A native Kentucky Tree

Persimmon Tree - Jenny Wiley State Park, Kentucky

The persimmon  (Diospyros virginiana)  is native to the Kentucky mountains and hills. Persimmon is often growing on drier upland sites that receive adequate moisture.  It grows naturally in open areas on rocky hillsides. Heights are typically 20 to 30 feet tall. It is best known for its fruit.  In Indiana at Spring Mill State park the lodge serves a delicious persimmon offering.  It is provided similar to a fruit pie.  Wildlife find and eat the fruit.  Persimmon trees are either male or female; the trees cannot self-pollinate. Only the female Persimmon tree bears fruit. The leaves are simple, alternate, 2 to 6 inches long, and 1 to 3 inches wide. They are ovate to elliptical and are shiny green. The bark is brown to dark grey and is very deeply furrowed giving it a distinct blocky appearance. The dark heartwood is very hard and takes a century to develop. Besides Dogwood and Ironwood Trees, the Persimmon ranks third in wood hardness and is used largely in the production of golf club heads.  The fruit matures in September to October and is orange in color.  The fruit becomes soft when ripe. Each  fruit is about round; about 1 to 2 inches across.  Animals of varying species love the fruit.  The wild animals may beat you to the fruit before you get a chance to find it. The fruit has a very sweet taste that some say mimic the taste of dates. It can be eaten raw or made into pies, or cookies. 

From Butcher Hollow, Kentucky

Butcher Hollow Place (Hurricane Mills, Tennessee)

At Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, the Loretta Lynn Ranch offers visitors a chance to see the place where Loretta Lynn lived with her husband Doolittle.  On a hillside at the ranch there is a dwelling with a similar look to the Loretta Lynn home in the mountains of East Kentucky. Loretta Lynn's father Ted Webb was a coal miner in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky.  The Consolidation Coal Company operated from 1910 to 1946 in the Van Lear area.  The closest town is Paintsville, Kentucky.  There are many misconceptions about the rural areas of the country and about the rural areas of the mountains of East Kentucky.  To gain a proper understanding some patience and willingness to hear the narrative is necessary.

What direction

Overlook view Park Road east of Big Oak Flat Station, Yosemite NP

"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer." 

John Muir

Seeing

 

 

Harlan County, Kentucky

 

 

 

 

Pico Iyer writes of seeing through the eyes of wonder.  Be aware.  You may be missing beauty that you are not noticing.

Natural Writing




Yosemite Half Dome as viewed from Washburn Point in evening light before sunset

When I pen my writing I often quote authors to amplify the message. It is necessary to bring together history to see the issues of the current time. Today I provide quotes from John Muir of the importance and transformational power of nature's mountains and of nature's rocks.

“Heaven knows that John the Baptist was not more eager to get all his fellow sinners into the Jordan than I to baptize all of mine in the beauty of God’s mountains.”

“Compare walking on dead planks with walking on living rock where a distinct electric flash seems to attend every step. ”

John Muir

Think of the redemptive power of the mountains and the valleys and live with appreciation.

What I saw - The Range of Light



Yosemite NP - Highway 41- From Tunnel View Overlook



Light...
I know not a singular word fine enough for Light.
Holy beamless, bodiless, inaudible floods of Light.

- John Muir

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.

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.

Manmade Places

Cave Run Lake - Rowen County Kentucky

Natural lakes are unique; most lakes are made from human intervention.  In Kentucky Metropolis Lake is a natural lake.  Though manmade lakes were altered from the natural landscape they still offer a scenic beauty.  The rustic stairs built in the woods by the CCC artisans are much appreciated constructions.  Perhaps some of the scenic lakes can be viewed with the same appreciation.  These lakes were built and the result became something to be appreciated.

Kentucky is calling

Harlan County, Kentucky

You can begin your Kentucky journey with these fine folks. http://adventureblog.kentuckytourism.com/
These folks give you many ideas about experiencing the beauty of Kentucky.  Can you take it all in?

The image here is from Knobby Rock in Harlan County.

This is the morning of creation.

Let nature speak to you.

Gardens not kept by human hands

"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grass and gentians of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature's darlings. 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

This picture is from Cahokia in Illinois.

May Nature's peace fill you so that you experience it in you.