Loretto in Marion County, Kentucky

Mature Oak Tree - Loretto, Marion County, Kentucky 

This Marion County tree has been around for a long time and is still going.  The base of the tree when compared to the nearby picnic tables shows its massive size.  Perhaps this oak impressed Thomas Merton when he visited the Loretto Motherhouse.

The history of the Loretto community in Kentucky includes 128 years of active service.  The Loretto land is a special place.

North American Native Tree - Sycamore

Woods - Sycamore - Grayson County, Kentucky

The bark of the sycamore tree falls to the ground around the tree.  This large section of sycamore bark was caught in the branches of a small tree.  

Kentucky native tree and Thomas Merton

Kentucky Native Tree - Eastern Red Cedar - Grayson County

The trunk of the Eastern red cedar looks like of bundle of stems.  Eastern red cedar was once the only wood used for pencils in the United States.  By the 1940s it was hard to find enough trees to supply the factories and production switched to the California incense cedar, Calocedrus decurrens.  The California incense cedar is a western tree.

Thomas Merton visited the Motherhouse at Loretto, Kentucky.  During his visit he remarked that the trees surrounding the Motherhouse were magnificent and should never be felled. Thomas Merton wrote frequently of the silence of the woods in his writings.  He also suggested that being present in the woods was helpful to prayer and to the spiritual experience. 

Merton wrote pointedly about damage to the natural world, "Much of the stupendous ecological damage that has been done in the last fifty years is completely irreversible.  Industry and the military, especially in America are firmly set on policies that make further damage inevitable."

Human interactions

Christmas Decorations - Courtyard - Loretto Motherhouse 

How much criticism is the right amount for a situation?   If one practices the formulating of the turnaround about a given interaction then one can see the interaction from a new perspective.  For example if one thinks the following, "David does not take my concerns into account before he decides."  The turnaround viewpoint is "I do not take David's concerns into account before I decide."  This can help with feelings of frustration or isolation.

The idea of intention may be helpful for a situation.  Perhaps one puts an intention of selfishness or laziness in the mind when the other person is not acting with that intention.

Criticize sparingly.

In one of Wendell Berry's poems he writes of loving someone who does not deserve it.  Could you be kind to a person that does not deserve it?  There is germ for thought.

Ft. Knox, Kentucky

M48 Patton Tank

In the war of 1812 one half of the persons killed in the war were Kentuckians.   Kentuckians have been willing to shoulder the burdens in difficult times through history.

In the 1930s Ft. Knox was the home of the Army's armored force.  Gold shipments made in the 1930s were made by rail and the gold bars were transported by truck over to the Treasury Department vault facility.  Fort Knox armed forces personnel escorted the trucks to the gold vault.

The 1st Armored Division was activated in July 1940 in Fort Knox, Kentucky.  The Division fought in North Africa and in Italy in World War II.

The M48 Patton tank was built from 1952 to 1959.  It was used for many years after 1959.  For many years Ft. Knox was the home of armor such that a soldier that specialized in armor would eventually serve at Ft. Knox some time in his or her career.

Kentucky nature

Trail - Rough River Lake, Kentucky

Walking with trees at your side feeds you.  Immerse yourself in nature.  Walk in appreciation. 

Loretto Kentucky

Father Stephen Badin - Loretto, Kentucky



Cemetery - Loretto, Kentucky

Father Stephen Theodore Badin provided the land for the present day farm at Loretto to the sisters before he moved to Indiana.  A statue of Father Badin is on the Loretto property.  He was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States.  

It is commonly said that tree branches without leaves are sad or ugly looking.  But deciduous trees have a time for locking down vital tree elements for life.  And through the hyphae of fungi that coexist with the tree roots activity in the soil goes on.  You can't see this but it is there.  Hurry is a waste.  Buds will come.  Wide green leaves will come.  A tree has features to appreciate without its full presentation of its leaves. The time without buds and green leaves is just as valid as any time of the tree's life. With experience the way of nature comes to the one who takes it in. 



One of America's Best Loved Photographers

“It is for the sake of emphasis, not exaggeration, that I select the more pictorial personalities when I do the industrial portrait, for it is the only way that I can illustrate my thesis that the human spirit is the big thing after all.”


Lewis Hine
Photographer

Lewis Hine completed works in the 1930s and 1940s that show workers making and building things for the nation.

Appreciations

Bellarmine University - Louisville, Kentucky

Kentucky was home to Thomas Merton.  This Merton statue may be seen on the Bellarmine campus.  Kentucky was home to Robert Penn Warren.
Wendell Berry lives on land in Henry County with ties to family that goes back over 200 years. 
Harry Caudill wrote of the mountains of Kentucky and of the uniqueness of those hills and valleys.
Thomas Barnes knew Kentucky from border to border and celebrated her woods in the books he authored.

James Lane Allen and John Fox Jr. wrote a century ago. Kim Edwards, Sue Grafton and Barbara Kingsolver are Kentucky authors.  James Still, Jesse Stuart, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Harry M. Caudill, Gurney Norman, Janice Holt Giles, Verna Mae Slone, Elizabeth Madox Roberts and Silas House write or have written from their Kentucky homes.  John James Audubon, Bobbie Ann Mason and Irvin S. Cobb are all from Kentucky.

 

When appreciating precious things these are some of the things that are in mind.  The place of these people.

Christmas thoughts

Christmas Decoration Church of the Seven Dolors, Marion County, Kentucky

We think we need to make up for shortcomings around the time of Christmas. We want to do something for people to let them know we love them or care for them. This can become more than we can humanly do. Perhaps keeping the holly and the ivy in us for more than the weeks between the calendar Thanksgiving and the calendar Christmas would be healthy for all of us.

A survey revealed that two thirds of the people felt sad or inadequate during the Christmas season.

Perhaps our sadness or despair springs from false thinking. If we are lifted out of false thinking we can be the healthy people in the light that God intended for us.

 

 

 

 

The land for the people

Mammoth Cave NP Kentucky

A recurrent criticism of the United States' parks is that they are frequented  by the well to do.  The other criticism that is seen again and again is that lands now under park system management contain areas that Native Americans once used.  When one considers the alternatives that would be in place were it not for the parks one appreciates the parks with all of their contradictions.  These few special places have been preserved for the people.   If the lands were instead bought by private interests the scenic areas would be taken over by gated communities.  Vast areas would be unavailable to the people.   Land companies would own huge areas and would allow mining interests to use the land for extractive pursuits without caring for the animals or the plants.  Many current parks are used by present day Native Americans.  These places are deeply appreciated and Native Americans are among those who deeply appreciate these set aside places.  The parks have contradictions.  The fact that the parks have contradictions in no way diminishes the appeal or the value of the parks.

Beautiful Photography

I take picures.  My hat's off to this man and his talent for photography. http://www.carolinanature.com/about.html

Merry Christmas

What do the hallowed hills of Kentucky have to do with Christmas?  One story I know is about the John B. Stephenson Nature Preserve in Rockcastle County.  I met a woman there in the valley.  I asked her about how she felt about this Kentucky place.  She said that she went to school there and she motioned to the ridge to the left of where we were standing.  She said that as a girl she came down into the woods to gather vines and branches to make decorations for Christmas.   That was many years ago. And the precious Kentucky woods are still there.   No work has marred the beauty of the woods.   So most every Kentucky place has many stories.  May it ever be so.

Gingko leaves

Yellow Ginkgo Leaves - Loretto Motherhouse - Marion County, KY

The ginkgo tree is a survivor of a group of ancient plants.  The leaves of the ginkgo tree often have a deep notch in the margin of the leaf.  In the fall the leaves turn from green to a brilliant yellow. Each leaf grows from a long shoot.  The shoots are clustered on side shoots.  Because of the tree structure the leaves of the ginkgo fall all at once.  Complete leaf fall may occur in one to three hours.  The leaves in this photograph began falling after ten in the morning.   The amount on the ground around the tree accumulated in about two hours.

The people

Trails through the woods are good.  The places we can go to are there because of people's hard work.  Many worked their entire life to keep these natural places from being developed and forever lost.  When we go up to a peak on a trail constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) we benefit from the planning and hard work of those depression era workers.  With every step we take we can call them to mind.

Forest and Boulders - Southeast Kentucky

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature's sources never fail. ... The petty discomforts that beset the awkward guest, the unskilled camper, are quickly forgotten, while all that is precious remains. Fears vanish as soon as one is fairly free in the wilderness."
John Muir

"Life is a great adventure... accept it in such a spirit." Theodore Roosevelt

"If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions."
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

"Only that day dawns to which we are awake.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Southeast Kentucky

There is more to take in about South East Kentucky than delicious fried chicken.  Yes London does have a big chicken dinner in September built around the last weekend in September.  The festival boasts the biggest skillet in the country.  Late Fall and Winter is a good time to come to the Valley.
It is a time to move about without the worry of humid air or ticks or mosquitoes.  The beauty of the stream banks will come into you.  The music of the winds will come to your ears.  You will take back the sights and sounds and remember them.  You will appreciate them.

The Cumberland River - Southeast Kentucky

Protect Fish, Wildlife and Plants; Kentucky's NRRA

 

 

Rock Bluffs - Big South Fork NRRA

 

Huge Cliffs with walking space in between - Big South Fork NRRA

 

 

 

 

Trail near Blue Heron - Big South Fork NRRA

A wide variety of habitats and associated wildlife are found at the Daniel Boone National Forest and the Big South Fork NRRA.  This area of impressive cliffs and rocks is in the Blue Heron area of the Big South Fork NRRA.  Writing or photography can only go so far; one has to be there to experience it.

Grayson County, Kentucky

Willis Green owned a mill for processing corn at the Falls of Rough on Rough River in Kentucky.  He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1839 to 1845.  The mill was built in 1823 and was in use for over 140 years. Growers from seven nearby counties brought grains to the mill site.

Bridge built by the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company

In 1877 this bridge was built over the Rough River at the Falls of Rough. The bridge includes the name of the bridge company in the bridge ironwork; the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio provided the bridge.

 

1877 Bridge over Rough River

Air Quality

River transport - Ohio River near New Albany, Indiana

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair

Fish taken from every lake and pond in pond in Kentucky and Indiana show mercury in the fish.  Some say the price of electricity in Kentucky and Indiana is one of the lowest prices in the country.  Using coal to generate electricity pollutes the air;  the damage that comes to the water and the life of the creatures that depend on the water must be understood and accounted for.   A renewal of commitment to the environment will be necessary for the region to compete economically in the future.

Appreciation of Mr. Olmsted

Mr. Olmsted said that Cherokee Park was meant to present the "bluegrass country of Kentucky" to the people of Louisville.

In a report from the F. L. Olmsted firm provided to the city in 1891, the site for Cherokee Park was described as a place of "refreshment that is to be had in the contemplation of superb umbrageous trees..."

 The Park has broad spaces that are kept mowed but also wide corridors of woods.   Beargrass Creek winds its way through the landscape lending the scene an inviting look.   There is a famous photograph of Big Rock in Beargrass Creek with park visitors in clothing of  a bygone era.  It may be 1890s clothing.  At the top of a bluff there is a statue of the Greek god Pan. The statue dates back to 1905.

Louisville Metro Parks - Cherokee Park - Pan

Cherokee Park - Limestone Cliffs

Cherokee Park - Cliffs

Cherokee Park - Informational

Cherokee Park - Beargrass Creek

Cherokee Park - Stonework on roadside wall

The limestone cliffs along the creek corridor are home to walking ferns and amphibians that need special conditions to live. The outstanding tree in the woods of Cherokee Park is the American beech.  The bark of the American beech unlike most Kentucky native trees grows with the internal structure of the tree.  Most trees shed portions of bark over time but the Americon Beech does not.

Thin places - the Smoky Mountains

Horace Kephart wrote of the Smoky Mountains in Our Southern Highlanders.

"Characteristic, too, is the dreamy blue haze, like that of Indian summer intensified, that ever hovers over the mountains, unless they be swathed in cloud, or, for a few minutes, after a sharp rain-storm has cleared the atmosphere. Both the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains owe their names to this tenuous mist. It softens all outlines, and lends a mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles off, while those farther removed grow more and more intangible until finally the sky-line blends with the sky itself."
 - Horace Kephart

The Smoky Mountains - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We have some of the most beautiful places in our valleys and mountains.  Thin places are places where it is said that the boundary between earth and heaven is a thinner boundary.

Mr. Olmsted's Design

Louisville's first park was created in 1880 after exhuming bodies buried at a site at Jefferson and Eleventh Street.  The land became Baxter Square Park.   Andrew Cowan was one of Louisville's prominent businessmen.  Mr. Cowan communicated with Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. in 1891 about planning parks in general and with the thought of building parks for the city of Louisville.  Mr. Olmsted had designed the park in the interior of the Quartermaster Depot in Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1873.

Mr. Olmsted Sr. planned the system of eighteen parks and six tree lined parkways that connect them in the Louisville community in Kentucky.  Mr. Olmsted planned the parks system in collaboration with his partners before his retirement in 1895. 

In a report from the firm provided to the city in 1891, the site for Iroquois Park was described as a place "of sequestered character-a treasure of sylvan scenery." Though built before automobiles were in use for transportation much of the layout can be seen today. The park system has been a place for recreation and appreciation for people for over a hundred years. 

Iroquois Park has  a high knob in the central portion of its area.  At several locations stone steps are set in the hillside.  These steps are said to be a part of the Olmsted design for the Iroquois Park landscape.

Steps - Iroquois Park

Iroquois Park - Louisville Metro

Wildflower with Fall Foliage - Iroquois Park - Louisville Metro

The steep slopes of the knob are populated with American Beech, Fagus Grandifolia. The beech's bark is smooth. In contrast to many trees the outside of the tree continues to grow as the inside of the tree increases in size. Most trees shed portions of bark over time but the beech does not.

Some parts of the slope have Virginia Pine, Pinus Virginiana. These trees are a Kentucky native tree and are commonly seen where land that was once farm land is slowly becoming a habitat for trees. The Virginia Pines of Iroquois have adapted to the dry, rocky areas where many trees would have difficulty getting established.

Some of the trees at the edge of the slope near the golf course are yellow poplars, Liriodendron tuliphera. These trees produce large orange flowers that usually bloom in May. Yellow poplars are said to be more abundant in Kentucky than any other state.



What I saw - Brown County State Park

Land in Brown County, Indiana began to be purchased for a public park in the 1920s.   Originally  the purpose was stated to be for a wildlife preserve because that was the only  purpose sanctioned in Indiana state law. The site opened as a park in 1929. In 1934 the CCC began working to reclaim the land from the damage of heavy erosion. The CCC built trails and planted trees.  The spruce trees in the park were planted by the CCC.



North Overlook vista - The North Overlook Shelter was provided by the CCC

 

Strahl Lake

Ogle Lake - Built by the CCC

In addition the CCC built the lake known as Ogle Lake at the park.  The park gets much use but it has a beauty and an appeal that is not dampened by the volume of visitors.  There is a spirit among those who come.  The people just seem to make it work and share the park.

 

Thin Places - Kentucky

Thin places are places said to be different because the boundary between earth and heaven is thinner at those places.  The Sisters of Loretto live on a working farm in Marion County, Kentucky.  Father Stephen Theodore Badin provided the farm to the sisters before he moved to Indiana.  A statue of Father Badin is on the property.  He was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. 

Tree and Birdhouse - Sisters of Loretto - Loretto Motherhouse

Serviceberry tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Yellowwood tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Fall foliage - Loretto Farm

The sisters have planted 73 acres of native grasses and 15,400 trees. The trees provide a corridor that wildlife can use to travel to adjoining habitats in the region. The Knobs region in Kentucky is named for the high places, some of them hundreds of feet high, that are scattered across the region in Marion and Woodford counties.

There is a yellowwood tree, Cladrastis Kentukea, at the Loretto Motherhouse.   For those who appreciate Kentucky the species name of this tree brings a smile to the face.  Yellowwood has a limited range in comparison to most native trees.  Its range is generally Kentucky and portions of states nearby.  The bark of Yellowwood reminds one of the smooth bark of the American beech.

A pipeline has been proposed to run across rural Kentucky including much of Marion County. The proposed pipeline would be part of a system that would transport natural gas liquids from the shale producing areas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the petrochemical market in the northeast United States, as well as the petrochemical and export complex on the Gulf Coast. Natural gas liquids can include a variety of hydrocarbons, such as ethane, propane, butane, isobutane and pentane. The sisters have refused to let surveyors for the proposed pipeline on their property.

Tom FitzGerald is head of the Kentucky Resources Council. FitzGerald has spoken of the Loretto sisters and their farm land. "It is a precious place. They are a remarkably strong community of women."

Thin places are places where the boundary between earth and heaven is a thinner boundary.

Heritage

Big South Fork Scenic Railway - Kentucky Tennessee Railroad tracks

Big South Fork Scenic Railway - Stearns Kentucky

The town of Stearns, Kentucky is the depot for the rail trips into the Big South Fork NRRA.  The Big South Fork NRRA has many rock shelters. The rock shelters provide habitats for a variety of plants.

"All those hours exploring the great outdoors made me more resilient and confident."

David Suzuki

 Come to the forest.  Find a health way.

The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

Big South Fork NRRA - Kentucky and Tennessee

The Big South Fork NRRA is located in McCreary County, Kentucky and Fentress, Pickett, and Scott Counties in Tennessee.  The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located in Blount, Sevier and Cocke Counties in Tennessee and Swain and Haywood Counties in North Carolina.  A  study of the plants living in the Big South Fork NRRA found a greater variety of plants living in the Big South Fork NRRA in comparison to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The rock shelters and the temperatures of the Big South Fork NRRA may provide a greater variety of  habitats than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  If the Star Trek transporter were available to me I would probably choose the the Great Smoky Mountains.  If I must drive myself I would be happy to go to the Big South Fork.  The thought of leaving today buoys my heart.  I have seen Twin Arches in the Big South Fork NRRA; the scenery there makes Big South Fork NRRA trip worthy.  Both the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Big South Fork NRRA have their beauty.  And two parks complement each other; one straddles the Tennessee border with Kentucky and one straddles the Tennessee border with North Carolina.  The story of Big South Fork NRRA and the surrounding Daniel Boone National Forest is a story of redemption.  These were once ugly places and they have been transformed.  Now they are appealing places.

 

The Big South Fork NRRA

Textile in McCreary County Museum - Conveyor across river is shown

Formed by the confluence of the New River and the Clear Fork, the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River is a major tributary of the Cumberland River. The mighty Cumberland River is itself a tributary of the Ohio River. Because the Big South Fork gathers runoff from an extensive rainy area lying more than 1,000 feet above sea level, it has a steep gradient and plenty of flow. Long stretches of the river are sufficiently constricted, steep, and swift running to offer whitewater canoeing and kayaking.

This part of America has a deep history. The first people in the Big South Fork area were Paleoindians whose culture spanned the era from about 13,000 B.C. to 7,900 B.C. Beginning about 12,000 years ago these prehistoric First Peoples began living in rockshelters and supported themselves by hunting and gathering in the forests of the upper Cumberland Plateau. They eventually did some farming too, and created small, round indentations in the sandstone floors of the rockshelters. These are “hominy holes,” so named because the First Peoples ground maize and other grains in them.

Hominy holes are not the only evidence left behind by pre-European people of the Big South Fork country. American Indians used this land long after the First Peoples, albeit in a much more transient way. Cherokees and other Indians established temporary hunting camps in the rockshelters, leaving behind pottery shards, stone projectile points, and other artifacts. Thanks to its rich heritage, Big South Fork NRRA is home to more archaeological sites than any other park in the Southeast Region.

Europeans began moving into the area in the late 1700s. The first frontiersmen, poachers called longhunters, were followed by settlers who established homes along the creeks at the top of the gorge. With place names such as Parch(ed) Corn Creek, Difficulty Creek, Troublesome Creek, Lonesome Creek, and No Business Creek, it’s easy to imagine how tough life must have been for these pioneers. Scraping out a living from the poor, rocky soil offered a tenuous living at best. As late as the Civil War era, cartographers were still labeling this area “The Wilderness.”

In the early- to mid 1900s, coal and timber companies began flocking to the Big South Fork region, temporarily strengthening the settlers' lives by bringing sought after jobs and a reasonable semblance of a cash economy.

Mine 18 operated from 1938 until 1962, supplying coal for local railroads and other purposes. The town of Blue Heron, which emerged in association with the mine, was also abandoned in 1962. The Stearns Company eventually owned or controlled 128,000 acres of land in the Big South Fork area, extracting coal, sand, timber, and even oil.

Most residents of the region were held strongly in the grip of poverty. Farming yielded little more than subsistence, and the area’s two major industries, logging and mining, were both capitalized and controlled by outsiders who cared little about the people or the landscape.

As the coal mines gradually closed and the regional economy deteriorated during the 1960s, the residents of the region turned to their elected officials for help. Howard H. Baker, Junior, is fondly remembered for the efforts he made on behalf of Big South Fork area people, which included going door-to-door at one point to help the Scott County government raise money needed to purchase the local telephone company.

In 1966, the people of Scott County and the surrounding area elected Baker to the United States Senate. His father had served in the Senate from 1951 to 1964. Senator Baker worked tirelessly to get better roads, schools, health care facilities, and other needed infrastructure for his east Tennessee constituents. And he understood full well that what the people of the region needed most of all was more and better jobs.

Senator Baker first entertained the idea of building a dam on the Big South Fork River. “In those days, the way to progress was to build a dam,” he recollected in a TV interview. If constructed, the new dam might have emulated the success of the TVA dams and brought jobs, electricity, tourism, and other economic benefits, but at a the expense of some of the best scenery and recreational resources in this part of America. The natural features would be inundated by the manmade lake.

Senator Baker and Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) recognized that the Big South Fork, with its gorges, homesteads, rockshelters, and arches, was worth more preserved than flooded. The two Senators sponsored and shepherded through Congress the legislation that created Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, which was signed into law on March 7, 1974, by President Nixon. The new law directed the Corps of Engineers to acquire land for the park and build the facilities before turning the park over to the National Park Service for administration. (1)

The Corps quickly drew up plans for what some were calling 'The Yellowstone of the East” and started buying land. By 1986, National Park Service personnel were staffing a small visitor center on the East Rim, and the Bandy Creek Campground had opened its gates for the first time, welcoming visitors with hot showers, a camp store, stables, and craft store.

In 1989, the Blue Heron Mining Community opened with much fanfare. Mine 18 of Stearns Coal and Lumber Company fame had been reborn as semi-restored ghost town. Thirteen “ghost structures” consisting only of framing, the bare bones of buildings, stood at the mining community. These structures recalled homes, the company store, churches, machine shops, and more. Supplementing these ghost structures were oral histories that visitors could listen to while viewing artifacts, photographs, and other items from Mine 18's heyday.

The original coal tipple, a central facility for loading coal to be transported, was restored for exhibit. A mine opening was also carefully preserved and stabilized so that visitors could enter it.

The establishment of the Big South Fork Scenic Railway was also a milestone in the park's early history. Run by the McCreary County Heritage Foundation, the train departs the historic Stearns Depot atop the river gorge. Today travelers can take a train trip from Stearns, KY to Mine 18 on the track of the Kentucky and Tennessee railroad. The trip is downhill to reach the level of Mine 18. Thinking of the weights of the hopper cars the work to bring the coal up the Stearns must have been a feat in the days of early railroad design. The journey recalls the days of the Kentucky and Tennessee railroad which also provided passenger service in its day.

By 1991, most of the land had been bought for the park and the majority of the facilities were in place. The Corps, having realized a much smaller version of the grand park than they originally sought to create, turned everything over to the National Park Service. The 1991 transfer coincided with the dedication of the new Headquarters and the 75th Anniversary of the National Park Service.

By 2005 the National Park Service completed the park's first General Management Plan, which implements changes and positions the park for a new era.

Visitors to Big South Fork find a wide range of activities. Camping is very popular. While the camp and craft stores at Bandy Creek are no longer in operation, the park still boasts one of the cleanest and most peaceful RV-friendly campgrounds in the park system, complete with stables, a public swimming pool, hot showers, volleyball courts, and playgrounds. The Park Service has met the needs of tent campers as well, with a special tents-only section of the campground situated atop a small wooded hill.

Families will delight in the park’s hiking trails, which wind past homesteads, bluffs, arches, overlooks, and the river. Horseback riders take to the more than 200 miles of horse trails in the area, and canoeists flock to the Big South Fork. Mountain bikers are welcome to use Big South Fork’s three bikes-only trails as well as most horse paths. Rock climbing and rappelling are also favorite activities. Each September, the park hosts the“Haunting in the Hills” Storytelling Festival, which attracts several thousand visitors and showcases the area's mountain heritage, music, crafts, and the talents of local storytellers.

All of the land that was under the Stearns control is now in the Big South Fork NRRA or the Daniel Boone National Forest or private land.

(1) http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/09/park-history-big-south-fork-national-river-and-recreation-area accessed 23 October  2014.

Kentucky Legacy



The Blue Heron Coal Camp Scale Model at Big South Fork NRAA

The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company began operation in 1902 on land purchased in Kentucky and Tennessee. At the same time that the lumber industry was being established coal mining operations began. The first Stearns Company coal mine opened in 1902 and the first coal shipments were made in 1903. In 1918 the lumber industry was dwindling in Mason County, Michigan and Mr. Stearns closed the lumber company.


 

Coal Conveyor Over the Big South Fork Modified for Foot Travel (Compare with photo of the conveyor during mine operation)



Coal Conveyor for Bringing Coal to the Tipple at Mine 18 (Blue Heron Mine)

Kentucky and Tennessee Railroad Pond and Locomotive Shop, Stearns, KY

The company continued under Justus Sterns’ offspring. Robert L. Stearns, Sr., Robert L. Stearns, Jr. and Robert Eiledy Gable all ran the company over the time of the Stearns Company’s presence in Kentucky and Tennessee. In the 1902 the Stearns company began building a railroad to connect the mines to the Southern Railroad. The Stearns Railroad became the Kentucky and Tennessee railroad.

It reached mine No. 1 at Barthell, mine No. 4 at Worley, mine No. 11 at Yamacraw, Cooperative Coal Company at Cooperative,; mine No. 15 at White Oak, and mine "A" at Fidelity. Cooperative was a new mine which was organized to give Stearns employees the privilege of buying its stock and sharing its earnings. The Kentucky and Tennessee railroad also ran to the Paint Cliff Mine Company, , the St. Mihiel Coal Company at Oz, and the Camargo Coal Company at Camargo. The president of the Paint Cliff mine company was Kenneth Meguire of Louisville.   Later the Railroad reached Mine 18 at Blue Heron.

The Big South Fork NRAA is one of only two national parks designated “national river and recreation area” (the other being the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in the Minneapolis-St. Paul vicinity). The Big South Fork is a place once broken with rapacious timber cutting but now healing under protection of the National Park Service.

 

Located high atop the Cumberland Plateau in McCreary County Kentucky and Pickett and Scott Counties in Tennessee Big South Fork has more than 125,000 acres of land. Big South Fork is a geological and historical resource.  The land has deep gorges carved by erosion, historic homesteads of a bygone era, and scenic rockshelters and sandstone arches.

 

An ancient inland sea covered this part of America some 320 million years ago. The sandbars, deltas, beaches, and dunes were compressed and cemented over millions of years, becoming fine-grained sandstone. Other sedimentary rocks were formed in some places as well, including siltstone, shale, and coal.

 

The sedimentary rock strata of the Cumberland Plateau are layered.  Atop these strata sits a layer of rock called the Rockcastle Conglomerate. This rock consists of cemented-together coarse sand and small pebbles from ancient braided streambeds. The Rockcastle Conglomerate layer functions as a cap rock because it is very erosion-resistant.

 

As the land tilted upward rose, replacing the sea with highlands, rivers became a powerful force for cutting into the landscape. Where the running water breached the erosion resistant conglomerate cap rock, it was able to carve deeply into the softer sedimentary rock below. This vigorous cutting created gorges, cliffs, bluffs, and arches. Over time, these processes gave birth to the Big South Fork landscape of today.

 

 

What I Saw - Under Hemlock Boughs

Kentucky Artisan Center - Art on Display

Green Eastern Hemlock - Blue Heron Mine - Big South Fork

Blue Heron Mine - Big South Fork, NRRA

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, Kentucky offers travelers opportunities to purchase framed art and various Kentucky made items.  The Center is constructed of stone and has the appearance of the layered stone of the region’s riverbanks. Outdoor banners suggest that visitors continue to laugh and learn in their life.

The First Christian Church in Corbin, Kentucky is a Disciples of Christ church.  It is centrally located on Kentucky Avenue and has been at that location since its construction in 1925.   The building is equipped with an elevator for those who would have difficulty with stairs or those with limited mobility

Ludington is a harbor town located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River in Michigan.  Justus S. Stearns moved to Ludington, Michigan from New York and Ohio in 1876.  He was in the business of cutting trees for lumber.  He sought the office of governor of Michigan in 1898 but was defeated.  In 1899 he had agents looking in Kentucky and Tennessee for new tracts to make use of for timbering operations. The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company began operation in 1902 on land purchased in Kentucky and Tennessee. At the same time that the lumber industry was being established coal mining operations began. The first Stearns Company coal mine opened in 1902 and the first coal shipments were made in 1903. In 1918 the lumber industry was dwindling in Mason County, Michigan and he closed the lumber company.  

The company continued under Justus Sterns’ offspring. Robert L. Stearns, Sr.,  Robert L. Stearns, Jr. and Robert Eiledy Gable all ran the company over the time of the Stearns Company’s presence in Kentucky and Tennessee. In the 1902 the Stearns company began building a railroad to connect the mines to the Southern Railroad.  The Stearns Railroad became the Kentucky and Tennessee railroad.

It reached mine No. 1 at Barthell, mine No. 4 at Worley, mine No. 11 at Yamacraw, Cooperative Coal Company at Cooperative,; mine No. 15 at White Oak, and mine "A" at Fidelity. Cooperative was a new mine which was organized to give Stearns employees the privilege of buying its stock and sharing its earnings.  The Kentucky and Tennessee also ran to the Paint Cliff Mine Company, whose president was Kenneth Meguire of Louisville, the St. Mihiel Coal Company at Oz, and the Camargo Coal Company at Camargo.   Later the Railroad reached Mine 18 at Blue Heron.

Today travelers can take a train trip from Stearns, KY to Mine 18 on the track of the Kentucky and Tennessee railroad.

Kentucky Nature

Smoky Bridge- Waterfall Bridge

Box Canyon - Carter Caves Sandstone and Tygarts Creek Limestone

Carter Caves State Resort Park is located on the Western edge of the Cumberland Plateau in Carter County, Kentucky.  The feature called Natural Bridge is a natural limestone arch.  It bridges over Cave Branch in the park.

The feature known as Smoky Bridge is a large natural limestone arch similar to Natural Bridge.  Under the limestone of Smoky Bridge is a dry valley where Smoky Creek is located.  The stream bed flows after heavy storms.  Two springs supply water that runs under Smoky Bridge.  Smoky Bridge is considered to have formed by the waterfall arch process.

Cascades Cave is located in Cascade Caverns State Nature Preserve. This is an area in
Carter Caves State Resort Park.  It is well south of the park lodge but it can be accessed after a short drive.  In Cascades Cave a part of the cave named the “Cathedral Room” forms beneath several sinkholes.  The room contains a variety of columns, stalactites, straws and stalagmites.   Sinkholes above the “Cathedral Room” conduct surface water into cracksand crevices leading down into the “Cathedral Room.” These sinkholes have diverted a large amount of surface water into the cave,which has allowed a number of dripstone formations to form over the years.

Another cave in the Cascades Caverns area is called North Cave.  At one time the caves were competing for cave tour money.  Now the caves are operated by the state park.

Cascade Cave - Cathedral Room

Two state nature preserves are located in Carter Caves State Park.  One preserve is Bat Cave State Nature Preserve and one preserve is Cascade Caverns State Nature Preserve.  The set aside areas were designed to protect several rare and endangered species, including the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), mountain maple (Acer spicatum), and Canadian yew (Taxus canadensis).

In Cascades Caverns State Nature Preserve the beautiful Box Canyon Trail loops through a scenic canyon. The steep walls of the canyon are over 60 feet high. In places the walls meet at a nearly perfect ninety degree angle. The square corners and high vertical cliffs result from collapse of the sandstone along two sets of intersecting joints. The floor of the canyon has many large blocks of fallen sandstone from the sandstone unit.  The walls are composed of Carter Caves Sandstone or Tygarts Creek Limestone.

The Carter Caves Sandstone shows prominent cases of weathering.  Large areas of the rock show honeycomb weathering.