"A Driving Tour of Elliott County Kentucky" by Sharon Boggs

This is a little book originally published by Kindle and written by Sharon Boggs, a neice of Appalachian folk artist Minnie Adkins who also lives in Elliott County Kentucky where she was a teacher for many years. The book gives a very detailed driving map of the county and includes at least a basic mention of most of the roads in the county. For myself, the best piece of information I got from the book was the story of how seven Civil War soldiers, whose loyalties were not known apparently, were murdered near Sandy Hook after the Civil War had ended. There is a state historical marker a couple of miles west of Sandy Hook on Kentucky Route 7 which I believe marks the spot where those men are buried. It is on the side of the road without a decent parking space without either parking some distance away and walking to the marker or simply imposing and parking in a nearby driveway to a home. I admit I have considered doing one or the other several times but have never done so in order to actually read that marker. The book also gives a basic explanation of the Laurel Gorge Cultural Heritage Center site which is one of my favorite hikes in Eastern Kentucky although I don't hike there regularly. There are also a large number of historical photographs of people and places in Elliott County but the reproduction quality is poor. The book also gives a basic history of the small local post offices whch used to be operarting in the county, nearly all of which are now defunct. The book is available on Amazon for $10.00. If you want to know more about Elliott County Kentucky, it could be worth your time and money.

Hiking At The Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery, Morehead, Kentucky, August 2, 2025

After attending the Artisans Harvest event in West Liberty, Kentucky, yesterday, we decided to travel to the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery so I could get in a hike. I parked Candice in the van in the shade and began my hike. Shortly after I started hiking, I met a local man, (recently relocated to Kentucky from elsewhere) who happens to be a biologist employed in a federal government job. He also happens to be a very experienced birder and we struck up a conversation. I am choosing not to name him in light of the extremely oppresive and destructive nature of what is happening to thousands of federal employees all over the country. Our conversation was initially about birds and I told him about my recent experiences around the visit on our property by a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks. While we were talking, he pointed out a pair of mated Bald Eagles which were soaring over the fish ponds and told me they are nesting on a distant ridge within sight of the hatchery. This was my first sighting of Bald Eagles at the hatchery but I have to admit that I might have missed them soaring in the distance. As our conversation progressed, we got into an enlightening discussion of the ongoing decimation of the federal government by TRAITOR Trump. The man was open and honest about his feelings, stated he is just a few years from possible retirement, and might be willing to retire early if another opportunity is presented to employees in his department to take voluntary early retirement. Our conversation was mostly about the horrible attacks on government employees, immigrants, and humanity in general which is happening by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet". Yes, it was a sad conversation in many ways. But it was also honest, open, enlightening, and, in some ways, stress reducing. After our conversation broke up after about 20 minutes, I walked back to my van to let Candice know that I had been talking and would just then be starting my hike so she would not be alarmed by my lateness in returning. Then I got into an area of the hatchery property which I had never been in before, saw a large amount of birds of several species, and had a great hike in an area I had never been in before. As I was preparing to leave the hatchery, both Candice and I were able to watch an osprey swoop into a pond and capture a large goldfish and fly away with it. I suspect that a pair of ospreys are raising young somewhere near the hatchery. It was a great experience from several viewpoints: political conversation, hiking, new experiences at the hatchery, and bird watching with two great species, one of which I had never documented before, the osprey actually taking a fish. And I got my sixth sighting of Bald Eagles, a mated pair in flight.

"Artisans Harvest" At Morgan County Wellness Center, August 2, 2025

Yesterday, my wife and I attended Articans Harvest at the Morgan County Wellness Center in West Liberty, Kentucky, which was originally called "Art In The Park" and held at Old Mill Park. But a few years ago, the location was changed due to rainy weather and it has been held at the Wellness Center gym ever since. When it began in the park, it was more a folk art show and sale than what it has become since the move. It is now heavily oriented toward crafts rather and folk art. Minnie Adkins, the famous Elliott County folk artist still attends and Brent Collinsworth from Wolfe County was there last year but did not attend this year. Steve Sargent, who makes nice lamps from whiskey bottles had attended last year but was there only as a spectator this year. There also is a small number of local vegetable farmers who attend to sell a few vegetables. It is not what it used to be. I do understand that since it is organized by the local Agricultural Extension Service office that their funding source probably requires that it include the vegetable farmers and some others such as users of the Extension Service food preparation trainings they sometimes do. But I go primarily to see, and sometimes buy, folk art, and I prefer to see it more heavily oriented in that direction which I am afraid might not happen again. This also reminds me of what used to be called Morgan County Farm, Home, and Family Day which was more oriented toward individual presenters who taught small groups in a classroom setting about a wide variety of topics oriented to life in a rural community. It hasn't been held in several years. But this event now known as Artisans Harvest is a great place to go to meet a few people in the community whom we don't get to see on a regular basis. We ran into Steve Sargent whom I've known for years; Minnie Adkins who is one of my favorite folk artists, and whom I had seen two weeks ago at Minnie Adkins Day in Sandy Hook; Sarah Fannin, the local Extension Agent who was there no doubt in her official capacity; Danny Joe Gevedon, who is a retired banker and friendly acquaintance who also plays Bluegrass bass; Austin and Kathy Shaw, from whom I buy farm fresh eggs; and several others whom I might have forgotten to mention. Since there was only marginal interest in Minnie's somewhat expensive folk art, I was able to spend some time talking to her and got Steve Sargent to take a photo of us. I try to always get a photo with Minnie when we run into each other. Minnie was in a generous mood yesterday and offered to give one of her famous roosters to a female who said she makes handmade brooms. But she declined and insisted on buying one of Minnie's unpainted roosters, staing that getting the rooster was the only reason she had attended the event. Just before we left, Candice happened to drive her wheelchair past Minnie's table, and Minnie promptly stood up and carried Candice a hand carved and painted cardinal which she gave her. It is proudly displayed on a shelf with my two hand painted and carved Evening Grosbeaks from Minnie's cousin Tim Lewis. It was a very community oriented event for us since we saw so many of our friends and acquaintances, got to look at some good crafts work, visit with Minnie, Steve, and Danny. We left the event and chose to drive to the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery near Morehead so I could hike. But I will discuss that in a separate post.

Visiting With Tim & Lola Lewis, July 25, 2025

I had an interesting and fun visit with Appalachian Artist Tim Lewis and his wife Lola yesterday, July 25, 2025, in their home in Elliott County Kentucky. I have known Tim for a couple of years and known about his art for a bit longer than that. Tim is a cousin of the famed Minnie Adkins but his art work is his own and his reputation as an artist is perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet. Tim has primarly been a sculptor in stone for many years but also does wonderful carved and painted wooden birds. I am proud to say that I now have two of those Tim Lewis birds in my own collection. They are actually representations of the Evening Grosbeaks which visited our home for about two months nearly two years ago. Tim had recently completed those two birds for me and we had talked at the recent Minnie Adkins Day celebration in Sandy Hook. But we had also spoken about getting together sometime soon for a while and I decided to take a hot summer drive to Tim's house for a visit.

That drive to the visit was an adventure in itself. Tim's house is not easy to locate even for a person like me who has spent his life in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia. It is located on a back road, up a sizeable hill, and situated in a tree shaded location where it is not possible to see it from the road. But I finally got there and it was worth the trip.

I had also taken a photograph of both grosebeaks together near a wall outlet in order to be able to show them as a pair and to give an indication of their size. This is that photograph.

While I was at Tim's house, he and Lola and I talked about a variety of topics including a lot of art, mostly art actually, and they also showed me several pieces of art from their collection including a small piece by the famed folk artist Howard Finster. They have an excellent carved and painted Native American Chief which Tim created many years ago, a nice little piece of a carved alabaster angel which was Lola said was the first piece Tim ever carved and gave to her when their relationship was young. The house is full of art, exhibition catalogues, and excellent memories. In a wonderful act of generosity, they gave me a copy of a catalogue from a series of traveling exhibitions of Tim's work from 2008 and 2009. Yes, they did have a few extra copies of that catalogue from the past. It contains a wonderful group of photographs of Tim's works from that time period, several very interesting and insightful articles about Tim and his work, and it is truly enlightening to study if you are into the stone carvings of Tim Lewis. It was a truly great visit!

"Nowhere Else On Earth" by Josephine Humphreys, One Helluva Novel!

This is a tremendous novel! This is one of the best novels I have ever read! This is, by far, the best novel I have read since I read "Wilderness" by Robert Penn Warren. I haven't had enough time to read everything I have ever wanted to or should have read. But it still amazes me that I never heard of Josephine Humphreys until I blundered into this novel by accident. The novel is a story of the late Civil War and Reconstruction just as is "Wilderness" and a couple of other things I have read and written about on this blog lately. But I have not set out on any conscious effort to read a lot of novels about the Civil War. It just happens by accident when I am not deliberately reading for a research based purpose. But I have never been more pleased to find a great writer by accident. Humphreys novel is a masterpiece of southern literature. Her plot work is astounding in this book. Her character development is tremendously detailed, written into the flow of the novel with purpose and without visible intent. It just happens which is what great writers do when they are writing at their best. The novel is set in the late years of the Civil War in coastal North Carolina and the heroine is a daughter of a Lumbee Indian woman and a Scotsman. She is intelligent, hard working, committed to her family and her place in the world. She is in love with a fellow Indian man who is becoming the leader of the local resistance to both the Union and the Confederacy in a community which they call Scuffletown. Scuffletown is one of the great names ever created for a place where poverty is king, starvation common, discrimination a daily reality, and the development of what we victims of discrimination like to call "backbone" is the one essential quality which will keep you alive. In those ways,Scuffletown is a sister to every impoverished coal camp in Appalachia, every row of slave cabins on every plantation in the Deep South, and every ghetto in a northern metropolitan area. The people of Scuffletown know how to survive, how to adhere to each other in tough times which are guaranteed to get tougher, and how never to mistake collusion with an enemy as cooperation. Most of the people in Scuffletown live in one room cabins scattered throughout a pine woods swampy world where turpentine making from pine trees is the one way to make a living in a better way than just being a hunter gatherer or scavenger or robber. Scuffletown is located not far from Hell but always has a bit of Heaven in it. It is a place where Love of Place, loyalty to your peers, and generosity no matter how poor you are is a fact of life.

Rhoda, the heroine, falls in love with Henry Lowrie, a young man her own age who grows up to lead the local resistance to both the Union and Confederate forces neither of which has any respect for the locals. As the war degenerates toward Lee's surrender, times just keep getting harder and Henry and Rhoda's two brothers become key members of the resistance with Henry assuming the top position. They are opposed by a local sheriff, his top deputy, and a group of their henchmen who will stop at nothing to maintain control of the populace and pillage as much as they can. The resistance fighters leave home to live in the swamps and strike whenever and wherever they can in order to feed both themselves and those who are dependent upon them. The novel is regularly improved by an event of such striking oppression, suppression, and sometimes resistance to the other elements just mentioned that the reader is spellbound. It is realistic and true of nearly every war of oppression ever waged in the world. In the end, Henry is branded as an outlaw and a reward of $20,000 is placed on his head with the production of himself or his dead body as necessary to collect the money. The war ends before the novel but it does not improve conditions in Scuffletown. Bad goes to worse! One of Henry's loyal men is hanged and Rhoda takes her children to proceedings where she stands in front of the gallows with the condemned man's mother as he falls to his death. But that is not the end of the story. I have never seen a novel I am more happy to recommend. It is a beautiful and often chilling piece of work. This author, Josephine Humphreys is a tremendous writer. I realize full well that one novel is not sufficient platform on which to build monuments to a writer, but this novel is a fine start of the foundation. If her other work is as strikingly wonderful as this novel, she deserves to have her name mentioned in the same breath as Flannery O'Connor, Hemingway, Pearl Buck, and Steinbeck.

"Poems To Ponder" by Alva Rice

Alva Rice produced one small, self-published collection of poetry to my knowledge which was printed in 1965, two years before his death. The printing company was Young Publications in Appalachia, Virginia. The book contains roughly 30 poems about life in Eastern Kentucky with some leaning toward being nature poetry and others which are reflections of family life including one which talks about young boys playing, most likely at some family affair. Rice used a lot of rhyme and sometimes exercied a bit of poetic license with regard to his rhymes. None of the poems are remarkable for the level of talent they show but they are a good look into every day family life in Johnson County Kentucky in the middle of the twentieth century. In particluar, Rice mentions a place called Little Mine Creek. I found the copy of the book which I own in a local Goodwill Store and bought it since I have a great deal of trouble ignoring anything which can be said to be autographed and this one is inscribed "Your Frien, Alva", and in the same handwriting contains the name Escom Chandler. The fly leaf of the book also contains the names of his wife Erma Maxine and three daughters Alice Evelyn, Mary Kathryn, and Betty Lou. As I often do when I encounter such self-published books, I did a quick internet search and located the burial place of Alva Rice and his wife in the Price Cemetery in Johnson County Kentucky. I also located a Find A Grave memorial for a fourth daughter, Phyllis Deane Rice, who died in a car wreck according to her tombstone at the age of 13 in 1957, ten years before the publication of his book of poems.

"Lilly The Cat" by Destiny Conley, An Early Reader Book With A Kentucky Connection

Recently I strayed into a copy of an early reader book for K-2 or so readers with a strong Kentucky connection. The title of the book is a bit confusing since there is another more widely known book for children by the same title and written by a different author. If you go hunting for a copy of this book online, be sure that you are locating the book which has been written and illustrated by Destiny Conley and published by STARS Publishing. It was also an outcome of a project by Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. But a search of the websites of both the publisher and KVEC failed to locate any information about the book. And to further complicate any history or sales information about the book, it was actually printed by a third organization, Minutemen Press in Lexington, Kentucky. The publication date was 2016. The information I was able to find about KVEC identifies it as "...one of eight education cooperatives in Kentucky consisting of 27 member school districts. The organization serves 161 schools with over 53,000 students and nearly 4,000 educators." The website shows a mailing address of 412 Roy Campbell Drive, Hazard, KY. It's listed members serve a large geographical area in the watersheds of the Big Sandy, Licking, and Kentucky Rivers. The book appears to have been chosen as a result of a contest for students being served by KVEC, and it seems that the author and editor was actually a student in some program served by KVEC. The primary character in the book is a cat named Lily who loses her favorite ball of yarn and finds it in the possession of a mouse. When the mouse refuses to surrender the ball of yarn "Lily comes up with an idea" and asks the mouse if they can share the ball of yarn. The story ends with both Lily and mouse remembering "that sharing is caring". It is nice little book written in age appropriate language for early learners, and the author/illustrator was apparently at roughly the same age as the target audience when she wrote the book. It is a nice little book for both teachers and parents to utilize in the effort to teach and reinforce sharing behaviors in young children. However, considering the fact that I found it difficult to learn more about the book, it might be a bit of stretch to locate more copies. But the internet is always a great place to find almost anything. Good Luck!