Author: thekaintuckeean

A Night of Camping at Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge in Powell County, Kentucky offers incredible camping and hiking opportunities. A getaway to nature so close to Lexington!

Last year, I read the book Family Board Meetings which encourages one-on-one time with your kids and other important relationships. And not just time, but quality time. Uninterrupted screen time. The suggested frequency is once a quarter, or four times per year. It is frequent enough to be regular and meaningful, but not so frequent that it becomes ordinary. Over the past several months, I’ve taken a kid ice skating, laser tagging, swimming, as well as other adventures. If you are looking for a way to build on your most meaningful relationships, I’d encourage the read and (more importantly) the commitment.

Set up for camping at Whittleton Campground. Author’s collection.

My oldest’s ambitious plan for a recent board meeting was an overnight camping trip. I’ve previously been camping before, but only once have I gone tent camping beyond-the-backyard. And that was with another who was more experienced. But he wanted to and I was game, so a night at Natural Bridge was hatched.

I studied on the essentials to bring (I largely had everything and nothing missed was too important). And I reserved a spot at the Whittleton Campground. I left the office early on a Friday afternoon, picked him up, gathered the last minute supplies, and we drove to Natural Bridge State Resort Park.

Whittleton was fairly intimate and a trail (Henson’s Arch Trail) is accessible solely via the campsite. We set camp, grilled burgers, and set out on that quarter-mile trail. From the trail guide, “this short trail leads to a small but unusual limestone arch at the entrance to a cave. The cave is too small to be of much interest, but a leader lowers into a sinkhole so that hikers can appreciate the cool, damp air beneath Henson’s Arch.” It was decreed by the “Lil Kaintuckeean” as his “new favorite spot on earth.”

At Henson’s Arch. Author’s collection.

Back at the campsite, we built a fire and played a couple rounds of chess, chatted, and drank Ale 8s. As darkness set in, we turned out attention to s’mores. Later, a group of Boy Scouts arrived (lost) and I oriented them to the correct campground. (That’s right, this camping newbie got to give directions to Boy Scouts. Ha!) We continued to enjoy the fire, talking and later reading, until I began to doze off and the fire turned to embers before turning in for the night.

In the morning, I was the first (I believe) in the entire campsite to arise (5:45 a.m.). I turned my attention to first building a small fire and then continuing the book I was reading. After breakfast, we packed up the site and headed up to the trailhead at the nearby state resort lodge.

Morning coffee at the campsite. Author’s collection.

We set out first on the Battleship Rock Trail which is “the scenic route to the Natural Bridge.” We took it only part of the way, as we climbed Needle’s Eye which is one of two stairways that led to the Laurel Ridge Trail. The stairway was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934 and it was steep! Once we arrived at the top, we turned to the right to see Lover’s Leap with its “commanding view of the canyon below.”

Heading back along the Laurel Ridge Trail (0.75 miles in total length) which bent around to Lookout Point, “the sandy cliff visible from the Natural Bridge.” Laurel Ridge continues around through spectacular rhododendron thickets and ends just near where the skylift deposits those seeking a less strenuous trip to the top of Natural Bridge. 

Along the top of Natural Bridge we took in more of the spectacular panoramas before squeezing through the “natural fracture” affectionately referred to as Fat Man’s Misery. (While the ‘Lil Kaintuckeean did just fine in this tiny fracture of a space, I got a bit claustrophobic.

Met at Fat Man’s Misery. Author’s collection.

We took The Original Trail (0.75 miles) back to our starting point. The trail was built by the Lexington and Eastern Railroad in the 1890s. Because it is “the shortest and easiest trail for hiking to the Natural Bridge,” it is also one of the “most popular.” We encountered many folks heading to see the natural wonder as we descended the 500-feet or so through “an impressive forest of hemlock, yellow poplar, white pine and thickets of rhododendron.” There are four trail shelters along the path as well, two of which were built in the 1930s by the CCC. 

Our morning of hiking concluded and our Board Meeting nearly over, we made it to the food destination that beckons many: Miguel’s Pizza. Recently expanded, a couple slices of their delicious pizza is exactly what is needed after a good hike. 

But there are many more trails to be explored on-site and the Lil Kaintuckeean and I are already planning our return. 

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling

Only 7% of the 5,193 monuments in the United States presently recognize women. A movement in Lexington, Kentucky is underway to build a monument here recognizing the contributions of women.

During Lexington’s Fourth of July celebration this year, I was impressed by the “Breaking the Bronze Ceiling” group promoting more statues honoring the accomplishments of women. News of the removal from the courthouse lawn the two monuments honoring two Confederate men drew much attention and focus behind the meaning of monuments as well as their context.

Those same considerations help to remind us of the great disparity by gender in monuments which honor our historic leaders. According to breakingthebronzeceiling.org, only 7% of the 5,193 monuments in the United States presently recognize women.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Lexington, Kentucky

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling in Lexington, Kentucky. Author’s collection.

News has broken that a location has been selected for Lexington’s sculpture which will honor women who are as-of-yet-to-be-determined.

A Monument for Suffrage in Nashville, Tennessee

Suffrage Monument in Nashville, Tennessee. Author’s Collection.

The monument in Nashville recognizes five important women who sought suffrage both in Tennessee as well as nationally. Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville “was known for her persuasive eloquence.” Carrie Chapman Catt of New York “came to Tennessee to direct the pro-suffrage forces.” Sue Shelton White of Jackson was among “Tennessee’s most effective suffragists.” Abby Crawford Milton of Chattanooga led the movement for women’s rights in eastern Tennessee and was the first president of the Tennessee League of Women Voters. Finally, Nashville’s J. Frankie Pierce sought equal suffrage an d is also recognized for organizing “protests against the lack of restroom facilities for blacks in downtown Nashville.”

Nashville’s monument also has significant signage about the 19th Amendment and also identifies other “Tennessee Trailblazers.”

Suggestions for Recognition in Lexington

So who might appear on Lexington’s monument once it is constructed? There are many fine candidates to be recognized for their groundbreaking contributions. Laura Clay who was profiled in Lost Lexington certainly tops my list: a leading suffragist, her name was the first nominated at a major political party convention for President of the United States. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge strongly supported the 19th Amendment’s ratification and once told the Kentucky governor that “Kentucky women are not idiots—even though they are closely related to Kentucky men.” Dr. Mary Britton was the first female granted a license to practice medicine in Kentucky. Georgia Davis Powers was the first woman elected to the Kentucky State Senate and Martha Layne Collins was Kentucky’s first female governor. There are several contenders for the monument and there are more to be learned about at breakingthebronzeceiling.org!

A deTour of Lexington’s East End

Lexington’s East End neighborhood is proud to once again be the site of the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation’s September deTour. On Wednesday, Sept. 4, deTours will offer a glimpse of how the East End evolved and changed over the course of 100 years. And we will do it all without ever leaving East Fifth Street. The deTour will visit three locations: the Zirl Palmer Pharmacy Building, the site of the old Kentucky Association Race Track, and Shiloh Baptist Church. Tour details are at the bottom of this post.

Zirl Palmer Pharmacy Building

Google Streetview

The Zirl Palmer Pharmacy Building is located at the corner of East Fifth and Chestnut streets which is where the deTour will begin. It was built in 1962 by Dr. Zirl Palmer, a black pharmacist and prominent businessman who would later become the first African American appointed to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees. Dr. Palmer also was the first African American to own a Rexall franchise in the United States. He operated his pharmacy at this location for several years before relocating his pharmacy to the Georgetown Street Plaza. In September 1968, the Georgetown Street pharmacy was firebombed by a member of the KKK. Palmer, his wife, and daughter were injured in the blast. Palmer never reopened the pharmacy. He died in 1982. Most recently, the East Fifth Street building was home to the Catholic Action Center. The building is currently empty and the Blue Grass Trust is leading an effort to save and re-purpose it.

Kentucky Association Track

The Kentucky Association race track was located on 65 acres of land at the corner of East Fifth and Race Streets. The Kentucky Association was Lexington’s thoroughbred race track for 100 years until it closed in 1933. Three years later, in 1936, Keeneland would open on Versailles Road. But many of the traditions and even some of the important races that began at the East End track live on at Keeneland. Case in point: the Phoenix Stakes. First run at the Kentucky Association track in 1831, it is still run each fall at Keeneland, making it the oldest stakes race in North America. A marker honoring the old race track is erected at Fifth and Shropshire Avenue, near the original entrance to the track. Photos of the track will be on display for the tour. The Kentucky Association track is among the landmarks featured in Peter Brackney’s book Lost Lexington, which highlights sites that did not survive as the city grew.

Shiloh Baptist Church

The old Shiloh Baptist Church tin Thomas Street (demolished). Image courtesy of Thomas Tolliver.

A tour of the East End wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention its spiritual underpinnings. For this, we must look no further than Shiloh Baptist Church. The large edifice in the 200 block of East Fifth Street has not always been a black church. When the building was erected in 1923, it housed a white congregation and continued to do so for 40 years. But in the 1960s, the white congregation moved to the suburbs and Shiloh moved from its cramped quarters on Thomas Street to this location. Interestingly, neither Thomas Street nor the old church exist today.

Sanborn Map of the East End, including the Kentucky Association Track. The blue arrow
shows the location of the old Shiloh Baptist Church. Image courtesy of Thomas Tolliver.

Individually, each of the these sites attest to the rich and diverse history of the East End. Collectively, they speak to the rise and fall and now the revival of the neighborhood.

If you are interested in learning more, then please join us on September 4, 2019, for the BGT deTour. We will gather at the pharmacy at 5:30 p.m. and the program will start around 5:45. As always, deTours are free of charge and open to the public. This easy walking tour spans just four blocks. 

This post was submitted by Thomas Tolliver in anticipation of the September 4, deTour. It has been slightly edited by the author of this site.

Goodbye to the Cranes of CentrePointe

The front page of today’s Herald-Leader proclaimed that the last crane which stood for years. The cranes (you’ll recall, there were once two massive cranes) were installed in December 2014.

The news made me recall an old post I wrote with a bit of Centrepointe poetry. Of course, the name Centrepointe gave way to City Center. But the Centrepointe will remain in my memory and in the pages of Lost Lexington.

My haiku poem was written in early 2015 as we continued to await whatever would be constructed over what had once been a historic block of commercial buildings before becoming CentrePasture and then CentrePit (the nicknames, no doubt, contributed – along with a corporate partnership agreement – to the renaming of the project to City Center).

High o’er our city

Tow’ring cranes idle they stand

What will happen here?

Well, now we know. Just look downtown and see.

Found at the Friends: Madam Belle Brezing by Buddy Thompson

Buddy Thompson’s out-of-print book “Madam Belle Brezing” was a recent discovery at the Lexington Public Library’s Friends Bookseller.

Madam Belle Brezing by Buddy Thompson. Author’s Collection.

Published by the Buggy Whip Press in 1983, the book Madam Belle Brezing was written by Buddy Thompson. Out of publication, it can be a difficult book to run across. So I was delighted when I found a copy at the Friends of the Library bookseller housed in the basement of the Lexington Public Library’s Central Branch. The book was the product of years of work by Thompson who built his research on that of Joe Jordan and Skeets Meadows.

In her 2014 book Madam Belle: Sex, Money, and Influence in a Southern Brothel, Maryjean Wall credits Thompson, Jordan, and Skeets as being the source of much of the information about Belle. The research of these three individuals is now housed in UK’s Special Collections. According to the foreword of Thompson’s book, Jordan and Meadows had gone through “trash heaps in the backyard” of Belle’s home on Megowan Street after her death in 1940. Workers had discarded photographs, journals, ledgers, and other documents and artifacts as they prepared for auction. Together, they salvaged much of this important chapter of Lexington history.

Buddy Thompson. University of Kentucky Special Collections.

For the uninitiated, Belle Brezing was Lexington’s most (in)famous madam. Born in 1860, Belle lived a difficult early life before being taken in by Jennie Hill. Hill operated what was then the finest “house” in town. Thompson wrote that Belle raised prostitution “to an art form.” In 1881, Brezing opened her first brothel and is well-known in Lexington history as having run the “most orderly of disorderly houses.”

I look forward to reading Thompson’s history. If you’re interested in picking up a copy, there were actually two at the Friends bookseller. It’s a bookseller worth supporting as it “provides financial, advocacy and volunteer support to the Library, and functions consistently with the goals and objectives of the Lexington Public Library and its Board of Trustees.”

Killing Kaintuckeean

An unchecked email has resulted in the Kaintuckeean domain and brand to go by the wayside. It’s a brand that I’ve been cultivating since 2009 when I took my first drive into the country to get away from today’s reality and escape into Kentucky’s history.

The old domain, kaintuckeean.com, was not timely renewed. As a result, it was purchased by HugeDomains.com. They have offered to sell is to me for the low price of $3,895. I declined.

I immediately considered scrapping my decade long project, but knew this was not a good course of action. My first book, Lost Lexington, has been successful. And I’m excited to announce that in January, the History Press will be releasing my second book: The Murder of Geneva Hardman and Lexington’s Mob Riot of 1920. (And standby … there’s another project in the works.) So giving up now doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I couldn’t give up. Like Keen’s Tavern following its devastating fire in 1820, I will rebuild the site “like a Phoenix from its ashes.” Upon the suggestion of a friend and fellow blogger, I have kept the Kaintuckeean name and updated the domain to www.TheKaintuckeean.com. For those of you who have heard me speak, you’ll recall that I was born at the hospital of THE Ohio State University. Well, now my blog is THE Kaintuckeean.

Lincoln Statue is On the Move

Back in 2011, a couple of Mr. Social Security Eric C. Conn’s statues were profiled on this site. Turns out, Conn was a con. As a result, the statues are being sold.
The most notable is the statue of the 16th President: it’s the world’s second largest seated Lincoln statue. In 2011, I wrote

Installed on November 4, 2010 (the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s election), the 19 foot tall statue weighs over a ton. It was constructed in Thailand after being commissioned by Conn in October 2009. This “Lincoln Memorial” was paid for entirely by Mr. Conn through what must be an enormous marketing budget.

Well, according to the Herald-Leader,  it turns out that the feds have sold Mr. Conn’s assets, including the Lincoln statue. As a result, the statue of Lincoln will be leaving its perch in the Stanville parking lot on U.S. 23.
And the good news is that President Lincoln’s likeness won’t be going far. It’s being donated to the Middle Creek National Battlefield just a little ways down the highway.
Middle Creek was the site of a Civil War battle in January 1862. During the conflict, Union troops were led by Col. James A. Garfield. Garfield, who later became our twentieth President, was promoted to brigadier general as a result of the victory at Middle Fork.
(I won’t be able to make it down that way to watch, but I hope someone records them moving and relocating the statue.)

Tales from the Kentucky Room Podcast

Peter Brackney sat down with Mariam Addarrat, a librarian with the Lexington Public Library, to discuss Lost Lexington. Later this summer, the library is hosting four Lost Lexington talks: June 3, 6pm (Central Branch); June 23, 2pm (Beaumont Branch); July 1, 6pm (Tates Creek Branch); and July 23, 6pm (Northside Branch). More on the event via the Facebook event.
Peter and Mariam discussed a few chapters from Lost Lexington as well as some of the landmarks which have been lost since the book was released in November 2014.
If you haven’t listened to Tales from the Kentucky Room before, it’s a great podcast and you should definitely subscribe!

Peter Brackney and Mariam Addarrat after recording an episode of the
Tales from the Kentucky Room podcast

The Feminine County and General Pulaski’s Gender

Counties and localities have historically been named after men. This is not a surprising fact for a society where women were traditionally unable to serve in military or government. After all, these place names were almost uniformly created several decades before women could even vote.
As a result of this implicit gender bias, Jessamine County has long been thought to be the only Kentucky county with a feminine name. Although this represents a small percentage of Kentucky’s 120 counties, we can be grateful to at least be on the list. According to Wikipedia, the number of counties in the United States with feminine names are woefully low.
New research, however, indicates that another Kentucky county may be named after a woman, or perhaps an intersex, individual.
   Pulaski County is named after Casimir Pulaski, an 18th century Polish-American general who aided  colonial forces during the Revolutionary War. Revered as the “Father of the American Calvary,” Pulaski is often depicted on horseback.
When arriving in the United States, Pulaski threw his allegiance to the young country and wrote General George Washington: “I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.”
Modern science, funded by the Smithsonian Institute, has revealed new information about Casimir Pulaski using xis* skeletal remains. Pulaski died during the siege of Savannah in 1779; xe was only 34. Pulaski’s bones were stored under a monument in that city.
Through DNA testing, it has been determined that General Pulaski was born with XX chromosomes (typically, female) and was thus female. It is likely that the infant’s external sex organs, however, appeared (in some ways) in the male form. As a result of the baby’s apparent anatomy, Casimir’s parents raised xim male which gave Casimir the opportunity to serve in the military and to save General Washington’s life at the Battle of Brandywine.
But despite xis gender identity, Casimir was not, in fact, male. Xe was either female (chromosomal-based) or intersex (both sexes). Without diaries, we cannot understand what Casimir thought of xis sexuality or his gender identity. But no doubt, the lens through which we view the legacy of General Casimir Pulaski will forever be changed through this scientific discovery. Neither Pulaski’s gender identity nor his sexuality (of which we know nothing) have any impact whatsoever on his contributions to American history. And perhaps that is the point.
This summer is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City which is seen as a seminal moment in the fight for LGBT rights in this country. In Kentucky, the Kentucky Heritage Council has been working to recognize significant LGBT sites in the Commonwealth. Given the modern science, Pulaski should be so recognized. Xis contributions, as a transgender/intersex individual, to our society were significant. Given that approximately 1.7% of children are born with intersex traits (approximately the same likelihood as one having red hair), it is a demographic which should not be ignored.
Kentucky already celebrates General Pulaski every year.  KRS 2.140 provides that October 11 of each year (the anniversary of Pulaski’s death) is a state holiday in Kentucky which should be marked “with appropriate ceremonies” in “schools, churches, or other suitable places.” Perhaps, in light of the Smithsonian’s latest research, this holiday will garner more attention in 2019 and beyond?

Sources 
“Casimir Pulaski may have been woman or intersex, study says. BBC News. Available at bbc.com, last accessed April 16, 2019.
Mervosh, Sarah. “Casimir Pulaski, Polish Hero of the Revolutionary War, Was Most Likely Intersex, Researchers Say. New York Times. Available at nytimes.com; last accessed April 16, 2019. 
Viloria, Hida. “An Intersex Revolutionary May Have Saved General Washington’s Life.” Out Magazine. Available at out.com; last accessed April 16, 2019.
*Nota bene. In referring to General Pulaski, the author of this post has carefully avoided using either the masculine or the feminine pronoun instead utilizing “xe” which has become a standard gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun.