtown or grab some deals at the only Outlet Mall in Kentucky. Your mouth will be watering in anticipation for a taste at our local distillery and wineries. Located between Louisville and Lexington, within minutes of the Bourbon Trail®.
502.633.6388
VisitShelbyKY.com
22-30 Crimes of the Heart, Artists Collaborative Theatre, Elkhorn City, through July 16, (606) 432-5063, ACT4.org 23-30 Madagascar, Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre, Pikeville, through July 8, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 24 Hike-A-Thon 2017, Pine Mountain State Resort Park, Pineville, (606) 337-3066, parks.ky.gov 24 Levisa Fork Paddle Fest, Paintsville & Prestonsburg, VisitPaintsvilleKy.com 24 Unbridled Adventure Race Series, Greenbo Lake State Park, Greenup, 361adventures.com/unbridled 30 July 4th Celebration, Levi Jackson State Park campground, London, through July 2, (606) 330-2130, parks.ky.gov 30 Summer Motion, Central Park and Ashland Riverfront, through July 4, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com
Summer Happenings in Western Kentucky
Madisonville Miners Summer Baseball 6th Annual Highway 41 Yard Sale Friday Night Live Summer Concert Series Madisonville 4thFest Total Solar Eclipse Weekend
June 1 – July 31 Friday & Saturday, June 23 & 24 June 23, July 14, August 4 & 18 Saturday – Tuesday, July 1 – 4 Saturday – Monday, August 18 – 21
877-243-5280
www.visitmadisonvilleky.com
30 Annie Kids, Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, through July 8, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
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CALENDAR
Let’s Go July
7 Bluesgrass Concert, Pine Mountain State Resort Park Laurel Cove, Pineville, (606) 337-3066, parks.ky.gov
Aaron Tippin
6/24 ~ Military Salute
Blues Brothers Revue 7/8 ~ The Downtown Band
7/1 ~
& Twilight Antique Car Show - 5 PM
KY Talent Showcase
7/15 ~ & 225th Birthday Celebration 7/22 ~
David Phelps
Gospel Night
Natural Wonder
7/29 ~ the Ultimate Stevie Wonder Experience
8 pm Downtown Greenville ~ Bring Lawn Chairs
TourGreenville.com
8 Greenup County Music Heritage Festival, Greenbo Lake State Resort Park amphitheatre, Greenup, (606) 473-7324, parks.ky.gov 14-30 Tarzan, Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre, Prestonsburg, through Aug. 8, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 15 Paintsville Cruiz’n, downtown Paintsville, VisitPaintsvilleKy.com 15 Minnie Adkins Day, Little Sandy Lodge, Sandy Hook, (606) 738-5129 20-22 Shrek Jr., Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 21-22 Awaken 2017, Johnson Central High School, Paintsville, VisitPaintsvilleKy.com 22 Levisa Fork Paddle Fest, Paintsville & Prestonsburg, VisitPaintsvilleKy.com 22 Hike-A-Thon, Pine Mountain State Resort Park, Pineville, (606) 337-3066, parks.ky.gov 24-30 Pioneer Life Week, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Olive Hill, 1-800-325-0059, parks.ky.gov August
3-5 Into the Woods Jr., Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 4 Bluesgrass Concert, Pine Mountain State Resort Park Laurel Cove, Pineville, (606) 337-3066, parks.ky.gov 4-5 Summer Campers Yard Sale, Levi Jackson State Park campground, London, (606) 330-2130, parks.ky.gov 4-5 Van Lear Days, Coal Miners Museum, Van Lear, vanlearkentucky.com 12 Greenbo Grass Bluegrass Festival, Greenbo Lake State Resort Park amphitheatre, Greenup, (606) 473-7324, parks.ky.gov
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. 68
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PICKERS & GRINNERS
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shopkentuckymonthly.com 888-329-0053
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Get ready for gardening season with this down-home collection of practical advice and personal anecdotes from Kentucky Monthly’s gardening columnist, Walt Reichert. Organized by the seasons, each chapter offers color photography and straightforward tips for everything from combating critters to pairing plants. The Bluegrass State’s green thumbs have proliferated, thanks to Walt’s encouraging and down-to-earth morsels of gardening wisdom.
Horticulture meets humor in gardening columnist Walt Reichert’s collection. o o o o o
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Where is Grant County?
YOUR NEXT WEEKEND GETAWAY!
Butterflies n’ Blooms May 20 – Sept. 24
Presented by
Grant County is home to the Ark Encounter, a life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark. There are gentle rolling hills, beautiful lakes and parks, hiking trails and friendly folks. We’re 35 miles south of Cincinnati and 45 miles north of Lexington. We are close to the action so come stay and play with us!
visitgrantky.com 800-382-7117
LOUISVILLEZOO.ORG J U N E 2 0 0 8 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY
XX
VOICES
Vested Interest
Two Halves Make a Whole
B
efore I get into this month’s unbelievable story, you
must first understand that the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Lexington is known as SCAPA (pronounced the way it looks: SCA-pa). You should also know, just for your enjoyment, that some people of a certain generation speak in syllables instead of words. It’s dramatic and beautiful, especially when done correctly. I have a tendency to speed through my words, where others take their time, accentuating each syllable. The weekend of Thunder Over Louisville, I was in Bowling Green, the home of Western Kentucky University, the National Corvette Museum and SKyPAC—the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. I was staying at the beautiful Kentucky Mansion Hotel, next to SKyPAC, and signing books at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. R.L. Stine, best known for the Goosebumps series, was the headliner. There were many familiar faces—Angela Correll, Heather Henson, Michael Embry and Gary P. West. Jim Morris, better known to many as the wrestler “Hillbilly Jim,” was giving out bear hugs, and I was with Robert Powell, the artist behind the Kentucky Monthly Coloring Book. It was a soggy weekend with numerous other statewide events, including Thunder Over Louisville and Kentucky Crafted: The Market in Lexington, so there was not a recordbreaking crowd on hand for the book fair. This gave ample opportunity for discussion and lots of visiting among authors and patrons. Sometime before noon, a woman I would guess to be about my mother’s age approached the table. She looked over the several books I had on display and the magazine. “Mr. Vest,” she said as she looked up. “I simply love Kentucky Monthly mag-a-zine. I have been a subscriber for years.” “Why, thank you,” I said. “Now, you have been doing this mag-a-zine for some time now, haven’t you?” “Well, yes, ma’am, nearly 19 years.” “And you’re based in Lex-ing-TON?” “No, ma’am, we’re based in Frankfort.” “Frankfort?” she said. “I was certain you were based in Lex-ing-TON.” “No, we’re in Frankfort.” “Oh, I was so hoping you were based in Lex-ing-TON. You see, my son is an art teacher in Lex-ing-TON.” “No, ma’am, we’re in Frankfort.” “Well, if you had been based in Lex-ing-TON, you might know my son. He’s about your age, and for the past 30 years, he’s worked at SCA-pa. Are you familiar with SCA-pa?” “Yes, ma’am, I am familiar with SCAPA. One of our writers used to teach creative writing there. He’s retired now.” “My son has taught at SCA-pa for more than 30 years. He’s an artist, you know. He’s retiring and will soon be returning to Bowling Green to open an art gallery here on the square.” “Here in Bowling Green?”
“Yes, here in Bowling Green. After 30 years in Lexing-TON, working at SCApa, he will be returning to STEPHEN M. VEST Bowling Green.” Publisher & Editor-in-Chief She glanced through our coloring book and asked Robert a few questions about his career as an artist before turning back to me. “I am so disappointed that you are not based in Lex-ingTON, Mr. Vest. I have been a subscriber to your fine publication for many years, and I always thought you were headquartered in Lex-ing-TON.” “No, ma’am, we’re in Frankfort.” “I know that,” she said, “but if you had been in Lex-ingTON, you’d probably know my son. As I said, he’s an artist and is retiring from SCA-pa after 30 years to return home to Bowling Green and open an art gallery.” “Yes, ma’am,” I said. The rest of the day flew by without incident. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Hillbilly Jim pick an author up over his head and spin her around, but I could have been confused. Late in the afternoon, I headed home to Frankfort. On Sunday morning, I went to church and then headed off to Kentucky Crafted: The Market, which is held in Heritage Hall attached to Rupp Arena in Lexington. I had been there maybe 10 minutes when a man, roughly my age, wearing a WKU sweater vest, passed by our Kentucky Monthly booth. He stopped, picked up the coloring book and rifled through the pages. He then started looking through the magazine, paying me no mind whatsoever. To break the ice, I asked, “Did you attend WKU?” “Yes,” he said. “In Bowling Green?” “Yes,” he said. “Are you originally from Bowling Green?” “Originally, yes, but I’ve lived here in Lexington for 30 years.” “And you’ve taught art at SCAPA?” His face took on a what-da-hell kind of look. “And you know this how?” I could almost hear him think as goose bumps arose on his arms. I was as shocked as he was. Only in Kentucky could you find yourself starting a conversation one day and continuing it the next day some 130 miles away. Should I tell him how I knew, or let him think I was Rupp Arena’s version of Nostradamus? “Congratulations on your recent retirement, and best wishes with your new art gallery on the square in Bowling Green.” (Insert creepy music here) Readers, and those looking for a speaker for a church or civic group, may contact Stephen M. Vest at steve@kentuckymonthly.com
JUNE/JULY KWIZ ANSWERS: 1. C. While Custer was stationed at Fort Knox with the 7th Cavalry, he was an Army colonel and not a Kentucky one; 2. B. Keen Johnson was selective about whom he named colonel; 3. C. Isaac Shelby following the War of 1812; 4. B. Buckner was killed in the Battle of Okinawa on June 18, 1945; 5. B. Owensboro; 6. C. Transylvania; 7. A. James Jouett, the grandson of Revolutionary War hero Jack Jouett; 8. B. Republican; there is, however, a town named Democrat; 9. C. Harrodsburg; 10. C. Pennsylvania, also the home of Pennzoil.
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