The Five Lives Of The Kentucky River

Views the history of the Kentucky River as five separate lives: "Prehistoric to the Late 1780s," "Flatboats and Keelboats to the Dawn of Steam, 1780s to 1842," "The Golden Age of Locks and Dams, 1842-1932," Decay and Decline, 1931-1986," and "The River Reborn, 1986 Onward."

A sweeping cultural history, The Kentucky River reflects the rich tapestry of life along the banks. Flowing with tales of river ghosts and hidden treasures lying in the backwaters, the book records the myths and events the river has spawned. Bill Ellis also celebrates the Kentucky's influence on such figures as writer Wendell Berry and painter Paul Sawyier. Beginning with an intriguing overview of the river's formation and characteristics, Ellis shows how the stream has helped shape Kentucky's environment, economy, and political culture. In centuries past, flotillas of flatboats carried whiskey, pork, and valuable raw materials downriver to markets in Louisiana. Later, the river became a source of entertainment as showboats brought theater, movies, music, and dancing to otherwise isolated communities. The book describes the environmental impact of settlement, logging, mining, and industrialization, developments that have sometimes tainted the Kentucky's mighty waters with silt, sewage, and trash. In the last thirty years, however, Kentuckians have come together in major efforts to clean and preserve the Kentucky's waters and the life along its banks. Advocates for the river achieved a victory in protecting the stunning Kentucky River Palisades between Boonesborough and Frankfort, and efforts continue to preserve the irreplaceable river for future generations.

Reproduction of the original.

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Jemima Boone is as thrilled to tell you about her daddy, Daniel Boone, as you will be to read her story about the settlement of the Kentucky frontier. Adventure and danger are behind every tree. Along with the Boone family triumphs are tragedies that Jemima painfully but sensitively shares with the reader. Children will quickly relate to Jemima, who is ten years old, as the book opens in 1773. Her wit and frontier humor will captivate young readers.