October 2021 | Kentucky Monthly Magazine

OCTOBER 2021

with Kentucky Explorer

40 YEARS OF BOOK FAIR

INSIDE KENTUCKY BOOK F E S T I VA L O F F I C I A L SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

PLUS

SILAS HOUSE ON THE 20TH A N N I V E R S A RY O F C L AY ' S Q U I LT WESTERN KENTUCKY'S LO S T LO CA L E S W I G WA M V I L L AG E R E J U V E N AT I O N

STANFORD'S BLUEBIRD CAFE SHARES RECIPES SURE TO DELIGHT

Display until 11/09/2021

SPIRITS OF O C TAG O N H A L L www.kentuckymonthly.com

O N T H E C OV E R The Bluebird’s Crawfish Rangoon, recipe on page 9.

in this issue

56

SEPTEMBER D E PA R T M E N T S 2 Kentucky Kwiz 3 Readers Write 4 Mag on the Move 6 Across Kentucky 8 Cooking 61 Kentucky Explorer 72 Off the Shelf 74 Past Tense/ Present Tense 76 Field Notes 78 Gardening 79 Calendar 80 Vested Interest

8

12 40 Years in the Books The Kentucky Book Festival gives readers the chance to rub shoulders with the authors they love

56 Preserving a Piece

of Americana New owners are restoring an icon of the early Automobile Age 58 A Spirited Site A historic home in Franklin was a hiding place for Confederate soldiers—and some of them may have never left

44 Clay’s Legacy Silas House’s masterpiece brought Appalachian literature into the modern age 48 Lost Places of the Western Waterland Homes, farms and entire towns were submerged as the price of progress

13

KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL Official Schedule of Events k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 1

kentucky kwiz Test your knowledge of our beloved Commonwealth. To find out how you fared, see the bottom of Vested Interest.

A Whole Lotta Shakin’ In 1811-12, a series of intense earthquakes occurred in the central United States and affected part of Kentucky. The following questions are related to these natural disasters.

1. Which U.S. river was severely affected as a result of the quakes?

6. The series of quakes created a new lake in which state?

A. Tennessee

A. Ohio

B. Kentucky

B. Missouri

C. Ohio

C. Mississippi 2. How many major shocks occurred over the monthslong span of the quakes?

A. Two B. Three C. Five

7. The first major shock hit on what date?

A. Dec. 1 B. Dec. 16 C. Dec. 23 8. How far away did people feel that first major shock?

A. Middle America Zone

C. New York

B. California

B. New Missouri Zone

A. Lexington B. Frankfort C. Louisville

9. What is the purpose of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC)?

A. Prepare for next quake B. Avoid quakes C. Predict quakes

Editorial Patricia Ranft Associate Editor Rebecca Redding Creative Director Deborah Kohl Kremer Assistant Editor

Cait A. Smith Copy Editor

Senior Kentributors Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley, Bill Ellis, Steve Flairty, Gary Garth, Janine Washle, Kim Kobersmith, Walt Reichert, Joel Sams, Tracey Teo and Gary P. West

Barbara Kay Vest Business Manager Jocelyn Roper Circulation Specialist

Advertising Lindsey Collins Account Executive and Coordinator 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, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Bruce and

10. Is Kentucky prone to earthquakes?

5. How many shocks in Kentucky did engineer Jared Brooks measure?

A. No, never

B. Constantly

A. 1,800

C. Rarely

B. 900 C. 750 Kentucky Kwiz courtesy of Karen M. Leet, author of Sarah’s Courage, a Kentucky historical novel, and co-author of Civil War, Lexington, Kentucky, historical nonfiction, both from The History Press.

2 KE NT U C K Y M O NT H LY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

Stephen M. Vest Publisher + Editor-in-Chief

Business and Circulation

A. Wyoming

4. Which Kentucky city was seriously affected by the quakes?

© 2021, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty-Four, Issue 8, October 2021

Ted Sloan Contributing Editor

3. What is the quake-prone seismic area that includes part of Kentucky called?

C. New Madrid Zone

Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth

Peggy Dungan, Mary and Michael Embry, Thomas L. Hall, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Frank Martin, Bill Noel, Michelle Jenson McDonnell, Walter B. Norris, Kasia Pater, Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Kendall Carr Shelton and Ted M. Sloan.

Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.

kentuckymonthly.com

More to Explore...

Counties mentioned in this issue...

Readers Write Elegy Ideas I read Bill Ellis’ Hillbilly Elegy article and really liked it (June/July issue, page 56). I saw the movie and have also seen others such as Next of Kin, Fire Down Below, etc. It seems, unfortunately, that most of the time when Appalachia is brought to the public’s attention in movies, the “negative” always has the spotlight.

I grew up in Perry County, and most families I knew did not live like Vance’s family. Of course, we had our dysfunctional families in my little Bonnyman neighborhood, but they were in the minority. We were all poor, to be sure, but we lived good lives for the most part.

I lived for two years in southern California when I was in the Marines, and when I mentioned to the locals that I was from Hazard, I always got the feeling that they thought I would shoot them—lol.

They usually brought up the subject of feuding. I guess the stereotypes continue and, to an extent anyway, the old “urban/ rural conflict.”

Jerry W. Napier, Maysville • • •

Hillbilly Elegy: A book written by a Buckeye who despises eastern Kentucky people and considers himself better than those “Hilljacks.”

Mike Tillman, Owsley County • • •

I loved Bill Ellis’ column on Hillbilly Elegy. I’m not sure where I stand on book versus movie because I read the book in 2015 shortly after attending a presentation by J.D. Vance at the University of New Orleans, but I did not see the movie until recently.

Glenn Close was a marvel, as always, and I thought the same as Mr. Ellis suggested about the factor of Middletown, Ohio’s impact on the story.

One question I think I can answer. The reason they don’t shoot movies in Breathitt County is that Georgia, Louisiana and a couple of other states forgive taxes on movie productions, which is big bucks to Hollywood.

The Kentucky Gift Guide Kentucky Monthly is thrilled to partner with Kentucky Proud, bringing to your attention some of the finest handcrafted gifts and treats our Commonwealth has to offer.

Jim Miller, Diamondhead, Mississippi

Kwiz Korrection In the Kentucky Kwiz in the September issue (page 2), there is an inaccurate question.

Question No. 1 asks: When was Mammoth Cave discovered? A. 1700s, B. 1600s, C. 1800s.

Mammoth Cave actually was discovered 4,0005,000 years ago by archaic/ prehistoric people. The cave was rediscovered by early settlers in the late 1700s.

Drink Local This handy guide to sipping in the Bluegrass State spotlights local breweries, wineries and, of course, distilleries. Discover unique ways to drink in Kentucky, creative cocktail recipes and more.

Eric Elder, Park Ranger, Mammoth Cave National Park

We Love to Hear from You! Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers.

Email us your comments at editor@kentuckymonthly.com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

v Find more at kentuckymonthly.com.

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C O N N E C T.

UNITING KENTUCKIANS EVERYWHERE. k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 3

travel

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!

These photos pre-date the COVID-19 outbreak, social distancing and mask mandates. Kentucky Monthly supports all safe travel measures.

Take a copy of the magazine with you and get snapping! Send your high-resolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly.com or visit kentuckymonthly.com to submit your photo.

In The Floating City ITALY (above) Dan and Charlene Garland (left) of Hendersonville, Tennessee— originally from Louisville and Burnside, respectively—and Dan’s sister and brother-in-law, Becky and Jeff Whitis (right) of Somerset, enjoyed a trip to Italy, where they visited Rome, Florence and Venice.

Sallie and Bob Lanham MAINE (left) The Frankfort couple traveled to The Pine Tree State, where they visited Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth. The oldest lighthouse in Maine, it was built in 1791.

4 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

Lee Smith IRELAND (below) Lee, formerly of Lebanon, ventured to Ireland, where she is pictured at Kylemore Castle in Connemara, County Galway.

Jerry and Lois Manley ENGLAND (above) The Versailles couple toured several European countries, including Germany, Scotland and England, where that are pictured in London, with regal Buckingham Palace as the backdrop.

Experience the character and charm of historic Hermitage Farm Discover our farm-to-table dining and bourbon tastings at Barn8, stay with friends or family in our Main House, plan a tour of our horse operation, or enjoy an evening walk through our immersive art experience.

Relax and unwind on the farm.

Reservations: Barn8Restaurant.com

HermitageFarm.com

502.398.9289 k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 5

across kentucky B I R T H D AY S 1 Gina Cheri Walker Haspel (1971), Ashland-born director of the Central Intelligence Agency 2018-21 3 Kevin Richardson (1971), Estill County native and member of the Backstreet Boys 5 Ed McClanahan (1932), Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame member known for his novel The Natural Man

Outdoor Gem Situated in Lake Cumberland, General Burnside Island State Park has untapped potential. By adding a lodge, restaurants, and a conference center, local officials hope to capitalize on the property.

“Our island is a beautiful outdoor gem. We want more people to be able to stay here, eat here, play here, and enjoy everything it has to offer,” said Burnside Mayor Robert Lawson.

Somerset-Pulaski County Economic Development Authority President Chris Girdler applauded the vision and commitment to seeing Burnside Island thrive.

“People have talked about developing Burnside Island for more than five decades, but there has never been this kind of effort before,” he said.

Dream Big Burnside hopes to accomplish what the late Gov. A.B. “Happy” Chandler set out to do in 1958, when the U.S. Congress transferred the title for Burnside Island to the Commonwealth of Kentucky to create a public park.

According to The Congressional Record, following an initial development phase that included a recreation area with a swimming pool, picnic tables, grills, a group camp, tent/trailer area, and golf course, Chandler envisioned a second phase that would add “a central building, eating and sleeping accommodations, and the like,” according to a letter from the state’s commissioner of conservation at that time.

Somerset Mayor Alan Keck said enhancing Burnside Island as a tourism destination undoubtedly will benefit the area. “This is yet another way we are collaborating to make our corner of the state shine a little brighter,” he said.

50 YEARS OF FUN The Forkland Heritage Festival & Revue celebrates its 50th year on Oct. 8-9 at the Forkland Community Center in Boyle County. The event includes handmade crafts, a classic car show, a 4K Fox & Hound Run, country and gospel music, an assortment of food, and a playground and petting zoo.

With an emphasis on history, the fest features a 1790s log cabin, historical artifacts, and genealogical information. Included are demonstrations of soap making and sorghum making, plus a humorous play.

For more information and to order tickets, visit forklandcomctr.org.

B E S T B AT T E R Hopkinsville has been named the Batter Capital of the World. In a town that produces items such Cracker Barrel biscuit mix, Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuit mix, Ghirardelli brownie mix, Krusteaz products, and SunFlour cornmeal and flour, it’s easy to see why Hoptown has earned the new moniker.

“We are thrilled,” said Hopkinsville Mayor Wendell Lynch. “We are so grateful to the farmers, industries, and thousands of employees across several sectors who work every day to make this proclamation a reality.”

In addition to the products made there, Christian County leads the state in wheat production, with more than 3.5 million bushels harvested annually.

6 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

5 Kevin Olusola (1988), beatboxer, cellist, rapper from Owensboro 5 Ann-Blair Thornton (1989), Miss Kentucky 2011 from Bowling Green 12 J.T. Riddle (1991), Frankfort-born Mr. Kentucky Baseball and shortstop for the Minnesota Twins 12 Josh Hutcherson (1992), Unionborn actor best known for his roles in The Hunger Games 13 Pat Day (1953), retired Hall of Fame and four-time Eclipse Awardwinning jockey 16 Nate Morris (1980) noted businessman and philanthropist, founder of Lexington-based Rubicon 23 Dwight Yoakam (1956), Pikeville-born country music singer and actor 23 Jonathan Wolfe (1958), Louisville-born composer of the themes for more than 75 television series, including Seinfeld and Will & Grace 26 Mallory Ervin (1985), Miss Kentucky 2009 from Morganfield 28 Annie Potts (1952), Franklin-born actress featured as “Meemaw” on CBS’ Young Sheldon 28 Telma Hopkins (1948), Louisvilleborn singer/actress who was a member of Tony Orlando and Dawn and starred in Bosom Buddies and Gimme a Break!

30 Steven Michael Kazee (1975), Tony Award-winning actor from Ashland

Where can you lose yourself and find your soul?

PRINCESS FALLS

Welcome to The Kentucky Wildlands, a vast unspoiled region filled with jaw-dropping natural wonders, one-of-a-kind outdoor recreational adventures and cultural experiences unlike anywhere you’ve ever seen.

Visit exploreKYwildlands.com for your guide to new adventure and fun.

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

7

cooking

Inspiring Happiness The bluebird has long been a symbol of happiness, and The Bluebird café in downtown Stanford serves dishes certain to leave diners smiling with satisfaction.

Using fresh, local ingredients such as Marksbury Farm meats, Weisenberger Mill products, Bourbon Barrel Foods seasonings, and local farm produce, Chef Dylan Morris, above, and his team whip up Southern fare with a customized twist.

8 KE NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

The Bluebird 202 West Main Street Stanford, 606.365.1010 bluebirdnatural.com

Cast-Iron Cornbread SERVES 6-8 2 cups Weisenberger Mill yellow cornmeal ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 egg

Crawfish Rangoon

1½ cups buttermilk

YIELDS 20

4 tablespoons Marksbury Farm bacon, crumbled

6 slices Marksbury Farm bacon, chopped

2 tablespoons Marksbury Farm bacon fat

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ onion, minced 2 tablespoons hot sauce such as Tabasco

1. Preheat a cast-iron pan with 1 tablespoon of bacon fat. The bacon grease will sizzle when the pan is hot enough.

2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all wet ingredients, including the bacon and 1 tablespoon of bacon fat, in another bowl.

3. Combine all ingredients and mix until smooth.

4. Place the cornbread mix in the castiron pan and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Test with a toothpick or cake tester by inserting in the middle of the pan. When the tester comes out clean, the cornbread is ready.

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 2 cups cooked and peeled crawfish, coarsely chopped Salt and pepper, to taste 1 12 to 16-ounce package wonton wrappers 1 egg, beaten 1. Cook the bacon over medium heat until it is limp, around 3 minutes. Stir in the onion and cook for about 3 minutes or until onion is translucent.

2. Scrape the onion and bacon mixture into a mixing bowl and stir in the cream cheese, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, dill, crawfish and salt and pepper.

3. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the seafood filling onto the center of each wrapper.

Use your finger or a brush to lightly moisten the edges of the wonton wrappers with the beaten egg. Fold each corner of the wrapper over the filling and press together over the center of the wonton. Press the edges together to seal.

4. Deep fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 9

cooking

Shrimp and Grits SERVES 4 2 quarts water

until it is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute while stirring to avoid sticking.

Finally, add the shrimp and cook until there is a sear on both sides.

Pan-Roasted Salmon with Corn Purée and Asparagus

4. Stir in the tomatoes, chicken stock and paprika, and cook until the shrimp are completely done.

3 cobs sweet corn

5. To serve, spoon grits onto a plate or into a shallow bowl and top with the shrimp mixture.

Salt and pepper, to taste

Fish and Chips

4 bay leaves

SERVES 1

3 tablespoons bacon fat

2 cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons dried garlic

4 dashes hot sauce such as Tabasco

2 tablespoons dried onion

1 6-ounce catfish fillet

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup Weisenberger Mill cornmeal

2 cups Weisenberger Mill white grits

1 cup Weisenberger Mill all-purpose flour

8 ounces Marksbury Farm bacon, chopped

1 tablespoon dried garlic

2 ounces onion, chopped

1 tablespoon dried onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon smoked paprika; I prefer Bourbon Barrel Foods brand

20 shrimp (13/15 size) 2 cups canned tomatoes 2 quarts chicken stock 1 tablespoon smoked paprika; I prefer Bourbon Barrel Foods brand 1. Bring the water to a simmer in a 6-quart or larger pot. Add bay leaves, bacon fat, dried garlic, dried onion, salt and pepper, and whisk until dried spices dissolve.

2. Slowly add the grits while whisking to combine. After the grits come to a boil, lower the heat to a slight simmer and cover for 45-60 minutes, stirring often. Make sure to use a spatula or wooden spoon to scrape the sides.

Add water if necessary to get the correct consistency. The grits are fully cooked when they are soft and creamy and are not too thick or too runny.

3. In a deep-sided cast-iron pan, add the bacon and cook at medium heat for about 2 minutes, until fat is rendered. Add the onion and cook 10 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

2 tablespoons kosher salt 1 tablespoon white pepper 1. In a food-safe container, add buttermilk and hot sauce and mix well. Place the catfish in the mixture and let the fish soak for 2-4 hours.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour and dried seasonings. Once the fish has soaked, remove it from the buttermilk and coat both sides of it in the cornmeal mixture. Then dip the catfish back into the buttermilk and the cornmeal again. This technique is known as double dredging, which ensures full coverage on the fish.

3. Preheat oil to 325 degrees and fry the fish until golden brown, about 3 minutes. The fish should be white and flaky on the inside.

4. Serve with a side of sweet potato fries and tartar sauce. At Bluebird, we serve ours with a Pickled Green Tomato Tartar.

SERVES 2

2 tablespoons unsalted butter ½ cup heavy cream 2 8-ounce portions of salmon, skin on Canola oil 1 bunch asparagus Olive oil 1. Roast corn in the husks in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, depending on the size of the cobs. Once the corn has softened, remove the husks and any silks.

2. Place a small bowl upside-down inside a larger mixing bowl. Set the corn cob on top of the smaller bowl and cut the corn away from the cob.

3. In a blender or food processor, add the corn, butter and heavy cream, and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

4. For the salmon, add canola oil to a cast-iron pan and heat over mediumhigh heat until the oil ripples. Season the salmon with salt and pepper on both sides and place it in the pan skin side down.

5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, skin side down, for about 5 minutes. Flip the salmon, being careful not to splash the oil or rip the fish’s skin. Place the pan in the oven at 350 degrees for another 5 minutes or until the salmon reaches 145 degrees in the center.

6. For the asparagus, wash spears and trim the ends to remove the “woody” stalk. Coat the asparagus in olive oil and salt and pepper.

7. Grill asparagus until tender, approximately 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. I like my asparagus with some char for added flavor, so flip often if you prefer less char flavor.

8. Plate dish with salmon atop the corn purée, accompanied by the asparagus.

11 Consecutive Appearances on Jay

6 Straight Years Advancing to the National

Mathews’ List of Top Performing Schools with Elite Students

Science Bowl Competition in Washington, D.C. 174 National Merit Finalists

We come from all across Kentucky to The Gatton Academy on the campus of Western Kentucky University. As juniors and seniors in high school, we enroll in WKU courses, conduct research with WKU professors, and study abroad. While we are challenged academically, we thrive in a supportive environment designed just for us and make lifelong friends. Best yet, our tuition, meals, housing, and fees are all paid for by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. You, too, can have a future filled with infinite possibilities.

WEBSITE: wku.edu/academy / EMAIL: academy@wku.edu / PHONE: 270-745-6565

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 11

40 Years in the Books

B Y D E B O R A H KO H L K R E M E R

“ B O O K S A R E A U N I Q U E LY P O R TA B L E M AG I C .” S T E P H E N K I N G The Kentucky Book Festival gives readers the chance to rub shoulders with the authors they love

T

he Kentucky Book Festival takes place virtually and in person Nov. 1-5 at various locations in Lexington and wraps up with a full day featuring 140 writers at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Nov. 6. Celebrating its 40th year in 2021, the event enables readers of all genres to buy new books, attend discussions, and meet authors.

“When the fair was founded, it was a one-day celebration that occasionally had a few additional events on the Friday before,” said Sara Volpi Woods, festival director. “Then, when Kentucky Humanities took over in 2018, they expanded it and called it ‘the festival’ because it included multiple events. So, now we say it is a week-long festival that ends with the big shebang of the Book Fair.”

The location has changed through the years, but the vision of founder Carl West never has wavered. He wanted a way to honor writers and enable readers to meet them.

West, who died in 2016, was the longtime editor of The State Journal in Frankfort. During his career, he spent time in Washington, D.C., where he was introduced to the book fair concept while serving on the National Press Club’s Library Committee. He brought that idea back, and in 1981, while visiting the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives’ new building in Frankfort, West knew he had found the perfect spot for the event.

“It has a gorgeous lobby overlooking the river valley, and you can see the Capitol from there,” said Ellen Hellard, a book festival committee member who has been involved since its beginning.

Hellard recalled that 40 authors and about 1,000 visitors attended the first Kentucky Book Fair, as it was then called. The next year, 80 authors were on hand, inreasing to

100 the year after that. “The lobby would not hold any more people, so we had to keep it at 100 for the 10 years we were there,” she said.

For the following 10 years, the book fair took place at the Kentucky State University gymnasium, where 200 authors attended. It moved to the Frankfort Convention Center until that building was razed in early 2018.

Rebranded as the Kentucky Book Festival, it had a two-year stint at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena.

In 2020, the festival went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• • •

Forty years ago, Kentucky had no other book fairs, so the organizers had an easy time recruiting authors to attend and hosted a wide variety of them. “We had premier journalists, who had written books, come from around the country because Carl knew them all,” Hellard said. “We also got a lot of newspaper coverage across the state because these editors also knew Carl.”

The festival has welcomed celebrities such as actress Patricia Neal and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, plus notable Kentuckians, including University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari, mystery writer Sue Grafton, former Kentucky first lady Phyllis George, and the state’s 2013-14 Poet Laureate, Frank X Walker. Hellard said the festival committee tries to include a mix of genres, along with well-known authors and those just starting out.

One of Hellard’s favorite authors to attend was Erma Bombeck, who sold out of the 400 books she had brought.

Another year, Mickey Mantle was a featured author, and the organizers could not believe how many men came just to see him—all holding baseballs. “Mickey said he would only sign the ball if they bought one of his books,” Hellard recalled.

The biggest seller in the history of the book fair is writer, activist and farmer Wendell Berry of Henry County. He is the author of more than

50 books, and when he is at the book fair, the line to meet him is long. “We try to seat new authors around him so that they can reap the benefits of chatting with the people waiting in line,” Hellard said.

• • •

Because some of this year’s festival events are virtual, people can participate them no matter where they live. One of the online events is a discussion with Silas House, who this year celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of his debut novel, Clay’s Quilt (see story on page 44).

Celebrated central Kentucky chef Ouita Michel will be featured in an in-person Literary Luncheon Nov. 2.

The luncheon includes a meal made with Michel’s recipes and an autographed copy of her cookbook, Just a Few Miles South.

In addition to access to authors on the day of the fair, authors will deliver presentations and participate in panel discussions on the main stage. Elin Hilderbrand, the author of 27 novels, will take the stage along with author Dianna Rostad. Former Marine fighter pilot and U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath, the author of Honor Bound: An American Story of Dreams and Service, will join former FBI agent and author Kathy Stearman for an on-stage discussion. There also will be a presentation by Kentucky’s Poet Laureate, Crystal Wilkinson.

Woods’ goal is to bring a broad and diverse collection of authors.

“The most exciting part is meeting 140 authors in one setting at JosephBeth,” she said. “I try to be as balanced as possible when selecting authors and genres.”

Hellard, who served as book fair manager for many years, said that the festival is special because it brings authors and readers together. “I want people to read,” she said. “I’m a librarian by profession, so it is a thrill for me to see the excitement of readers meeting the person who wrote those words in that book.”

The Kentucky Book Festival will align with federal, state and local guidance on COVID-19 restrictions and requests that all attendees, authors, volunteers and staff members wear masks. Please check the Kentucky Book Festival website, kybookfestival.org for announcements of event changes.

12 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

K Y B O O K F E S T I VA L . O R G

NOV 1–6 2021 Kentucky Book Festival

A program of Kentucky Humanities

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES

PROUD PARTNER & 2021 HOST OF THE KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL!

AUTHOR EVENTS

LOCAL GIFTS

CASUAL DINING

STORY TIMES

Welcome.

In-person events are subject to change due to the ongoing pandemic. Always check our website, kybookfestival.org, for information including the latest updates.

H

ello, Kentucky Monthly reader! Welcome to the 2021 Kentucky Book Festival! Kentucky Humanities is proud to bring this event to booklovers from Kentucky and beyond, and we’re glad to publish the festival catalog for the first time in Kentucky Monthly magazine. This November, the festival marks its 40th anniversary and is offering a mix of virtual and in-person weekday events November 1-5, culminating in a daylong celebration at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Saturday, November 6. On Saturday, we’ll feature 140 authors who’ll sign books, with many authors participating in panel discussions or conducting writing workshops and craft discussions. This year, many of Saturday’s scheduled activities will also be made available to view virtually, so you can choose to join us in-person or from home.

Face It® Movement; a gift on behalf of Spalding University and Lindsey Wilson College; Hardscuffle, Inc.; First Southern National Bank; University of Kentucky; PNC Bank; Campbellsville University; Central Bank; UK HealthCare; Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet; Kim Edwards Charitable Foundation; Baird Private Wealth Management; Wildcat Moving; AARP Kentucky; Transylvania University; Berea College; Traditional Bank; UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of History; Community Trust® and Investment Company; Studio46 Media; Bluegrass Learning Solutions; WEKU; Commerce Lexington; Kentucky Monthly; WUKY; and Centre College.

We’re grateful to the sponsors and partners who make the Kentucky Book Festival possible, including Joseph-Beth Booksellers; Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation; Kosair Charities’

Sara V. Woods

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating 40 years of all things bookish in the Bluegrass!

Sincerely,

DIRECTOR, KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES Kentucky Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. Kentucky Humanities is supported by the National Endowment and by private contributions. In addition to producing the Kentucky Book Festival, Kentucky Humanities sponsors PRIME TIME Family Reading Time®, offers Kentucky Chautauqua® and Speakers Bureau programs, hosts Smithsonian traveling exhibits throughout the state, publishes Kentucky Humanities magazine, and awards grants for humanities programs. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the NEH or Kentucky Humanities board and staff. Learn more at kybookfestival.org.

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 15

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Gerome’s Rainbow

Thank you to the staff & volunteers who make this event possible!

We appreciate your time and support in making the 2021 Kentucky Book Festival a success.

KENT UCKY BOOK FESTIVAL COMMIT T EE

They all learned a lesson, and not just about pride.

By Stephanie Logsdon Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

Cindy Cline Lexington

Ellen Hellard Versailles

Mary Lynn Collins Frankfort

Tom Midkiff Frankfort

Teresa Collins Lawrenceburg

Diana Munson Frankfort

Judith Ann Gibbons Versailles

Lynda Sherrard Frankfort

KENT UCKY HUMANITIES BOAR D OF DIR ECTOR S C H AI R

Judy L. Rhoads, Ph.D. Madisonville VI C E C H AI R

John David Preston, JD Paintsville

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction 978-1938647307 | $19.95 | Hardcover

T R EASURER

“Positive message for all ages. Gerome’s Rainbow is a book that needs to be in every child’s library and/or classroom. The message behind the book is equality and how everyone is different and how that is seen as a beautiful thing.”

Karen Watson, Educator

Martha F. Clark, CPA West Liberty

“They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

Benjamin Gies, Policy and Advocacy Director Kentucky Youth Advocates

John P. Ernst, Ph.D. Morehead

HOW TO ORDER Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Publisher Note Baxter’s Corner designs its books to help navigate the constantly changing, dynamic messages of life in playful ways.

SEC R ETARY

Charles W. Boteler, JD Louisville EXEC UT I VE C OM M I T T EE M EM B ER

EXEC UT I VE C OM M I T T EE M EM B ER

16 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

2021 October-AD2.indd 1

Selena Sanderfer Doss, Ph.D. Bowling Green Clarence Glover Louisville Betty Sue Griffin, Ed.D. Frankfort Catha Hannah Louisville Ellen Hellard Versailles Tom Owen, Ph.D. Louisville

Lois Mateus Harrodsburg

Penelope Peavler Louisville

Chelsea Brislin, Ph.D. Lexington

Ronald G. Sheffer, JD Louisville

Mary Donna Broz Lexington

Maddie Shepard Louisville

Brian Clardy, Ph.D. Murray

Hope Wilden, CPFA Louisville

Jennifer Cramer, Ph.D. Lexington

Bobbie Ann Wrinkle Paducah

KENT UCKY HUMANITIES STAFF E X E C U T I VE D I R E C TO R

FI SCA L O FFI C E R

Bill Goodman

Gladys Thompson

A SSO C I AT E D I R E C TO R

K E N T U C K Y B O O K FE ST I VAL D I R E C TO R A N D SPE C I A L PR O J E C T S C O O R D I N ATO R

Kathleen Pool

Baxter’s Corner Books baxterscorner.com info@baxterscorner.com

Paula E. Cunningham Kuttawa

A SSI STA N T D I R E C TO R / E D I TO R , K E N T U C K Y H U MA N I T I E S

Marianne Stoess C H AU TAU Q UA & SPE A K E R S BU R E AU C O O R D I N ATO R / A D MI N I ST R AT I VE A SSI STA N T

Zoe Kaylor

8/3/21 2:44 PM

Sara Volpi Woods E VE N T PR O D U C T I O N / LO GI ST I C S MA N AGE R

Julie Klier

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Why Stop for Tajo?

A tantalizing tale of a tiny tarantula.

By L.S.V. Baker Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction 978-1938647284 | $19.95 | Hardcover

Why Stop for Tajo? is an action-packed, rhyming story about respecting authority which focuses on why we have rules, even at home.

“They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

Benjamin Gies, Policy and Advocacy Director Kentucky Youth Advocates

Table of Contents

HOW TO ORDER Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Welcome..................................................... 15 Kentucky Humanities Board + Staff........... 16

Publisher Note Baxter’s Corner stories entertain children while serving as a resource as parents teach their kids to be emotionally and spiritually healthy.

Schedule of Events .................................... 19 November 6 Schedule .............................. 20 November 6 Author Lineup....................23-39 Carl West Award Winner............................. 40 KBF Sponsors + Donors............................... 41

2021 October-AD3.indd 1

Baxter’s Corner Books baxterscorner.com info@baxterscorner.com k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 17

8/3/21 2:44 PM

SCHOOLDAYS The Kentucky Book Festival hosts the School Days program, providing author visits and free books to under-served schools across Kentucky. This Fall, in-person and virtual author visits are scheduled with these Authors/Illustrators:

VASHTI HARRISON

JESSICA YOUNG

WILL HILLENBRAND

SHAWN PRYOR

AMANDA DRISCOLL

In Spring 2021, thanks to support from the Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation, the Kosair Charities’ Face It® Movement, and Thomas H. Appleton, Jr, we facilitated virtual School Days programs with authors Amanda Driscoll, Shawn Pryor, and Jessica Young in 17 schools, with nearly 2,000 free books distributed to students.

SPONSORS

FRIDAY: 9 A.M.-1 P.M. SATURDAY: 9 A.M.-3 P.M.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SCHOOL DAYS OR TO APPLY FOR A PROGRAM AT YOUR SCHOOL, VISIT KYBOOKFESTIVAL.ORG.

KNICELY CONFERENCE CENTER 2355 NASHVILLE RD BOWLING GREEN, KY

MARCH 25-26, 2022 | FREE ADMISSION KICKOFF EVENT:

KAREN KINGSBURY

THURSDAY, MARCH 24 6:00 P.M. THE CAPITOL 416 E MAIN AVE BOWLING GREEN, KY

MORE AUTHORS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON! STAY UP TO DATE: SOKYBOOKFEST.ORG 18 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

READY TO VOLUNTEER? WE ARE READY FOR YOU. Learn how you can put your time, knowledge and talent to use volunteering with AARP in Kentucky. Help make the communities where you live, work and play the best they can be while engaging with others who share your passion for service.

Get to know us at aarp.org/ky.

-/AARPKentucky -@AARPKY

NOVEMBER 2021 FESTIVAL EVENTS

1 2

NOV 1 An Evening 7:00 PM–8:00 PM

with Jason Reynolds

VIRTUAL; TICKET REQUIRED

Tickets are $20.00 and include a copy of Stuntboy, in the Meantime, signed bookplate, tax, shipping & handling.

Join Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, as he discusses his writing career and latest book, Stuntboy, in the Meantime, with author Court Stevens.

NOV 2 Literary Luncheon with 12:00 PM–1:30 PM AT FASIG TIPTON

Ouita Michel IN-PERSON; TICKET REQUIRED

This in-person event is a one-of-a-kind experience combining elements of the literary and culinary worlds. We’re excited to work directly with Chef Ouita Michel to craft a menu from her first published cookbook, Just A Few Miles South. Thanks to Central Bank and Baird Private Wealth Management for sponsoring this event.

Tickets are $55.00 and include lunch, a copy of Just a Few Miles South, tax & handling.

IN-PERSON; TICKET REQUIRED

NOV 3 Cocktails

and Conversation featuring authors Margaret Verble and Kim Edwards

Tickets are $45.00 and include a signature cocktail, hors d’oeuvres, a copy of When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, tax & handling.

7:00 PM–9:00 PM AT JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS

3

Author Margaret Verble’s new book, When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky, is an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship. Thanks to our sponsor, Transylvania University

4

NOV 4 Books

& Brews Trivia

IN-PERSON

7:00 PM AT GOODWOOD LEXINGTON Think you know books? Rally a team for this lively literary competition and find out!

This event is free and open to the public.

NOV 5 Commerce Lexington Spotlight Breakfast

featuring James Hardymon & Terry L. Birdwhistell

DETAILS TBA. CHECK KYBOOKFESTIVAL.ORG FOR REGULAR UPDATES.

5

In partnership with Commerce Lexington, businessman James Hardymon will discuss his memoir, Engineering Corporate Success, with editor Terry Birdwhistell.

Hardymon, a respected businessman who helped build corporations as a CEO, learned the ropes of Wall Street, and interacted with US presidents and congressional leaders, acquired a keen understanding of corporate America.

Ticket information is forthcoming at commercelexington.org.

F REGISTRATION + TICKET INFO

CRYSTAL WILKINSON

6

NOV 6

SILAS HOUSE

BRIAN KILMEADE

ELIN HILDERBRAND

Final Festival Day featuring 140 Authors

10:00 AM–6:30 PM AT JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS, LEXINGTON The Kentucky Book Festival culminates in a daylong, in-person celebration at Joseph-Beth featuring 140 authors! Among those slated to attend are Crystal Wilkinson, Elin Hilderbrand, H. W. Brands, Matthew Pearl, Sam Quinones, W. Bruce Cameron, Silas House, and more! Meet authors and browse thousands of books in the Signing Gallery or join the audience for various programs throughout the day, including craft discussions, a writing workshop, and keynotes.

Many sessions will be livestreamed for ease of access. The lineup, schedule, and registration information can be found at kybookfestival.org. Scan this code to get started!

ALL EVENTS LISTED IN EASTERN TIME.

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 19

FOR ALL EVENTS AT KYBOOKFESTIVAL.ORG.

F

RE GI ST ER

Since 1903, the Kentucky Historical Society's awardwinning scholarly publication.

Members of KHS enjoy FREE access to the Register on Project MUSE

Learn more: history.ky.gov

WRITE ON! Celebrating those who inspire, teach, create and empower!

On Saturday, November 6 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, along with upwards of 140 authors signing books, programs will occur in two areas on-site. Programs will occur every hour starting at 10:30 AM, with the last session beginning at 5:30 PM. For information on authors listed below, check the Author Lineup beginning on page 23. The schedule is subject to change. Always check kybookfestival.org for the latest information.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MAIN STAGE 10:30 AM Brian Kilmeade discusses The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul

11:30 AM Amy McGrath in conversation with Kathy Stearman 12:30 PM H. W. Brands and Peter S. Canellos in conversation with Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky

1:30 PM Matthew Pearl presents The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America

2:30 PM Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X Walker in conversation with Jeremy Paden 3:30 PM Silas House in conversation with Jayne Moore Waldrop and Marianne Worthington

4:30 PM Kimmery Martin presents “An Insider’s Look at the Practice of Medicine: Writing a Pandemic Book BEFORE a Pandemic”

5:30 PM Elin Hilderbrand in conversation with Dianna Rostad

UK HEALTHCARE WRITER’S ROOM 10:30 AM W. Bruce Cameron in conversation with Kristin O’Donnell Tubb 11:30 AM Michael Rectenwald and Wilfred Reilly in conversation with Kylie Carlino of Regnery Publishing

campbellsville.edu/humanities

12:30 PM Writing Workshop “Family Stories: Evoking Emotion in Your Characters”: Susan Beckham Zurenda, author of Bells for Eli 1:30 PM Craft Discussion “Writing Southern Historical Fiction”: Angela Jackson-Brown and Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle in conversation with Michael A. Almond 2:30 PM Craft Discussion “Writing Through Grief” with Maryanne O’Hara and author Kim Edwards 3:30 PM Grady Hendrix presents: “The History of Murder Books” 4:30 PM “Building a Writing Community,” with Lisa Haneberg, a founding board member of the Lexington Writer’s Room (additional speakers forthcoming)

5:30 PM “How to Become a Self-Publishing Superstar” Julian Thomas and Alisha Klapheke in conversation with editor Ericka McIntyre 20 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

At LWC, a liberal arts education isn’t confined to the classroom.

• Internship and study abroad opportunities • Independent research • Performance art degrees • Championship athletic program

There are no limits to what you can achieve at LWC. OFFICE OF

ADMISSIONS

800-264-0138 270-384-8100

Every Student, Every Day

Face-to-Face Instruction: Attend the Columbia, Ky. main campus or any of the 25 LWC community campus locations.

Or Attend Online: Five undergraduate degrees available 100% online.

admissions@lindsey.edu www.lindsey.edu/admissions

It’s time to write.

Carve out space in your life for your writing. At our lowresidency MFA in Writing program, our innovative curriculum teaches you to take risks as you master your genre.

Explore across genres, choose your own pace of study, and travel abroad, if you like. fiction creative nonfiction playwriting poetry screenwriting writing for children & YA

SPALDING.EDU/MFA

KENTUCKY AUTHOR Q

2021AUTHORS Authors will sign books at various locations within JosephBeth Booksellers. Most authors will be seated downstairs on the lower level with access via escalator and elevator. Maps will be provided day-of.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6

10:00 AM–6:30 PM signing times may vary Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, KY AUTHORS LISTED ALPHABETICALLY

BY LAST NAME IN THESE CATEGORIES:

F Children’s, Middle Grade PAGES 23–27

F Young Adult,

PAGES 28–33

F Poetry,

PAGES 33–34

F Nonfiction,

CHILDREN’S

PAGES 34–39

Chippy. With its message of hope, determination, and humor, it is a perfect storybook for our times.

M A RK WAYN E AD A MS Q

F Stick Horse

Derby

JENNIF ER R. C HAMB ER S Q

Mark promotes reading and writing via speaking engagements, book signings, and participation in book events. The Kentucky Derby inspired Mark’s love of horses and racing out in “the sticks.”

Mounted on a stick horse, his young heart and bare feet pounded dirt trails across his old Kentucky home.

N A N C Y K E L LY A L L E N Q

F Cowboy Jesse

Nancy has written more than 50 books.

She and her husband live in the log house where she grew up in the mountains of Kentucky. Cowboy Jesse is a picture book for ages 2-7. A counting book from one to ten and back again, it’s also about the value of friendship.

P. A NAS TAS I A Q

F Morning Puppa

PAGES 27

F Fiction,

P. Anastasia resides in Kentucky with her husband and fur-babies. She has written nine young adult novels and lends her voice to radio, television, and audiobook recordings across the globe.

In Morning Puppa, follow an adorable fourfooted Aussie on an adventure filled with tasty treats and a BIG surprise.

F Macie

Meets Her New Teacher

LEE BACON

F Imaginary

Lee, a Texas native, enjoys writing books for young people about topics they connect to. Imaginary, an inventive story of friendship, loss, and growing up, is the story of a boy and his imaginary friend— as told by the imaginary friend.

LES LEY A. J. B AU MANN

F J is for Justify

Lesley is a graphic designer and nationally known animal portrait artist from Dayton, Ohio. J is for Justify is an alphabet book inspired by the 13th Triple Crown winner and features 26 famous Thoroughbred racehorses.

Dr. Chambers is the Director of the Literacy Specialist Program and a Professor of Literacy at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The story: Macie is going to school for the first time and is very anxious to meet her new teacher.

EVELYN B . C HRISTENSEN & SU SAN E. C HRISTENSEN Q

F The Amazing Brain

Book for Kids

Evelyn is an educator who loves to create resources to make learning fun.

The Amazing Brain Book offers brain games, logic puzzles, and fun facts for ages 4-7 and was co-authored with her daughter, Susan.

L ISA C OL ODNY Q

AR TI E BENN ET T

F The True Story of

Zippy Chippy: The Little Horse That Couldn’t Artie is an executive copy editor by day and a writer of children’s books by night.

He is the author of an inspiring picturebook biography of racehorse Zippy

F Jericho Alley

Dr. Colodny grew up in the rural countryside of Kentucky surrounded by an eclectic group of family and friends.

Jericho Alley is the story of a kind-hearted dog, Jello, who lives there with his human friend, Sam.

Thanks to the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet for sponsoring the author Signing Gallery! k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 23

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation is committed to supporting the Kentucky Humanities to keep the history and heritage of Kentucky alive in the hearts and minds of today’s youth.

Through her parents’ examples and encouragement, Elsa developed lifelong passions for theater, education and the arts. She loved to tell a good story and developed her own radio program called “Elsa’s Street.”

The Kentucky Humanities embodies many of the passions that motivated Elsa. Her Foundation continues her legacy and is proud to support the outreach programs of the Humanities by offering grants for the Chautauqua program for school children, in eight of Kentucky’s northern counties.

334 BEECHWOOD ROAD ● SUITE 550 ● FT. MITCHELL, KY 41017 WWW.ELSASULEFOUNDATION.ORG ● 513-335-4798 ● VRKLETTE@ELSA-TRUST.ORG

SANTIAGO

and racism while growing up after 9/11.

SANTA CRUZ Q

F Tony’s

L ISA KATZENB E RGE R

Tiny Arms

Santiago was born and raised in Louisville, where he lives with his wife, Joanne, and daughter Penelope. Tony’s Tiny Arms is the story of a T-Rex named Tony.

His arms are tiny, and he wants to know why!

D EB B I E D AD E Y Q

F Mystery at the

Haunted Museum

Debbie grew up in Kentucky and now lives in a log cabin in the Smoky Mountains with her husband and a rescued greyhound. She is the author and co-author of 178 books. In her latest, Shelly’s pizza party gets out of hand with too many planners!

AMANDA DRISCOLL Q

F Little Grump Truck

Amanda is a children’s book writer and illustrator as well as a graphic designer.

She was born and raised in Louisville and currently resides in Fisherville. Little Grump Truck is a bright, playful story that shows kids how meditation and mindfulness can banish even the most serious case of the grumpies.

LIN D S E Y D U G A

F Ghost in the

Headlights

Lindsey is a young adult and middlegrade author from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In this modern-day retelling of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” an angry ghost haunts a small-town road in search of revenge.

A LI CE FAYE D U NC A N (V I RTUAL)

F Just Like a Mama

Alice writes picture books to help children know about important moments from American history. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where, at a young age, her mother nurtured her love for writing with reams of paper, packs of pens, and poetry books.

F It Will Be

Ok: A Story of Empathy, Kindness, and Friendship

S US AN EADDY (IL L U S.)

F Sir Drake the Brave

Susan writes picture books and plays with clay in her attic studio. Sir Drake the Brave helps children see the great strength of being gentle and welcoming to others, including those whom they see as different than themselves.

VAS HTI HARRISON (IL L U S.) (VIR T UA L)

F Hello, Star

Vashti is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author-illustrator of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, among others. Hello, Star (written by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic) is an illustrated tribute to stars, space, and science that celebrates how a small act of compassion can flourish into a life full of meaning and wonder.

KATHRYN HOL MES

F Tally Tuttle Turns

Into A Turtle

Kathryn grew up in Tennessee and now lives in Brooklyn with her family. She is the author of several young adult novels, including The Distance Between. The start of a humorous and heartfelt series, Tally Tuttle Turns Into a Turtle is about a second-grade class in which each student turns into an animal for a day.

PR I YA HUQ

F Piece by Piece: The

Story of Nisrin’s Hijab

Priya is a Bangladeshi-American cartoonist from Austin, Texas. Piece by Piece, an original graphic novel about growing up and choosing your own path even if it leads you to a different place than you expected, is based upon the author’s own experiences as a Bangladeshi-American dealing with hate

Lisa lives near Chicago with her family in a 100-year-old Victorian house with sloping hardwood floors and the tiniest bathroom you’ve ever seen. It Will Be Ok shows us that friendship, kindness, and empathy help us face our fears no matter how silly they may seem.

REB EC C A SU TER L INDSAY Q

F The Peacemakers

Rebecca holds a M.Ed. and operated Private Tutoring Services for 35 years. In The Peacemakers, Manny Weaver, a Mennonite boy living in Virginia at the beginning of the Civil War, wants to prevent his father and uncle from being forced to join the Confederate Army.

That’s when his troubles begin.

ANNEL OU ISE MAHONEY

F Julius and Macy:

A Very Brave Night

Annelouise, an author-illustrator, lives in Southern California with her family.

Julius and Macy, her first book, is an enchanting woodland tale about bravery and friendship. With its endearing characters, this gently told story reminds us that we each have courage within us, and that kindness can make all the difference.

ROB IN NEWMAN

F Don’t Call Me

Fuzzybutt!

Author of the award-winning Wilcox & Griswold mystery series, Robin was a practicing attorney and legal editor, but she now prefers to write about witches, mice, pigs, bears, and peacocks. In Don’t Call Me Fuzzybutt!, Bear turns grizzly when he doesn’t get his much-needed 243½ days of sleep!

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 25

EDDIE PRIC E Q

F Little Miss

ONE OF THE TOP SCHOOLS IN THE NATION. Transylvania will teach you to ask the deep questions of the world and seek out creative ways to find answers. transy.edu

When people pull together, every day is a giant leap forward.

Grubby Toes Eats Too Much Candy!

Eddie is a retired history teacher who now writes awardwinning books, including the Little Miss Grubby Toes series, illustrated by Mark Wayne Adams. Eddie is a world traveler who enjoys bicycling, horseback riding, and swimming. He and his wife, Mary, now live in Hancock County, Kentucky.

SHAWN PRYOR Q

F Free Throw Contest

Shawn’s work includes the middle-grade graphic novel series Cash & Carrie, the sports graphic novel Force, and several books for the Jake Maddox Sports and Adventure series and the Kids Sports series. He enjoys reading, cooking, listening to music, and talking about why Zack from the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers is the greatest Black superhero of all time.

GIN NOON SPAU L DING Q

F No Kiss–No Hug

Gin is an author, teacher, speaker, and mom who helps families and organizations understand, learn tools of accommodation, and find true acceptance for children with sensory issues. She lives with her husband and their whiz-kid daughter, Maleah “Li-Li” Spaulding—the star of The Adventures of Li-Li series.

JESSE STUAR T Q

F Bluetick Pig

Jesse Stuart (1906-1984) was a noted author, educator, lecturer, world traveler, farmer, and environmentalist. A prolific writer, he served as Kentucky’s Poet Laureate in 1954-55. His reprinted work is represented at the Kentucky Book Festival by Dr. Cathy Roberts. Bluetick Pig is the ninth book in his junior book series.

KRISTIN O’DONNEL L TU B B

F Luna Howls at the Moon

Kristin is the author of many middle-grade books, including The Story Collector, The Story Seeker, and A Dog Like Daisy. This novel is told from the point of view of Luna, a Labrador therapy dog who accompanies her group therapy kids when they set off on an adventure.

You’ve shown us that when we work together toward a common goal, we make progress day after day. Thank you, Kentucky Humanities Council.

MARY REAVES U HL ES (IL L U S.)

pnc.com

Mary has created illustrations for numerous books and magazines, such as A Tuba Christmas. She lives with her family in Nashville. Let’s Pop, Pop, Popcorn! offers a fun introduction to the process of creating popcorn that includes scientific facts and activities.

F Let’s Pop, Pop, Popcorn!

S. G. WIL SON Q

F Me vs. the Multiverse:

Enough About Me ©2021 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PNC Bank, National Association. Member FDIC CON PDF 0618-0106

26 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

S.G. grew up in Kentucky and now writes stuff in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family. He’s worked as a magazine writer and editor and hosts a podcast called This Week

in the Multiverse. In Me vs. the Multiverse, the “Mes” are back in this hilarious book from the sci-fi comedy series.

JES S IC A YO U NG

F I’ll Meet You in

Your Dreams

Jessica grew up in Ontario, Canada.

When she’s not making up stories, she loves making art with kids. Her many books include the Fairylight Friends and Haggis and Tank series. I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams is a poetic and tender story celebrating the parent-child bond in its many forms.

YOUNG ADULT D AVID A R NO L D Q

F The Electric

Kingdom

Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, among other titles. He lives in Lexington with his family. The Electric Kingdom is his most ambitious novel to date—a genresmashing story of survival, hope, and love amid a ravaged earth.

CI NDA WI L L IAMS C HIMA

F Deathcaster

Chima’s books include the Seven Realms and the Heir Chronicles series. Her next project marries Norse mythology and witchcraft with her usual mingle of magic, swordplay, romance, and cut-throat politics. Deathcaster is the final installment of the Shattered Realms series.

BR OOKE L AU REN DAVIS Q

F The Hollow Inside

Davis grew up in Ohio and now lives in Louisville, where she divides her time between working as an indie bookseller and dreaming up stories about small towns with big secrets. The Hollow Inside, her debut, is a smart, gripping, and twisty YA novel about a girl seeking to reveal the truth about her mother and herself.

ALI S HA KL APHEKE

F Enchanting the

Elven Mage

Klapheke wants to infuse readers’ lives with magic, far-flung fantasy settings, and romance. Her new book, a Sleeping Beauty-inspired fantasy romance perfect for fans of Serpent and Dove and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, will keep you turning pages all night!

SHANNON SC HU REN

F Where Echoes Lie

Schuren is the author of The Virtue of Sin and Where Echoes Lie, an eerie thriller in which a teenage girl must solve the mystery of the ghost bride that has haunted her community in rural Kentucky for more than a century.

Schuren and her family live in Wisconsin.

C OU R T STEVENS Q

F The June Boys

Stevens grew up in the small-town South.

She writes coming-of-truth fiction and is the community outreach manager for the Warren County Public Library in Kentucky. Her new book, The June Boys, is a gripping, emotional story of small towns, rumors, and 13 missing boys.

HEATHER TRU ET T

F Kiss and Repeat

Truett is an MFA candidate at the University of Memphis. In her debut novel, Kiss and Repeat, a teen uses a scientific method drilled into him by his scientist father to begin a kissing experiment. Truett, a poetry editor for The Pinch, is active in the #actuallyautistic community.

SNOWY OWL FOUNDATION, INC. Nana Lampton

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 27

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Sideways Fred

Fred the tadpole’s left leg was not very strong!

By Stephanie Logsdon Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

FICTION MIC HAEL A. AL MOND

F The Tannery

A retired international business attorney, Almond is an avid reader of Southern history and literature, who lives with his wife in North Carolina. The Tannery, his debut novel, reflects issues prominent in today’s headlines that drive the narrative to its dramatic and surprising conclusion.

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction 978-1938647147 | $18.93 | Hardcover 978-1938647161 | $14.95 | Softcover

L ANA K.W. AU STIN Q

F Like Light, Like Music

Sideways Fred is an upbeat, rhyming story about determination which focuses on keeping your eye on the ball.

I gave my daughter a set of books from Baxter’s Corner.

(She has three masters’ degrees, Vanderbilt, George Mason, and Boston University, this last one in childhood education.) “They are awesome”, she loved the text, loved the illustrations, and said the two 7-year-old daughters read them in one sitting. “They loved them!”

John D, North Myrtle Beach, SC HOW TO ORDER Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Austin was raised in rural Kentucky. In Like Light, Like Music, Emme McLean is back in Red River, Kentucky, using her skills as a journalist to prove that her cousin did not kill her husband and to find out what is terrifying the town after many of its women went half-mad on the same night.

DAVID B EL L Q

F Kill All Your Darlings

Bell is a bestselling, award-winning author whose work has been translated into multiple foreign languages. He’s currently a professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In his new novel, when a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own—only to discover it implicates him in an unsolved murder.

SU SAN B EL L & EL AINE MU NSC H (EDS.) Q

Publisher Note Baxter’s Corner books features a section parents can use as a fun playful resource to transform the subject into conversations with a child.

F Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon Bell was born in coastal California but now calls Louisville home. She is co-editor with Elaine Munsch of the crime story anthology Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon, which includes stories all fermented in the history and culture of Kentucky bourbon.

Munsch, a bookseller for more than 40 years, has made Louisville her home for decades.

GWENDA B OND Q

F Not Your Average Hot Guy Baxter’s Corner Books baxterscorner.com info@baxterscorner.com 28 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

021 October-AD4.indd 1

Bond is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the Lois Lane and Cirque American trilogies. She lives in Lexington. Her latest book is a paranormal romantic comedy about two people falling in love while the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

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L AU R E N H. B R A N D E NBUR G

F The Marriage of Innis Wilkinson

Brandenburg is an author who happily blurs the lines between traditional genres in both middle-grade and cozy fiction. She lives with her family near Nashville. In her new book, a town secret is uncovered that involves a murder, an actor with a severe case of kleptomania, and a mysterious marriage.

H A LLE E B R I D G E MA N Q

F Alexandra’s Appeal

With nearly a million book sales, Bridgeman is a bestselling Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real-world problems.

In her new book, Alex—scorned, penniless, and pregnant— must fight for faith, family, and love.

W ES L E Y B R O W NE Q

F Hillbilly Hustle

Browne is an attorney and restaurant owner who lives with his family in Madison County, Kentucky. Hillbilly Hustle, his debut novel, follows Knox Thompson, who thinks he’s working a hustle, but it’s a hustle that’s working him.

Discover the Difference of True Partnership We are proud to support the Kentucky Book Festival and their work for the Lexington community.

Lexington Offices 859-255-9681 . 859-219-4260

CA RR I E C AL L AG HAN

F Salt the Snow

Callaghan is the author of historical novels A Light of Her Own and Salt the Snow, a vivid and impeccably researched tale of a woman ahead of her time, looking for her true calling in life and love. Callaghan lives in Maryland with her family.

W. B R U C E C A ME R O N

F A Dog’s Courage: A

Dog’s Way Home Novel

Cameron is the bestselling author of A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Way Home, A Dog’s Journey (all now major motion pictures), and many other books. He lives in California. A Dog’s Courage is a moving tale of loyalty and the constant heart of one devoted dog— brought vividly to life with a keen understanding of what makes all dogs so special.

©2021 Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated. Member SIPC. MC-677600.

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS.

A N N E T T E SAU N O O K E CL APS ADDLE

F Even as We Breathe

Clapsaddle, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her debut novel, Even as We Breathe, explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity’s lasting legacy.

Central Kentucky • Northern Kentucky•Louisville 859-253-6222•centralbank.com

W H I T NE Y C O L L I NS Q

F Big Bad

Collins is the author of the short story collection, Big Bad, which won the 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Part domestic horror, part flyover gothic, the book serves up realworld predicaments in unremarkable places, all with Collins’ heart-wrenching flavor of magical realism.

Member FDIC k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 29

A N N H. G A B HAR T Q

F Along a Storied Trail

Gabhart has published 35 books, with more stories on the way. She likes wrapping her stories around interesting historical times and events in her home state of Kentucky. In Along a Storied Trail, set during the Great Depression, readers will traverse the rough trails of eastern Kentucky with packhorse librarian Tansy Calhoun.

RO B E R T G I PE Q

F Pop: An

Illustrated Novel

Gipe won the 2015 Weatherford Award for his first novel, Trampoline. He resides in Harlan County, Kentucky. Pop, his third novel, shows Appalachia as full of clear-eyed, caring, creative, and complicated people struggling to hang on to what is best about their world and reject what is not.

PAU L G R I NE R Q

F The Book of

Otto and Liam

Griner is the author of two short story

collections and several novels, including The German Woman. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Louisville. The Book of Otto and Liam is a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read and, at the same time, it is a meditation on the forms evil can take.

LI S A HANEB ERG Q

F Stiff Lizard: A Spy

Shop Mystery

Haneberg is the author of the Spy Shop Mysteries series and more than a dozen nonfiction books. She lives with her husband and dog in Lexington. In Stiff Lizard, Rodent Roger, a popular Galveston Island exterminator, goes missing the day after he tells Xena about a concerning uptick in green iguana sightings on the island.

GR ADY HEN DRIX

F The Final Girl

Support Group

Hendrix is the New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, among other books. His latest novel, The Final Girl Support Group, is

A N

a fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for.

EL IN HIL DERB RAND

F The Paradise Trilogy

Hilderbrand is a mother, fashionista, jogger, explorer, foodie, and grateful seven-year breast cancer survivor. Golden Girl, her 27th novel, is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Hilderbrand’s Paradise novels—Winter in Paradise, What Happens in Paradise, and Troubles in Paradise—tell the story of a woman who must start anew after her idyllic life is shattered by her husband’s death in a helicopter crash in the Caribbean.

SIL AS HOU SE Q

F Clay’s Quilt (20th

anniversary edition)

House is The New York Times bestselling author of six novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and three plays. In Clay’s Quilt, now a touchstone for his many fans, he takes us to Free Creek, Kentucky, where a motherless young man forges his path to adulthood surrounded by ancient mountains and his blood relatives and adopted kin.

U N CO M M O N

S P I R I T

At the University of Kentucky, students are at the center of all that we do. We believe in a community where everyone feels like they belong and are afforded the same opportunities to succeed. We embrace diversity, without divisiveness.

When you join our community, you become part of something bigger — more than 250,000 alumni, students, faculty and staff who share a culture defined by extraordinary achievement and a commitment to those who will follow in their footsteps.

Today, we have a renewed sense of momentum and purpose. We are building a community whose most important goal is supporting our students. After all, we know that when they succeed, we are making the best investment we can in the brightest future possible.

U K Y. E D U AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY UNIVERSITY

A N G E L A J A C K SO N -

Wanting Radiance, Miracelle Loving’s world comes crashing down when her mother, Ruby, is murdered during a fortune-telling session gone wrong.

B RO W N

F When Stars

Rain Down

Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who teaches creative writing and English at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. In When Stars Rain Down, she introduces readers to a small, Southern town grappling with haunting questions still relevant today—and to a young woman whose search for meaning resonates across the ages.

R. J. J AC O B S

F Somewhere

in the Dark

Jacobs lives with his family in Nashville, where he maintains a private practice as a psychologist. In Somewhere in the Dark, he writes another compulsively readable novel of suspense for fans of B.A. Paris and Mary Kubica that asks: Do the mistakes of the past mark us as guilty for life?

H A LLI E L E E Q

F Paint Me Fearless

Born and raised in Louisiana but now residing in Kentucky, Lee has set most of her screenplays and novels in the South.

Paint Me Fearless, the first book in The Shady Gully series, is women’s literature, is book-club fiction, and is faith-based.

T IF M A R C E L O

F In a Book Club

Far Away

Marcelo, a veteran U.S. Army nurse, believes and writes about families, friendship, and romances. She’s inspired daily by her own military hero husband and four children. In a Book Club Far Away is a moving novel that follows three Army wives who must overcome their differences when one of them is desperate for help.

K IM M E RY MA R T I N Q

F Doctors and Friends

Martin is an emergency medicine doctorturned novelist. Raised near Berea, Kentucky, she now lives with her family in North Carolina. In Doctors and Friends, three doctors’ lives are transformed on

FJ MESSINA Q

F The

Bluegrass Files: Revenge

the frontlines of a new pandemic.

Written prior to COVID-19, it incorporates wit, razor-edged poignancy, and a relatable cast of characters who provoke both laughter and tears.

BOBBI E ANN MASON Q

F Dear Ann: A Novel

Mason is the author of numerous books, including Clear Springs, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Kentucky. In Dear Ann, she captures the excitement of youth and the nostalgia of age, and relates how consideration of the road not taken can illuminate, and perhaps overtake, our present.

ED M cCL A NAHAN & J . T. DOCKERY (IL L U S.) Q

F Juanita and

the Frog Prince

McClanahan, a native of northeastern Kentucky, is the author of several books, including Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever. Dockery is a cartoonist whose works include In Tongues Illustrated, Spud Crazy (with Nick Tosches), and DESPAIR, volumes 1-3. In the style of underground comix, McClanahan and Dockery present Juanita and the Frog Prince, an outrageous tale adapted from McClanahan’s novella of the same name, originally published in the collection A Congress of Wonders.

KAR EN S ALYER McEL MU RRAY

F Wanting

Radiance: A Novel

McElmurray won an AWP Award for her book Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey. She teaches at Gettysburg College and in West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA program. In

Messina is the author of the fast-paced, quick-read murdermystery series set in Lexington. The Bluegrass Files follows the adventures of a young, Italian-American woman thrust into the role of private investigator and surrounded by a cast of interesting and sometimes quirky characters. There currently are five books in this series.

EL L EN B IRKET T MORRIS Q

F Lost Girls:

Short Stories

Morris is the author of Lost Girls, a collection of short stories, which explores the experiences of women and girls as they grieve, find love, face uncertainty, take a stand, find their future, and say goodbye to the past.

GU RNEY NORMAN Q

F Allegiance

Norman is a novelist and short story writer whose works include Divine Right’s Trip, Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories, and Ancient Creek: A Folktale. He is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky and served as Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2009-10. Allegiance is an autobiography told through stories, a personal journey into Norman’s life, place, and consciousness.

MIC HAEL REC TENWAL D

F Thought Criminal

The author of 11 books, Dr. Rectenwald is a pundit and champion of free speech, opposing all forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. In Thought Criminal, for Thought Deviationist Varin, the ultimate threat is posed by submission to the Collective Mind. Resistance means living as a fugitive, forever hunted by Robot Police Agents.

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DIANNA ROSTAD

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Who’s Who with Mr. McBoom The truth is families are hard to define.

By Stephanie Logsdon Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

F You Belong Here Now

Rostad has traveled extensively to pursue the last artifacts of our shared history and breathe life, truth, and hope into her novels.

In You Belong Here Now, three orphans journey westward from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life where beautiful wild horses roam free.

C AR TER SIC KEL S Q

F The Prettiest Star

Sickels is assistant professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. The Prettiest Star offers an urgent portrait of a family in the center of a national crisis in order to tell a unique story about the politics and fragility of the body, and to explore the bounds of family and redemption.

VIRGINIA SMITH Q

F Raised for a Purpose:

Talia’s Story

Smith is the best-selling author of more than 40 novels, two children’s books, and many shorter works. In Raised for a Purpose, Talia knows her life was restored for a reason. Ten years have passed since that incredible day, and still Talia has no idea why she was resurrected from death.

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction 978-1938647321 | $21.95 | Hardcover

“All children could relate to and connect with a family from this story about diversity and inclusion of all different types.

There are many extensions at the end of the book that create strong conversation starters for such a relevant topic with children today.”

Sarah Gregory, Educator “They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

Benjamin Gies, Policy and Advocacy Director Kentucky Youth Advocates

HOW TO ORDER Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

MINDY STEEL E Q

F An Amish Flower Farm

Steele was raised in Kentucky timber country and has been writing since she could hold a crayon against the wall. She writes Amish Romance peppered with just the right amount of humor, as well as engaging contemporary suspense using rural America and its residents as her muse.

RIC HARD TAYL OR Q

F Girty

Taylor is a professor of English at Transylvania University. A Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 1999-2000, he is the author of many books. Girty is an evocative work, bringing to life a complex historical figure who must permanently dwell in the borderland between myth and fact, one foot in each domain.

JU L IAN THOMAS Q

Publisher Note Baxter’s Corner stories entertain children while serving as a resource as parents teach their kids to be emotionally and spiritually healthy.

F Black Heart

Thomas is a teacher, author, and creative director from Lexington. A lifelong writer, he has penned Black Heart, a graphic novel that follows a ruthless young man’s obsession with a gladiator-style deathmatch that lands him in the middle of a secret government conspiracy.

ANNET TE VAL ENTINE

F Eastbound from Flagstaff Baxter’s Corner Books baxterscorner.com info@baxterscorner.com

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32 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

Valentine’s Southern roots account for her purposeful, historical fiction writing and the imaginative works found in her two preceding books of the My Father trilogy. Eastbound from Flagstaff portrays a man who comes to recognize the meaning of authenticity, the significance of family, and the richness of his heritage.

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S I M ON VA N B O O Y

Inc. She lives on a farm in Goshen, Kentucky.

The Turtle With Seven Eyes, a collection of 36 poems, is her most recent book. Her previous poetry collections include The Moon with the Sun in Her Eye and Bloom on a Split Board.

F Night

Came With Many Stars

Van Booy is the awardwinning and bestselling author of 15 books that have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. His latest novel Night Came With Many Stars, set in Kentucky, is a masterfully interwoven story of chance and choice that leads home again to a night blessed with light.

GEORGE EL L A LYO N Q

F Back to

sights, and sounds of the South.

Ultimately, it is a story of determining one’s values and remaining true to them.

M A RG AR E T V E R B L E Q

F When Two Feathers

Fell From the Sky

Verble is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. A native of Oklahoma, she now lives in Lexington.

Her first novel, Maud’s Line, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Verble’s new novel, When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, is an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship.

JAY NE MO O R E WA L D R OP Q

F Drowned Town

S US AN BEC KHAM ZU RENDA

F Bells for Eli

After teaching literature, composition, and creative writing to thousands of high school and college students for 33 years, Zurenda turned her attention to putting the novel in her heart on paper. In Bells for Eli, Zurenda transports readers into a small Southern town where quiet, ordinary life becomes extraordinary.

POETRY BER NAR D C L AY Q

Waldrop, the author of Retracing My Steps, lives in Lexington. Drowned Town explores the multigenerational impact caused by the loss of home and illuminates the joys and sorrows of a group of people bound by western Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes and the waters that lie on either side of it.

F English Lit

L AU RA MAYL E NE WALTER

R ONALD W. DAVIS Q

F Body of Stars

Walter currently is a writer-editor for the Cleveland Public Library, serves as editor-in-chief of the Gordon Square Review, and blogs for the Kenyon Review.

Her debut novel, Body of Stars, explores a patriarchal society that clings to old ways and classifies women according to their bodies.

Clay grew up in Louisville. A member of the Affrilachian Poets collective, he now lives on a farm in eastern Kentucky with his wife, Lauren. Clay’s autobiographical poetry debut, English Lit, juxtaposes the roots of Black male identity against an urban and rural Kentucky landscape.

F To Emit Teal

Davis, writing under the pen name upfromsumdirt, is a poet and visual artist. He is co-founder of the original Wild Fig Books and Coffee in Lexington. Dedicated to Emmett Till, and more recent Black victims of violence, Davis' new volume of poetry, To Emit Teal, is entirely an urgent demand for social justice.

L AW R E NC E W E I L L Q

F Silas LaMontaie

Weill, a Kentucky author and artist, has written multiple books. Silas LaMontaie is a literary novel of intrigue, wit, and family wisdom, and is full of the colors,

NANA L AMPTON Q

F The Turtle With

Seven Eyes

Lampton, a lifelong Kentuckian, is the current chair and CEO of Hardscuffle,

the Light

Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2015-16, is the award-winning author of more than 40 books for children and adults. She lives in Lexington. Back to the Light is a brilliant new collection that traces the course of a woman’s life from girlhood to mature female wisdom.

JEREMY PADEN Q

F world as sacred

burning heart

Paden is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at Transylvania University in Lexington and is on faculty at Louisville’s Spalding University. In world as sacred burning heart, he offers a collection of poems set in Colonial Latin America that play with the language and syntax of 16-century chronicles.

F RANK X WAL KER Q

F Black Box: Poems

Walker is a native of Danville, Kentucky. Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2013-14, he is founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. In Black Box, he melds autobiography, political commentary, and literary allusions into a beautiful journey through the real “Affrilachia”— a word Walker created to bring into focus the lives of the African Americans who call the rural and Appalachian South home.

C RYSTAL WIL KINSON Q

F Perfect Black:

Poems

Wilkinson is the 2021-22 Kentucky Poet Laureate and the author of three award-winning novels, including The Birds of Opulence. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. In Perfect Black, she muses on topics such as motherhood, the k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 33

politics of her Black body, lost fathers, mental illness, sexual abuse, and religion.

husband, accomplished attorney, and proud Kentuckian. The story behind the brand and the man behind the name are both subject and author of Bulleit Proof, an engaging and inspiring tapestry of tales from one of the liquor industry’s most notorious disruptors.

M A RI ANNE W O R T HI N G T O N Q

F The Girl

Singer: Poems

Worthington is a poet, editor, and co-founder of Still: The Journal. She lives and teaches in southeastern Kentucky.

Worthington divides Girl Singer into three distinct yet harmonious parts, cantillating local, familial, and personal histories across rural Appalachia.

NONFICTION B RA D AS HE R Q

F The Most Hated Man

in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge

Asher lives in Louisville. For the last third of the 19th century, Union Gen. Burbridge enjoyed the unenviable distinction of being the most hated man in Kentucky. In this biography, Asher explores how Burbridge earned his reputation, adding a new layer to the ongoing reexamination of Kentucky during and after the Civil War. T ED F R A N K L I N B E L U E Q

F Finding Daniel

Boone: His Last Days in Missouri & the Strange Fate of His Remains

Belue lives in Murray, Kentucky, with his wife, Lavina. In 2018, he retired from Murray State University’s Department of History. Finding Daniel Boone is a unique tribute to America’s first frontier hero, giving closure to the greatest of all his mysteries: the controversy surrounding his final resting place.

SUSAN BORDO Q

F TV

Bordo is Professor Emerita at the 34 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

B IL L C ADDEL L & F LO C ADDEL L

F The

University of Kentucky. In TV, she weaves personal memoir, social and political history, and key moments in the history of news broadcasting and prime time entertainment—illustrating what a constant companion and dominant cultural force television has been.

H. W. BR ANDS

F Our First Civil War:

Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution

Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written more than a dozen biographies and histories. Our First Civil War is a fresh recasting of the American Revolution, not just as a war between the American Colonists and the British Redcoats, but also as a violent battle among neighbors, friends, and family members, where those committing sedition ultimately were remembered as heroes and Founding Fathers. Brands’ visit is sponsored by the University of Kentucky Department of History.

TOM BULLE IT Q

F Bulleit Proof: How I

Took a 150-Year-Old Family Recipe and a Revolver, and Disrupted the Entire Liquor Industry One Bottle, One Sip, One Handshake at a Time Bulleit is a combat veteran, father,

Watercolors of Harlan Hubbard

Bill Caddell has championed his hero, Harlan Hubbard (1900-1988), for more than 50 years, sharing and exhibiting Hubbard’s art nationwide. Flo Caddell believes in Hubbard’s philosophy of making life a work of art. The Watercolors of Harlan Hubbard not only argues Hubbard’s place in the canon of art history but also highlights and analyzes the artist’s own voice.

TRAC Y C AMPB EL L Q

F The Year of Peril:

America in 1942

Campbell is a professor of American History at the University of Kentucky.

The Year of Peril examines how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War and reveals the various ways that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy.

PETER S. C ANEL L OS

F The Great

Dissenter: The Story of Judge Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero

Canellos is managing editor for enterprise at Politico, overseeing the site’s magazine, investigative journalism, and major projects. The Great Dissenter is a definitive and sweeping biography of an American hero who stood against the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, a native of Kentucky. Canellos’

visit is made possible in partnership with Centre College.

LIN D S AY M. C HE RV I NS KY

F The Cabinet: George

Washington and the Creation of an American Institution

Dr. Chervinsky is a historian of early America, the presidency, and the U.S. government. The U.S. Constitution never established a presidential cabinet. So how did George Washington create one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government? Chervinsky reveals the far-reaching consequences of Washington’s choice in The Cabinet.

RICK C HR I ST MAN Q

F Fat Chance: Diet Mania, Greed

and the Infamous Fen-Phen Swindle

Christman, CEO of Employment Solutions and a former community columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, lives in Lexington. Recounting a dramatic affair that bears conspicuous similarities to opioid-related class-action litigation against the pharmaceutical industry, Fat Chance offers an engaging account of one of America’s most prominent product liability cases.

KENTUCKY’S #1 HOSPITAL BECAUSE KENTUCKIANS COME TO US WHEN IT MATTERS MOST Groundbreaking research. Innovative treatments. And a drive to provide extraordinary care to every patient, every day, year after year. That’s why U.S. News & World Report has ranked UK HealthCare the #1 hospital in the state for the sixth year running – our best keeps getting better.

T O M C L AV I N

F Lightning Down: A World

War II Story of Survival

Clavin is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who lives in Sag Harbor, New York. On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 150 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of the Nazi concentration camps. Lightning Down tells this riveting true story.

S A RA WA LT E R C O MB S Q

F Bert Combs: The Fern Hill Years

Fulfilling her promise to her late husband, former Gov. Bert Combs, appellate Judge Sara Combs recreates the mystique of their life, love, and adventures at Fern Hill, the log home they built together in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. It is a poignant memoir of his life and his tragic death 30 years ago.

BOBI CONN Q

F In the Shadow of the Valley

Conn was born in Morehead, Kentucky. In the Shadow of the Valley is a clear-eyed and compassionate memoir of the Appalachian experience by a woman who embraced its astonishing beauty, narrowly escaped its violence, and struggles to call it home.

K RIS TI N C Z AR N E C K I Q

F The First Kristin: The Story

of a Naming

Czarnecki is an English professor at Georgetown College. In The First Kristin: The Story of a Naming, she delves into the unique experience of being named after a deceased sibling: her parents’ first child, who died at age 3—eight and a half years before the author was born.

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 35

JEN N D AV I S Q

F The Southern

Baking Cookbook

Davis is a food photographer as well as the creator of the Two Cups Flour blog. She lives in Louisville. With The Southern Baking Cookbook, anyone can experience some down-south magic. Davis blends her Southern sensibilities with a unique approach to flavor, reimagining crowdpleasing classics with a twist.

K EV IN L A N E D E A R I N GER Q

F Bad Sex in Kentucky

A Broadway performer and teacher, Dearinger retired to his native Kentucky after nearly five decades as a New Yorker. Bad Sex in Kentucky is about seeking grace under pressure, even at the risk of a pratfall. It focuses on place, family, and heritage.

ELIZ A B E T H D i S AV I NO Q

F Katherine Jackson

French: Kentucky’s Forgotten Ballad Collector

DiSavino is assistant professor of music at Berea College. Katherine Jackson French draws on never-before-seen artifacts from the author, French’s granddaughter, DiSavino reclaims the life and legacy of this pivotal scholar by emphasizing the ways French’s work shaped and could reshape our conceptions about Appalachia.

D AVID D O MI N É Q

F A Dark Room in

Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville 36 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

Dominé, the author of 12 other books, lives in Louisville, where he teaches at Bellarmine University. In June 2010, police discovered a body buried in the wine cellar of a Victorian mansion in Old Louisville. When author Dominé sat in on the trials, he saw a deeper story emerging.

CYNTHI A GRAU B AR T

F Blueberry Love

Graubart, the author of Blueberry Love and Strawberry Love, is a James Beard Awardwinning cookbook author, a cooking teacher, and a culinary television producer. Blueberry Love celebrates this sweet-tart summer fruit with 46 recipes for enjoying blueberries, fresh or frozen.

M EL S TEWA R T HANKL A Q

F Into the Bluegrass:

Art and Artistry of Kentucky’s Historic Icons

RAL PH HOPE

F The Grey Men:

Pursing the Stasi Into the Present

Hope served as an FBI agent for more than 25 years. In The Grey Men, he uses insider knowledge and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book comes as a warning from the past, as current governments build an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens.

JAMES W. HOL SINGER JR. & F. DOU GL AS SC U TC HF IEL D (EDS.) Q

F Contemporary

Public Health: Principles, Practice, and Policy

NI CHOL AS D. HAR TL EP Q

Scutchfield is the Peter P. Bosomworth Endowed Professor of Health Services Research and Policy Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. Holsinger is the Charles T. Wethington Jr. Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. Contemporary Public Health provides historical background that contextualizes the current state of that field and explores the major issues practitioners face today.

F Teacher Educators

JIM HOST Q

Hankla grew up in Jamestown, Kentucky, and now lives in Carter County with his wife. Into the Bluegrass is 355 pages packed with gorgeous artifacts, stories of early settlers, lush photos, and insights into our ancestors, who made Kentucky what it is today.

as Critical Storytellers: Effective Teachers as Windows and Mirrors

Hartlep teaches at Berea College. Breaking away from the historically dominant narrative that White females make the best teachers, his latest book contends that effective teachers can be both “windows” and “mirrors” for students.

F Changing the

Game: My Career in Collegiate Sports Marketing

Host is founder of Host Communications, Inc., a nationally renowned college sports marketing and association management company.

Changing the Game is the first complete account of Host’s professional life; his

time in minor league baseball, real estate, and the insurance business; and his foray into Kentucky politics.

JEN N I F E R HU N T E R Q

F Cook Together,

Eat Together

University of Kentucky, Cooperative Extension Service, Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Extension represents a group of educators sharing the university’s research knowledge with individuals, families, and communities to improve quality of life. In Cook Together, Eat Together, the authors serve up tasty, budget-friendly dishes that home cooks and their kids can prepare.

B RIA N K I L ME AD E

F The President and

the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul

motives and attitudes of colonization supporters and those who lived in the colony, Liberty Brought Us Here offers perspectives beyond the standard narrative that colonization was driven solely by racism or forced exile.

L. S COT T LINGAMF ELTER

F Desert Redleg:

Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War

Col. Lingamfelter was raised in Richmond, Virginia. In Desert Redleg, this veteran and former Redleg of the 1st Infantry Division Artillery recounts the logistical and strategic decisions that led to a coalition victory. Part military history, part personal memoir, this book provides a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the largest U.S. artillery bombardment since World War II. KYLE M ACY Q (WI TH DR . JOHN HUANG)

F From the

Rafters of Rupp

New York Times bestselling author Kilmeade co-hosts Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, the radio show The Brian Kilmeade Show, and the Fox Nation series What Made America Great. In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Kilmeade’s seventh book, he tells the story of how two American heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship, changing the entire course of history in the process.

After a successful collegiate and professional basketball career, Macy has worked as a college basketball broadcast analyst across multiple media outlets. Dr. Huang is a retired orthodontist and military veteran who covers University of Kentucky sports. Beginning in 2017, Macy hosted “From the Rafters of Rupp,” a series of interviews now packaged in a coffee-table book.

S U S A N E . L I ND SE Y

AM Y M cGRATH Q

F Liberty Brought Us

Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia Lindsey is co-author and editor of Speed Family Heritage Recipes. Exploring the

F Honor Bound: An

American Story of Dreams and Service

McGrath was raised in Edgewood, Kentucky. Honor Bound is the inspiring story of the first female Marine to fly a combat mission in an F/A-18 and the

transformative events that led to her bold decision to take on the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate.

GU Y MENDES Q

F Walks to the

Paradise Garden: A Lowdown Southern Odyssey

A native of New Orleans, Mendes has lived and worked in Kentucky since 1970.

He teaches Darkroom Photography at the University of Kentucky. Walks to the Paradise Garden, the last unpublished manuscript of the late poet and provocateur Jonathan Williams, chronicles Williams’ road trips across the Southern U.S. with photographers Guy Mendes and Roger Manley.

OU ITA MIC HEL Q (WITH SARA GIB B S & GENIE GRAF)

F Just a Few Miles

South: Timeless Recipes from Our Favorite Places

Michel is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee. Co-author Sara Gibbs is a chef as well as a recipe writer and editor. Co-author Genie Graf is the marketing and communications director at the Ouita Michel Family of Restaurants. Michel and her restaurants are regularly featured in local and national media. She lives in Midway, Kentucky.

Just a Few Miles South serves up the recipes that patrons of Michel’s central Kentucky restaurants have come to know and love.

L ISA M. MIL L ER Q

F The Heart of

Leadership for

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 37

Women: Cultivating a Sacred Space

Miller is a community builder who specializes in women’s mind-body health. The Heart of Leadership for Women is about cultivating the sacred space for meeting, learning, and growth, where empowerment is fostered, and transformation is made possible.

CA RLY MU E T T E R T I E S A ND M A D D I E S HE PAR D Q

F Bluegrass

Bold: Stories of Kentucky Women

Muetterties is the Director of Curriculum Design at Summit Learning. She lives in Lexington. Shepard is a Deeper Learning Resource Teacher in the Curriculum Design and Learning Innovation Department of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville. Bluegrass Bold celebrates 36 Kentucky women who helped improve the state and the world beyond. Portraits by female Kentucky artists accompany each profile.

M A RYA N N E O ’ HAR A

F Little Matches:

A Memoir of Grief and Light

O’Hara published short stories before writing Cascade, a novel that explores “what lasts.” A raw, uplifting memoir in the vein of The Year of Magical Thinking, Little Matches illuminates a mother’s grief over the loss of her adult child and considers the hope of soulful connections that transcend the boundary between life and death.

CH A R L E S W. PE AR L Q

F Dancing at the

Yurt: An Interfaith Spiritual Journey

Pearl, a retired journalist living in Kentucky, has won numerous awards for writing and photography. Writing Dancing at the Yurt began in 2012, when he met fascinating people at a Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center retreat. He writes about their spiritual journeys and includes many others of diverse faiths who have inspired him.

38 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

M AT THEW P EARL

F The Taking of

Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America

Pearl’s novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers. In his nonfiction debut, The Taking of Jemima Boone, he unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War, opening a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with the heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.

J ER EM Y D. POPKIN Q

F A New World Begins:

The History of the French Revolution

Popkin is the William T. Bryan Chair of History at the University of Kentucky.

Written for a general audience, A New World Begins introduces readers not just to familiar aspects of this story, but to the debates about women’s rights and the abolition of slavery that make this Revolution a precursor of issues that concern us today.

M I KE PR AT T (WI TH TOM L EAC H) Q

F Mike Pratt: A

Life in Basketball

Pratt is color analyst for the UK Radio Network, alongside Tom Leach. This collection of candid and intimate conversations between Pratt and Leach tells Pratt’s story and gives fans and readers insight into each season between 2002 and 2021 that only someone like Mike Pratt could have.

S AM QUI NONES

F The Least of Us: True

Tales of America and Hope in the Age of Fentanyl and Meth

Quinones is a journalist, author, and storyteller. The Least of Us, a searing follow-up to his award-winning book Dreamland, explores the terrifying next stages of the opioid epidemic and the

quiet yet ardent stories of community repair, weaving analysis of the drug trade into tales of humble communities.

WIL F RED REIL LY Q

F Taboo: Ten Facts

You Can’t Talk About

Reilly is an associate professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University. It has become virtually impossible to honestly discuss race, gender, and class issues in mainstream American society because, if you dare to repeat certain “taboo truths,” you will be ostracized as a bigot. In Taboo, Reilly fearlessly presents 10 of these truths, investigating why the mainstream is so afraid to acknowledge that they’re true.

SHAWNA KAY RODENB ERG Q

F Kin: A Memoir

Rodenberg is a registered nurse, community college English instructor, mother, and grandmother, who lives in southern Indiana. Her memoir, Kin, is a story of family—about the forgiveness and love within its bounds—and generations of Appalachians who have endured, harmed, and held each other through lifetimes of personal and regional tragedy.

SYLVIA SHU RB U T T (ED.)

F Silas House:

Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work

Shurbutt is the director of the Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities. She lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In this groundbreaking book, editor Shurbutt brings together established and rising scholars to discuss Silas House and his writings through a critical lens.

MIC HAEL PATRIC K F. SMITH Q

F The Good Hand: A

Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown

In The Good Hand, Smith details life working the rigs during North Dakota’s Bakken oil boom. Based in central Kentucky, he is also a playwright and works as a musician, sharing the stage

with folk luminaries such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Happy Traum, and others.

K AT HY S T E A R MA N Q

F It’s Not About the

Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent

Stearman is a retired FBI Special Agent and author of the memoir, It’s Not About the Gun, which focuses on her time overseas as head of FBI offices in southcentral Asia and China.

PEGGY NOE STEVENS & SUSAN REIGLER Q

F Which Fork Do I

Use With My Bourbon?: Setting the Table for Tastings, Food Pairings, Dinners, and Cocktail Parties Stevens, the first woman to receive the title of Master Bourbon Taster, was Brown-Forman’s Global Event Planner.

Reigler, author of many award-winning books, is a Certified Executive Bourbon Steward. Which Fork Do I Use with My Bourbon? offers a guide to hosting a successful bourbon-tasting party— complete with recipes, photos, and tips.

JA S O N G . ST R ANG E Q

F Shelter From

the Machine: Homesteaders in the Age of Capitalism

Strange, a scholar and professor of Peace and Social Justice at Berea College, grew up in eastern Kentucky and northern California—places with rich histories of homesteading. In Shelter from the Machine, he finds people engaged in a lifestyle that offers challenge and fulfillment for those in search of virtues like self-employment and escape from the mainstream.

A L A N SU L L I VAN ( W I T H J OE COX) Q

F Voice of the

Wildcats: Claude Sullivan and the Rise of Modern Sportscasting

Sullivan, the son of Claude Sullivan, began

working in the family broadcasting business at age 11. Attorney Joe Cox is the author or co-author of 10 books. As one of the first voices of the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program, Claude Sullivan (1924-67) became a nationally known sportscasting pioneer.

In Voice of the Wildcats, the authors offer a heartfelt look at the sportscaster’s life.

WES S WI ETE K Q

F The Cemetery Road

Murders: The Shocking True Tale of Kentucky’s Murder Mansion

Award-winning journalist Swietek, who lives in Bowling Green with his family, is currently managing editor of the Bowling Green Daily News. The Cemetery Road Murders brings new life to crimes now seven decades removed, reminding us of Bowling Green’s sordid past and a lonely house on the outskirts of town.

WI LLI AM H. TU RNER Q

F The Harlan

Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns

Turner was raised in a coal mining family in Harlan County, Kentucky. The Harlan Renaissance, his memoir, is a remembrance of kinship and community in eastern Kentucky’s coal towns written by one of the luminaries of Appalachian studies.

S AR AH TAYL OR VANOVER Q

F America’s Child-

Care Crisis: Rethinking an Essential Business

Vanover, the director of the Division of Child Care for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, has been working in the field for more than 22 years. America’s ChildCare Crisis takes a hard look at the current state of the industry and explores how to save this critical service.

GARY P. WEST Q

F Murder on Youngers

Creek Road: How Car Thieves, Gamblers, Bootleggers & Bombers

in One Kentucky Town Ignited a Murder-ForHire in Another

Author and journalist West lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with his wife, Deborah. Murder on Youngers Creek Road is the true story of a murder-for-hire gone wrong that involves a well-known automobile dealer, two hit men hired to kill him, and a pair of high-profile business partners.

B OB WIL L C U T T (WITH SU SAN MIL LE R) Q

F Waveland’s

Treasures: 50th Anniversary of Waveland State Historic Site

Award-winning photographer Willcutt has always had an interest in all types of art, especially photography. Historical interpreter Miller started volunteering at Waveland in May 2016. Waveland, one of the finest examples of Antebellum architecture in the state, is today a museum. Waveland’s Treasures features over 200 photographs of the mansion.

ANGENE WIL SON & JAC K WIL SON Q

F Voices from the

Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers

Angene Wilson is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Kentucky.

Jack Wilson spent more than 35 years in public service. In Voices from the Peace Corps, the Wilsons, who served in Liberia from 1962-64, follow the experiences of volunteers as they join, attend training, adjust to living overseas, and eventually return home.

Thanks to the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet for sponsoring the author Signing Gallery!

Events and authors are subject to change due to the ongoing pandemic.

Always check our website, kybookfestival.org, for information including the latest updates.

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 39

P HO TO : GEO RGETO WN C O LLEGE

2021 Carl West Award Winner We’re pleased to announce that this year’s Carl West Award winner is Dr. James C. Klotter. Klotter has written, edited, or co-edited nearly twenty books on Kentucky history, including, Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President (2018). Klotter was a staff member at the Kentucky Historical Society from 1973 to 1998, where he also served as executive director, and he was a professor of history at Georgetown College from 1998 to 2018.

He remains an active researcher, author, and Kentucky’s State Historian—a post he has held since 1980.

The Carl West Literary Award, presented by Kentucky Humanities, recognizes a living individual (journalist, educator, librarian, author, etc.) or institution (publishing house, university press, literary organization, etc.) who has made a significant impact on the literary culture and community of the Commonwealth. The award is named for journalist Carl West, editor of the Frankfort State Journal, who founded the Kentucky Book Fair. Applications are received from May-July, with a winner voted on in the summer. We’re so pleased to honor Dr. Klotter this year! Thanks to the Carl West Award Team for working together to choose a winner.

B

Visit kybookfestival.org to make a donation.

T H A N K YO U F O R YO U R G E N E R O U S S U P P O R T !

2021 SPONSORS

O U R PA R T N E R S

K E N T U C K Y B O O K F E S T I VA L D O N O R S This list includes individuals and organizations who donated to the Kentucky Book Festival from September 2020 through August 9, 2021 (note, organizations who sponsored the 2021 book festival are listed above).

Karl Benson

Campbellsville University

Edward Klee

Anonymous

Lynda Tharp

Lynda M. Sherrard

University of Kentucky

Phillip St. Clair

Anonymous

Betty Ann Luscher

Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation

James F. Hawk

Thomas H. Appleton, Jr.

Black Swan Books

JoEllen Tumbrink

Wildcat Moving

Rogers Barde

Michael Berry

Elmer Pullen

Jane F. Brake, Ph.D

Berea College

Elizabeth Barnes

Christopher J. Helvey

Juilee Decker

Michael Bowman, in memory of William Bowman

Jack H. Smith, III

Kentucky Historical Society Foundation

Colette Cardwell

Kathy Paynter

Stuart Tobin, MD

Jeanine Large Provencal, in memory of Clifford Edmond Provencal

Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning University of Pikeville

Kathryn Furlong Phylis Tomlinson Becky & Tom Eblen

Kim Edwards Charitable Foundation Mike Norris Fredia Blackwell

Joyce K. Mosher Edward Klee

k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 41

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a little bit easier Text “FacingIt” to 833-FaceIt1 to receive weekly tips, inspiration, and reminders about caring for kids!

Read and order free brochures and posters at

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BIG BLUE NATION!

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k y b o o k f e s t i v a l . o r g 43

Cyndi Williams photo

44 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

SILAS HOUSE’S MASTERPIECE BROUGHT A P PA L A C H I A N L I T E R AT U R E I N TO T H E M O D E R N AG E

BY KIM KOBERSMITH

C L AY ’ S L E G A C Y

T

wenty years ago, Silas House was a young mail carrier in rural Laurel County. He dreamed of being a full-time writer but didn’t dare to imagine it would come true.

The publication of his first novel, Clay’s Quilt, changed all of that.

The book became a New York Times bestseller, an international phenomenon and a staple of Appalachian literature. As of 2021, it has been continuously in print for 20 years. House called its breakaway success an anomaly, a bestseller that gained recognition solely by word of mouth.

In an August interview at Berea College, where House is the NEH Chair in Appalachian Studies, he shared his inspiration for writing the novel and its lingering impact.

Around 2000, Appalachian writing was gaining national recognition and validation. But House noticed many of these books were set in previous time periods or reflected people living in an antiquated fashion.

House wanted to read a book about his family, his friends, his life— so he wrote the first novel about Generation X in the region. “Clay’s Quilt forces readers to look at modern Appalachia,” he said. “The characters listen to an eclectic mix of music, from rap to bluegrass, and live in a global world.”

The book reflects one of House’s continuing themes. While it contains social justice issues that some would call political, such as a failing

economy and drug addiction, it doesn’t come across as preachy. For House, the human story is always front and center. “It is not a perfect book, but the story really holds up,” he said. “The family is endearing, authentic and easy to love.”

As House reflected on the 20th anniversary, he said the most amazing thing about Clay’s Quilt for him is the way it resonates with people all over the world. He wrote a local story, set in southeastern Kentucky, that reflects a strong mountain culture. But the core of the story—about family, storytelling and the ripple effects of violence— touches everybody.

“Readers from the Ukraine and Nigeria have told me about the similarities between cultures that, on the surface, look so different,” he said.

M O R E T H A N A N OV E L I S T

One of the things that helped develop House’s writing career was the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop at Hindman Settlement School. He first attended five years before Clay’s Quilt was published and felt embraced by the community. Lee Smith became a mentor for him, and Sharon McCrumb helped him navigate the business side of writing.

“The Appalachian Writers’ Workshop is totally foundational to my being a writer,” House said. “I have found the only way to sustain a life as a writer is with a community.”

While House is best known for

novels like Clay’s Quilt, his published oeuvre spans almost the entire breadth of writing genres. He has four published plays—all commissioned— two of which were staged at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. He has a couple of poems out in the world, although he admitted to feeling unqualified as a poet.

House has had numerous essays, creative nonfiction, and opinion pieces published. Some have been featured in The New York Times and The Atlantic. One of his most-read pieces is a reflection on Appalachian food for Gravy magazine. His essay on pickled bologna was selected for a Best American Food Writing collection.

The story is evocative of family and childhood but is about more than the pleasures of comfort food. “It allowed me to write about class,” he said.

House is less known for his journalism, even though it is a significant part of his work. He is one of Nashville’s most in-demand music writers, a fame that can be traced to Clay’s Quilt. The novel has 75 music references, which House uses to frame the time period and provide a cultural touchpoint. Two characters in Clay’s Quilt share an affinity for singer Lucinda Williams. A music magazine editor asked House to write a profile on Williams for an upcoming album release as the novel was gaining in popularity.

But House feels most comfortable writing novels. “I have a deep desire to write. I am not happy unless I am k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 45

working on a novel,” he said. “It is my form of meditation, my way to be still. It is really a selfish thing.”

A T H O R O U G H LY KENTUCKY WRITER

House considers himself lucky to have found a cadre of generous established writers when he was starting out, and he pays it forward by nurturing other regional writers.

He is a professor at Berea College and teaches at Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing. He often returns to serve on staff at the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop.

One of his newest contributions is as part of a team that selects books for an imprint of the University Press of Kentucky. He serves as the editor, which gives him the opportunity to nurture and champion the works of new writers. Chef Ouita Michel’s cookbook, Just a Few Miles South, and Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle’s Even as We Breathe are two of those.

46 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

Something that has remained constant in House’s writing career is a sense of being a representative of the region, even as the settings for his books have expanded to include Key West and Ireland (his next book—look for it soon!). As anyone who has heard an interview with him knows, his home is obvious as soon as he opens his mouth. For many who attend his readings, House is the only person from Appalachia they have ever met.

“When I am on book tour, 50 percent of what I talk about is Appalachia. I am treated like an expert,” he said. “The best service I can show this place is to represent it in a complex way, to show how it contains multitudes of people.”

One of the ways he does that is just by being himself. His identities include rural, working class, academic, Appalachian, person of faith and gay. “It freaks people out to put all of those together, but it is just who I am,” House said.

Clay’s Quilt has had an impact on people in the Appalachian region.

House loves when high school students relate that it was the first book they ever read entirely. “It is about a young person trying to find out who they are,” he said. “I love that it is reaching people in that way.”

A newly released 20th anniversary edition of Clay’s Quilt includes an introduction by singer/songwriter Tyler Childers. Childers wrote about how the book affected how he thinks about home and his relationship to it: “Too many teachers and mentors, with the best of intentions, had left me feeling my ‘east Kentucky-ness’ was a thing that I’d need to be shed of in order to get further in this world. The further from home I got, the more I realized it was the only thing that would keep me pointed north … Through Clay’s tight-knit network of family and friends, the outsider is given a glimpse of life within these hills and the spirit that settled them. For the young Appalachian writer searching for his or her own voice, it sits among the finest as an inspiration to take what is and shine it outward.” Q

We’d love to talk about your challenges and opportunities for 2021-2022. You can learn more and contact us at KentuckyPublicRadio.org.

B Y J AY N E M O O R E W A L D R O P

Lost Places of the Western Waterland

Homes, farms and entire towns were submerged as the price of progress

A

decade ago, I walked the shoreline of Old Kuttawa in western Kentucky on a clear December afternoon, the time of year when Lake Barkley’s water level is at its lowest. Winter pool, they call it, a controlled lowering of this Cumberland River reservoir that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee line.

The draw-down at the massive concrete dam a few miles downstream reduces the likelihood of flooding from winter and spring rains.

Each year when the water goes down, signs of the past reveal themselves. Beaches broaden, banks grow taller, and favorite waterskiing bays become shallow and riskier to navigate as sandbars and other obstructions appear. Like the towboat captains who navigate the lake year-round, seasoned boaters know to stay within the confines of the marked, twisting channel to keep from running aground.

The near-solstitial sun offered short daylight hours and little warmth, and as it approached the horizon, its beam skirted across the 48 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

water then dropped behind the low hills that ring the lake. The gloaming tinted layers of sky, earth and water from orange to pink, then deep magenta as egrets and herons found their spots for the night. Along the exposed shore and in the day’s last light, I witnessed the outlines of house foundations, fragments of old roads, scattered bricks, even railroad spikes near where the train station once sat. The view haunted me. It still does. The drowned towns and the many lost places felt close, their histories not so distant.

This landscape underwent monumental changes when Kentucky and Barkley dams were built a halfcentury before, when old river towns were demolished prior to the impoundments, and the area now known as Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) was developed. I grew up in western Kentucky, and I’ve always loved the lakes and LBL. I knew the history, but I had no familial connection to the sites. Until that December day when I witnessed traces of what had existed in Kuttawa, I hadn’t considered the

profound personal sacrifices of the people who gave up homeplaces, communities and livelihoods to make way for these projects.

• • •

The western tips of Kentucky and Tennessee are places of rivers. Big rivers. The region is bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Cumberland rivers, then sliced again for good measure by the Tennessee.

In the mid-20th century, the area became a place of lakes—big lakes— when the topography was forever altered by a succession of major federal water and land projects: Kentucky Dam, Barkley Dam and LBL. Today, this part of Kentucky is called the Western Waterland.

Before the lakes, a narrow strip of land situated between the Tennessee and the Cumberland was known as Between the Rivers. Small towns and family farms were located there.

Many of the inhabitants were descendants of settlers who had arrived in the early 1800s, after the region had become part of the United States during the westward push for new territory. The original 1818

Photos from the Guy Pursley family collec tion

Scenes from the 1955 Eddyville flood, which occurred prior to the town’s relocation.

government buyout for this part of Kentucky was negotiated via treaties with the Chickasaw Indians who also called the place home.

• • •

Built between 1938-44, Kentucky Dam was part of the New Deal’s plan for rural electrification and flood control through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Tennessee River was dammed near the small Kentucky town of Gilbertsville. The resulting reservoir, Kentucky Lake, is still the largest lake in surface area in the eastern United States and the largest body of water between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.

Stretching 184 miles and covering 160,309 acres, the lake opened the Tennessee Valley to year-round navigation and connected the region to the Inland Waterway System.

The dam and reservoir displaced thousands of residents and submerged several towns, but a significant diaspora from the region didn’t occur. Most people relocated to nearby communities.

Some moved from the banks of the Tennessee to homes on the Cumberland to remain river people, while others moved to Between the Rivers. Several families were displaced multiple times by the public projects that followed.

In fact, less than 20 years later and a mere 2 miles away from Kentucky Dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River. Again, an enormous reservoir filled to create Lake Barkley, named for Kentucky native and former U.S. Vice President Alben Barkley, the original Veep.

Eddyville and Kuttawa were relocated to nearby higher ground

and rebuilt as “new” towns; the “old” towns were then demolished in preparation for the higher water levels. A few original houses remain at both sites, as well as the Kentucky State Penitentiary perched close to a limestone bluff in Old Eddyville.

Even before Barkley Dam was completed and the water began to rise, another big project was approved.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced a plan to create a national recreation area to be known as Land Between the Lakes. The plan would return the Between the Rivers area to a wild, natural state to attract visitors for camping, hunting, hiking and other recreational activities. To accomplish

Jayne Moore Waldrop is the author of Drowned Town, a linked story collection set in western Kentucky, published by Fireside Industries, an imprint of University Press of Kentucky. Her other books are Pandemic Lent: A Season in Poetry and Retracing My Steps (Finishing Line Press).

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 49

Jayne Moore Waldrop photo

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archives

The author visited and photographed the Eddyville, Kuttawa and Canton areas during winter pool (low water level) in 2020; the devastating floods of 1937 affected numerous Kentucky towns, including Eddyville, left.

But in the end, the government took it all—over 170,000 acres.

More than 800 families were forced out.

• • •

this, every house, farm, business, school and church had to be acquired

by TVA through the government’s power of eminent domain. Each parcel would be cleared, every structure demolished, and most signs of human settlement erased.

The federal government already owned a 57,000-acre portion of the peninsula, a tract known as the Kentucky Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge, but the LBL project required more land. Residents protested and fought to keep their property, including a lawsuit that made it through the federal courts.

50 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

There’s no question that electrification of this rural part of the country sparked dramatic economic growth and provided thousands of good-paying jobs at new chemical and industrial plants. There’s no doubt the region needed reliable river navigation and flood control, especially after the devastation of the catastrophic 1937 flood and other frequent but significant flooding. The lakes drove a wave of development that attracted tourists to the recreational opportunities of boating, fishing and swimming, and paved the way for increased tax revenues that lifted towns, counties and school

districts out of poverty. But there was a price to be paid for progress, and here, some folks paid dearly.

• • •

When Kentucky Lake filled in the 1940s, the former bustling town of Birmingham disappeared beneath its surface. To make way for Lake Barkley, Eddyville and Kuttawa were demolished in the 1960s. Farmhouses along both rivers were knocked down, and fertile bottomlands submerged. By 1970, nearly every Between the Rivers resident had been moved out, and the communities of Golden Pond, Kentucky, and Model and Tharpe, Tennessee, had been razed. In isolation, each project brought significant change, but collectively, the environmental and social impact was enormous.

Displacement occurs for a variety of reasons, usually from external

forces: economic, environmental, political, sometimes personal. My parents decided to leave Appalachia in the 1950s for both economic and personal reasons. After moving to the flatland boomtown of Paducah, they continued to think of the mountains as home, as if they belonged there, and no other place could ever substitute. They never moved back to eastern Kentucky, but I witnessed my parents’ longing for their own lost places.

Regardless of the reason for outmigration or the distance involved, displaced people share a yearning for home that’s almost palpable in conversation and the written word. As their stories and memories are handed down, the collective grief and longing become multigenerational. Now, with the passage of more than a half-century, many of those who once lived in these Kentucky and Tennessee communities have passed. Their sacrifice in the public interest should not be forgotten.

Retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham began writing his autobiography as a way of sharing memories with his children and grandchildren.

Although he’s published several other books about western Kentucky history, Cunningham never intended to publish the memoir. With encouragement from fans of his other books, he recently released I Was Born When I Was Very Young, a recounting of his childhood in Old Eddyville. As a lifelong resident of Lyon County, he acknowledges both the benefits and the heartbreak that came with the relocations.

“We are a haunted people. Like a long-ago first love who broke our heart and yet still lies tender upon the mind, we cannot shake ourselves of Old Eddyville,” Cunningham said.

“The past is the past. But those old ghosts will not go away.”

• • •

Carolyne Sue Bonds grew up in Eddyville and Between the Rivers.

She still works to make sure the U.S. Forest Service, the TVA’s successor in managing LBL, keeps the promises made to former residents, including the commitment to never allow commercial development of LBL and

to sufficiently maintain roads that lead to family cemeteries. She also moderates a Facebook group where former residents and friends share history, genealogy and photographs.

“Over 250 cemeteries, one church, numerous historical sites, and the remnants of homes and communities still exist there. In many ways, like the ghost towns of the Old West, to the outsider it would appear dead,” Bonds said. “But to those of us who still love the area and its rich history, it is still green and thriving in our hearts and memories.”

We can print and publish your book!

• • •

Kentucky has few natural lakes, but many TVA and Corps of Engineers reservoirs dot the landscape. Communities in every part of the state have their stories of drowned towns and lost places, including Lake Cumberland, Dale Hollow, Rough River, Green River, Nolin, and Taylorsville lakes. In the TVA region, major reservoirs include Pickwick, Lanier, Old Hickory, Percy Priest, Norris and Fontana. The history of these projects and our march toward progress are inextricably linked to the sacrifices of those who can never go home again.

During the time I worked on the stories in Drowned Town, I also visited the former site of St. Thomas, Nevada, a history-rich town that was flooded in the 1930s when Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River. After Lake Mead filled, the town remained underwater for decades, out of sight and fading from memory like the Kentucky and Tennessee towns I had researched.

Lake Mead remains the largest reservoir in the U.S., but in recent years, its depth has declined steadily.

Its lowest level ever was reported in June 2021. Scientists say the drop is from increased demand for water, evaporation from warming temperatures, and a prolonged drought in the Southwest. As the lake’s water level has fallen, the town of St. Thomas has reappeared, like a memory that seems irretrievably lost but somehow resurfaces. Ruins of houses and streets and businesses are visible in a section of dry lakebed, perhaps a reminder that those old ghosts don’t go away after all. Q

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 51

By Gary P. West

PRESERVING A PIECE OF

Americana New owners are restoring an icon of the early Automobile Age

W

hen Wigwam Village opened on U.S. 31W at the edge of Cave City in 1937, Americans were just beginning to take to the roads for occasional leisure travel.

The evolution of the modern automobile enabled travelers to venture a bit farther from home. Roads were paved, gas stations opened to meet the increased demand for fuel, and motels began popping up at the edge of heavily used roadways in Kentucky.

One of the biggest draws to Kentucky was Mammoth Cave, which had become a national park in 1926.

In 1935, Frank Redford, who was 36 at the time, built his first wigwam motor court on U.S. 31E, a few miles from Horse Cave and only 5 miles from the village he later constructed in Cave City. They were referred to as Wigwam Village No. 1 and No. 2.

Redford’s concept of building wigwam-themed motels has stood the test of time. With inspiration from a trip to California, where he had seen a cone-shaped restaurant,

Redford set about constructing Wigwam Village No. 1.

While No. 1 boasted six wigwams, Redford expanded to 15 in Cave City. In the second village, an oversized tepee—promoted as “the largest wigwam in the world” and also known as “Bigwam”—served as an office and included a horseshoe-shaped eating counter and a basement gift shop. Three Standard Oil gas pumps stood only a few feet from the highway out front.

Wigwam Village No. 1 was demolished in the early 1980s, but the Cave City location remains standing tall and is in the process of being taken back to yesteryear by its new owners, Keith Stone and Megan Smith.

The two were bursting at the seams to get away from their Louisville home in September 2020. The COVID-19 restrictions had become almost unbearable, and a Labor Day getaway was in order.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 55

“We headed south from Louisville on 31W,” Smith said.

“That in itself was an experience.”

“We both knew Wigwam Village was for sale before we went,” Stone said. “I had been there 12 years ago. The place is wacky and interesting, and next to a great national park.”

Stone has a background in the newspaper business and possesses a master’s degree in architecture. Smith’s interest leans heavily toward historic preservation, so the quirky motel piqued their interest.“There was something about popping over that little rise in the highway and seeing those wigwams that excited us,” Smith recalled.

“We both said this could be something special.”

Their accelerated excitement soon turned into disappointment when they learned an offer had just been accepted to purchase the property.

“We were sad,” Smith said. “This was going to be an opportunity for Keith and me to be creative and have fun doing it. We really wanted to restore a historic landmark.

“Then, we heard it fell out of contract, and we got it and closed on it in November 2020.”

“Preserve and improve” quickly became their motto, with a goal to bring the motor court back to 1937 standards.

“It’s important to us that we keep the original feel while adding the modern touch that travelers expect,” Stone said. “We’ll have flat-screen televisions, USB charging ports and wireless internet.”

Everything from the early decades of Wigwam Village 56 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

will not be resurrected.

Stone pointed out that, before the 1970s, a couple had to prove that they were married before they were permitted to sleep in the same wigwam at Wigwam Village. Smith and Stone do not plan to reinstate that rule.

Owners Megan Smith and Keith Stone

Given the changes of ownership over the years, it’s somewhat amazing that the original furnishings for every tepee have remained intact.

Redford appointed each of his wigwams with the best rustic hickory furniture he could find. He turned to the Columbus Hickory Chair Company in Columbus, Indiana.

He was in good company: The Lodge at Mammoth Cave and several national parks and resorts in the Adirondacks were also on board with the same high-end furnishings.

Almost immediately after closing on the purchase, Stone and Smith set about to get the iconic “Sleep in a Wigwam” sign operational. A $2,500 grant from the Cave City Tourist and Convention Commission enabled the pair to hire Rueff Signs in Louisville to rework the neon and refurbish the landmark sign sitting next to U.S. 31W.

Proud to call Kentucky home.

Creating a Culture of Impact In May, the new owners drew a large turnout from the community when they unveiled the updated sign at a ceremonial party.

“Of the 15 wigwams we have, most are completed with what we want to do inside,” Stone said. “Even before we bought it, people were still coming here and spending the night. This place has such a following. It’s a curiosity. We want to build on that.”

Stone and Smith emphasized they won’t rush things. “We have a one-year goal,” Stone said. “We are going to bring the property up to our standards for convenience and cleanliness. We also want to turn what was once the restaurant into a coffee shop that the community can use and enjoy.”

Frank Redford’s standards attracted entrepreneur and travel guru Duncan Hines, who listed Wigwam Village No. 2 in his 1941 Lodging for a Night guide. A Bowling Green native, Hines got to know Redford, liked his business plan and cutting-edge accommodations, and supplied him with a “Recommended by Duncan Hines” sign. A Hines sign in front of a business at that time meant instant success.

Eventually, Redford franchised the concept he had patented previously.

Soon, wigwams were showing up in other states: No. 3 was in New Orleans; No. 4 in Orlando, Florida; No. 5 in Bessemer, Alabama, near Birmingham; No. 6 in Holbrook, Arizona; and No. 7 in Rialto/San Bernardino, California. Only No. 2, No. 6 and No. 7 remain. All three are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Redford contributed an American roadside icon that few people could drive past without spending the night or at least taking a picture. He died in 1957 at age 58.

At one time, a buyer was interested in purchasing the Cave City wigwams and relocating them to Bowling Green. Thankfully, this never plan never gained traction. The wigwams need to stay where Frank Redford built them. Q

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 57

BY

JACKIE

HOLLENKAMP

BENTLEY

A Spirited Site A historic home in Franklin was a hiding place for Confederate soldiers— and some of them may have never left

N

estled among 300 acres in Franklin is one of the most unique homes in southern Kentucky.

Octagon Hall is just as its name suggests—an eight-sided brick home. It played host to both Confederate and Union armies during the Civil War. It has a rich history of family loss and triumphs.

Oh, and it’s haunted.

“It’s extremely haunted,” said Barry Gaunt, Octagon Hall Museum’s assistant director and a longtime paranormal investigator. “You’ll see all kinds of different things. Shadow figures are known to be roaming all over the property … I’ve seen fullbody apparitions. I think they like it there.”

Bethany Ford, who is part of the Kentucky-based Uncommon in the Commonwealth podcast team with a mission to investigate the paranormal and all things out of the ordinary, visited the house one hot evening in May 2020. She and other

58 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

crew members embarked on the investigation with an open mind, but they left the next day convinced they had experienced something supernatural.

“I generally try not to go in with any expectations … It’ll open you up for bias,” she said. “When we first [went] in the house, we felt a cold breeze, got cold chills. Everybody noticed it.”

Ford said their cameras picked up unexplained shadows, even a fullbody apparition of a Civil War soldier. In their YouTube video of that night, mysterious voices were picked up on special paranormal investigative equipment. “I was actually surprised [because] I didn’t expect it to be as active as it was,” Ford said. “Rooms would be darker than dark, even after our eyes were adjusted.”

• • •

To attempt to understand the source of the paranormal activity,

one must learn the history of Octagon Hall.

Andrew Jackson Caldwell, a mason, built the solid brick structure in 1847. Its back door faces directly west, while the front door faces directly east. Its windows are positioned to see all the countryside.

“There’s a lot of mystique to it.

Plus, the octagon shape is probably one of the most revered shapes for the Masonic lodge,” Gaunt said. “The octagon shape does quite a lot of things as far as deflecting the wind, moving things off it. It also opens to all the breezes … and how the house is positioned gives you a great view.

It wasn’t meant to be a strategic place, but it became very strategic [during the Civil War].”

In 1862, Union forces re-took Bowling Green, sending nearly 10,000 Confederate soldiers on the run, many of them severely injured or near death. Most stopped at Octagon Hall for one night before retreating into Tennessee. Union soldiers soon

IF YOU GO Octagon Hall Museum 6040 Bowling Green Road Franklin, 270.266.1294 octagonhallmuseum.com

arrived and occupied the estate.

However, Caldwell—a known Confederate sympathizer—was able to hide soldiers in various inconspicuous spaces throughout the house, thanks to those windowsturned-lookout posts.

Paranormal investigators believe that the soldiers who died on the property make up a number of the ghosts seen roaming the home’s corridors as well as its grounds. The spirits of the Caldwell slaves also have been known to communicate with visitors.

Another spirit making itself known is believed to be that of Mary Elizabeth Caldwell, the daughter of Andrew Caldwell and his first wife, Elizabeth. Young Mary died in 1951 after her dress caught fire in the basement kitchen. Gaunt said there’s debate over Mary’s age at the time of death. Records indicate she was 7, while ghost hunters report hearing a little girl in the house say, “I’m 11.”

For Ford and her team, that basement kitchen was perhaps the creepiest area of all. “I would not go back down in the basement because you could just feel it down there,”

she said. “It was spooky and creepy, and you felt an overwhelming sense of dread.”

Aside from Mary’s communications, Gaunt said that folks have told him they hear friendly greetings from out of nowhere and even the occasional “get out!”

Like the Uncommon in the Commonwealth group, other visitors have captured unexplained images while taking photos inside and outside the house. “We have over 6,000 images from people who have toured the hall during the day and captured spirit activities in the photographs,” Gaunt said. “Some people bring recorders, and some people bring ghost-related items. We allow that.”

Expert ghost hunters and paranormal investigators conduct extensive research at Octagon Hall throughout the year. Groups from around the world visit, including teams from television outlets such as the Travel Channel, the A&E network, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel.

For the curious, the skeptical, and anyone in between, Octagon Hall

Museum holds its annual Haunted Novice Ghost Hunts. Every Friday and Saturday night in October, seasoned paranormal investigators lead a limited number of people on a tour throughout the house and grounds in search of ghostly activity.

Tickets are $50 each. Gaunt said the hunts are the museum’s biggest income generator of the year, and the money raised goes directly toward keeping Octagon Hall Museum open and operating.

“We’re just a bunch of volunteers, and we don’t get paid for anything,” he said. “We enjoy it. It’s a beautiful home, and we want to continue to have the history out there.”

• • •

In addition to the Haunted Novice Ghost Hunts, the museum is open Wednesdays-Saturdays year-round from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3:30 p.m. A $5 donation gets guests a brief introduction to the home’s history, and then they’re on their own to explore the three-story house and its historical content, primarily antiques from the mid-19th century. Q k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 59

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FALL EVENTS YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS!

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A section for Kentuckians everywhere … inside Kentucky Monthly.

The 1901 Kentucky Derby was the 27th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on April 29, 1901.

K ENTUCKY XPLORER E All About Kentucky

Volume 36, Number 8 – October 2021

Stagecoach was a popular way to travel in the 1800s. Kentucky’s first stagecoach route was created in 1803 and ran from Lexington to Olympian Springs Resort, about 30 miles east, in Bath County. This 1881 photo was taken in front of the stage coach office at Short and Mill streets in Lexington.

Your Letters -- page 62 Collectible Coal Mine Scrip -- page 66 1800s Lodging Options near Mammoth Cave -- page 68

“I Remember” By Our Readers

and More!

Featuring Things Old & New About Kentucky

62

THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Kentucky Explorer a magazine published for Kentuckians everywhere Charles Hayes Jr. • Founder Stephen M. Vest • Publisher Deborah Kohl Kremer • Editor Rebecca Redding • Typographist One-Year Subscription to Kentucky Monthly: $20

FOUNDED 1986, ISSUE 335, VOLUME 36, NO. 8

Letters to Kentucky Explorer Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

What’s Cookin’ October, the month I always associate with Kentucky’s best weather, is here. Along with the fun fall festivals, exciting high school and college football games, and my favorite, Keeneland’s Fall Meet, comes the downside of autumn—all those dried-up, crunchy leaves on the ground. So pretty when they change color and paint the landscape with golds, oranges, reds and yellows, but, darn it, not nearly as lovely after they fall.

As time passes, things often once thought of as worthless become more valuable.

Think about vintage license plates, old matchbooks, ticket stubs and ration stamps. In this issue, read about coal mine scrip, which went from having value in the company store to becoming out of favor in the 1950s and ’60s, to now being a collectible.

Maybe someday there will be a use for all those leaves, and their value will skyrocket? Stock up now with the several million right in my backyard. You can borrow my rake.

Send me your photos and recollections. I would love to share them with our readers. You can reach me at deb@ kentuckymonthly.com or mail items to Kentucky Monthly, Attn: Deb Kremer, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559.

— DEBORAH KOHL KREMER In memory of Donna Jean Hayes, 1948-2019 Kentucky Explorer appears inside each issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine. Subscriptions can be purchased online at shopkentuckymonthly.com or by calling 1.888.329.0053.

“How is it already August?” … I enjoyed Deborah Kohl Kremer’s editor’s note and photos (page 46)! Now, I know where the saying “Best thing since sliced bread” came from!

I was born in Lexington way back in 1950. I remember many things about visiting downtown Lexington as a child with my mother, but what I recall and favor the most was going into a bakery and leaving with an oatmeal-date cookie. I believe the bakery was in downtown Lexington. Regardless, to this day, I don’t make oatmeal-raisin cookies; I make oatmeal-date cookies. You have to use real dates, not the sugar-coated ones in a box. I cut them into large chunks in the cookie dough. They are delicious!

I did can some South Carolina peaches this past summer, as I always get a “hankering” for them come winter, and I can get them here in the summer in North Carolina, being so close to South Carolina. I never tasted a good peach until I came to the Carolinas. None like that in Florida! I was amazed! The juice does drip down your chin!!

The tested and approved roasted garlic tomato soup is also an excellent (pressure-canned) delicacy. Now that is one of the “best things since sliced bread,” if you like garlic! On a chilly, night it warms the cockles of your heart.

My mom made lamb fries on occasion when we lived in Lexington. Dad got them from Critchfield’s Meat Market. I was a kid, so I didn’t know what they were, just that they were good with that milk gravy. To this day, I still like them, but they are not available here. And no one knows what they are down here. Plus, they cringe when they find out what they are—ha ha!

I lived in South Florida when we moved from Kentucky (to my dismay) for 20 years before moving to North Carolina, but my heart will always be in Kentucky.

I am a Kentucky Colonel and a big fan of Jesse Stuart’s writing and poetry. GO BIG BLUE! I love Kentucky—my home state. And I love Kentucky Monthly.

June Lynn Mucci Kannapolis, North Carolina junelynnky@yahoo.com

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. From Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

October 2021 63

Memories of Kentucky

with the Girl Scouts, and the family agreed this would be the best use for the property, as none of the children This month, I received a subscription to Kentucky Monthly would ever move back to Hillsboro. from a close friend of more than 75 years, Jim Beers in The Campbell Mountain property has had many northern Kentucky. I really enjoyed the magazine. Your “I interesting stories dating back to the American Indian Remember” stories brought back many great memories of stone kettles found on the property that the Lexington Herald my days being raised in Kentucky. I have lived in Dallas for newspaper did an article on in 1951, and my history more than 50 years, but I have professor did some research on never lost my Kentucky roots and when I was at UK. The property visit often. Born, raised and had many hardwood trees and always a Kentuckian. several springs, creeks and ponds.

I was born in Dayton It is still a nature lover’s dream.

(Campbell County) on Aug. 1, The property is now owned, 1932, and was delivered at home and lived on, by the Elliott family, by my uncle, Dr. John Herget, who have done a great job of who was also my godparent. My restoring the road, property and parents, Howard and Ruth buildings, and now, it is called Campbell, were the best parents Camp Kaintuck. Hillsboro is still a any child could ever ask for. We small town, and I cherish all the moved to Fort Mitchell (Kenton great memories as a child of our County) when I was 4 and lived many visits there. at 2 East Orchard Road. I went to After the Army and graduation Beechwood School and graduated from UK in 1958, I worked for from the University of Kentucky Marathon Oil Company for 10 in 1958 after a two-year Army duty years, doing well with an tour during the Korean War. I outstanding company, and then Thomas Campbell’s former family property today is was lucky to spend 18 months in spent the rest of my working years the site of Camp Kaintuck.

Salzburg, Austria, and traveled all as an executive and owner in the over Europe. production and custom housing industry. I retired at age My dad was the 12th child of James W. Campbell, a 54, and we have been fortunate to travel all over the Civil War veteran born in Missouri, who lived in Hillsboro world. Also, for 10 years, we did volunteer work with the (Fleming County) his whole adult life until his death in International Executive Service Corps in developing 1925. His first wife, Eliza Jane Myers, had two children countries, and that was extremely rewarding. My hobby, before she died, and his second wife, Adelaide Jane photography, has been interesting and rewarding in “Jennie” Payne—who I remember well—died at our home retirement, as I have photographed many interesting places in Fort Mitchell in 1942. and things.

In 1880, James bought the 211-acre Campbell Mountain Just wanted to let you hear from my family that dates property from his first father-in-law, who owned 1,000 back to 1880. I love Kentucky and the wonderful memories. acres and never left Hillsboro. He was a farmer, handyman Thank you for your stories! and police officer and well respected in the community, where he is buried with his second wife in the Hillsboro Sincerely, Cemetery, which we have visited many times. Last year, I Thomas W. Campbell took my two grandsons from Dallas to give them a Dallas, Texas Kentucky history lesson on the Campbells.

All 12 of the children moved from Hillsboro and had interesting, productive lives in many different places and careers. My dad was always a hard worker and was fortunate to work as a salesman for Valvoline Oil Company/Ashland Oil for more than 30 years prior to his early death at 63.

My mom was born in Crescent Springs (Kenton County) and married at age 16. She was the best mom ever and, again, died way too young at 59. They raised three children in a middle-income family and taught us the best values any child would ever want. Our church was Trinity Episcopal in Covington (Kenton County), where I served as an acolyte growing up.

Please send letters to Editor Deborah Kohl Kremer at The Campbell Mountain property was given to the deb@kentuckymonthly.com or mail to Deb Kremer, Kentucky Girl Scouts in 1955 and used as a Girl Scout Camp for more than 50 years. One of my aunts was active Kentucky Monthly, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602.

Happy 85th birthday to Keeneland Race Course, which opened on Oct. 15, 1936.

4 THE 64 THEKENTUCKY KENTUCKYEXPLORER EXPLORER Send memories to Deborah Kohl Kremer at deb@kentuckymonthly.com or mail to Kentucky Monthly, Attn: Deb Kremer, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602.

“I Remember” Send your memory in today!

Journalist Arthur Krock’s Home in Glasgow

Kentucky Proud

As I was growing up, I always thought famous people were from other communities and never from our local towns. How wrong I was, thank goodness.

Esteemed journalist Arthur Krock grew up at 525 East Main Steet, Glasgow. He had a notable career, and today a historical marker stands in front of his private home.

The historical marker reads: Side 1: Called dean of Washington newsmen, Glasgow’s native son (1886-1974) grew up here with his grandparents, Emmanuel and Henrietta Morris. He began his career in journalism with the Louisville Herald, then went to Washington, D.C., as correspondent for the Louisville Times and the Courier Journal. Krock won French citation after his coverage of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

Side 2: In 1927, Krock joined the New York Times; soon became its Washington correspondent and bureau chief.

His column, “In the Nation,” was noted for its opinions on public policy. Over his 60-year career, Arthur Krock knew 11 presidents and won two Pulitzer Prizes. Joel Cheek, who also lived here, was one of the founders of the Maxwell House Coffee Company.

Ronnie Doyle Park City

By Our Readers

Top, journalist Arthur Krock [Library of Congress photo]; middle, the Krock family home; above, the home’s historical marker [both courtesy of Duane Hall, HMdb.org]

Kentucky, your county of Greenup was my home for the first 10 years of my life. The first breath I took was of your fresh air.

In early spring, you provided us with a variety of tender young greens. These were cooked or made into salads. Sometimes, sassafras root was dug and made into a refreshing tea.

In the summer, your fields were loaded with blackberries, raspberries and other wild fruit to be made into pies, cobblers, jam or jelly. Ginseng and mayapple roots were dug and dried to be sold at a country store. Your cool, clear streams of water provided us with fish and frogs to catch and eat. These same streams were fun places in which to swim and play on hot days.

Your falls were filled with black walnuts, butternuts, hazelnuts and hickory nuts for us to snack on or to make cakes, pies and candy. In your woods were rabbits and squirrels to be hunted for food in hunting season. Fallen trees were cut up to use in the cookstove in fireplaces to help keep us warm.

At Christmastime, our house was decorated with a variety of evergreens found in the woods.

Kentucky, you provided us with many free things that helped us live a better life. Yes, you can say, “I’m Kentucky Proud.”

The land of my birth is so like a magnet drawing its own back with a warm welcome. Remarkably, Kentuckians are made to feel as if they had never been away.

Lois Johnson Wilcox Piqua, Ohio

I’d rather be right than president. Henry Clay, U.S. congressman and three-time candidate for president

October 2021 65

Kentucky Family Farm: A Field of Dreams

By Louis Girten Clarksville, Indiana kymemories50@yahoo.com

alternating flower heads that are red, purple or brown, with a splash of emerald green leaves. As I walk through the barn, I feel as if I am entering a new imaginary world of color. The color is covered by the low, soft morning dew This article is inspired by personal memories of my grandparents’ farm just above the field, with the new sun slowly burning the from the 1950s. My grandparents, Lawrence and Zorado Skees, vapored mist. sold the farm in 1966. The property is located where Pup Creek crosses As the day advances, I see many, many honeybees Ky. Rt. 222, east of I-65—1775 Glendale Hodgenville Road East, Ky. doing their job of retrieving nectar for their hive. The Rt. 222, Glendale. intrusive grasshopper is apparent as well. The locust or grasshopper can be heard before it is seen, chirping its Visiting my family farm in Kentucky always was an mating call in symphony. adventure. When approaching the granary barn in the Walking through the field, I become overwhelmed by early morning, I would see the ephemeral gleaming light of the number of honeybees that are quietly at work, leaving the new day’s sun through the me alone to walk. The opposite side opening. grasshoppers are the largest I From a distance, there is a have seen, even since leaving faint shadow of dust in the air the farm. Catching a from the stored grain. The rays grasshopper and holding it in of light are well defined within my hands, I feel the prickly the dust of the stored grain. barbed legs, and, because of The rays are like fingers its size, I see its mandible enticing me to come nearer and moving and eating freely, nearer. The large drive-through oozing a dark liquid from its entrance seems to frame a mouth. welcoming greeting. There On occasion, I notice a seems to be a quiet, strange rustle of leaves and a burst of beckoning for me to enter. The energy through the near kneeenticement or calling becomes high field of clover. I am more than I can resist. unsure what it may be, but Nearing the barn, I notice from experience, if it is fast the alternating lines of light and and evasive, it is probably a shadow affected by the new sun rabbit, a groundhog or through the gaps between the possibly a fox. If it is near and granary barn’s wood siding. moving slowly, it is more After entering the barn and likely a snake. It really doesn’t approaching the opposite side, I matter; it is an adventure for a immediately become aware of a boy of 13 on my ol’ Kentucky The Skees family granary barn in Glendale field of red clover with family farm.

A follow-up to the “I Remember” – The Coal-Mining Town of Fleming article in the June/July 2021 edition (page 46) The following story was told to me by my grandfather, E.M. Moody.

He was a self-made man who left his boyhood home in Calloway County at age 17 to learn bookkeeping in Bowling Green.

Upon completion of his studies, he went to work as a bookkeeper in 1918 at The Elkhorn Coal Corporation in Fleming.

I worked in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in 1918. Moonshining was a wellestablished business. U.S. revenue officers were trying to locate the stills. While riding along a country road, they saw a small boy hoeing in the field and decided to talk to him. The boy came over to the fence and leaned against it. When they asked him about the stills and moonshining, he only had one answer: “I don’t know.”

One officer became irritated with his answer and said to him, “You don’t know anything, do you? There is not much difference between you and a fool.”

The boy answered him: “No, just a fence.”

Jean Moody Severs jeansevers1961@gmail.com Louisville

Lake Cumberland has 1,255 miles of shoreline.

z 6 THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER 66 THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Coal Mining Scrip: No longer traded at the company store

By Vivian B. Blevins, Ph.D. Piqua, Ohio vbblevins@woh.rr.com

S

teve Cawood, an attorney from Pineville, describes the conditions “up Cloverfork” in Harlan County when coal mines began providing jobs at the turn of the 20th century up to 1920.

As he relates it, most miners had families, but it was rare for them to own automobiles in that part of the county. There were no roads in rural areas, and passenger trains served the mining camps. Railroads were essential as a way to transport the mined coal to markets. There were few banks, and they were at a great distance. There were none “up Cloverfork” in Harlan County.

Miners could not get loans and had no money to deposit in banks if they could manage to get to Harlan, the county seat. Mining companies often provided modest housing, and scrip became the currency for transactions at commissaries—company stores that sold everything from food and clothing to carbide lamps.

Scrip was a line of credit against wages the miner intended to earn.

In the lyrics of the song “Sixteen Tons,” Merle Travis, who was knowledgeable about coal mining from his early years in Muhlenberg County, writes that the narrator in the song has a weak mind and “a back that’s strong” as he laments his work in the mines and his never-ending indebtedness to the company store.

Cawood says that each mining company had its own scrip of various denominations. The value of the coins today depends upon beauty and rarity. Pictorial scrip

featuring locomotives, nature or American Indians is highly desirable. Additionally, dates on scrip enhance value.

A 1968 graduate of the University of Kentucky, Cawood is a past president of the National Scrip Collectors Association. He first became interested in scrip when he was a young boy and traveled with his uncle, Al Smith, head salesman at McComb Supply, to mines and commissaries. “While my uncle sold to the bosses, I bummed small tokens of scrip from the scrip clerks or swapped U.S. currency for a piece of scrip,” he says.

His mother worked briefly in the 1930s as a scrip clerk at the Kentucky Cardinal Coal Company, and he was fascinated with the scrip of that company: bright brass with cardinals.

Cawood also saw the satisfaction his mother received in building collections of United States coins in coin collectors books she bought at dime stores. In the 1950s, she gave Cawood a cigar box of scrip from the company where she had worked.

The scrip machines (Osborne Register Company and IngleSchierloh Company), which Cawood’s mother and other scrip clerks used to conduct business with cardboard punch cards, were custom made for those Cincinnati-area companies by the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio.

As Cawood’s legal practice flourished, the claimants with whom he worked, many with black lung and workers’ compensation cases, gave him scrip, as they knew he valued and collected it.

Cawood’s scrip is stored in a bank vault. “It’s the first metal coal scrip issued in America, and it’s

You’re either in it for the long haul or you’re not. Crystal Gayle, singer from Paintsville

October 2021 67

from The Pine Hill Coal Company in Rockcastle County,” he says of his most valuable scrip. “It is brass, and I have five pieces. One piece is dated 1871, and another is dated 1875. The engraver was J.F. Dorman of Baltimore, and pieces of the scrip feature a seated Lady Liberty, an eagle and a Liberty head. The company mined coal for locomotives, so that the L&N Railroad could complete its route from Cincinnati to Corbin.

That coal company was short-lived, and the scrip is valued at approximately $500 a token.”

Then there is the scrip Cawood owns to which he U.S. Coal & Coke Company, Lynch, Harlan County, 1946 is most emotionally attached. “That scrip is directly tied to my family,” he says.

“My paternal grandfather, Steve Cawood, opened the first mine on Martin’s Fork in 1914, the Lena Rue Coal Company [in operation from 1914 to the late 1920s], named in honor of his sister. He died of a stroke when my dad was 11, so I never knew him.

After his death, the company was sold to Southern Coal and Coke of Knoxville, Tennessee.”

Current or former older homes in coal-mining areas in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia or Kentucky might still be sources of pieces of scrip, often placed in drawers of sewing machines, old cigar boxes, or kitchen cabinets.

Edkins Catalogue of Coal Mining Scrip, Fourth Edition, provides some information about the source of scrip as a starting point for further research. (West Virginia had so many mining companies that it has its own volume, Vol. 2). These hefty books are part of special collections, but librarians often will send a few pages via email to interested parties who must supply the name of the state and the name of the town. Both are About the Author generally embossed on the scrip.

A past president of Southeast Kentucky Community College in Cumberland, A version of this story first appeared in the Kentucky, Dr. Vivian Blevins spent her Greenville, Ohio, Daily Advocate & Early childhood in Cumberland. Her father worked Bird News. for the coal mines at United States Steel in

Lynch until mechanization forced him to relocate the family to Toledo, Ohio. Blevins is proud to say that she has been president or chancellor of colleges, as Janis Joplin sang, “from the Kentucky coal mines to the California sun.”

Mammoth Cave is home to an indigenous species of blind shrimp, the Kentucky cave shrimp.

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THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Three Forks: An Early Travelers Link to Mammoth Cave Lodging options were limited in the 1800s

By Bob Thompson Mason, Ohio

L

ong before the establishment of Mammoth Cave National Park, the town of Three Forks—later Glasgow Junction and now Park City—became a major departure point for visitors traveling to the famous cave. The community developed around the Louisville & Nashville Turnpike, the Mammoth Cave Stagecoach Road, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the Mammoth Cave Railroad. This historic town was once known worldwide for the famous Bell’s Tavern and other hotels that offered fine accommodations for visitors to Mammoth Cave.

Early roads to the cave region were built on parts of what was known as the Cumberland Trace, a buffalo path.

By the 1800s, stagecoaches on the L&N Turnpike (now Dixie Highway or 31W) provided the first transportation to Three Forks until the completion of the L&N Railroad in 1859. Stagecoaches also were used to transport early visitors to Mammoth Cave from Three Forks.

In 1856, local businessman George Procter made plans to help finance an important spur of the L&N railroad to nearby Glasgow. It was completed in 1870. In Jim Hayden of Glasgow Junction in the 1880s with the “hack” or passenger wagon he drove on the dirt road to Mammoth Cave (from the Richard Hobart Collection)

1886, an 8.7-mile spur was built to take visitors to nearby Mammoth Cave, a destination for travelers to Kentucky since the first cave tours began in 1816.

Lodging was limited near the cave until the building of the Mammoth Cave Hotel in the 1840s. Early travelers usually had to rely on staying in private residences or at small inns that were situated along the L&N Turnpike.

Two of these establishments, the Munford Inn at Munfordville and Bell’s Tavern at Three Forks, were the primary stops for visitors traveling to and from Mammoth Cave.

Bell’s Tavern served as a tavern and inn for early travelers to Mammoth Cave from the 1820s up until the Civil War. The wood-and-brick tavern at Three Forks was famous for its generous hospitality and its peach and honey brandy. The tavern came to be a favorite meeting place for leading Kentucky politicians of the day, including Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Aaron Harding and Judge John Rowan, who owned the mansion now known as My Old Kentucky Home. All were frequent guests of the tavern. Historic figures such as Jenny Lind, Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson also paid a visit to the tavern on their trips to Mammoth Cave.

William Bell, his son Robert and daughter-in-law Maria Gorin Bell operated the tavern. After Robert’s death, Maria married George Procter, and they ran the tavern until it was destroyed by fire on Aug. 17, 1860.

At the same time of the reconstruction of a new “stone” tavern on the site of the original, a hasty temporary building, the Glasgow Junction Hotel, was opened around September 1860, but it did not meet the needs at the time.

This building was destroyed by fire in December 1870.

After the Civil War, when enslaved people were freed, any attempt of finishing the reconstruction of the stone tavern was much more difficult and expensive. Therefore, the tavern was not rebuilt. Ruins of the stone structure still can be seen today.

Around 1863, Three Forks became Glasgow Junction.

The L&N Depot served as the junction between the mainline at Three Forks and the two spurs that ran to the city of Glasgow and to Mammoth Cave.

• • •

Bell’s Tavern, 1850s (photo courtesy of Daryll Skaggs)

The Mentz Hotel also was a popular early establishment in Glasgow Junction for travelers to Mammoth Cave. Over the years, there were two Mentz Hotels. The first was built sometime after 1877-78 and burned to the ground in 1904.

The second opened in 1905 and still stands today.

George Procter sold Edward H. Mentz a plot of land next to the ruins of Bell’s Tavern around 1877-78. The first Mentz Hotel was built soon after and was in operation by 1879-80. Mentz first called his hotel the Mammoth Cave

Fayette, established in 1780, is Kentucky’s oldest county.

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October 2021 69

Junction Hotel in the 1880s. At some point, he changed the name to the Mentz Hotel.

The two-story “Mentz House” was constructed of wood. Much of the foundation of the hotel was quarried from the ruins of the old Bell’s Tavern. Over the years, an addition was constructed to enlarge the wood structure. Mentz was the general manager of the Mammoth Cave Railroad in 1897 and used the hotel as an office. The hotel was Mammoth Cave “Dinky” Train at Glasgow Junction, 1916 destroyed by fire on Dec. 28, 1904.

In May 1905, a new hotel was started

by Mentz on the site of the old one. It opened in September 1905, eight months after the first one had burned down. The hotel, made of brick, was built by Charles H. Smith of Bowling Green. Mentz operated the Mentz Hotel until his death on June 6, 1909.

Members of the Mentz family, along with others, ran the hotel until it was sold in 1920.

The hotel continued to be known as the Mentz until it was sold to Mrs. The first Mentz Hotel, 1890s (from the Susanne Mundok Collection) O.H. Fishback in 1920, and the name was changed to the Glasgow and Mammoth Cave Junction Hotel, also known as the Fishback Hotel. Fishback operated the hotel until she died in 1939.

The hotel was sold at auction in 1940. Over the years, the building also served as the home of the Baulch Junior School for Boys from 1946 to ’52, a nursing home from 1955 to ’66, and a private residence. Today, it is a bed and breakfast.

• • •

In 1915, the Preston Hotel, an African Americanowned hotel, opened in Glasgow Junction that operated until sometime in the 1940s. Fannie Coats Preston, the wife of Benton Preston, ran the hotel as a summer resort. The hotel was advertised in an Indianapolis newspaper, where Fannie’s daughter, Ella, lived and worked, and in the The Negro Motorist Green-Book of 1940.

The Prestons were wealthy and owned about 500 acres, most of which is now part of Park Mammoth Resort, including the caves on the property.

Today, Mammoth Cave is still the main draw for tourists coming to the cave region, but over the years, there were other caves in the area that have drawn the attention of those who wanted to explore more. Hundred Dome Cave, Jesse James Cave, Grand Avenue Cavern, Procter Cave and Indian Cave were just a few that opened

The second Mentz Hotel, 1918

around the 1890s, but all have since closed. Diamond Caverns, discovered in 1859 and once owned by George Procter, is one of the oldest show caves in the area. It is still open today.

In 1938, Glasgow Junction became Park City to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Glasgow. Today, Park City still serves as a gateway for visitors to Mammoth Cave National Park.

In 1778, Shawnee Chief Blackfish gave Daniel Boone the name Sheltowee, which means Big Turtle.

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THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Lockport Humanitarians Ira and Mary Wallace Missionaries and founders of the Kentucky Nursing Home Association dedicated their lives to service A personal narrative by Diane Sears of Lexington, as told to Danielle Horn, a senior at Eastern Kentucky University majoring in English education.

disadvantaged communities instead. He began to evaluate low-income areas and their access to proper medical care and determined there was a problem.

In 1936, the Wallaces started the Rest Harbor Rural Association in Lockport, an organization that offered free fter I was born in 1941, I lived in Lockport (Henry first aid to citizens in rural parts of Kentucky. The couple County) with family friends Ira and Mary Wallace, also founded lending or, as I called libraries and sponsored them, Mama and Daddy the Lee Frasure Wallace, for the first Memorial Children’s four years of my life.

Home in McDowell During that time, I before building never heard from my Lockport’s Rest Harbor birth father, but I Sanitarium in 1947. The understood that my Rest Harbor Sanitarium mother worked nights was a nursing home on in Shelbyville (Shelby the site of the former County) which was an Estes Hotel. I spent a lot hour away from our of time with the community and too far Wallaces there. for her to visit me often.

When it was I would end up staying finished, Rest Harbor with the Wallaces for Sanitarium stood two four consecutive years stories tall, with rails on as well as several the second-floor balcony summers. My mother to protect patients. would return to visit, Since it was on the bank and it would be difficult of the Kentucky River, it to forgive her for flooded often. During leaving, but I eventually floods, we evacuated would feel grateful. into boats, and After all, her absence sometimes, the gave me the opportunity Wallaces’ son-in-law to grow to love my fished from the same other family, too. docks. After that, we Before I moved in A 1925 photo of Ira Otto Wallace (1898 -1964) and Mary Stivers Wallace always held big with the Wallaces, they (1896-1981) (photo courtesy of Stephen Taylor Hall and Encyclopedia of communal fish fries, were missionaries. Their Seventh Day Adventists) which I enjoyed. Even last mission trip was at that young age, I to-China, where they admired the Wallaces because I saw how they persevered planned to build mission compounds outside several of no matter what. the country’s historic capitals. When they came back to Despite their status, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace also were the States in 1929, Madison College wanted Mr. Wallace the first people I called Mom and Dad. I knew them as to take a job teaching psychology of salesmanship for devout, hard-working Christian people. The Wallaces did them, but he wanted to continue his work with

A

Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real. Thomas Merton

October 2021 71

not drink alcohol or use any tobacco products. They rationed their food to avoid gluttony. They also did not use obscene language under any circumstances. Above all, they raised their children the way God wanted, so they insisted that we go to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Pewee Valley on Saturdays. Then on Sundays, we went to the Methodist church, which was just down the street from where we lived.

Over time, I became a friend of the minister at the Methodist church. He had what was called a “three-point charge,” meaning that he took over several churches after he became a minister. Later, he became the minister at Epworth Methodist in Lexington, where I went to church as an adult. I was happy to have him in my life again, since he had known me for most of it. That friendship was just another thing that the Wallaces gave me.

When I was 4, I moved to Lexington with my mother with the stipulation that I could visit the Wallaces in the summers, which was the best time to be in Lockport.

There were outdoor movies, where the townspeople set up a big screen that was open to the public so everyone could watch, and we bought our penny candy from the old-fashioned stores instead of popcorn. Then there was a vacation Bible school parade with the Methodist church on one side of the street and the Baptist church on the other. They were fun vacations, but I missed living with the Wallaces full time.

Even after I left Lockport for good, I stayed close with the Wallaces for the rest of their lives. Mr. Wallace died in 1964 while I was stationed in Germany with my husband, so I didn’t get to go to the funeral, but the family was kind enough to send a picture. When Mrs. Wallace got sick, her children let me know, so that my 1-year-old, MaryAnn, and I could travel to their home in Newcastle and sit with the family. I liked having MaryAnn there because Mrs. Wallace always believed I named her after her, so it was like a part of her was still with me.

If I had to choose my fondest memory with the Wallaces, it would have to be when the Kentucky Nursing Home Association gave Mr. Wallace an award for his work. After he founded the association in 1953, he served as president from 1957-59. For this recognition, he spoke at Lexington’s Phoenix Hotel, and I had the honor of attending. The association recognized how Rest Harbor Sanitarium met well-care codes that many other hospitals did not. The organization took in people who were bedridden, and Mr. Wallace protected them by putting together a committee and changing the rules and regulations for other nursing homes. I was so proud of him, especially since he was my family. At least, that was how I saw him.

About Diane Sears Sears was born in 1941 in Stanford (Lincoln County).

Over the course of her life so far, she has accomplished many wonderful things. One of her proudest moments was when she enlisted in the United States Army in 1962

and traveled to Germany. She is also proud of her marriage to her late husband, Samuel Sears, a union that lasted more than 32 years before he passed away. Diane and Sam had four children: MaryAnn, Jean, Joyce and James, as well as eight grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren.

Diane has been at the Ashland Terrace Senior Living Facility for seven years. She chose to write her personal narrative about Ira and Mary Wallace to celebrate Mr. Wallace’s success as the founder and president of the Kentucky Nursing Home Association and to honor their memories as her first Mama and Daddy.

Diane Sears Reach 120,000 readers with classified advertising available in Kentucky Explorer. Classified ads $50 per issue (up to 25 words).

Contact Deborah Kohl Kremer at deb@kentuckymonthly.com

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Advertising signs. Handmade quilts. Marbles. Jars. Much much more. Complete and partial estates. Call Clarence, buyer for more than 30 years, at 606.531.0467.

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Mt. Sterling Court Days, Kentucky’s oldest festival, has been around since 1794. This year, it is Oct. 15-18.

off the shelf

Difficult Return It might be understandable that growing up in a family where a combination of fighting, drugs and alcohol was the order of the day might make one escape to a distant town as an adult. For Amelia, who also lost her sister and best friend to an accident for which she unjustifiably took responsibility, the escape helped for a while.

Then, the news of her mother’s death under unusual circumstances brings her back home to the origin of her pathos, a reckoning with secrets held long and deeply within her soul. All the while, Amelia wrestles with an unnerving psychic ability.

G.L. Blackhouse’s debut novel, Butterfly Secrets, is both a penetrating interior study and a work of intense character development— with some good experiences, some bad experiences, and all unforgettable. One of those characters is her deceased grandmother, who messages Amelia from the grave. Her teenage crush, Jackson, holds the key to mitigating her haunting nightmares and emotional demons, but will she keep pushing him away to protect her fragile ego?

Blackhouse, who lives in eastern Kentucky, has worked in the fields of mental health and substance abuse prevention.

By Steve Flairty Butterfly Secrets, By G.L Blackhouse, House of Glamourgan LLC Publishing, $24.99 (P)

(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback

Family Friendly Put together by the University of Kentucky’s Cooperative Extension Service, this book is a wonderful tool for the adults in a household to encourage mealtimes to be quality family time—including the food preparation. Whether it is an on-the-go morning meal or an everyone-seated-around-the table suppertime, the book provides tips for families to come together to prep and eat.

Beginning with the basics, Cook Together, Eat Together shows how to get children involved in the action.

There is always something they can help with. When children help prepare the meals, they may begin eating better by learning about good nutrition along the way. There is also an emphasis on budgetfriendly and low-stress recipes.

Included are conversation starters to make the most of time spent together.

Cook Together, Eat Together features information on label reading, smart shopping, budgeting and basic cooking skills. The book would be a great asset for beginning cooks and for developing good habits in children.

By Kay Vest Cook Together, Eat Together, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University Press of Kentucky, $17.95 (H)

After-Hours Education The Moonlight School is an engaging account of the life of Cora Wilson Stewart, the first female school superintendent in Rowan County, who later became the first female president of the Kentucky Education Association. But Stewart will forever be best known as the person who, in 1911, established the “Moonlight Schools” in rural schoolhouses across the county, an initiative to eradicate the problem of rampant illiteracy among adults.

More than 1,200 adults reportedly participated in the Moonlight School classes, taught by volunteers. In two of those sixweek sessions, students generally gained the ability to sign a document, perform basic math, write simple letters, and read a few Bible verses. The largely successful effort spawned similar schools across America and brought Stewart national recognition.

Author Suzanne Woods Fisher approaches her account of the classes through the point of view of Stewart’s cousin, Lucy Wilson, who departs her life of relative ease in Lexington for a six-month stint in Appalachian Rowan County to work for Stewart. While staying true to the facts of the emergence of expanded adult literacy in 1911, Fisher crafts a rich story of culture bridging, noble works and perseverance that illuminates a special time in Kentucky’s history.

By Steve Flairty The Moonlight School, by Suzanne Woods Fisher, Revell, $15.99 (P)

72 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

BOOKENDS Gurney Norman, 2009-2010 Kentucky Poet Laureate, is the author of Allegiance: Stories, which was released in August. An autobiographical collection of short fiction, Allegiance contains anecdotes that precisely capture an episode. The stories range from the gently humorous and laugh-out-loud funny to the disturbing or sad.

Norman, a 2019 inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame who lives in Lexington, has taught English for decades at the University of Kentucky, and is well known as a champion of Appalachian literature.

Published by Old Cove Press, the hardback retails for $26.95.

• • •

Bernard Clay’s debut poetry collection, English Lit: Poems, also was released in August.

A Louisville native, Clay writes of coming of age during the 1980s-90s as an African American youth in the River City. Following high school, he attended the University of Kentucky, where he studied under 2013-14 Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker and was influenced by Affrilachian literature.

Published by Swallow Press, the paperback edition of English Lit: Poems retails for $18.95.

• • •

The work of one of Kentucky’s best-known contemporary writers, Silas House, is the focus of Silas House: Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work, edited by Sylvia Shurbutt with a foreword by Denise Giardina. The book addresses different aspects of House’s work, including how he deconstructs regional stereotypes, explores diversity issues, promotes environmental activism, and approaches LGBTQ issues.

Published by the University Press of Kentucky, the hardback retails for $32.95.

Heart to Heart Publishing, Inc. presents a new title

...nostalgic, adventurous and heartwarming as a Mark Twain classic. It’s the kind of story that we need right now, honestly.

RACHEL ANNE HEMSLEY Hollywood producer and auther of Emma of Winds

W W W. LY N N L E I G H A U T H O R . C O M k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 73

past tense/present tense

by Bill Ellis

History: Lost and Found

F

rom the studies I have seen, the average American knows little about history, even that of their own state. Quite often, what they think they know is not true, or at least, they do not know the full story. Whose fault is that? Their parents and families? Their history teachers? The schools and other institutions? The media?

Perhaps it is a combination of all these things. There have even been attempts to hide historical events from citizens. Many Americans do not know or choose not to know the full history of the Holocaust, where, in a few brief years during World War II, Nazi perpetrators coldbloodedly murdered more than 6 million Jews as well as other people. Stalinist Russia killed at least that many or more and allowed millions to starve.

Have Americans ever committed atrocities, incidents that we would like to forget? Many of us Americans of European ancestry forget that Native Americans inhabited these lands long before we arrived. We non-indigenous Americans must own up to our ancestors’ actions.

Pay attention to history, read the right books, watch the documentaries, be skeptical of what you see on the internet, know from whom you are getting information.

Long overdue is the real story of slavery in the United States. If you thought slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation or the 13th Amendment, you may have missed the significance of the U.S. finally adopting a national holiday commemorating Juneteenth—June 19, 1865. On that date, Gen. Gordon Granger led Union troops onto the shores of Galveston, Texas, to announce that all slaves were free and had been since the Emancipation Proclamation or at least since the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. The 13th Amendment was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865. Amazingly, there is some evidence that slavery in some areas of Kentucky lasted into the latter months of 1865.

• • •

Growing up in Shelbyville, I attended segregated schools. The courthouse had segregated restrooms. The town had segregated housing areas. The movie theaters had balconies for African Americans. The only time I came in direct contact with Black people was when they visited my father’s welding shop.

That changed in 1962, when I went to teach and coach at Harrodsburg High School. I coached an integrated football team and had Black kids in my classrooms. After three years there, I got a master’s degree in history at Eastern Kentucky University. I taught three years at Lees Junior College in Jackson in the late 1960s. There was a racially motivated shooting incident there in my last year.

In 1970, I returned to EKU, where I taught for 29 years.

In teaching American history classes, I thought I was

74 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY O CTO BER 2021

placing needed emphasis on Native American and African-American history. Perhaps not enough.

Moreover, I thought I had taught enough in my history classes about the failure of other countries to recognize the sanctity of human life. For example, Nazism, fascism and communism in their most extreme forms arose in apparently well-educated Christian nations. Perhaps I did not emphasize enough the frailties of such nations.

• • •

Since the end of World War II, Germany has struggled with facing its past. As is true perhaps only in the German language, there is a term, Vergangenheitsbewältigung, which translates to “dealing with the past” or “working off the past,” by which the people of Germany would come to understand what occurred in their country from the early 1930s to the immediate post-war period.

In the U.S., we often have swept shameful examples of heartlessness under the rug. Nearly everyone now recognizes that the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was a mistake, as most of those individuals were loyal citizens. Young Japanese Americans fought valiantly for the U.S. in the war.

Only in recent months has press coverage emphasized a terrible racial incident in the early 1920s. You have lately become more aware of the pillaging of a 35-block section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning on June 1, 1921. Known as “America’s Black Wall Street,” the area was home to 1,200 houses and businesses, which were destroyed, with a death toll of around 300. It began with allegations of a Black man assaulting a white woman. Black World War I veterans fought back but were overwhelmed by forces using machine guns and airplanes dropping incendiaries.

• • •

I admit that I have been negligent in my teaching of American history and even in my research and writing.

The emergence of Critical Race Theory is still roiling the newspapers and legislative and school board meetings as I write this column. As I understand, this is not anything new nor revolutionary. However, it has touched off controversy that probably will continue for years.

We Kentuckians have failed to face up to many of our problems. I know that we all tear up when we sing “My Old Kentucky Home,” and who doesn’t like the taste of Kentucky bourbon, spoonbread, soup beans and cornbread?

Many of us in Kentucky are not healthy or make the wrong choices. I have read that we have “the highest rate of cancer deaths in the nation, the second-highest rate of child abuse and neglect, and the fifth-highest rate of overdose deaths” (Lexington Herald-Leader, June 4, 2021).

If you face the facts, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Can you accept that slaveowners were mistaken in

their beliefs of racial superiority? There are still Americans who believe in racial superiority. Have you ever held ideas about which you were later ashamed or at least had to admit you were mistaken? I have. I lived a blissful life of ignorance until I moved to Harrodsburg in 1962.

What can you do? First, read accounts of slavery. The two volumes by Marion B. Lucas and George C. Wright, A History of Blacks in Kentucky, are great places to start.

More particularly, read about lynching and understand that this practice was extralegal—criminal would be a better word. I am proud that my old hometown, Shelbyville, is doing just that: recognizing the faults of the past. Sanda Jones, the first Black president of the Shelby County Historical Society, and others in the community are leading the way in educating residents and visitors by installing markers to remember lynching victims.

Jack Brammer, who lives in Shelbyville, wrote an insightful story on April 9 in the Lexington Herald-Leader about the placing of three historical markers commemorating the deaths. Janice Harris, president of the local NAACP chapter; Doug Welch, a local farmer; and Rev. Doug Charlton were pictured standing before the railroad trestle where three Black inmates were taken from the jail and lynched. As a kid living on nearby Snow Hill, I walked over that bridge dozens of times, fished and waded in the creek, but I never knew the brutal history of that place.

Between 1877 and 1934, 186 African Americans were lynched in the Commonwealth. Another book that might be of interest to thoughtful Kentuckians is Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940 by Amy Louise Wood.

• • •

Something else worries old Historian Bill.

A few days after the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, it was revealed that this was the result of domestic terrorism. In one of my typical American history survey classes at the time, I allowed students to discuss current events. One day, a few students remarked about the senseless killing of 168 Americans, including children in a daycare center. Do you recall the photo of a fireman carrying a child in his arms?

A young man in the back of the room raised his hand.

“Sometimes these things are necessary,” he said. All the other students immediately turned toward him. He did not follow up his statement, and the class grew silent. I went on to another topic of the day. Thankfully, the young man withdrew from the class a few days later.

Germany’s anti-extremist movement of ideas and education has not been entirely successful, as neo-Nazism has risen again in that country. Indeed, there is evidence that a “shadow army” of right-wing extremists is growing in Germany.

Could such things happen in this country? Democracy is a fragile institution.

Readers may contact Bill Ellis at editor@kentuckymonthly.com

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 75

field notes

by Gary Garth

Where the Trout Are

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water, regardless of its condition … or survival status. If it comes to hand dead or dying from being foul hooked or other causes, it still goes back.

“Yes, the trout would need to go be released back into the water,” said Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources spokesman Kevin Kelly. “There are many different organisms that will benefit from that fish. So, while the angler can’t take it home, it will not go to waste.”

Seasonal catchand-release streams are typically stocked in early October for the delayed-harvest season. Some receive additional trout during the winter.

The following Kentucky waters are managed as catchand-release trout fisheries from Oct. 1 through March 30.

The exception is Swift Camp Creek, which is catch-andrelease from Oct. 1 through May 31.

Gary Garth photo

K

entucky is home to some surprisingly good trout fishing, particularly as fall leans toward winter.

The Cumberland River tailwater, from below Wolf Creek Dam to the Tennessee state line, harbors the state’s most productive trout habitat because it has the advantage of holding about 75 miles of cold, nutrient-rich, relatively clean water. And while the tailwater does have some naturally reproducing trout, it receives regular and aggressive stockings. It’s loaded with trout.

The Cumberland Rainbow trout, East Fork Indian Creek also grows big trout. Kentucky’s current state trout records, which include brook (3.65 pounds), brown (21 pounds), lake (5 pounds, 5 ounces) and rainbow (14 pounds, 6 ounces), all came from the Cumberland tailwater.

The Cumberland is also a power-generating tailwater release fishery, which means that, if one or more generators are running, you’ll need a boat and the skill to operate it to have access to more than a sliver of water.

The Corps of Engineers controls the Cumberland water release schedule, and the needs of fishermen are low on the Corps’ priority list. You can check the generation schedule at tva.com/environment/lake-levels/wolf-creek.

There are many other fall trout fishing options, including 14 creeks where water flows are generally predictable, and some of the year’s best trout action typically stretches from October through March. That’s because these streams—locations for which range from the Lake Barkley drainage to metro Jefferson County to some remote folds in the eastern Kentucky mountains—are managed as catch-and-release or “delayed-harvest” trout waters through March. (There is one exception, where catch-and-release regulations extend to May 31.) They generally don’t get as much angling pressure as many of the state’s catch-and-keep trout waters.

The delayed-harvest regulations are surprisingly simple: Fishermen are limited to artificial bait, and all trout must be released. If you foul hook a fish, it goes back into the

Bark Camp Creek, Whitley County, 3.9 miles Beaver Creek, Wayne County, from the Ky. Rt. 90 bridge upstream to the Ky. Hwy. 200 bridge, 2.8 miles Big Boone Creek, Boone County, within Big Bone Lick State Park, 2.1 miles Cane Creek, Laurel County, 6.6 miles Casey Creek, Trigg County, 3.6 miles Clear Creek, Bell County, from the Ky. Rt. 190 bridge downstream to the mouth, 4.5 miles East Fork Indian Creek, Menifee County, 5.3 miles Elk Spring Creek, Wayne County, 2.8 miles Floyds Fork, Jefferson County, from U.S. 60 downstream to U.S. 150, 20 miles. Much of the catch-and-release section of Floyds Fork flows within The Parklands of Floyds Fork (theparklands.org).

Gunpowder Creek, Boone County, 1.5 miles

Otter Creek, Meade County, within Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area and the Fort Knox Military Reservation, 9.7 miles. Daily entry fee is required at the Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area.

Rock Creek, McCreary County, from the Bell Farm bridge upstream to the Tennessee state line, 9.8 miles Swift Camp Creek, Wolfe County, within the Clifty Wilderness Area, 8 miles Trammel Fork, Allen County, upstream from the mouth of Little Trammel Creek, 4.4 miles Most of these waters receive multiple trout stockings during the spring and early summer.

While only artificial baits are permitted during the delayed harvest, and all trout must be released immediately, fishery officials would likely not begrudge an angler taking a photo or two of his or her catch prior to release.

Unless the angler is license exempt, a fishing license is required. A trout permit is not required to fish for trout during the catch-and-release season on designated delayed-harvest waters, since anglers do not keep the fish.

For more information, visit fw.ky.gov.

• • •

As water temperatures cool, several warm-water tailrace waters are scheduled to receive trout in October and/or November. These include Buckhorn, Carr Creek, Dewey, Fishtrap, Grayson, Herrington (November only), Laurel River, Martins Fork, Nolin, Paintsville and Taylorsville (November only). For details, see fw.ky.gov/FishBoatGuide/ Pages/Trout-Waters.aspx#1.

Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com

STATEMENT OF OWENERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION: 1) Publication Title: Kentucky Monthly, 2) Publication No.: 1542-0507, 3) Filing Date: Oct. 1, 2021, 4) Issue Frequency: 10-times, 5) No. of Issues Published Annually: 10, 6) Annual Subscription Price: $20, 7-8) Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication & Address of Headquarters: 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601-8489, 9) Full Name & Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor & Managing Editor: Stephen M. Vest, PO Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559, 10) Owner: Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601-8489. Shareholders owning at least 1%: Barbara K. & Stephen M. Vest, 1001 Silver Creek Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601; Michael & Mary Embry, 152 Skyview Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601; Thomas Hall, 661 Berry Lane, Lexington, KY 40502; Marie Shake, 2165 Cypress Landing Drive, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233; Mary Jo Ratliff, PO Box 1347, Pikeville, KY 41502; Jack E. Dixon, 6114 Franklin Villa Way, Indianapolis, IN 46237; Robert Hawkins, 1140 Rostevor Circle, Louisville, KY 40205; Barry Royalty, 4325 Cloverleaf Drive, Louisville, KY 40216; Thomas H. & Judy Harris, 1713 Parkridge Parkway, Louisville, KY 40216; Gregory Carnes, 4106 Montalto Court, Louisville, KY 40299; Ted Sloan, 1067 Macland Street, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342; Walter B. Norris, 418 Northridge Drive, Lexington, KY 40505; Kendall C. Shelton, 204 Denison Way, Frankfort, KY 40601; Barbara Ann & Pete Chiericozzi, 7114 Topsail Court, Tega Cay, SC 29708; Michelle Jenson McDonnell, 10706 Norman Avenue, Fairfax, VA 22030; 11) Known Bondholders, Mortgagees & Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: First Federal, 216 West Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601, 12) For completion by nonprofit organizations or other securities: not applicable, 13) Publication Title: Kentucky Monthly, 14) Issue Date for Circulation Data: October 2021, 15A) Total No. of Copies. Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 30,186. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 30,051, 15B) 1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541.

Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 22,709. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 24,255. 2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3578: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers & Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales & Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 15C) Total Paid Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 22,709.

No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 30,051. 15D) 1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0.

No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 5,196. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 2,500. 4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 1,126. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 2,451. 15E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 6,322. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 4,951. 15F) Total Distribution: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 29,031.

No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 29,206. 15G) Copies Not Distributed: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 1,155.

No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 845 15H) Total: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 30,186. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 30,051. 15I) Percent Paid: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 78.22%. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 83.04%. 16A) Paid Electronic Copies: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 0. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 0. 16B) Total Paid Print Copies + Paid Electronic Copies: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 22,709. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 24,255. 16C) Total Print Distribution + Paid Electronic Copies: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 22,709. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 24,255.

16D) Percent Paid: Avg. No. of Copies Each Issue during Preceding 12 Mos.: 78.22%. No. of Single Issues Published Nearest to Filing Date: 83.04%. I certify that statements made above are correct & complete. Stephen M. Vest, Publisher & Editor.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m

77

gardening

by Walt Reichert

Plant ‘Triple-duty’ Trees

I

’ll keep saying it until nurseries, homeowners and garden centers finally pay attention: Fall is the best time to plant trees.

And as I’ve also said 100,000 times: Don’t plant just any tree, anywhere. Plant the tree that fits the space, the soil and the site, and that looks good where you put it.

I’m a big fan of big trees. Homeowners, city arborists and parks officials should plant them wherever there is room. But for most homeowners, especially those in cities and suburbs, smaller trees make more sense. They are less likely than big trees to grow into power lines, come crashing down on rooftops and automobiles, or obscure the view from windows.

Since any tree, even a small one, is a big investment in time as well as funds, it makes sense while you’re browsing the (sometimes sadly depleted) tree selections at your local garden center to choose trees that can do what I call “triple-duty.” That is, trees that can perform three or more functions in your landscape. Trees that have a combination of flowering, showy fall color, and interesting bark pattern; are tolerant of difficult planting situations (too wet, too dry, too much shade, etc.); and benefit wildlife or a emit pleasing fragrance. Yes, some trees smell good!

Here is a list of trees, most of them small to mediumsize, that can do triple-duty or better in your landscape.

REDBUD (Cercis) — This native tree packs a punch in the landscape. It is one of the easiest (desirable) trees to grow because it tolerates dry sites yet will grow in heavy clay soils. Its blooms in the spring range from deep pink to white. Several cultivars—including ‘Forest Pansy,’ ‘Rising Sun’ and ‘Alley Cat’—have spectacular foliage color. Birds enjoy eating the seed pods in the winter. It’s an all-around great small tree that ought to be in everyone’s yard.

DOGWOOD (Cornus florida and kousa) — Also native, the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is not the easiest tree to establish, but if you do, it is probably the most versatile of small trees. It blooms white to pink to red in the spring, has beautiful burgundy fall color, has bark that looks like stacks of Lego blocks, and produces berries that are enjoyed by birds and squirrels. Try planting a dogwood where drainage is excellent and it is shaded in the afternoon, and you have a better shot at getting it going.

There are dozens of cultivars, with ‘Appalachian Spring’ a good choice.

SERVICEBERRY (Amelanchier) — Another native, the serviceberry blooms in early spring and, while it is not as showy as the dogwood, it is a much tougher tree. It will bloom well even in the shade of large trees, because it flowers before most of them leaf out. Serviceberry has excellent, usually yellow, fall color. Its fruit comes in June and is delicious if you can beat the birds to it; just let the fruit ripen to a dark red before eating. Serviceberry often is sold in shrub form, and that is an excellent plant also.

78 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY O CTO BER 2 0 2 1

AMERICAN HORNBEAM (Carpinus caroliniana) — Also called ironwood or muscle wood, hornbeam has the coolest bark on a tree I’ve ever seen, with the exception of the American beech. The bark of this small tree is smooth and gray and looks like someone flexing muscles—hence one of its common names. It is easy to grow, tolerates clay soil, and has a deep orange fall color. Its only drawback is that it may be hard to find in nurseries.

YELLOWWOOD (Cladrastis kentukea) — Any tree that has Kentucky in its Latin name has to have something going for it, and this is a fantastic medium-size tree. In the spring, it covers itself in white, raceme-type flowers. In the fall, it turns a brilliant buttery yellow. It also is tolerant of heavy clay soils and is another small tree that ought to get more press and appearances in backyards.

SUMAC (Rhus) — Perhaps because of its habit of growing freely, sometimes rampantly, along roads and interstates, many gardeners don’t like sumac. That’s a shame, because the birds and bees sure do. Birds eat the fruit in the winter; bees swarm to its blooms in midsummer, when most of their honey sources have dried up.

The sweeping branches of this small tree/large shrub also make a great place to hang bird feeders and suet. Enjoy watching the woodpeckers work up and down the branches as they go for the food. If nothing else, plant sumac for its fall color. There is no red like the red of sumac in October.

FRINGE TREE (Chionanthus virginicus) — This is another under-used native small tree that blooms in late spring when the dogwoods and redbuds have lost their petals.

The white blossoms hanging from branches apparently reminded someone of fringe—hence the name. They are striking in full bloom. Fringe tree tolerates some shade and is easy to grow in heavy soils. Fall color isn’t spectacular, but the bark of the fringe tree, with its swirling pattern, is of interest in the winter.

KATSURA TREE (Cercidipphyllum japonicum) — Katsura is a non-native tree but worth a spot in the landscape where there’s room for a substantial tree that is not huge.

Katsura adapts well to our soils and sports fantastic yellow fall color. The weeping form of katsura is especially striking in the landscape. As a bonus, the tree smells like cotton candy, so you’ll always feel like you’re on the midway anytime you go near it.

JAPANESE MAPLE (Acer palmatum) — No list of small trees is complete without the Japanese maple. This tree has been bred in thousands of cultivars to fit any landscape and can thrive even in pots. Leaf color comes in deep red to orange to lime green. Some cultivars grow into mediumsized trees, while most stay small. Fall color ranges from bronze to burgundy to orange and deep yellow.

Readers may contact Walt Reichert at editor@ kentuckymonthly.com

calendar Due to COVID-19, please visit the event’s website or call the contact number prior to attending to ensure that it is taking place.

OCTOBER 2021 Fabulous Fibers IV

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

<<<

Ongoing Louisville Photo Biennial, various locations, through Nov. 14, louisvillephoto biennial.com

5

Alice Cooper in Concert, Appalachian Wireless Arena, Pikeville, 606.444.5500

10

11

Corbin Arena, 606.258.2020

McCracken County Public Library, Paducah, 270.442.2510

17

18

Boone County Fairgrounds, Burlington, 513.922.6847

Lyric Theatre, Lexington, 859.252.8888

Jeff Foxworthy and Leanne Morgan,

Burlington Antique Show,

Fit Lit Walking Book Club,

Woodsongs Presents Jimmy Vaughan,

25

24

31

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Ongoing Fabulous Fibers IV, John James

Ongoing Anne Frank WWII Holocaust Museum Tour,

Audubon State Park, Henderson, through Nov. 28, 270.826.2247

Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, Maysville, 606.564.5865

FRIDAY

1

Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival, downtown Middlesboro, through Oct. 2, 606.248.2482

2

St. James Court Art Show, Old Louisville, through Oct. 3, 502.635.1842

6

7

8

9

Castle & Key Distillery, Frankfort, 502.395.9070

Cheapside Park, Lexington

The Barnyard, Sharpsburg, 606.709.2276

locations, Paris, through Oct. 10, 859.429.0819

The Springhouse Music Series,

Thursday Night Live Concert Series,

Hank Williams Jr. in Concert,

<<<

12

Mt. Sterling Court Days, downtown Mt. Sterling, through Oct. 18, 859.398.0289

19

22

Bourbon on the Banks Tour,

15 26

SATURDAY

27

National Horse Show, Kentucky

28

Horse Park, Lexington, through Nov. 7, 859.608.3709

Old State Capitol, Frankfort, 502.564.1792

29

Haunted

by History: Nighttime Tour, Old State Capitol, Frankfort, 502.564.1792

Storytelling Festival, various

16

Lexington Philharmonic: Queens Rule, Lexington Opera House, 859.233.4226

23

Star Wars and More—Music of John Williams, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, 270.904.1880

30

Bela Fleck in Concert, The Grand Theater, Frankfort, 502.352.7469

a guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events For a more extensive listing of events, visit kentuckymonthly.com. k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 79

vested interest

Days in a Life

O

ctober 27 will mark 21,900—the number of days since I, a 9-pound, 5-ounce Scorpio, joined the human race at the Norton Memorial Infirmary in Louisville, a block or so from the Dizzy Whizz, which has been serving the famous Whizzburger for more than 70 years. Up the street at the Ohio Theatre or down the road at the Cozy, you could see Natalie Wood in West Side Story or Bob Hope and Lana Turner in Bachelor in Paradise.

President John F. Kennedy was still alive. Ernest Hemingway was dead.

Harold, my dad, had just turned 40. Mom was 34.

Home was on Whitney Avenue, a few blocks east of Churchill Downs. My brothers, Mike and Tim, were 15 and 11, and our dog, Frisky, was barking at Mr. Moss next door, or the Hartungs two doors down.

Across the Atlantic, The Beatles had finished a lunchtime performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, and their future hit song “When I’m 64” and thoughts of “getting older and losing your hair” must have been unimaginable.

In my 21,900 days, I’ve lived at two dozen addresses in five states, graduated from high school and college (twice), been married (once), become a father (four times), and traveled to all but a dozen states and to all 120 Kentucky counties (at least twice). Since 1986, I’ve written three books and more than 3,000 stories, covered nearly as many ballgames, and maintained half that many acquaintances.

I’ve been blessed. I have some great friends—several of whom still speak to me. My four children are healthy and happy, and my two granddaughters are bright and ambitious. Some of them still speak to me, too.

I’ve yet to spend a night in jail, and only once have I been in the STEPHEN M. VEST back—the cage—of a police car. I Publisher + Editor-in-Chief was being held on suspicion of arson when the catalytic converter on my 1986 Pontiac Sunbird overheated. “Mr. Vest, we have a witness who says he saw you try to set your car on fire,” the officer said, alleging insurance fraud.

“What?” I said. “Look, I may not be the sharpest tool in the drawer, but if I wanted to get rid of my car, I wouldn’t drive it to the busiest highway in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and set it on fire. I’d simply roll it into one of the many swamps

around here and report it stolen.”

“You’ve given this a lot of thought, haven’t you?”

“No. I haven’t given it any thought at all.”

I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, England (where I visited The Beatles’ Abbey Road studio) and Ireland. I’ve cruised the Caribbean, once winning a small fortune on a Lily Tomlin-themed slot machine. No, I’ve not seen the Northern Lights nor the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona—heck, I’ve never seen the moonbow at Cumberland Falls. But I’ve seen, my granddaughters, Izzy and Julia—members of the orange team—each score soccer goals against the heavily favored blue team, which was on par with the Kentucky Derbys, Olympics and NCAA Final Fours I’ve seen. I’ve sunk a basket from beyond mid-court and putts of more than 50 feet.

So what’s left? Plenty, if I’m lucky. I’m not overly concerned about making it to Cawker City, Kansas, to see the world’s largest ball of twine, which was completed by Frank Stoeber the year I was born. Still, I would like to visit San Francisco and Hawaii and eat a potato in Idaho.

I’d enjoy seeing my son, Christopher, publish his award-winning sci-fi graphic novel, and my daughter, Katy, win her first of many Tony Awards. I look forward to walking Molly, my daughter the teacher, down the aisle next year at her storybook wedding to Mitchell, and I can’t wait to see what Sydney, my youngest, will do next to surprise me.

Sometime in 2025, Kentucky Monthly will publish its 300th issue, and I’d like to visit the Isle of Wight (“if it’s not too dear”) and spend that birthday in Liverpool, England because hopefully, you’ll still need me, you’ll still feed me when I’m 64.

Kwiz Answers: 1. C. The Mississippi River was greatly affected—some said it even flowed backward; 2. B. Major shocks occurred in December 1811, January 1812 and February 1812, with many lesser tremors ongoing; 3. C. The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is still an active quake area, although many events are minor and not noticed by residents; 4. C. Louisville experienced balcony collapses, falling chimneys and more; some citizens staggered when they tried to walk; 5. A. Brooks set up his own measuring system in Louisville to count tremors of all sizes; 6. A. Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee formed during these major seismic events; 7. B. Two major shocks followed on Jan. 23, 1812, and Feb. 7, 1812; 8. C. Cities on the East Coast experienced cracked sidewalks, bells ringing and more; 9. A. The Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), with Kentucky as one of eight full members, prepares for the next major middle-America seismic event; 10. B. Kentucky continues to be seismically active, although most tremors are minor and not widely felt.

80 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY O CTO BER 2021

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