Through Their Eyes Covered Bridges Of Fleming County Kentucky

Covered bridges are works of art that have stood the test of time and are a testament to their builders. These silent witnesses to history house precious memories of yesterday, protecting them as the roof and siding do the bridge's aging timbers. This is a collection of photographs of nine of Fleming County's covered bridges, three of which still stand today. Interspersed with the photos and historical facts are personal recollections of the bridges by Fleming Countians. The Through Their Eyes series celebrates the photographers of yesteryear who captured these structures in images to preserve them for all time.

The winding roads that snake their way through the rolling hills of Bourbon County were once dotted with twenty seven covered bridges, one of the highest concentrations in the state. From the massive two-lane Wernwag structure found at the Paris city limits to the smallest bridge which crossed Pretty Run on the Clintonville-North Middletown Road each bridge had their own unique characteristics and place in history. Out of the twenty seven bridges only one remains today, still carrying traffic on Colville Road as it has since 1877. This book is a photographic journey through the "lives" of fourteen of these bridges, interwoven with oral histories of Bourbon Countians who remember these bridges from yesterday. The Through Their Eyes series celebrates the photographers of yesteryear who captured these structures in images to preserve them for all time.

Kentucky is well recognized for bourbon, bluegrass, and the Kentucky Derby. When thinking of covered bridges, the commonwealth is not the state that readily comes to mind. Many of Kentucky's covered bridges were built by such men as Wernwag, Bower, Carothers, Day, Stone, and Long, but many of the names were never recorded or have been lost to time. Kentucky once was home to the longest single-span wooden bridge in the world and to a covered bridge through which a Civil War battle was fought. Time, arson, progress, neglect, and misguided maintenance have spelled the demise of the majority of these structures. Readers of this volume might be surprised to learn that Kentucky once claimed more than 700 timbered tunnels and that over 50 of these survived well into the 1950s. Equally surprising, the commonwealth is still home to 13 of these structures.

Six years ago tragedy struck and Caroline Rogers had to make tough decisions to sell the family farm and put her life on hold to raise her younger siblings. Now that they're entering adulthood and her long-delayed photography career is taking off, she can almost taste the freedom. Shaken by self-doubt, Dr. Mick Larsen turns his back on his big-city psychiatric practice and settles for the small-town quiet of Redbud Mill, where he can hide his past successes and failures. To Caroline, he shows only a man who wants to put down roots and start a family--good reasons for her to stay away. Then someone starts vandalizing local landmarks she has photographed. Now Caroline must convince a man with little faith in his own abilities that he can help her find the disturbed mind in their midst. But even as she teaches him to trust himself, she must fight the temptation to trust him with her future and her heart.