The Kentucky River

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.

Throughout the Southern Appalachians the topography of the river basins is so closely related to the economic life of the people that the geographer and geologist, the historian and sociologist find here a meeting round. To all of them, there is offered a vast, unexploited field for intensive investigation. The Kentucky River is in many respects a typical stream of the region. It is of national significance in that the United States Government has expended large sums for its improvement, and must provide for the maintenance of the slack-water system now almost completed.

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."

The Kentucky Encyclopedia's 2,000-plus entries are the work of more than five hundred writers. Their subjects reflect all areas of the commonwealth and span the time from prehistoric settlement to today's headlines, recording Kentuckians' achievements in art, architecture, business, education, politics, religion, science, and sports. Biographical sketches portray all of Kentucky's governors and U.S. senators, as well as note congressmen and state and local politicians. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in the lives of such figures as Carry Nation, Henry Clay, Louis Brandeis, and Alben Barkley. The commonwealth's high range from writers Harriette Arnow and Jesse Stuart, reformers Laura Clay and Mary Breckinridge, and civil rights leaders Whitney Young, Jr., and Georgia Powers, to sports figures Muhammad Ali and Adolph Rupp and entertainers Loretta Lynn, Merle Travis, and the Everly Brothers. Entries describe each county and county seat and each community with a population above 2,500. Broad overview articles examine such topics as agriculture, segregation, transportation, literature, and folklife. Frequently misunderstood aspects of Kentucky's history and culture are clarified and popular misconceptions corrected. The facts on such subjects as mint juleps, Fort Knox, Boone's coonskin cap, the Kentucky hot brown, and Morgan's Raiders will settle many an argument. For both the researcher and the more casual reader, this collection of facts and fancies about Kentucky and Kentuckians will be an invaluable resource.

Excerpt from The Kentucky River Navigation The Kentucky River is in many respects a typical stream Of the region. It is Of national significance in that the United States Government has expended large sums for its improvement, and must provide for the maintenance Of the slack-water system now almost completed. I am indebted to Mr. R. C. Ballard Thruston, vice-presi dent Of the Filson Club, for the use of his library and for the majority of the photographs illustrating mountain industries. The United States Forest Service has contributed the illustra tions for the chapter on forest products. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Kentucky River is formed in eastern Kentucky at Beattyville, where the North, Middle and South Forks join together. The river then flows 260 miles to the Ohio River at Carrolton. The river drains much of the central region of the state. With the appearance of the early steamboats on the Kentucky River in the 1820s, the river became the primary artery for economic growth with trade with the lower south. This dominance lasted until the Civil War when the railroads surpassed the packetboats with freight traffic. After the war, river traffic shifted to towboats pushing barges of bulk commodities. However, steam packetboats, and later gasboats, continued to service the isolated river communities along the lower river until the Great Depression. In 1836-1842, the Commonwealth of Kentucky constructed five locks and dams, from Carrollton to Tyrone. These dams created pools of water which allowed year round "slackwater" navigation. The state operated these locks until after the Civil War.